By JACK MANGROVE
NOOSA’S beautiful river has been a hype of activity lately with plenty of fish getting caught right throughout the system.
Around the river mouth, the deeper water is holding some good-sized bream, and those that have been venturing out in the early mornings have been rewarded with some “chopper” tailor in the same location.
Woods Bay is still fishing well with a variety of different trevally species on the chew at the moment.
Once again, the early morning sessions have been the most productive, but if you don’t fancy yourself as a morning person, there should still be plenty of action in the late afternoons.
The Frying Pan and the Dog Beach have both produced some nice whiting with worms and yabbies the perfect baits.
The blackfish are back and river mouth carpark rocks is the place to catch them. Coolum cabbage or peeled prawns as bait and the high tide has been the most successful combination.
Further upriver, the ski run has been holding good numbers of school jew, and a handful of anglers have been catching them on prawn style soft plastics. When you’re working a lure for jew, the trick is to keep your lure moving slowly across the bottom with plenty of pauses. The crabs are also on the march with both sand and mud crabs making their way into pots loaded with fresh mullet.
With the great weather we have been having, the offshore anglers have been cleaning up. Whether on the inner reefs, or a big trip to Double Island, it seems everyone is getting a nice feed.
North Reef has been fishing well with a good mix of reefies including sweetlip, tuskies, pearl perch, and some nice snapper. A little further away, Double Island has been well worth the trip, with some great quality snapper caught over the weekend. Red emperor, cobia, jewfish and pearl perch were also on the menu. Closer to Noosa, Sunshine Reef was also firing with a couple of quality sweetlip, squire snapper and the odd cobia.
On the beach, it is all about the tailor, with good quality fish starting to show up. With tailor, it’s all about the bait presentation, good quality pilchards on ganged hooks, mullet strips and salted bonito fillets are all prime baits. Once you have got onto a school you can swing over to lures like the Halco Twisty. Look for those gutter and deeper holes and fish the morning and late afternoons on an incoming tide. Big winter bream and dart are also on the cards and enjoy the same baits as the tailor.
So on behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures!
