By Jack Mangrove
With some great rains earlier in the week the river has had some good run off, this in turn will really get the crabs walking.
Both mud and blue swimmer crabs have been taken in good numbers with the mud crabs prominent around Makepeace Island, while the blue swimmer have been a bit closer to the mouth.
Fresh mullet has been the prime bait with plenty of anglers soaking their bait in tuna oil to get that extra bit of scent.
Don’t forget with mud crabs you can only keep the males and they must be 15cm across the carpus; blue swimmers you can also only keep the bucks with a minimum size of 11.5cm.
For those fishing for whiting the river mouth area has been on fire with plenty of quality fish falling for live worms, yabbies, and peeled prawns. Try the dog beach, Frying Pan and Gympie Terrace.
Jack anglers have reported some great fishing with plenty of fish taken around structure and between the lakes, with the stormy weather the barometric pressure tends to drop, this in turn tends to really fire up the red fish and they will feed a lot harder.
Suspending lures really work well as they tend to hold in the strike zone for longer. Live baits have also been dynamite with some of the larger fish taken on these.
The flathead are also in great numbers and will tend to move a little closer to the mouth as the fresh water in the system drives the bait to the more saline waters. Fishing lightly ganged small pilchards on 2/0 hooks has been a proven method. Soft plastics have also been working well with the darker colours seeming to be more effective.
Larger craft did the run to the Hards, Barwon Banks and the reefs off Double Island, plenty of quality fish were taken including big snapper, pearl perch, jew, and some large cobia.
For those in smaller craft, most did the run to the closer reefs like Sunshine Reef, Jew Sholes and Halls Reef. Pelagics have been on the mind of most anglers with the onset of the warmer waters, mackerel – be it spotted or spanish – have been landed with the occasional spanish sneaking over the metre mark.
Long tail and Mack tuna are also in the mix and are harassing bait schools on the high tide. Floater type bait fishing has been the most successful, with trolled hardbodies also doing the job.
For the bottom bashers, the trout are about with Sunshine Reef really firing. Bait fished hard to the bottom and micro jigs have done most of the damage. The wind is hopefully due to abate this weekend so we should see more report for the outer reefs.
On the beaches, things have been a little quiet due to weather and wind conditions, most anglers tried to tuck in behind headlands to get out of the wind with whiting, dart, bream and flathead all landed last week.
Fresh mullet was perfect on the flathead and bream and dart while worms and pippies were great on the whiting.
So on behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures!
