With swells reaching over four metres and winds to 50 knots, nobody fished offshore last weekend.
With a bit of luck things will have calmed down a little and we can head out.
With that, the best we can do is talk about some great methods to catch those offshore species.
Mackerel and tuna numbers should be good over the coming months with plenty of Spanish mackerel and longtail tuna on offer.
This is the time of the year that the bait they are feeding on gets that bit bigger, making it a lot easier to match the hatch.
Hardy heads and frogged mouthed pilchards are more prevalent at this time of the year so slugs up to 60 grams can be used.
When targeting pelagic feeding on a bait school, I tend to use a jig rather that a slug.
I like to cast to the edges of the school, letting the jig sink through the school.
The action of the jig tends to look more like a dying baitfish and an easy meal for a hungry tuna or mackerel also these bigger fish tend to hold deeper picking them off.
In the rivers and creeks, flathead numbers are at their absolute peak at the moment.
There are plenty of fish about with a good number of fish taken from the same area.
These fish are hungry in their close to their annual spawning time.
Please keep this in mind as the big breeders are crucial to keeping up good stocks and a good local population.
A great way to target them is with plastics and the colour that is doing most of the damage at the moment is bright pink.
The paddle tail from Power Bait has been the number one in the stores with anglers reporting good captures just working these slowly across the bottom on the run-out tide.
For the bait anglers small fish baits on small gangs has been working very well.
Whiting numbers are also improving at the very top of the tide and the start of the run-out around the dog beach and the frying pan in the Noosa River.
Live worms, peeled prawn and yabbies have been working very well.
Prawn coloured surface walkers like the Eco Gear PX 55 surface walkers are the perfect lures for whiting as they have great trailing assist hooks that pick up the whiting when they bite short.
Plenty of mangrove jack are being caught on the start of run-out tide, with live baits and fresh mullet strips being a real drawcard.
Jacks are really starting to come on as the waters warm.
Crab numbers are also picking up and depending on rainfall, it is always better to look for those deeper holes close to mangroves to set your pots.
On the beach, the good news is with a bit of swell and wind, things will definitely improve for anglers as the swell provides better gutters and more cover for fish and they will move into those closer beach gutters.
Larger whiting is one such fish that likes a bit of cover, with some good fish coming from the gutters on the start of the run-out tide, fish to 35cm have been taken on the beaches between Peregian and Coolum.
Tailor are still around with some big rough fish making their way back from up north after spawning.
You will more than likely see these fish at sunrise and into the early evening.
Don’t expect big numbers, but the fish you catch should have some size to them.
The area just south of Double Island or on the Noosa North Shore has been where most of the action happens but if you do spot a good gutter on one of the local beaches it is always worth a look.
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 Gympie’s newest tackle store “The tackle Shop”, Tackle World Noosa, and Northshore Bait & Tackle in Marcoola for all the right equipment, bait and advice to get you catching.
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