Lily Jayne Iluka

05/06/2026

Tim, we are grateful for your fishing adventure insights.

Good morning mate.

Apologies that I’ve been missing for a month. Autumn is my favourite time to disappear and explore. The earth is still warm from summer but the cooler, moonless and star filled nights make for perfect campfire conditions, and GIANT cod.

This year I wandered out of the Clarence’s creeks and tributaries and had a once in a lifetime fishing experience and session, however; it’s a story for another time.

Locally the region got some rain in the last month with a bit more to follow.
The cattle country to our west is looking 100 times better for it and, thankfully it coincided with the last of the schoolie run with the new moon.

The cooler water temp from the rain and season finally got the mullet started running towards their grounds off the shelf, which means the big predators will be about.

Offshore has been hard to access with weather conditions but on the few occasions, the snapper are starting to fire up and following the prawns.

The tailor, bream and dart on the beach have also thickened up and in good eating size.

The headlands and walls are producing some outstanding Jew. A few already in the late 20’s and early 30’s have had the pleasure of the fireman’s carry long wall walk back to the car.

Middle wall and Collis’s is fishing really well for bream, tailor, flatty and soapies, but, if you’re there at the right time, there are plenty of larger jew cruising around.

Both Romiaka and Oyster channel have been a little bit quieter for the flathead but still a few around if you find the bait holed up around the structure.

Harwood bridge has been good underlights with the incoming for school Jew and flatty.

Heading back up the river, Grafton is pretty fresh and dead after the rain but, if you can find the bait holed up in the warm pockets on your sounder, you’ll still find a lazy lizard or two.

From Lawrence to Maclean is very tidal dependant at the moment so getting into the warm incoming salt water that is under the colder outgoing flood water will be the key.

After the cold front comes through, we should get some absolute stella weather so hopefully everyone can get amongst some awesome catching

04/06/2026

03/06/2026

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03/06/2026

Long range bins from Salty crew are available on sale at $129, previously $239.

05/05/2026

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30/04/2026

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26/04/2026

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24/04/2026

Lilyjayne Iluka will be proudly closed on Anzac Day

20/04/2026

Great work Timm

Good morning Lilyjayne iluka

With the fuel prices being up the duff and a bit of work just out of town, I thought “if I have to drive out here then I may as well have a fish!”

I hadn’t launched a canoe or fished from Eatonsville since I was a kid. Back then it was more swimming and catching eels on a slab of bait,
which, if you don’t mind the hassle, is still a good feed.

For those that don’t know the history of this important section of the river,
Long story short, this is named First Falls. Eatonsville on the southern bank and Mylneford on the northern bank.
This was the place that the Clarence River was first crossed on foot. The Mylneford cemetery has quite the history.

Having a little think the night before, knowing it’s well dry to our immediate west, I thought I’d check the flood gauges up stream to see how far the tide was moving up the river.
After seeing that the Rogans Bridge flood graph was very tidal, we decided to use its high and low graph to predict our tides. The plan was to launch at “low” so we had the tide to help us west towards Copmanhurst, then when it turned in the arvo, ride the tide back to the ramp. Sweet, plan set, work done.

As soon as we pulled up the very first thing of note was the amount or mullet scattering across the surface, then to walk towards the bank to see all the flathead lays, I looked at Hobes and both having nothing but bass gear, we both laughed knowing that it’s likely going to be a tough day bass fishing.

Long story short, we managed to stay above the incoming salt water and ended up with 18x bass, biggest going 51 and 6x flathead with 2x making it on the BBQ for lunch.

Coming back down the river, Grafton is pretty salty after the big tides and no rain.
There are flatty, EP, bream and soapies about in very good numbers. Prawns being the target at the moment for everything. Corcoran Park and Elizabeth island are proving pretty reliable.

Lawrence, Broadwater and illarwill are also coping the big prawn flush and there are plenty of lizards and soapies about sucking them.

I’m still getting some good Blackfish around, from Illarwill down to Palmers but finding the black magic is going to become tougher without a bit of wet stuff.

I’m saying that, there is a bit of predicted rain on the way which we need. Hopefully it’ll be enough to excite the mullet so they can start their journey to the breeding grounds off the continental shelf.

Oyster Channel and Romaika are still holding heaps of bait which in turn is resulting in some good fishing. Slack of the tide lining up with the dusk and dawn will put you on the money.

Our side of the river is also fishing well. The biggest thing to remember is the river is soo salty and healthy at the moment so the fish that schooled up near the mouth in the flooded river, have now dispersed a lot further.
Again, prawns/yabbies and 4” natural coloured mullet should see that you don’t go hungry.

There were a few cracking days of weather to sneak out. Everyone I spoke to though, didn’t need to go far with most catches coming from around the 15m depth contour.
Spanish Mackerel and Dollie’s to our south around Sandon, Wooli and Corindi with Tuna and Snapper north of the mouth.

With ANZAC Day approaching this weekend, I’ll likely get out of town and take the time to reflect.
I strongly encourage those that are able to, head down and show strength in mourning at your local cenotaph. For some of the older soldiers, this may be their last, and as a nation we have a lot to thank them for, as our current political environment is demonstrating.

Pictures to follow.