Fishing

WITH winter behind us, water temperature is increasing and the species list on offer is improving. Estuaries will see packs of whiting and bream during the day, with flathead one of the biggest targets and there are huge models out there. Offshore we can expect to find large jewfish, trout, cobia, pearl perch and even early pelagic action. In dams …

MY second Fraser Island trip this year was a particularly challenging trip for a few reasons. We had weed along most of the eastern beach, while on the western side we had regular strong northwest or southwest wind blowing in our faces. But all was not lost. On the eastern beach, we tested the water by doing quick gutter hopping …

EVERY now and then you have one of those dream fishing sessions that you don’t want to ever end – such was the case recently when Mischa decided to have a few casts for jewfish at the southern end of the Iluka Bluff using soft plastic lures. Iluka jew When he arrived at the headland, gulls and terns were diving …

ON August 16 we booked a charter with Rainbow Escape Charters, to leave Bullock Head boat ramp aboard an 8m Cougar Catamaran with twin 250hp engines. I had fished with two local charters for years and didn’t know of Rainbow Escape Charters, skippered by Dave. We opted for the extended charter, which was a 13-hour session and left the ramp …

SPRING is an awesome time of the year to be out and about targeting a few Moreton Bay thugs. Mackerel, cobia, longtail tuna are just a few that will be showing up over the next few months in our local waters. You don’t have to own a boat to get in on the action – but it helps having a …

RECENTLY, while taking advantage of the good weather and fishing local rivers and estuaries with soft plastics, we encountered a neap tide or two. A neap tide occurs just after the first or third quarters of the moon, when there is least difference between high and low water, and anglers often use the phrase ‘no run, no fun’ because the …

WESTERLY wind and early spring spell tailor season, and whether you’re an avid beach fisher or boat angler, this is a great species to be targeting. Queensland’s southern surf beaches and rocky headlands are popular destinations for tailor fishing, with Fraser, Moreton, North and South Stradbroke islands and the surf beaches of the Sunshine and Gold coasts all fantastic places …

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 …

TOM and I were motoring up a small side creek on the electric against a slow run-out tide. The waterway was barely a cast wide but had already produced a few feisty barramundi and a couple of bumps from big blue-lipped pikey bream. Overhead, the tops of the mangrove forest were buffeted by typical dry season trade wind but only …

AFTER our Swains sortie, George and I decided to head to Turkey Beach for an overnight fishing trip because we hadn’t fished that region since October last year. Weather, circumstances and other commitments kept getting in the way and unlike many other fishers, we chose not to fish the area during the COVID-19 lockdown good weather, when social distancing and …