With light winds early in the week anglers got the chance to enjoy some great conditions.
The Noosa Bar had shoulder to head high swell rolling through but remained passable. With cloudy skies the birds hitting the surface feeding tuna has quietened down so keep eyes peeled for balled up bait when running sounders.
Sunshine Reef is providing anglers with smaller snapper, tuskies, pearlies and solid sweetlip. There should also be some big trout lurking so go in heavy and hard. Stopping off for live yakka is a must as the big trout love these.
There are some solid cobia swimming about mid water and a floated pilchard on a gang hook is the perfect method to target these fish. Keep leaders long and no more than 30lb to give a more natural presentation. Out wider North Reef has a few bigger snapper and mixed reefies along with longtail tuna.
This is the time of year you can expect to see jewfish turning up, so fresh slab baits on snelled rigs is a must.
Halls Reef, headed north is a consistent producer of big fish. Slow trolled dead baits set out to 40-60 meters helps get them down and having two different baits can help weed out those fussy fish.
Whole slimy mackerel and bonito are two consistent producers of big pelagics. Make sure you keel weight gang hook setups and check how baits swim before sending them out the back.
The beaches have seen some great gutters formed this week with good sized jewfish reported. These fish can be hard to find, but paying attention to any creek run off, new gutters and rocky sections all help provide a jewfish an ambush point and a place to take shelter from current and swell. Nothing beats a clump of live beach worm on a 4/0 worm hook so load them up. Slab baits are best snelled to give the best possible presentation with fresh mullet a favourite.
The Noosa River has high numbers of small flathead sitting along the shallow flats and drop offs around Lake Cooroibah, Makepeace Island and Woods Bay. Snelled whole whitebait and frogmouth pilchards feed out in the current is a great way to locate the fish.
Golden trevally are starting to show up and drifting around the coastguard with small 2 inch soft plastics loaded with scent is a great way to find them. Keep leaders around 4-6lb as the clearer water lets heavier leaders stand out and goldens have great eyesight. Around the flats of the dog beach, frying pan and Weyba there have been some chunky flathead and whiting caught on live beach worm and even taking small surface lures skipped across the surface during run out tides.
The freshwater dams and lakes are now open and the break has seen the bass fired up. These fish are smashing slow wound hardbodies and vibes. If fishing Borumba then head into the sticks and keep leaders around 12lb as these fish will try and run you into cover. The surface bite has slowed so keep surface lures in one spot for longer. Small poppers lightly twitched and paused will call up fish from afar so be patient if you think the area looks fishy.
Lake MacDonald is also on fire with small soft vibes and heavy weighted 2-3 inch soft plastics securing the bite. You can drop leaders down here as the snags aren’t as bad as Borumba. Always have an active SIPS permit and wash down boats and trailers before leaving Lake Mac to avoid the spread of any weed.
So on behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures!
