By Jack Mangrove
In the Noosa River, whiting have still been in good numbers and have been the perfect target for the kids, with the dog beach, Gympie Terrace and the Frying Pan fishing good spots on the incoming tide. Live worms, yabbies and pealed prawns have been the baits of choice. Bream have also been in good numbers in Woods Bay on prawns, pillies and strips of bonito. Small soft plastics and blades have also been a couple of good lure choices. Lots of trevally have started making their way into the river and as the water temp drops this will only get better. Prawn profile soft plastics have been accounting for good numbers of golden and big eye trevally. Tailor are also being hooked on plastics. Mangrove jack are still on the chew right throughout the system. If you are trolling and casting lure around the various rock bars and jetties located around Noosa you should see these hard fighting red fish. The flathead population seems to be improving every year with more and more larger females being caught and released. The stretch between Tewantin and the first lake, Weyba Creek, and down towards the river mouth seems to be a hot spot.
Good numbers of long tail (northern bluefin) and yellow fin tuna are prevalent in both Laguna Bay and Sunshine Reef. Best methods for targeting these hard fighting fish are small, long casting stick baits and slugs. Cast, let sink and then a rapid retrieve has been the best method for hooking up. Make sure you have a variety of colours and sizes so you can match what they are feeding on. The inshore reefs are again the place to be with large schools of bait congregating on them. Halls, Sunshine Reef and Jew shoals have all been producing with good catches of sweetlip, snapper, coral trout, tuskfish, tuna and mackerel. Trolling diving lures around the reef edges and drop off has seen some great results. Micro jigs have also been accounting for a great mixed bag of reefies as well as pelagics. Those closer inshore reefs are perfect for this style of fishing. Soft plastics have again been getting there fair share of reefies. Don’t forget to scent your plastics to get them working a treat. Mackerel sizes are improving with some good catches of both spotted and Spanish mackerel, as the water clears we will see those larger Spanish that this time of the year is famous for. North Reef has also seen a fantastic bag of reefies with pearl perch, snapper, tuskfish, maori cod, sweetlip, just to name a few.
On the beaches we are starting to see some good catches of winter bream coming through, dart are still hitting baits as soon as they hit the water. The odd tailor is starting to show up and larger jew have been reported from the southern beaches on the new moon. Most fish have been over the metre mark with fresh mullet being the prime bait.
On behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures!
