Keith Stratford

Crazy coral trout in Hervey Bay

I’VE always been a big fan of getting away to destinations that I don’t get to fish often. A lot of these trips are often planned with little notice and end up with two swags and an Esky full of cold drinks driving north on a Friday afternoon. Coral trout Hervey One of my friends had been talking about a …

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Beat the heat in Brisbane

FEBRUARY signals the end of the holiday period, and it’s an excellent month for chasing crustaceans around southeast Queensland. Mud crabs are very active, and the banana prawn season will be in full swing over the coming months. Prawns started to get more active in January and will only improve. Heat Brisbane There are very few secrets when it comes …

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Warmer water for mangrove jack

WELCOME to 2021 and a happy new year to all Bush ‘n Beach readers. Last year was a pretty wild ride, but thankfully the fishing side of things wasn’t affected as much as other activities. Summer started with a bang and a nasty heat wave ripped across the eastern side of Australia and pushed the temperature gauge over 40C in …

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Baffle Creek Family Fishing Festival

THE Baffle Creek Family Fishing Festival was held in September this year. I’ve never entered a family fishing competition before, though with my son’s sixth birthday looming it was a perfect time to have a go. Last year my partner Ash and I spent a few days on Baffle Creek staying at Rocky Point Retreat. While we didn’t have a …

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SCF competition win

November generally means very hot days for South East Queensland. And the hot weather translates to the water temperature rising in rivers and creeks, so mangrove jack will be in full swing. SCF competition Jack are a very popular target at this time of year. Their aggressive nature, speed and bad attitude can see anglers getting very addicted to chasing …

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Hinchinbrook in a tinnie – part two

THIS month we’ll be looking at part two of our Hinchinbrook tinnie trip. The morning after our epic mangrove jack session, we took dad out to end of Lucinda Bulk Sugar Terminal. Almost everything lives around the terminal, so you never know what’s going to eat your lure next. I landed a small coral trout on a Zerek Fish Trap …

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Hinchinbrook in a tinnie – part one

OVER the past few years I’ve been on several fishing trips to Lucinda at the southern end of the Hinchinbrook Channel in a tinnie. I’ve done these trips at different times of the year to try and find out what works best. This year my brother Chris came on the trip we’d planned for the middle of August. My dad …

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Winter mangrove jacks

AUGUST signals the end of the calm winter days and cold nights. It is an excellent month to chase a wide range of species in southeast Queensland. There will still be plenty of cold weather this month but we normally see northerly wind turn up towards the end of the month, which will begin to see the water temperature rise …

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Season transition provides plenty of fishing options

april transition fishing

THE transition months where both warm and cool water species are on offer can produce red-hot fishing action. Fish that prefer warmer water such as mangrove jack will be feeding hard at this time before the water temperature rapidly drops in May. Some of the best jack fishing occurs during the season transition, with a lot of big fish over …

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Brisbane threadfin and jewfish captures continue

brisbane threadfin salmon

THIS month will see winter coming to end. Towards the end of the month the weather generally starts to warm and we might even receive a couple of afternoon northerly breezes. In years past I’ve had good success on mangrove jack in late-August. Most anglers believe it’s too early for mangrove jack to be getting active, but if you’re willing …

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