Bush 'n Beach Fishing Magazine Location reports & tips for fishing, boating, camping, kayaking, 4WDing in Queensland and Northern NSW
Inshore/Offshore fishing
The inshore fishing has been producing quality catches. Lots of school mackerel have been caught on spoons either trolled or cast with the odd spanish mackerel taking a liking to bigger trolled baits. The inshore reefs have been producing quality grunter, snapper, grass emperor, moses perch and the odd tuskfish.
A lot of the fish being caught are falling victim to well presented baits and smaller soft plastics being jigged along the bottom. With the larger grunter, team member Josh has been jigging smaller metals around 20-30g. Now if you like catching squid, this is the time to have a go with the amount of tiger squid being caught. When Josh targets squid he uses a super light leader around 8-10lb and works the edges of rocks and rubble patches.
It helps to change up the colours to see what they are feeding on, but whatever the colour is that you find works, normally a 3.0 sized squid jig works for Josh. If you’re fishing around dusk or in the night, try one of the perfect image squid lights to attract them to the boat. We have the squid lights in stock at present.
The offshore reefs have been producing some solid coral trouts in numbers along with red emperor, tuskfish, sweetlip, grass emperor and a heap of hussar. Along with those mentioned there has been a few cobia and spanish getting about so make sure you throw a pilly out for the roaming pelagic and take and few metals to cast around.
Some of the methods that have been producing quality catches is twitching soft plastic prawns like a samaki golden carrot or zerek live shrimp for your reef fish and jigging nomad squidtrex for your big reds. Baits like squid and pilchards are another preferred method if you can get past the pickers.
Burnett River
With the VMR Family Fishing Classic on this weekend, everyone is going to be out looking for a feed and a prized catch. There has been alot of flathead being caught on smaller vibes and 3 inch soft plastics like Zman or Daiwa bait junkies. The bream have started to show up with some quality catches around the 40cm mark along with solid grunter up to 70cm.
Whiting are being caught in big numbers both summer and winter variants and if you like catching blue salmon I would be casting a 20g Samaki vibelicious or use fresh sprat as bait. There’s still a few mud crabs and prawns getting about so don’t be afraid to throw a pot and pack the cast net for the prawns.
Don’t forget the VMR Family Fishing Classic is on Friday 23 June, Saturday 24 June & Sunday 25 June 2023 at the VMR Base, 51 Harbour Esplanade, Burnett Heads. Tackle World Bundaberg is a major sponsor of this event. Registrations have closed at Tackle World Bundaberg but you can still enter online www.vmrbundabergfishingclassic.com.au or at the VMR Base Friday, Saturday and Sunday 9am – 5pm.
This is an exciting family friendly event with loads of lucky draw prizes for both juniors and seniors. A substantial list of category prizes is on offer. The lucky draw sessions are popular on Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday. You don’t even have to catch a fish to be in the running to win a boat, motor and trailer package! Tight lines and see you there.
VMR Family Fishing Classic 2023!
Elliott River
The Elliott has been fishing very well for your whiting and bream. Pumping yabbies at low tide and fishing the shallow sand bars on the incoming tide has been doing the damage for the whiting. The bream have been hanging out over the shallow rock bars and around mangrove roots.
Look for the bait flickering and the bream won’t be too far away. Also, there’s been some solid queenfish cruising around towards the mouth so be sure to keep an eye out for them. Using surface lures for them is super fun and an effective way to catch them.
Baffle Creek
The Baffle has been fishing very well over the past week. Plenty of whiting and flathead have been getting caught towards the mouth area. The whiting have been loving yabbies and beach worms fished on an incoming tide.
The flathead have been taking a liking to slow rolled 3” zman minnowz over shallow sand bars and live sprat has been getting the bite as well. Don’t forget to drop the crab pots in, there’s been some really good quality mud crabs being caught.
Kolan River
The Kolan has been producing some very nice grunter over the past week. Plenty of these fish have been caught on 20g soft vibes, Gulp soft plastics and using prawns as bait.
Fishing the incoming tide in a small gutter or a gravel bed has been the most ideal spots to find them. Don’t forget to drop the pots in for a tasty feed of mud crabs as there’s been a few larger models caught lately.
Lake Gregory
Lake Gregory is fishing well with the cooler water temperature. We have seen some good size schools of fish hanging in the deep.
Fishing with vibes and small soft plastics through the schools will see you in with a chance of landing some quality bass. As the sun gets higher in the day, fishing edges and timber will still be rewarding with some cracking sized bass landed using this technique.
Lake Monduran
Lake Monduran has still been producing some quality numbers of barramundi. With the water temperature dropping off, try fishing shallower weed edges with lures such as Samaki Redics slow rolled with a decent twitch and pause.
This technique will increase your chance at having some cracking barra fun. Fishing topwater over the lily pads has been rewarding for a few anglers too with some bigger barramundi being caught this way.
CATCH OF THE WEEK
If you would like your catch photos published to be in the running for a $50 gift card every week, email your details and photos of local catches only to accounts@tackleworldbundy.com.au
From the team at Tackle World Bundaberg
Live the Tackle World L.I.F.E – Local Independent Fishing Experts
