By Jack Mangrove
With the wind up last weekend, the river was the place to be if you were looking for a feed of fish. Whiting were in good numbers around the Dog Beach, River Mouth, Frying Pan and Weyba Creek areas. Live yabbies, pealed prawns and worms were all popular baits. Small poppers or surface walkers have also been claiming some larger fish.
Trevally and tailor are coming back onto the bite around the back of the Noosa Sound with the fish responding well to live baits and soft plastics. Upriver, the stretch from Tewantin up to Lake Cootharaba has been fishing well for school size jew, with those deeper sections of the river producing more fish.
Good quality flathead have also come from the same area. Larger bream are also starting to move into the system as the water cools. Areas like Munna Point the sand bags at the end of the Dog Beach and Woods Bays have all fished well. Pilchards, prawns and fresh mullet have all been working well. With the water a little dirty after last week’s rains, the Jacks have been out in force, these fish traditionally hang around structure and feed on passing baitfish and prawns but with the cover of dirty water plenty of Jack have been about and feeding in more open waters. Mud and sand crabs have also been in good numbers in the Noosa River, with the mud crabs a little further upstream and the sand crabs more toward the mouth. Again loading those pots with fresh mullet has been the prime bait. Gympie Terrace was popular over the weekend with families enjoying the sunshine and the kids having a great time fishing for smaller whiting, bream and flathead.
With the wind and swell up a little over last weekend, it was mainly the larger craft that headed out, most worked the closer reef like Sunshine Reef and jew schools. Sunshine Reef was again a standout with some good catches coming from the bottom including venus tusk fish, coral trout, slate bream, squire and sweetlip. Baits include live baits, pilchards, squid, and slab baits like mullet and bonito. Soft plastics and Micro jigs also got the job done. Pelagics were also plentiful with good quality long tail tuna on offer as well as both spotted and Spanish mackerel. Live baits and diving trolling lures were the go on the mackerel, while the tuna were taking a liking to slugs and smaller stick baits. For those boats that did venture a little further North Reef, the hard and the banks were all fishing well with some larger fish on offer, pearl perch, dolphin fish, red emperor and cobia all boated.
On the beach, it has been about getting out early before the wind comes up. There are some decent gutters around at the moment with plenty of sand scarfed out after recent storms. Bream have been in good numbers along most of the southern beaches, small flesh baits like mullet, pilchard and bonito have worked well. Whiting have been around the river mouths with the best time seeming to be two hours either side of the tide.
So on behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures!
