Bush 'n Beach Fishing Magazine Location reports & tips for fishing, boating, camping, kayaking, 4WDing in Queensland and Northern NSW
With the run of sensational weather continuing, the boat ramps have been full and the land-based Sunshine Coast anglers have been out and about catching a good feed. The river mouth has been producing some great catches of whiting in the mid 30cm range. To target these fish it is best to find a deeper gutter and fish with a worm, peeled prawn or squid tentacle bait on a #2 sized long shank hook, a pea sized running sinker and 6lb leader. Flathead have also been caught on larger whole fish baits including whitebait and hardy heads on lighter gauge gang hooks in the 1/0-2/0 size. With these fish you can go a little heavier and use 12lb line and a slightly larger #3 sized ball sinker. For the lure anglers smaller hardbodies like Atomic shiner in 45mm size will catch those fish sitting on the drop offs.
If you are targeting Bream, then fishing around the sandbags and dog beach is worth a look. Take your lightest gear, a small sinker and a small #2 octopus style hook with a cube of mullet. These fish will pick through soft baits very quickly and mullet is a tougher favourite. Soft plastics to use include Zman 2 inch grubz and Gulp swimming mullet both fished on #1 & 2 jig head hook sizes. If you are after a golden trevally then around Woods Bays, Munna Bridge and up toward Noosa Marina are the better picks. These fish will take bigger whole prawn baits, pilchard and mullet chunks. For the lure fishermen then soft plastics including the Fuse prawn head and squidgy prawn wriggle tail are great options. Be sure to use scent and 6lb braid and leader as the bigger fish are quite line shy in clearer water, but provide an exhilarating fight once hooked.
The mouth of Lake Cooroibah and up toward Lake Cootharaba has the odd mangrove jack, smaller flathead and small jewfish. These smaller jewfish respond well to 3-4inch paddle tail plastics including Entice paddler in blood worm with 1/4oz jig heads on 2/0 hooks.
In the freshwaters of Lake Macdonald and Borumba the bass have been responding to a great variety of blades like the little max from Evergreen and the Ecogear ZX blades. Small divers like the OSP Dunk and Lucky Craft Pointer XD have been calming some cracking fish too! If you want to fish off the top then the Megabass Dog-X Jnr and lucky craft Sammy 65 are both essential must haves.
Beach and rock fishing has been accessible to everyone with the lack of swell. If you can find a gutter then small baits and light rigs have been catching a feed of dart, whiting and bream. The tailor have been sporadic but can be found under bait schools, so be sure to look for birds feeding on bait balls. Night time rock fishing is a great option with no swell and nothing beats a well presented live bait or strip bait for smaller snapper, cobia and maybe a quality sized jewfish if off the rocks.
Offshore boats of all sizes have been getting amongst it with Sunshine reef producing good sized snapper, sweetlip, cobia, maori cod and coral trout. A little further out North reef has been producing bigger cobia and snapper along with pearl perch, venus tusk fish and moses perch. Out wide Double Island and Barwon Banks have snapper, cobia, parrot fish, tusk fish, pearl perch, red emperor, trevally and amberjack to name a few. The easiest way to target most of these fish is to use a 2 hook paternoster rig. These come rigged with hooks in sizes of 4/0-6/0 to suit your baits. Attach a 4-8oz snapper lead and you are in with the chance. For the lure fisherman then jigs like the Entice flop slow fall have been working well on the trevally, cobia and amberjack. These come pre-rigged with a heavy duty assist hook and split ring and can be speed jigged for that big hit!
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!
