By JACK MANGROVE
MANGROVE Jack and trevally have been on the bite after dark with darker plastics and bigger strip baits working well. Between the Lakes has been fishing very well of late, large number of baitfish and prawns have been flushed downriver on the tide, so the runout tide is best time to plan your attack. Surface fishing around the back of the sound has been paying off with anglers getting good results on trevally. The Jackson range of poppers and surface walkers have proved to be extremely successful. The river mouth is also firing with golden trevally and tailor coming in on the tide, fishing small pilchard baits or mullet strips can also result in some quality bream. Crabbers have been benefiting from the recent rains; crabs will often move to more saline water or seek refuge in the deeper holes when we see a bit of fresh water in the system. Fresh bait works best for muddies, whole fresh mullet and or fresh fish frames will have the muddies crawling all over each other. Remember the rules with crabbing that you can only take four pots per person, and that all your pots and floats (floats must be six inches in diameter) have your name and contact details clearly written on both the float and the pot.
On the beaches; Noosa’s Northshore has had plenty of activity, with quality whiting, bream, flathead, tailor and dart all on the bite. Putting in the time to find a decent gutter has been the biggest benefit to anglers. Looking out and seeing the waves breaking a little further offshore and then reforming to break on the beach is a pretty good indicator of a nice gutter. Cast to the back of the gutter and roll the bait back into the gutter for the best results.
Offshore; those that made the run outside have been well rewarded. Laguna Bay was alive with mac tuna and longtail tuna as well as the odd Spanish and spotted mackerel. Floating pillies, trolled baits and trolled lures all claiming their fair share. Sunshine Reef saw good numbers of coral trout on livies and micro jigs, sweetlip, snapper and tusk fish were also in the mix. Up on North Reef, anglers were treated to good numbers of Spanish and spotted mackerel with the average size being quite good. Longtail and yellowfin tuna were also in the mix. Metal slugs, micro jigs and soft plastics on a fast retrieve all worked well. Out on the Barwon Banks there have been some large snapper and pearl perch on the chew. Double Island reefs have also seen some great fish with the odd red in the mix.
So on behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures.
