By JACK MANGROVE
WITH the cool crisp mornings we have been having, the winter species that love that cooler water are really starting to come on. In the river, trevally have been in good numbers with a raft of different species – smashing poppers and surface walker first thing in the morning, and as the sun gets a little higher in the sky fishing the bottom with soft plastics has paid off big time.
Woods Bay has to be one of the best spots in the river with angler catching from both boat and land based. The river mouth is also fishing well for trevally with the added bonus of jew, large sea bream, tailor, and a mangrove jack near the rocks. Further upstream families have been enjoying the Gympie Terrace stretch of the river which has really cleared up over the last couple of weeks and has improved the catch of whiting and bream. The same goes for upstream with good flat head and school jew taken up towards the first ski run. With the wind up over the last week, offshore anglers have left their boat on the trailers, but for those that got out early last week there were some outstanding catches reported. Starting up on North Reef jewies have been on the chew with a good range of legal fish landed, pillies, squid and soft plastic have all been responsible for captures, mackerel are still around and even this late in the season there are still quality Spanish and spotted around, tuna have also been on the chew with large schools of Mack tuna smashing schools of bait right along the coast, long tail and yellow fin tuna seem to be holding a little lower in the water column, so letting that slug sink a little before retrieving has been paying off. Halls reef has seen kayak Angler also cleaning up on the tuna. Down on sunshine Reef bottom bouncers have been rewarded with nice trout, sweetlip, snapper and cobia. As the wind drops later this week, we should see conditions improve with a trip out wide on the cards, expect to see large snapper big pearl perch and maybe the odd red.
In the fresh water, Lake Macdonald has been a little quieter this week, the afternoons are still fishing better than the mornings. Botanical Gardens and Borer creek are worth a look, hopping plastics over the weed. Surface poppers and walk the dog type lures are worth a shot as the sun begins to drop.
On behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures
