Bush 'n Beach Fishing Magazine Location reports & tips for fishing, boating, camping, kayaking, 4WDing in Queensland and Northern NSW
Inshore Fishing
The inshore fishing right in close to our coastline has been incredible during the weather windows we have had! There is plenty of bait getting around and this has seen plenty of pelagic action like tuna, mackerel, queenfish and trevally being caught.
If you are targeting tuna using lures, ensure the lure you’re using looks identical to the bait they are feeding on. Team member Josh has found best success using the Arma Anchovy metal slug’s in either the 18g or 25g versions. Casting them out past the busting up tuna and using a simple fast wind retrieve back to the boat has been killer. If you aren’t getting a bite sometimes it can pay to actually throw a lure much larger than the bait they are feeding on like a Zman 5inch Streakz jerk tail soft plastic. This method however will usually only work when the small metals won’t.
The school mackerel have been in great numbers so trolling some deep diving hardbody lures or some whole garfish around the bait balls has worked a treat. Flasha spoons are also a deadly way to catch a feed of mackerel when you locate good numbers of fish. The bigger spanish have been harder to get a bite from them this week, first and last light is your best shot at these big mackerel. There is still great numbers of these fish around, with the spearo’s landing some absolute crackers! Just getting one to bite can be another story.
Some good sized snapper and mulloway have still been caught along our inshore reefs with grass sweetlip and plenty of solid stripeys being caught as well. Soft vibes and jerk tail soft plastics have been the most effective on all of these species. The key however is to find the bait and focus your casts in that area.
Offshore
The offshore fishing off of Bundaberg and North off 1770 and Turkey Beach has been nothing short of incredible this winter season. We have seen some trophy fish being caught and plenty of new anglers getting into the action and catching some firsts for them. The standout fish has got to be the big red emperor and cobia at the moment.
Chasing reds can be tricky but the one piece of advice which has a high hit rate is to drive out to 40m+ of water and find isolated structure. Easier said than done however utilizing modern day technology like contour lines and relief shading will get you looking in the right areas. Finding rocks in the middle of nowhere is where a lot of these monster reds are coming from.
Big flesh baits are always high on a red’s menu, live bait and whole squid and cuttlefish are also great options. Fishing for reds with slow pitch jigs is also a very effective way to target them, the depth of water and current are the deciding factors on what weight jig to run however 80g-150g jigs will cover most of the applications.
Plenty of sweetlip, tusk fish, emperors, trout and hussar have also been caught on all of the common reefs. Fishing the pressure edged side is the go when fishing offshore. This is because all of the bait will be stacked on that edge and the feeding predatory fish will not be far away.
So whichever side of the reef is getting hit with current you should be fishing on that side, majority of the time anyway. Whole squid, pilchards and flesh baits have all had their success, ensuring to have some variety of bait on board is always a great idea.
Burnett River
The fishing on the Burnett this week has still been really good especially towards the mouth of the river along the rock walls. Plenty of big bream are being caught along these rock walls on lures and bait. If you are into lure fishing a slow rolled small hardbody lure or a small curl tail soft plastic is deadly.
If you are wanting to bait fish, small strips of mullet fillet or whole sprat have been doing really well. Some solid cod have been caught as by catch whilst targeting these fish, but most of these cod have been undersize. Targeting the base of the rock walls has seen big grunter and flathead caught, soft vibes have been working a treat on these species.
With new moon last Saturday the crabbing in this river did pick up with some really good sized bucks being caught. Having your pots in for an overnight soak worked really well.
Kolan River
The Kolan River is fishing well, the last few weeks has seen this river continually producing quality fish for most anglers whether bait fishing, lure fishing or even on the crabbing front. Good sized flathead, bream and grunter are being caught on the sand flats towards the mouth of the river.
There hasn’t been a specific tide getting more bites but it has been more about knowing where the fish will be depending on the tide. If it’s the incoming tide the fish have been in the shallower water pushing up with the tide, and during the run out they have been in the deeper water and along the drop offs surrounding the flats.
Whole prawns, whole sprat or fresh yabbies have all been getting good results. Those after a good feed of crab should be placing there pots up the creeks in deeper sections, reports have shown that this week the crabs have moved deeper with the big tides so be sure to give this a go. Large fish frames or mullet fillets have worked great at bringing in plenty of crab.
Elliott River
The Elliott sure is producing some quality fish! The deeper holes up river have seen good numbers of fish schooled up with grunter, trevally and some blue salmon being caught. Small soft vibes hopped through these holes has got the bites.
If you prefer bait fishing whole prawns and whole sprat are sure to get the bites. The flats fishing has also been red hot! A lot of flathead, bream and whiting have been found in the shallow water or along drop offs and have definitely been on the chew.
Throwing some whole sprat or small strips of mullet fillets onto the sand flats or along the drop offs has picked up some of these fish. If you are specifically chasing whiting you can’t beat fresh beach worms or yabbies, fish these on an incoming tide over the shallow sand flats and yabbie beds and it’s just a matter of time.
Around the mouth of the river has seen some solid dart caught as well as queenfish and trevally. The occasional school mackerel has been passing through with a lot of anglers getting snipped off from these toothy critters. They are great fun when you manage to get a good hook set on them though!
Baffle Creek
Baffle Creek is fishing great, the last few weeks has seen this river producing some very good fishing for most anglers. The ‘bread and butter’ species have been the target for most, shallow water flats fishing with fresh yabbies is the go to technique at the moment for this river system.
Big grunter, flathead, bream and some solid whiting are all being caught in shallow water especially around the top of the tide on the yabbie beds. Whilst soaking some baits try flicking either small soft plastics or hardbody lures along the flats or drop offs as this can often times pick up some cracking fish as well.
Some good numbers of pelagic fish have been around and feeding, the last half of the incoming tide seems to be when most of these fish are being caught. Fishing the fallen trees at the mouth of the river has caught some cracking trevally and queenfish lately with whole sprat and small soft plastics doing the trick.
Up river in some of the creeks and on the rock bars has still seen some mangrove jack being caught. Whole sprat and mullet or live bait has got these fish to bite, the run out tide has been when most of these fish have been caught.
Lake Gregory
Lake Gregory has had a great week of fishing with plenty of big bass on the chew! With the cool water temp these bass are schooled up in the deep water so fishing in the bottom half of the water column is where most of the success has been had.
Slow rolling small paddle tail soft plastics along the bottom as well as hopping small soft vibes has been really effective. A lot of the bass being caught this week have been well into the 40cm+ club with some trophy 50cm fish being caught. No doubt there is plenty more of the 50cm+ bass down there and ready to be caught, if you are thinking of fishing Lake Gregory now is the time to do so!
Lake Monduran
Lake Monduran is certainly producing some insane barra fishing considering we are in the middle of winter. A lot of the barra being caught are over 1m in length which is pretty hectic to think about!
Those having most of the success are utilizing the latest in live scope technology and are able to target individual fish and get a very accurate cast right in front of their face which can make all the difference. However plenty of solid fish are still being caught by targeting fish suspending in trees in the deeper water by just using side scan to locate key areas.
Samaki Redic DS80’s twitched in the timber as well as slow rolling big soft plastics and swimbaits have worked great in these areas. Fishing the dam around key bite times is also a great idea to maximise your chances at getting some of these giants to bite.
CATCH OF THE WEEK
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From the team at Tackle World Bundaberg
Live the Tackle World L.I.F.E – Local Independent Fishing Experts
