By Jack Mangrove
There were a few opportunities to get off shore last week and the anglers who went out were rewarded with some great numbers of quality fish. Laguna Bay has been producing good numbers of tuna during the day, as well as a few spotted mackeral, small metal slugs around that 15 to 25g mark have worked well on the tuna school busting up on the surface. A high speed retrieve is needed as they like fast moving objects. Halls Reef and Jew Shoal has seen anglers landing nice bag fulls of reef fish including cod, sweetlip, snapper and tusk fish. Pilchards and live yakka’s were the best baits to be using. Sunshine Reef has been firing with trout lately, live baits are the prime bait rigged on snelled hooks and fish hard to the bottom. Sunshine Reef has also been producing quality Spanish mackerel on deeper run pilchards and slimy mackerel, this method has seen some outstanding results. Trolling hardbodies like the Samaki Pacemakers and trolling squid skirts has also seen success. The outer reefs like Barwon Banks and the Hards are also turning it on with some great reef fish including snapper, pearl perch, mauri cod, trout, spangled emperor, and schools of Spanish mackerel. North Reef has been firing with a good mix of reef species as well as pelagics that have all been feeding all throughout the day.
In the Noosa River, bream and whiting have been on the chew in big numbers around the River Mouth, Dog Beach and Frying Pan areas. Live baits like live worms and yabbies have been the outstanding baits of choice. Using a basic running sinker rig with a size 4 bloodworm longshank hook, size 2 ball sinker and 6lb fluorocarbon leader has been the way to go. Fishing live baits at night saw anglers land some nice mangrove jack around the back of the sound fishing the run out tide. The Tewantin Marina has also been a prime spot. Flathead are in great numbers with the deeper drop offs holding fish as the tide runs out. Mud crabs are also in good numbers and seem to be in better numbers upriver from the Tewantin boat ramp, fresh mullet has been the prime bait, make sure you soak those pots for at least one tide cycle.
Bream, whiting, dart and flathead have been caught along Noosa Northshore and Teewah Beach. Fishing the deep clean gutters using fresh pippies, live worms and frozen peeled prawns has seen some great results. Fishing up toward Double Island has seen small jew and tarwhine caught during the low light hours of the morning and afternoon using pilchards on ganged hooks. Rock anglers have also been getting some nice fish with Noosa National Park and Coolum Rocks fishing well for sweetlip and tuna.
So on behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures!
