Bush 'n Beach Fishing Magazine Location reports & tips for fishing, boating, camping, kayaking, 4WDing in Queensland and Northern NSW
With a feel of winter all across SE QLD the air temperatures and water temperatures have dropped by several degrees. This has made fishing tougher as we also had some windy conditions to go with it. Offshore conditions have been mixed with a few days of light swell and offshore winds during the start of the week.
The winds kicked in again keeping most inside the bay or inside in the safety of the estuary. Fish caught out wider at North Reef included snapper, sweetlip, cobia, tuskies and the occasional longtail tuna. Sunshine reef also produced a few coral trout, sweetlip, longtail and mixed cod species.
Halls reef was also the pick for the tuna and mackerel species. Pilchard floaters catching the good fish on the early morning tides. Trolling garfish and bonito is still a great go to for this area as the bigger pelagic fish love this area.
Surf fishing is picking up with reports of chopper tailor, whiting, bream and GT’s on the catch menu. These fish have been taken on slugs in the 30 gram range like the river 2 sea rock and Halco twisties. Whole pilchards fished on smaller light gang hooks and running sinker rigs has been working well for anglers fishing off the headlands. They have been getting small snapper, sweetlip and trevally on medium weight surf outfits.
In the estuary queenfish and flathead have been very much on the menu. These fish have been taking a wide range of lures and baits. If lure fishing curly tail plastics are a must with a good application of scent and 12lb leaders to prevent getting rubbed off. Whole whitebait, pilchard and hardy head baits on gang or snelled hook rigs lightly weighted also work well as they cover more ground. If you need help with learning how to snell a hook pop in and ask us how.
The best places to target these fish are from the frying pan up to the mouth of Lake Cooroibah. Fishing the tide line is a great way to target them as the combination of clean water mixing with the dirtier water usually gets fish fired up. Having an electric motor really helps here as you can move around with ease and quietly.
Other species on the list include mangrove jacks, tailor and various trevally species including cale cale and diamonds. For jacks live baits will be working well so get your cast nets out and ensure you have an aerator running for herring. Smaller Mustad octopus hooks are the go as they are a fine gauge and will not kill your baits. Don’t forget to ask us how to throw a cast net if you need help.
Trevally can be found around woods bay, Munna Bridge and the ski run sections. They love soft vibes, micro jigs and grub style soft plastics as well as whitebait and herring baits. With rains forecast, now is a great time to get your crab pots out, just remember to keep your pots out of the boating channel and keep them clearly marked.
With the wild bass closed season now in effect Borumba and Lake MacDonald are the closest options for anglers wishing to target these fish. Slower moving suspending lures are a must for anyone working the edges and the new range of Jackall squirrels are sure to entice a bite. With the rains the daytime and evening temps have risen a few degrees making early starts more enjoyable. Hopefully this will slow the cooling water.
If you have a sounder be sure to watch for spikes in temperature as the warmer waters can be a great place for fish to school up and hunt for bait.
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 Outdoors in Noosa and Davo’s 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!
