Bundaberg – weekly report

INSHORE REEFS

At the stage of writing this report, the marine weather forecast for the weekend is looking half decent, considering last weekend was blowing a gale. Always check the weather before heading out because as we know, it changes faster than the weatherman can predict sometimes. Friday morning until Saturday lunch will be your best shot at filling the esky’s if you can get them past the men in grey suits…sharks. This time of year, the spotty and school mackerel will be in full swing and just around the corner is the spanish mackerel season where the line burners come into the shallow water, so every man and his dog can have a crack at them – weather permitting. If you’re lucky enough to be able to get out wide, there has been a few reports of good trevally stretching arms and the odd reds getting past the sharks. Bundaberg fishing

BURNETT RIVER

It seems as though every time the Burnett River clears up, it ether buckets down or the not so Paradise Dam releases water and ruins the river fishing. Just before the last water release, there were good reports of jacks and barra on the chew and some big girls over the 1 metre mark shaking the hooks and leaving grown men shaking at the knees of what could have been. With the full moon and bigger tides this week, we should see the salt coming upriver, which means the bait returning from being flushed out and the fish following. There has been a good number of bream and some horses amongst them, falling victim to the MMD soft prawn, worked around any structure that holds bait or oysters. I have heard a whisper of prawns being caught too, so if you have a good sounder and a cast net, get out there and have a crack. The Elliott River has been the go-to, whilst the Burnett has been full of freshwater with good reports of mangrove jacks and some elbow slapper whiting being caught. Don’t forget about the grunter and flathead that are getting around too. Your best bet is to use soft plastics in the 3–4-inch range or hard bodies like the Zerek Tango or the Chasebaits Armour Prawn, slowly worked over the sand banks and where the sand meets the mangroves or rocks. Bundaberg fishing

THE KOLAN RIVER AND BAFFLE CREEK

The Baffle and Kolan have been producing some red-hot mud crab action so make sure you take the pots. The Baffle has been producing some nice queenfish and trevally caught on poppers and slowly twitched hard bodies worked past snags and bait balls. But I would be working these two rivers for the barra and jacks before the cooler weather hits in a couple of months. Got to make the most of the season before its gone. All your river species have been getting around like your whiting, bream, flathead and grunter so get the kids outdoors and have a good weekend making memories and feeding the fishing bug. Bundaberg fishing

LAKE MONDURAN

With the main basin sitting around the 27-degree mark, most of the barra have been sitting up the back of the dam amongst the structure.  You can coax them out of the structure with the 5-inch Shads soft plastic or the Molix Shad 140.  Another good way to catch them is with the Barra Classics in the 10ft diving range or a Jackall Squirrell slowly trolled or twitched past the structure line

That’s all folks.
Stay safe on the water and be mindful of your fellow fishers.
Josh Mortensen
Tackle World Bundaberg

CATCH OF THE WEEK!

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