By JACK MANGROVE
WITH the amount of rain we have had over the last couple of week the Noosa River is looking a little dirty.
Fresh water in the system is not such a bad thing, fish like jewies and mangrove jack can tolerate fresh water and will still hold in the upper reaches.
Deeper holes are a good place to start looking for jewies as the salinity levels are higher and bait fish will make for this water, and where there is bait fish there are predatory fish.
With lure choice the more vibration you can impart on your lure the better, so large paddle vibe type lures are a great place to start.
Jacks will tend to stray a little from their snaggy lair during the day when the river is dirty and beat up bait that is confused in the fresher water.
Another fish that is on every Noosa River angler’s bucket list is the elusive barramundi.
These also become a lot more aggressive in the rainy weather and large prawn style soft plastic are perfect for the barra as they will engulf the entire lure in one go.
Give the Zerek Live Shrimp a go. They come rigged with great hooks and are perfect on the Barra.
For those of you looking for those trevally, tailor and queenies you will have to concentrate your efforts down towards the river mouth.
Areas like Woods Bay and the Noosa sound will be prime hunting grounds around the top of the tide and if you can time this with and early morning or late afternoon you should pick up some nice fish.
Good sized winter bream have also made their way into the system with the river mouth areas fishing well for good sized fish.
Another addition to the system that seems to arrive at this time every year are black fish. Angler are getting good sized fish on the Noosa River mouth rock on weed and pealed prawns.
Offshore things were a little quiet last weekend with the weather but prior to that there were some outstanding fish taken on the outer reefs, snapper, pearlies, cobia, jew, and sweetlip were all accounted for at places like Barwon Banks and the reefs off Double Island.
North Reef has also been producing some quality snapper, pearl perch and coral trout.
At the time of writing the wind and swell forecast is looking pretty good for this week so I would be checking out those closer reefs after the rain.
On the beach the bigger swells we have had are creating some nice gutters along the beaches.
Close gutters are holding whiting dart and good sized bream with the morning fish being perfect with the lighter breezes.
At night bigger tailor and jewies have been taken with fresh mullet and locally caught squid accounting for some nice fish.
So, on behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures!
