The last week of the school holidays provided anglers with some fantastic early morning conditions with light NW winds which turned to the east making things a little lumpy by mid-morning.
Those with bigger boats headed wider to the Hards and the Banks, but reports were limited to catches of snapper, pearl perch, tuskies, cobia and the occasional dusting from a big AJ. Pilchard and mullet baits dropped down on paternoster rigs working well along with squid and pilchard combo baits also working well. Pilchard floaters picked up some mid water cobia.
This was pretty much the same for North reef with snapper, cobia and tuskies on the menu. Sunshine was a little quieter following the previous week’s new moon and again we saw smaller snapper, sweetlip, tuskies and pearl perch.
There have been multiple reports of bite offs which means the Spanish are still about. For those wanting to find one staying in closer along the halls reef section and trolling whole garfish, sauri or bonito baits on pre made troll rigs is the go around 3-6 knots.
Surf fishing continues to provide light surf anglers all along the coastline with bream, dart and whiting staying in the clearer warmer waters.
Lightly weighted worm and mullet baits proving the better option on red long shank worm hooks.
Around the river mouths of the Noosa and Maroochy you could also find bigger breeding sized flathead during the run out tides.
Inside the river the lower estuary has whiting, bream, flathead, mangrove jack and trevally.
All of these fish will take a wide range of baits and lures. Baits for the smaller whiting should be fresh beach worm, peeled prawn or squid strips/legs. If after trevally, bream and flathead then larger pilchard, mullet and prawn baits work well.
If you have a cast net then getting a few herring or small mullet work very well for all the bigger species, especially at night. After dark is a great time to find the bigger fish as they will hunt under the cover of night.
Take a look around the river mouth sand bars, trees along the dog beach and around Munna Bridge if land based.
For those in boats or kayaks then the frying pan, sand flats along Gympie Terrace and around the marina are other great spots especially for whiting and flathead.
Up toward the first lake and beyond you can expect to find flatties and some smaller school sized jewfish.
These fish are taking smaller plastics in the 4 inch size range as well as bigger prawn and pilchard baits. If wanting to throw a lure take a look at the larger diving lures. These are consistent producers of bigger fish in deeper waters and the mangrove jack that live here will happily smash one.
The freshwater saw a big bite window last week which continued into the early part of this week.
Saratoga have been active at Borumba and have been caught on suspending lures and slow moving surface lures.
Bass are still hiding along the edges of both Borumba and Lake MacDonald so spinnerbaits and heavily weighted plastics cast close to the edge and worked back can trigger an aggressive bite.
In deeper water micro jigs are a great option as are when twitched and slow rolled through schooled up fish.
So on behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures!
