With the consistent warmer weather, the water temperature in the river is starting to rise.
Fishing the run out tide in the evenings has seen the odd jack being taken on live bait, these fish tend to feed that bit more in those warmer run out currents out of the lakes after the sun has been on them all day so keep an eye on the sounder for those temperature changes.
With the water so clearn using light fluorocarbon leaders is accentual for the flathead anglers, plastics have been the way to go with some great fish boated over the last week, reds, pinks or chartreuse have been the favourite colours with prawn and paddle tails the better performing profiles.
Trevally have also been in good numbers and as the sun gets a little higher, those plastics have claimed some great fish.
Whiting are on the move during the warmer weather so now is the time to try surface fishing for them in the shallow sand flats.
Try areas like the Frying Pan, Weyba Creek and sand flats on the Dog Beach.
Fishing surface lures like small poppers and surface walkers – making sure you use mono line as a leader as the fluorocarbon is a lot denser and tends to sink thus upsetting the way the lure works. Live beach worms and freshly pumped yabbies have been the best bait for catching a feed.
Fishing the beaches has seen bream, whiting, tailor and dart all taken from the surf gutters. Look for those deeper darker gutters and fishing two hours either side of the high tide for the best results.
Lightly weighted mullet strips, bonito and pilchard on ganged hooks have claimed most of the tailor, while fresh beach worms fished on small hooks is a great way to target whiting and bream.
The Noosa North Shore has been popular with the 4×4 enthusiasts while the southern beaches around Sunshine and Marcus have both produced good fish.
On the offshore scene, it’s all about the snapper.
Using pillies, squid and livies fished hard on the bottom as well as a Paternoster rig is working very well, having a lightly weighted pilchard fished in a trail of fresh burley with the reel set on light drag has seen many anglers getting solid hook ups as they engage more drag and drive the hook home.
Make sure you have a burley log or some burley pellets and tuna oil to keep up a steady flow of burley for the best results.
Mid water feeders like cobia and smaller mackerel have also been taken using this method.
For the anglers that have done the run up to Double Island Reef, the Hard and the Barwon banks have all been rewarded with plenty of quality fish including larger snapper, pearl perch, cobia, jew, mori cod, sweet lip, tusk fish and cod.
The closer reefs have also been firing with plenty of pan-sized snapper, sweetlip and coral trout on offer.
So on behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures!
