As we move toward another windy weekend, now is a time to prep for the change in season, or maybe think about other styles of fishing in our local region.
Living on the coast we are lucky enough to have estuary, dam, and river fishing on offer. Right now might be a bit tough, but when the winds blow and the swell is up, these places often let you wet a line while exploring our beautiful region by land, boat or kayak. For anyone looking to get into kayak angling or exploring the local region, we can point you in the right direction with Noosa Outdoors stocking kayaks and all the must have extras to get you on the water.
For those lucky enough, we had some cracking weather mid-week that saw boats head offshore to enjoy a mixed bag of species on offer. Some larger boats headed toward double island and caught not only pelagic species, but bigger winter fish. Bait anglers have been landing some chunky snapper around the 4kg-plus mark on mullet and squid baits.
Also in the mix, there have been some jewfish which often turn up in the cooler waters and winter time. These fish will take baits from pilchard to jigs and plastics. If fishing soft plastics for trophy snapper, try using the lightest jig head for your gear with a curl tail plastic like a 5.5 inch Power bait nemesis. The subtle slow fall is a huge trigger for big mid-water snapper to smash these on the drop.
Once the winds and swell drop you can expect reefs like Sunshine, Halls and Jew Shoal to be fishing very well. With a break in angling pressure, the flooding river will see a huge amount of bait hitting the local reefs which gets the fish fired up and hungry.
While the rivers along the coastline empty out, you can expect to find some good gutters and holes on offer. With good sized whiting in the high 30cm range and dart around 40cm, now is a great time to break out the lightweight gear and grab a feed.
Don’t forget, we carry bait to suit all styles of fishing with locally sourced cured worms one of the best beach/estuary baits around.
With the river fresher you are best to stay around the mouth and along Gympie Terrace. Bait anglers will do well fishing the drop offs and along the edges of the sand banks as you proceed toward the river mouth.
With many fish now holding downstream from the upstream freshwater they are going to be hunting by taste and smell. This makes using burley pellets a must and a good glug of tuna oil and some sand all mixed up will bring the fish on the bite. Keep lines around 8lb and use 00-1 sized ball sinkers and feed your baits our in the current to find the fish. Doing this will see you catch good whiting bream and flathead.
For those with crab pots, make sure you set a few as crabs are always on the move during this weather. With the full moon behind us we will soon experience the neap tides and with it cleaner water. No matter where you fish, keep trying new approaches as you never know what may work for you. Good luck out there and see you all next week.
Now for all the latest information log onto fishingnoosa.com.au for up-to-date bar and fishing reports, don’t forget to drop into Tackle World Noosa, Noosa Boating and Outdoors and 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!
