By Jack Mangrove
WITH the start of spring upon us, fishing has really fired up in the river, off the beach and, of course, offshore.
Good numbers of pan-sized flathead have been caught around the first lake area trolling 60-100mm deep diving lures, give the River2sea live minnow a go, these have a great action perfect for attracting a large lizard. If you are fishing soft plastics, pink is one of the flatheads favourite colours.
Some nice whiting have been on the prowl in the lower reaches of the river on small surface lures like the River2Sea Skinny Dog and baits like live worms, peeled prawns and Yabbies.
Bream are also in good numbers with the bigger fish holding around structure. Great-sized flathead have been caught at the river mouth drifting pilchard baits and live baits on a run out tide and the change of the tide. Make sure you use a good- sized sinker to stir up the sand which flathead love. There has been some good- sized trevally and tailor herding up bait in Woods Bays early morning and late afternoon.
They have been responding well to surface lures like the Lucky Craft Gsplash in the 65mm size. If we see the forecast rain this week, the crabs will be up and walking, fresh mullet has to be one of the top baits. Don’t forget your size, bag limits and mark you pots as fisheries are keeping a close eye on crabbing at the moment.
If the weather starts playing the game, angler in smaller craft will be heading for Sunshine Reef where there have been some nice coral trout, sweetlip, squire, and cod. We should start hearing some reports of mackerel around North Reef and Coffees over the next couple of weeks, some rouge fish have already been boated. Tuna are also starting to make a comeback with a couple of cracker fish taken off Little Halls Reef. For those with a bigger boat, a trip to the reefs off Double Island will be worth the effort, with a good mixed bag of snapper, jew, pearlies cobia and some nice red emperor all on the cards.
On the beach, whiting, swallow tail dart, and tailor have all been inhabiting the gutters. Prawns on a running sinker rig cast to the back of the gutter and rolled under the white water has been the most productive.
If you are up for a night fish large baits like mullet and bonito fillets with heavy sinkers are the perfect way to attract a large jew that are also feed in the same area.
So on behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures!
