By Mangrove Jack
The Noosa River has been a real standout over the last week and with the water getting cooler, those great winter species are starting to shine, starting at the 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 sand bags.
Most anglers are using fresh strips of mullet, whole small Hardy Heads, white bait and prawns.
On the other side of the river, the Frying Pan has also seen good bream.
This time of year you’ll often find some good tailor around the frying pan, medium size 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 and big giant trevally with early morning and late afternoon the prime times, again the surface lures have been very popular here.
Another great option is to fish Micro jigs these lures are a standout 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.
Take the time to rig your plastics nice and straight and use a scent for best results!
Up on the Ski Runs, the odd jewfish has been coming from the deeper holes, large flathead up to 80cm have also been reported from the same area with soft plastics and live baits doing the job.
On the offshore scene, things have again been a little hit and miss depending on the wind and swell, with the wind blowing offshore the pick of the reefs has been the closer reefs with Sunshine and Jew Shoal at the top of the list.
It’s all about the reef fish with big snapper on the most wanted list. The closer reefs are really starting to produce with some good quality snapper coming from Sunshine Reef, Jew Sholes and Halls Reef.
Other options you will see when fishing these reefs are grass sweetlip, pearl perch, Moses perch, Venus tusk fish, cod and Maori cod.
Fishing plastics is great, as at this time of the year there can be a fair few smaller picker that will destroy a bait as soon as it gets to the bottom; leaving nothing but a clean hook, so fishing plastics keeps you in the game.
A little further afield the Barwon Banks fished extremely well for those with larger craft that could handle the conditions, large snapper, pearl perch, cobia and jew are all on the menu.
The reefs off Double Island are also a great hunting ground and have also come up with some larger snapper and nice coral trout.
On the beach, the fishing has been excellent, with the start of the migration of tailor up to Frazer Island, big winter bream are also on the menu and of course the ever-present dart.
Most anglers are gearing up for the tailor run at this time of the year with the area between Teewah and Double Island on Noosa’s North Shore a real favourite with anglers, the good old-fashioned pilchard is still the favoured bait of many.
Rigged on ganged hooks and cast to the back of the gutters and then rolled under the white water has always been the most successful method.
Casting slugs is also a great way to get amongst them – especially if you have a good school of fish in the gutter. Larger winter bream are also on the chew and fish well over the 30cm mark not uncommon.
So on behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures!
