Midday Mulloway by Andrew Badullovich

There's a misguided belief that you must be fishing in the deepest hole at night around the full moon, using live bait or fresh squid to catch mulloway.

Yet anglers using soft plastics are proving that you can make regular captures in broad daylight.

Surprisingly, a lot of these captures even come from 3m of water or less. More surprisingly, nearly half of these captures are made while fishing for bream and flathead on ridiculously light tackle.

Night fishing with bait is still productive, but I've done my time with toothpicks holding my eyelids open, willing myself to stay just one more hour.

I have now directed my mulloway fishing to daylight hours with soft plastics, and to good return.

Obviously, tide changes at dusk or dawn are superior but it is not necessary to concentrate your efforts at these so-called critical times.

Moon phases and tidal flow seem to govern a lot of anglers' movements, more so than the movements of the mulloway themselves.

I'm aware that certain moon phases can be more productive but I won't wait until such times before I wet a line.

If I get an opportunity to go fishing, I don't care what the tide or moon are doing. If I have a line in the water, I have a chance of hooking a fish.