Now is the time of year where the river/estuary system is the most popular place to fish. Noosa has multiple places for anglers looking to wet a line so this helps keep the crowds down. Starting with the river mouth there are various gutters and deep water drop offs for those looking to cast larger 3-4 inch soft plastics for flathead and trevally. If throwing bait then find the slower moving waters and use a running sinker rig for flathead and whiting in the shallows. The dog beach is another excellent option with multiple places to fish and there are some deep water holes and great structure from the trees now fallen into the water. This would be an excellent place to find mangrove jacks. These fish require some heavy gear if you intend to try and land one of these. Further upstream between the lakes expect to find jacks along the mangrove edges and jewies in the deeper sections. Using prawn imitation lures and live bait is best especially at night. If in a kayak be sure to put out a couple of diving lures as you move around as these are great for trevally, tailor and flathead. With all the rains last week the freshwater still has the crabs fired up so be sure to get the pots out there early and use fresh baits.
In the freshwater the bite has been a little quieter but some quality fish have been caught off the top. Be sure to approach the snags as quietly as possible and throw a mix of weedless soft plastics and medium sized surface lures. Be sure to put in plenty of pauses to tempt shy fish from their cover. Once the sun comes up fish the deeper holes and drop offs with blades and soft vibes. If struggling to get a bite try dropping your leader down a few pounds.
Surf fishing has been a little quieter due to the swell and winds, however the points have offered some protection with smaller school mackerel, bream and trevally caught. The middle groyne has been providing anglers with flathead, bream, dart and whiting during low swell and south east winds.
Offshore the bigger boats have made the most of conditions with the spotty mackerel showing up from Sunshine Reef to Castaways. These fish have been taking smaller 30gm slugs and fast retrieved jerk shad soft plastics on 3/4oz jig heads. Coral trout have also been caught on Sunshine Reef with these fish taking live baits or 5/0 gang hooked pilchards. Further wide around North Reef we have seen some great jewfish, snapper, cobia, red throat, mahi mahi, longtail and yellowfin tuna. Lastly out wider toward Double Island there have been solid snapper, cobia, trevally, gold band snapper, jewfish, perch, longtail tuna and estuary cod caught on a mix of floated pilchards and paternoster rigs with heavier snapper leads. Heavier gear is best when fishing these areas as there are always sharks swimming about looking to take advantage of your catch. Don’t forget to take a few spanner crab dillies with you and drop them off on the sandy reef edges.
So on behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures!
