By Jack Mangrove
With the cooler change over the last couple of weeks, water temperatures have continued to drop.
This is great news for anglers as this will really bring on the winter species.
On the beaches, the winter bream are really starting to show up with good numbers of fish over the 30cm mark being taken.
Just remember if you get a real big one “40cm plus” this is a very old fish and great breeding stock so best to take a photo and release it to continue the betterment of the species.
Also coming from the beach has been some nice jew, tailor and of course dart. Pilchards, fresh mullet, prawns and whitebait have all been working well.
There are plenty of good gutter around at the moment so best to head to the beach at the start of the run-in tide to spot the best ones to fish.
Don’t forget those worming plyers at the moment as there are plenty of worms on offer on the low tide.
Offshore things are really starting to change as offshore anglers shift their focus from pelagics to more reef species.
The closer reefs like the Jew Sholes, Sunshine and Halls, have been a bit hit and miss and have been producing quite a number of undersize fish, this will only improve as the water cools and the bigger fish move onto the closer reefs.
Still, some anglers have been picking up some quality snapper, sweetlip, cod and jewies.
For the angler that has been making the trip to the outer deeper reefs there are some great quality fish hitting the decks including snapper to 5kg, bigger pearl perch, kingies and Sampson fish.
There are still good schools of tuna around but they are a bit timid. Fishing upwind from them and casting around the edges of the school is the key.
Mackerel have also been accounted for with some big fish coming from the southern reefs around Maroochydore.
In the Noosa River, the mouth has been one of the prime spots with bream, tailor and trevally all taken on the incoming tide, again bait has been the most popular but some anglers have been using lighter gear with smaller soft plastics. Cast out with a fairly quick retrieve, these soft plastics have been chomped buy some big fish.
Heading upstream, Woods Bay and the back of the Noosa Sound is fishing well for trevally, queenfish and large bream. The bigger tide has been the evening tide so a night fish has seen some good results.
Poppers and surface walkers have been getting some great results as the fish are tending to feed on the surface.
Up river, the area from Tewantin Boat Harbour up to the Lakes has seen some great flathead action, with soft plastic vibes fished close to the bottom really stirring up the fish.
The other advantage about using a lure such as this is it offers the chance of tangling with some bigger by-catch such as mangrove jacks, school jew and even a threadfin salmon.
So on behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures!
