By Jack Mangrove
The Noosa River has to be one of the best fishing systems in South East Queensland; with a diverse range of species that is constantly changing through the year, great areas for families to enjoy and plenty of structure for fish to call home.
There have been some great trevally including GT, tea leaf, golden and big eye have been coming from around Munna Point, Munna Bridge, the Sand Bags as well as Inner Woods Bay.
Surface presentations have been the way to go with smaller surface working well. When fishing these smaller surface lures it is a good idea to upgrade the trebles to cope with the bigger fish.
Bream are in good numbers in the river as the water temperatures drops. Small grub pattern soft plastics or lightly weighted flesh baits have been fishing well.
Tailor are also in good numbers and are taking live baits throughout the river with the river mouth in the low light periods your best bet.
Flathead are in great numbers with many fish well over the legal limit, these big breeding females are protected and are vital to the sustainability of the fishery. So take a quick picture for the brag wall and release ASAP.
Whiting are also in great numbers with plenty of families catching these sweet fish along the foreshore of the river, worm’s yabbies and peeled prawns have been the prime baits.
The beaches are firing on all cylinders, in particular the gutters along Noosa North Shore. Good sized tailor are the star catch at the moment with fish weighing in at up to 4kg. The best baits have been fresh mullet fillets, bonito fillets and the good old pilchard.
Tailor catches have certainly improved with the run-in tide on the open beach at first light being the pick.
There have been a couple of trophy size tailor caught around the 5 to 6 kilo mark, these fish are usually taken after dark.
Good quality dart are on most beaches Mudjimba to Double Island, using those traditional baits like pipis and worms on a baitholder hook will give you the best results.
Flathead is another species that are prevalent at the moment with anglers walking and casting the beaches the most successful.
If you look for those closer sandbanks and cast your bait across them working your way down the beach with the sweep, you should come across some good fish.
Offshore out of Noosa, we are still seeing the odd mackerel even though the water temperature is starting to drop. Halls Reef has seen some nice mackeral with most caught on live yakkas.
Those that fished North Reef got good snapper, pearlies, cod, sweetlip, cobia and spangled emperor. Snapper have been the most sought-after fish with many anglers targeting these fantastic table fish. They can be targeted a number of ways including bait, plastics and Micro Jigs.
Pink is by far the most productive colour for me and fishing some of the closer reefs has been very productive.
For the deeper reefs with that bit more run, try using Elevator Heads for your plastics.
Sunshine Reef has again produced good coral trout. Live baits fished hard on the bottom has been the best approach.
Heading up North; the reefs east of Double Island Point have seen some great fish hitting the decks including amber jacks, cod, snapper, pearlies and monster cobia.
So on behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures!
