🌧️ Fishing After Rain

Rain changes everything, and knowing how to respond turns a 'ruined' day into a great one.

Dirty water: heavy rain pushes brown, muddy water out of rivers and estuaries. Many species shut down in this — but not all. Kob and spotted grunter actually feed well in dirty water, hunting by scent and vibration. Fish scented baits (sardine, prawn) in the coloured water near river mouths.

River mouths fire up: runoff flushes food into the sea and drops the salinity, and predators stack up in the churning water where river meets sea. The first day or two after rain, a river mouth can be exceptional for kob and garrick.

Where to avoid: gin-clear rock and reef marks often go quiet when the water is dirty, and estuaries that are pumping mud can be unfishable until they clear.

Timing: the sweet spot is often as the water starts to clean — a day or two after the rain, when there's still colour and food in the water but visibility is returning. Watch the rivers, follow the clean-up, and fish the edge where dirty meets clean.