The Whitsundays is a world-renowned fishing destination, offering a diverse range of options for beginners and seasoned anglers alike. With stunning scenery and abundant marine life, the Whitsundays is the perfect place to catch your next big fish. Freshwater fishing Freshwater fishing is not always the first thought for fishing in the Whitsunday Islands, but there are many estuaries on …

Today, September 7, 2023 marks National Threatened Species Day! This day aims to raise awareness for plants and animals across the country that are at risk of extinction. Here at NSW DPI, our dedicated fisheries research and management teams are working together on a number of projects that aim to improve the survival rates of our threatened species, while also …

The Sunshine Coast has offered a mixed bag of fishing conditions this week. While estuary fishing has been relatively subdued, offshore waters have been hot with some great catches reported. The weather has been a blend of sunny days and light breezes, punctuated by windier spells and the odd thunderstorm. Looking ahead, the forecast suggests that we’re in for a …

Inshore/Offshore fishing This time of year can be tough with the Northerly’s starting as this always chops the sea up and can make it hard to get a decent weather window to get out. For the spearo’s the Northerlies also mean dirty water so it is usually a battle to find some decent visibility along our coast once the Northerlies …

Most house insurance companies carry a huge amount of data about the claims’ history in certain locations. They can tell you which suburbs, in fact even drilling down to which streets, in a city are most likely to suffer storm damage. They have a handle on a raft of other things too, such as where homes are more likely to …

Licences to practise gillnetting will be phased out in the Great Barrier Reef from December and will be banned in the region completely by July 2027. With about 240 gillnet licences on the east coast of Australia, half of those are in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. With livelihoods on the line, gillnet fishos rallied recently outside Queensland …

Mulloway are an important and iconic species for NSW commercial, recreational and Aboriginal cultural fishers, however stocks in NSW are currently classified as ‘depleted’. Recovering mulloway stocks in NSW is a key priority for NSW Department of Primary Industries Fisheries. Despite a range of fishing arrangements being implemented in the past, given the reported data DPI Fisheries managers and scientists …

Inshore fishing The last few weeks has certainly resulted in some cracking inshore fishing! Big snapper, jew and grunter have been the stand out fish being caught. Most of the inshore marks fish really well for these fish, the most important thing to look out for is bait. Find the bait, and there’s a great chance that there will be …

Spring has sprung on the Sunshine Coast, and we are finally starting to see the weather turn in our favor! Warmer, calmer days over the past week have resulted in some great land-based and offshore conditions. The last few days have seen some afternoon thunderstorms and downpours, and while this may have kept some of us indoors, the rain is …

With unseasonably warm water, fishers found tailor hard to come by. However, we still measured 140 fish and removed 27 pairs of tailor otoliths (fish ear bones). As a large number of boat-based fishers were heading offshore targeting reef fish, we also collected biological data and otoliths from pearl perch, snapper, and red emperor for our routine monitoring program for …