By Jack Mangrove
With only a couple of charter trips running during the week Sunshine Reef was the favourite to fish. Fish caught included small snapper, grassy sweetlip, spotty and Spanish mackerel and longtail tuna. The pelagic fish taking floated live and dead baits and the reefies all falling to paternoster rigged fresh baits of pilchard and squid. If floating dead baits in darker waters don’t forget to use a tinsel head for that extra bit of sparkle that pelagics just love. The weekend provided some great conditions for all with a wide range of species caught from Halls Reef to North Reef and beyond. Most anglers fishing hard on the bottom and of course using floated pilchard and slimy mackerel baits. The bar still having a bit of swell rolling through during the early mornings so care should be taken if in a smaller boat.
In the surf the post full moon bite has seen small jewies caught all along the coastline with the odd mackerel from the stones too. These fish love a wide variety of suspending lures and soft plastics with mackerel loving sinking stickbaits in the rougher conditions. Fishing soft plastics from the rocky areas has seen small snapper and sweetlip caught as well as bream and a few trevally. Rock fishing can be great this time of year as the pelagics are still about and the winter species are moving in.
The river has been fishing well with some solid golden trevally getting hooked. Traditionally bottom feeders, these fish can be found around Woods Bay, Munna Point and toward the marina. They are a sucker for prawn imitation lures as well as small micro jigs hopped along in the sand. Flatties can be found by fishing the drop offs during a run out tide with the river mouth and the dog beach two great options. Upping your jighead weight to the next size will help keep your plastic closer to the bottom if fishing heavier leader of 12-14lb in the current. Fishing a whole fish bait or strip of mullet close to the bottom will certainly get some interest and other species that take a liking to this are trevally, tailor and of course big bream. In the lead up to the new moon the evening bite will be coming on for live baiting. This is a time where the bigger fish including mangrove and bull sharks will be on the prowl so be sure to know your target and gear up accordingly.
The decline in recent rains that have lowered the waters temperature have come to a brief end. The fish will be found in deeper waters during low light and along the weed lines enjoying the warmer daytime sun. Best lures would have to be suspending and slow floating hardbodies in various dive depths and colours. Be sure to spot lock those electric motors and work all points before moving on. The surface bite will be slow so if you do not get any interest within half an hour to forty minutes consider changing to a sub surface option or a micro jig.
So on behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures!
