Fishing

IT’S September already and hard to believe we’ve been in restrictions for so long. It’s now the new norm and I’ve noticed more and more anglers are visiting Hervey Bay for the fishing action. This is good for the local economy, and we are blessed that Queensland’s rates of infection remain low enough for us to continue business in our …

DUST off your baitcasters and change your hooks on your favourite barramundi lures because September has finally arrived! We can wave goodbye to winter because it’s definitely time to let barra fever take over. Longer days, warmer early mornings and rising water temperature have fish such as barra and mangrove jack becoming more active and with longer bite windows. With …

SOMETIMES people just don’t have enough time to do the full ‘tip trip’ – that’s just a reality. Others have done so but want to return to Cape York to further explore this amazing region. There’s an abundance of smaller areas to visit, and one of the best is the southeastern corner, from roughly the Bloomfield River north to Bathurst …

QBFP officers in Mackay recently teamed up with the Queensland Water Police to execute a search warrant on St Bees Island (located north east of Mackay). Acting on information provided to Fishwatch, officers located and seized eight commercial gill nets and the unlicensed owner was fined $6670. The nets have been forfeited and will be destroyed. Please report any activity …

I HOPE everyone is staying safe during these crazy times The Western Australia border was still closed at the time of writing this article, though I am sure it will reopen in due course to allow us east coasters the opportunity to venture over to the west coast to explore. A couple of our favourite destinations on the west coast …

Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan review The Australian and Queensland governments are reviewing the Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan, also known as the Reef 2050 Plan. This plan is Australia’s long-term strategy to protect and manage the Great Barrier Reef. The plan sets clear actions, management goals, objectives and outcomes. These drive and guide the short, medium and long-term management …

THERE are lots of places to troll for snapper and your best bet is to start looking at maps with contours lines, Beacon to Beacon charts and even your sounder if it has a detailed Navionics card. To give you a few ideas of good places to start trolling for snapper, I would look at Peel Island, Mud Island, Green …

THERE have been plenty of tailor getting caught in recent weeks, both in the estuaries and along the beaches, so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to run through a few tailor tips, and some of my favourite lures and techniques for catching this aggressive predator. Finding tailor The first thing we need to do is find the …

G’DAY everyone, in this month’s article I will discuss some ideas for targeting one of our hardest-fighting estuary species: trevally. The Gold Coast and Tweed Heads area harbours numerous trevally types including bluefin, diamond, brassy, golden, bigeye and giant, with the last two the most prolific. The common theme with all these trevally is they become more active on the …

I HOPE everyone has been keeping well and getting about on the water. Restrictions have eased in Queensland and allowed us to travel through the state. The first place we headed was the Bunker Group at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. We took my old man’s Sailfish 2800 cat for its maiden reef voyage and all I …