By Jack Mangrove
With the typical spring weather pattern continuing with the strong breezes from the north, anglers have put most of their efforts into the closer reefs.
Sunshine Reef and Halls producing the odd bigger Spanish and smaller Spottie mackerel with slow trolled dead baits like Hervey Bay garfish and large sauris on a gang hook rig with a large pink squid skirt to attract the bigger fish.
Good sized cobia have been caught on North Reef along with snapper, sweetlip, pearl perch, mori cod and tusk fish. Fishing with live baits like yakkas has worked well.
Those that have made the trip up to Double Island Reefs have been rewarded with some great reef species including amberjack, snapper, sweetlip, cod and pearl perch cobia and jew. Tuna are also starting to come on with the odd school of Mack tuna around the reefs.
The Noosa River has again produced a great mixed bag of fish including flathead, bream, whiting and trevally, with plenty of fish taken in the lower parts of the system. Whole fish baits like whitebait, hardy heads, and pillies floated along drop offs and edges has worked well on the run out tides when chasing flathead. Plastics fished low in the water column has also seen some great results.
With the wind up a fair bit last week some of the better options were back of the sound and around the bridges.
There have been reports of bigger whiting being caught around Weyba Creek and the lower Gympie terrace areas. Live worm and yabbies have produced some real elbow slappers.
Surface lures are working well on the tailor as they make their way into the river chasing bait fish. Areas like the sand bags, Woods Bay and the river mouth have produced some good fish, trevally have also been in on the action with big giant and golden trevally on offer.
Night hours and low light periods have seen some good mangrove jack being caught. Paddle tail plastics and prawn imitation soft plastics have been accounting for some good fish when fished around heavy structure like pontoon and bridges. Crabs are starting to come on, mullet continues to be the prime bait.
With the wind up last week the beach fishing has been harder. Fishing early morning or late in the afternoon has been the best bet and teamed with the higher tides has seen some good results.
Captures of good sized whiting have been reported on lightly weighted fresh worms have worked well. Taking the first cutting when you get to Noosa North Shore and heading down towards the mouth has been where a lot of the bigger fish have been.
There has also been some good reports of tailor and smaller jew coming from north of Teewah to Double island. Pilchards, mullet fillet and bonito fillet have been great baits.
The southern beaches around Coolum and Peregian have also seen some good whiting dart and smaller tailor.
So on behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures.
