With the weather gods favouring lighter winds this week, those who had the time to go offshore were rewarded. Monday saw some cracking conditions and the rest of the week had many openings and gave those searching for mackerel a chance of hooking a few. Reef fishing also provided anglers with some standout fish making this a great time of the year.
Sunshine Reef and North Reef have certainly been the two most popular areas from Noosa. Spanish mackerel have been found from just below the surface to 20 meters down. Trolling baits continues to prove the more popular method and stinger rigged garfish, slimy mackerel and sauri continue to get the job done. If rigging yourself be sure to grab some single strand wire and nose cones for garfish. We can show you how to build the perfect stinger rig if you want to give one a try. Lure anglers have reported catching mackerel including spotty mackerel on metal slugs like Halco Twisties and Arma twist lures.
Reef fishing is starting to show some great fish from pearlies and big tuskies and sweetlip. While sharks continue to be a problem it is a case of get down fast, pull a few fish and then move to another spot. Keep burley trails light and even attached a burley log to your anchor so you aren’t feeding the entire water column which will attract more sharks.
Off the beaches the swell has dropped enough to provide those with lighter outfits the chance to flick the closer gutters for bream and whiting. Super light size 0 or 1 ball sinkers on 3kg lines and live beach worm is providing kids a chance to land a few quality fish. Take a look around the river mouth rocks and the open beach areas around the mouth. Off the rocks there should be some smaller reefies like sweetlip and pan sized snapper. This is the place where long cast reels excel allowing casts of 80-100 meters. Check out the various options in store if serious about getting started with surf fishing.
The Noosa River continues to run murky, so darker lures and those with heavy vibration are key. The new ChaseBaits Gutsy Minnow are sure to get the attention of passing predators. These come in a great range of sizes, swim depths and colours. This style of lure suits fishing for flathead, jacks and trevally. Bait anglers would do well with whitebait, slimy mackerel fillets and mullet on lighter running sinker rigs. Fish both side of the high and low tides and look around the dog beach and fish the trees. The current line is a great place to run baits and flick soft plastics. If after something a little bigger like a big flathead then then new Castaic soft plastics have a great paddle tail action that will certainly get the attention of bigger fish. You can rig these on weedless hooks or standard jigheads and work well with a slow roll.
On the freshwater scene, the water is clearing up after all the run off spilling into Lake Macdonald and Borumba over the past few weeks. The fish are still deeper so the Ecogear ZX40 is one of the best small blades to distance cast with and fish. On a slow roll the stinger hooks will hook up on fish that aren’t fully committing or missing standard hooks. For areas where weed is a problem then smaller TT vortex spinnerbaits are key at finding deep schooling fish like yellow belly.
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!
