By MANGROVE JACK
WHAT a weekend it was last weekend, with light winds, moderate swells and a full moon; an all-nighter offshore was always on the cards, most anglers headed for the Barwon Banks or up to Double Island with some outstanding results.
Amberjack, yellowtail kingfish, gold spot wrasse, venus tusk fish, pearl perch, hussar, squire, snapper and spangled emperor were all accounted for as anglers enjoyed the balmy conditions.
For the day trippers, Sunshine reef fished well for trout, large snapper sweetlip and parrot.
Soft plastics, Micro jigs and live baits have been claiming most of the fish, with the good old pilchard and squid also doing the trick. Up on North Reef there are heaps of pearlies, snapper and the odd cobia.
There have been the odd undersize fish at the moment, so make sure you are aware of bag and size limits for the species you are targeting.
The river has also been firing with the full moon, Woods bay has produced some outstanding trevally over the last week with a couple of cracker diamond trevally give angler on light gear a real run for their money.
The mouth again has been going off, with some Big Jew taken by angler fishing large live baits, Luderick have also been plentiful around the river mouth. Peeled prawn has worked but weed seems to be the ultimate bait. Fishing the last two hours of the run in tide has been the best. Flesh baits like mullet and bonito strips have been working well on the bream with some larger-sized fish coming in on the tide. The Gympie terrace stretch of the river was packed last week with families enjoying the perfect fishing weather. Prawns yabbies and live worms were all productive on the bread and butter species like whiting bream and flathead. On the beach, the Northshore was again the spot for those four wheel drivers looking for a weekend away, tailor were the target fish of most anglers, good catches reported with the area between Teewah and Double island producing some great fish, Big winter bream were in the mix along with flathead dart and whiting.
