Bush 'n Beach Fishing Magazine Location reports & tips for fishing, boating, camping, kayaking, 4WDing in Queensland and Northern NSW
With the weather the way it has been, it is all about the rivers. Plenty of Noosa River flathead continue to be caught with the better fish coming from the lower reaches of the river. Prawns, pilchard, whitebait and live baits like herring and poddy mullet have all claimed some good Noosa River flathead. For the lure angler soft plastics still seem to be the mainstay. Use at least 1/6 weighted jig head to make sure you are getting to the bottom. Quality bream and large whiting have also been in the lower reaches of the river, for the whiting worms and yabbies have been great and for the bream prawns, mullet gut and fowl gut have gotten the job done. For the lure anglers the whiting have been happy to take a surface lure so give the Atomic, Strada and Sugapens a go with the darker colours seeming to be more productive. Trevally are in great numbers and are feeding on the masses of bait fish flushing out of the rivers as the rains fall. Best to keep your activity to the lower parts of the river or around the mouths. Fishing fast moving slugs and micro jigs has been popular at the mouths and poppers have worked well in the lower reaches. Mangrove jacks seem to love a bit of dirty water and are plentiful around the structures in the river. live baits are the best way to tangle with a red devil, for the lure anglers bright colours and plenty of lure action seems to be the key. Crabs are in good numbers in the Noosa but with the big influx of fresh we are having you may have to set your pots a little further downstream, look for those deeper hole close to mangroves and mud banks.
On the Offshore scene; With the weather being the way it was, smaller boats struggled to deal with the conditions last week, larger craft made their way to North Reef for good cobia, snapper, mori cod, pearl perch, jewfish, tusk fish and nice coral trout, whole and half pilchards or quality squid on the paternoster rig with big snapper leads were the favoured rig. For the smaller boats that did get out most headed for Sunshine, Halls reef or Jew Shoals, smaller snapper, grassy sweet lip, cod and coral trout were all boated. Floater baits like pilchards, gar and slimy mackerel seemed to be the best bet. Another option for the shallow reefs is soft plastics, fishing Zman Jerk shads in both 5 and 7 inch with a healthy coating of Pro Cure sent also claimed some nice fish, anglers have also been experimenting with prawn profile plastic with the Zerek Live Cherubini and live shrimp. As the water clears we will see big school of both spotted and school mackerel with the bigger spanish mackerel also returning to feed on the abundance of bait that is always there after the rains.
In the surf; Casting light Arma Metallic and Radico slugs into the wash around the protected points of Noosa and off the beaches has been producing Tailor and smaller Trevally. Plenty of good sized Flathead, Bream and Whiting are coming from the northern end of main beach around the middle and river mouth groynes. They are respond well to Whiting Wacker rigs presented with small baits including worm, prawn and squid. There are nice gutters opening up on most of the beaches around Noosa, fishing whole pilchards around the rips may see you tangle with a larger tailor or jew.
In the fresh water the bass will sit a little deeper with the rains so concentrate your efforts around the deeper parts of the dams. In Lake Macdonald fish around the bubble trail and the deeper holes. Blue Blue micro jigs and small spinner baits have been working well as well as 2.5-3.5” plastics on ¼ once jig heads. In Borumba dam the Bass are again sitting deep around the boat ramp and along the float line.
Now for all the latest information log onto www.fishingnoosa.com.au for up to date bar and fishing reports, don’t forget to drop into Davo’s Tackle World, Davo’s Boating and Outdoor in Noosa and Davo’s Northshore Bait & Tackle at Marcoola to find out where the fish are biting, and remember Tight Lines and Bent Spines! noosa river flathead noosa river flathead
