Bush 'n Beach Fishing Magazine Location reports & tips for fishing, boating, camping, kayaking, 4WDing in Queensland and Northern NSW
Inshore Fishing
Inshore has been fishing red hot!! We have been getting plenty of good reports of big grunter being caught on most of the inshore reefs along the coast. Fishing 20g soft vibes in brighter colours such as pink and 5inch jerk shads hopped slowly over reef and rubble bottom has worked a treat.
This time of year you should also see yourself getting into some quality inshore mulloway and sweetlip, if bait is your preferred method whole prawns and strips of mullet will see you in with a good chance at a sweetlip and a live yakka or slimey are great baits for a big jew.
There has still been plenty of mackerel along the coast with most of them caught trolling gar or deep diving hard body’s or even casting Flasha lures into schools of bait where birds are working. Some squid are also being caught in the clean water around weedy and rubbly bottom, be sure to have a crack at one this weekend with the good weather forecasted!
Offshore
The offshore fishing out of Bundy over the past month surely has been impressive! The usual suspects of red emperor, sweetlip, tusk fish and large mouth nannygai have been around but the standout fish has been the coral trout! Plenty of these fish have been over 7kg! The three best techniques has been using live baits such as yakka’s, prawn imitation lures and whole pilchards. There’s also been some ripper grass sweetlip, tusk fish and some nice sized red emperor being caught with them as well.
Those who are chasing the big reds have done very well using large flesh baits like mullet fillet or fresh hussar fillet. Finding isolated pinnacles of reef in the middle of nowhere or even small lumps situated away from the main sections of reef will usually hold good numbers of red emperor. Remember to make the most out of the tide changes, the one hour either side of the tide surely can put some fish on your deck!
Burnett River
The Burnett has been producing some top quality fish with big bream and flathead being the standout’s! Some of the bream have been nudging the 45cm mark and a lot of big flathead are being caught as well. This time of year the bream are feeding up to get ready for breeding season so now is the time to target these guys whilst they are active.
Whole prawns and sprat rigged with a light ball sinker fished along any of the rock walls in the Burnett has got the bite. For those lure fishing small prawn imitation lures or grub soft plastics have been getting the bream to bite with bycatch of cod, grunter and flathead as well.
The big flathead have been caught on 80-100mm vibes hopped along the bottom, areas with sandy drop offs or where rocky structures meet sand are great areas to target these bigger flathead. Remember that any dusky flathead 75cm or over needs to be released so please handle these big breeders with respect and limit the time they are out of the water for.
Kolan River
The Kolan River has been fishing really well this week especially with the bigger tides pushing a lot of bait around the river. The sand flats and yabbie beds have been producing some cracking fish again this week, yabbies would have to be one of the best fresh baits that you can get for a large variety of species.
One of the stand out species that love yabbies is the humble whiting and there sure has been plenty around in the Kolan at the moment. Dusting off the yabbie pump and pumping for yabbies at the low tide is a great way to secure some fresh bait, if you can’t make the tide to do this come in and grab some beach worms as they have been dynamite on the whiting too!
A lot of grunter, flathead, bream and cod are also being caught on prawns, sprat and mullet fillet. A lot of the grunter and flathead have been caught in the deeper holes during a run out tide, soft vibes have worked well in these areas. Also don’t forget to throw a pot or two out as there has been good numbers of crab being caught.
Elliott River
Well the Elliott River sure has had a spectacular run of summer whiting over the last week! Those pumping yabbies at low tide then fishing the incoming tide over the shallow sand bars and weed beds have absolutely slayed the whiting.
Using a running ball sinker rig with 6lb leader and pink/red beads and tubing has been the go to way to get these finicky fish to bite. Great numbers of flathead have also been caught in the same areas as these whiting so having some whole sprat drifting out over the sand bars is definitely a good idea to pick up some of the flatties which are cruising over the flats with the incoming tide.
The deeper holes throughout the Elliott River are producing good numbers of grunter, soft vibes like the Samaki Vibelicious hopped along the bottom have been picking these fish up consistently. The crabs have been on the move in this river so be sure to throw the pots in this weekend for a tasty feed of mud crab!
Baffle Creek
The Baffle is having another great week of fishing, this time of year is always a great time to fish this river with good numbers of bream, flathead, whiting and grunter on the chew. The bream have been thick in this system, they are feeding aggressively all throughout the river.
A whole sprat floated out along the sand flats and rock bars getting hit with current have not lasted long before a bream has scooped it up! Plenty of flathead between 40cm and 50cm are still around, these fish aren’t schooled up close together so covering plenty of ground is needed as anglers have been picking up 1’s and 2’s of these fish sitting on sand bars and in deep holes.
Grunter are still being caught mainly on bait with strips of mullet fillet and whole sprat being the go to baits. Fishing for these fish up river around rock bars and in deeper holes during the last of the run out tide has seen some grunter up to 55cm being caught. Good sized whiting are also on the chew, last weekends big tides were a great opportunity to chase these fish, fresh yabbies as always are a whiting’s favourite meal!
Lake Gregory
Lake Gregory has been fishing great again this week with the bass schooled up in deeper water. These fish have been chewing on a range of lures, if the bass are schooled up close to the bottom throwing a vibe down would be our first option as this will allow you to stay in the strike zone for as long as possible.
If the bass are a bit higher off the bottom slow rolling a small natural coloured soft plastic through the school is sure to get one to bite. Those fishing the edges of the dam and timber have definitely still been catching good numbers of fish, the prime time for this style of fishing has certainly been the late afternoon as the water here is at its warmest.
Once again slow rolling soft plastics will get the bite, however a suspending hardbody lure has been far more effective especially when paired with an erotic retrieve mixing in plenty of twitches and pauses.
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
