Bush 'n Beach Fishing Magazine Location reports & tips for fishing, boating, camping, kayaking, 4WDing in Queensland and Northern NSW
BUNDABERG OFFSHORE
How good was it to see so many big boats out and about last weekend around the Bundaberg region? Good news is that most boats managed to secure a quality mixed bag of reef fish including red emperor, coral trout, grass sweetlip, and parrot. On the other side, nearly every boat reported losing lots of trophy reef fish to sharks. Other than a couple of showers, this weekend’s forecast is looking alright to get out and have another crack offshore. As always, check the weather forecast before heading out.
LOCAL BEACHES
February is a fantastic time of the year to chase dart, whiting and flathead along many of our local beaches between Fraser Island and 1770. When the dart are on the move you can usually see them in the waves. Using baits such as pippies, beachworms and prawns all work well on big dart.
BUNDABERG INSHORE
With the weather so sweet last weekend, plenty of smaller boats got a chance to explore the inshore reefs along the Bundaberg coastline. School and spanish mackerel kept anglers entertained with some absolute crackers being landed. Anglers who were fishing to the bottom also managed to land some big grunter, grass sweetlip, and the odd squire.
BURNETT RIVER
Since it’s open season for barramundi in salt water, plenty of local anglers have been chasing this fantastic sports fish. Whilst there have been plenty of large barramundi up and over the magic metre caught, there have been plenty of under-size barra caught and released between 45-55cm which is great to see for our local rivers. Estuary cod, moses perch, mangrove jack and some big bream are being caught along most of the rock walls in the Burnett River using both soft plastics and fresh baits.
Most of the big flathead seem to be down towards the mouth of the river. Casting fresh sprat or soft plastics around the sand bars has been working a treat.
LAKE MONDURAN
Over the past week anglers putting in the time have been well rewarded with quite a few nice barra caught. Trolling has been very effective over the past month whilst the water temperatures are around 30 degrees. Trolling the main basin and the old creek timber lines with lures that dive to around the 3-metre mark has been doing the job. The barra that are in the shallows are responding well to weedless soft plastics with the Zerek Flat Shad a stand-out during the past week. From the end of February, right through to after Easter is my favourite time to fish Lake Monduran for barramundi.
Fish with confidence
Dale Smith
Tackle World Bundaberg
