Bush 'n Beach Fishing Magazine Location reports & tips for fishing, boating, camping, kayaking, 4WDing in Queensland and Northern NSW
Noosa – Cool conditions produce
What a week and how different it was to this time last year. With the daytime temperature struggling to get over 25C, many of us are enjoying the cooler weather. And while this is slowing the warming of the water, the fishing is ticking along quite nicely. As we headed towards the full moon, bigger tides and a raising barometer saw some great action at the end of the day.
Noosa offshore it’s very much about pearl perch, jewfish and cobia. These fish are holding in good numbers around North Reef or the 50-60m line. Anglers heading to Double Island are also reporting similar species with amberjack and the occasional kingfish. Tuskfish are present alongside grass sweetlip and a few tuna, in the form of longtail and mack. You can drop bait of mullet, pilchard and squid on simple single or double-hook paternoster rigs. Black Magic Tackle have a great out-of-the-packet option with super-strong hooks called the Snapper Snatcher. These come rigged up with glow beads and lots of flash that most reef fish love.
If sitting on anchor, nothing beats an unweighted bait drifted down in a berley trail. While doing this, you can also have a floated pilchard out the back for the fish feeding out of sight and sitting further back. Feeding a half pilchard down in a berley trail on light 15-20lb gear can be a very rewarding experience if using medium heavy rods. Look at Samaki Zing Gen 3 rods or Shimano jewel rods, as these have many viable options for you to try, with a powerful backbone and quality components. Pair this with a 4500 Penn or 5000-sized Shimano reel and 20lb casting braid and you have a combo that will cover you for almost much everything, from mangrove jack in the river to tuna and mackerel offshore. Lastly from the offshore scene, this is the last month before the annual spanner crab closure on November 1. They are an easy tasty target and something to try if fishing local and wanting to try something different on the table.
From the beaches, tailor are still hanging around. Though not in big numbers, they often come in during high tide. High tide often brings baitfish in close, with predatory fish following close behind. Casting 30-40g slugs and whole pilchard on gang hooks has seen anglers catch a few. Around the mouth, you can expect to hook a few flathead and bream, with smaller dart and bigger whiting keeping things fun. Aim to fish as light as you can, so you feel the bite and have fun while doing it.
Jack anglers will do well casting live bait and weedless soft plastics such as the MMD Fat Skipper deep into the snags. This can be done from the ski run heading upriver. This style of angling works best with baitcast outfits and softer tipped rods. We have a wide range of baitcast reels and rods to get you started and once you master how to cast one, you’ll soon wonder how you previously lived without one. If you need a cast net, we can help you out and even show you how to cast and care for one. We also have all the live bait goodies such as live bait buckets and aerators.
The ski run is a place that can offer up a wide variety of species, including giant trevally and bigeye trevally, as well as smaller jewfish and flathead. When pack feeding, trevally will smash small lures ripped through the water or a soft plastic such as a 3” Keitech Easy Shiner rolled mid-water. If you have yet to try it, flats fishing for flathead on surface lures can be a blast. Big flatties will blow up on surface lures such as the Berkley Pro-Tech Bender slowly twitched across the shallows. Try to find patches of seagrass to start your experience.
As you head towards the river mouth, there are many holes that you could also try with soft plastics and medium-sized soft vibes such as the Zerek Fish Trap. Jewfish prefer to hang in deep holes alongside jacks, so something along the lines of Sunline FC Rock 20lb leader should be used for these bigger fish, as they know how to fight hard!
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 Tackle World Noosa, Noosa Boating and Outdoors and Northshore Bait & Tackle in Marcoola for all the right equipment, bait and advice to get you catching. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and remember, tight lines and bent spines!
