By JACK MANGROVE
WITH the offshore scene a little on the rough side, anglers tended to opt for the river with some great results, starting at the Noosa River mouth and Dog Beach.
There have been plenty of quality bream being landed off the rocks at the river mouth and around at the Dog Beach – most anglers using fresh strips of mullet, whole small Hardy Heads and live bloodworms.
There have been a few quality flathead along Dog Beach – fuze soft plastics have been working a treat on the flaties.
Expect to find tailor and trevally around the mouth harassing the bait schools as they move into the river.
On the other side of the river the Frying Pan has also seen good tailor. This time of year you’ll often find some good tailor around the Frying Pan. Medium size Strada poppers and walk the dog lures are a good option and provide plenty of entertainment as you see the fish crunch the lure.
Woods Bays and the Noosa Sound have had mixed schools of trevally including golden, diamond, big eye and giant trevally. Early morning and late afternoon has been the prime time to target them.
Micro jigs continue to be one of the stand out lures for chasing trevally throughout the river and allow you to cover a lot of area and fish the entire water column. Soft plastics are another consistent producer with a good mixture of baitfish and prawn imitations producing the goods.
Make sure you have the correct weighted jig head for the job, the key is to make sure you get to the bottom. Take the time to rig your plastics nice and straight for best results.
Up on the Ski Runs, the jewfish large flathead and the odd jack have been coming from the deeper holes – live baits like poddy mullet and herring have claimed some good fish.
Offshore, things were a little difficult last week with large swells and winds, with this most anglers decided to keep the boat on the trailer or a head for the river.
With the offshore conditions being a little trying Sunday was the pick of the days for the weekend. Micro Jigs have been very successfully with the new TT vector jigs and the Palm Slow Blats working extremely well. When worked properly these jigs imitate a dying baitfish fluttering towards the bottom.
There have also been large schools of slimy mackerel so make sure you have jour bait jigs ready to go.
As the weather improves through the week a trip to North Reef and the Barwon Banks should see snapper showing up in better numbers – cobia, pearlies and amberjack are also on the menu.
Micro jigs and soft plastics have been scoring some nice fish on the closer reef if you want to mix it up from the conventional bait methods.
Sunshine Reef has fished well on the tide with good numbers of squire and snapper getting caught on well-presented baits.
On the beaches, good schools of tailor have been moving up the coast. It can be a bit hit and miss but when anglers get onto a school they have been landing some quality fish.
Good quality bream and dart have also been inhabiting the gutters.
So on behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures.
