By Jack Mangrove
There have been some cracker spanish mackerel coming from Jew Shoal, Halls and Sunshine Reef, and with some near-perfect conditions last week plenty of fish were boated.
One of the most successful techniques of late has been live yakkas and slimies on a stinger rig.
These can either be floated on a drift or trolled very slowly behind the boat.
Spotted mackerel have also been in great numbers with some angler bagging out in record time.
Cod, good sized sweetlip and squire have also come from the closer reefs, while those that have made the trip up to north reef have been well rewarded with some outstanding reef fish including trout, sweetlip, hussa, pearl perch cobia, and squire.
Again quality baits floated down seem to be the prime enticers.
For those like myself that love to fish lures bigger Jerk shad soft plastics and micro jigs have also claimed some great fish.
The whiting have been in good numbers in the river.
There has been some real elbow slapper amongst them with good fish taken on live worms and live yabbies.
The sandbanks near the river mouth have also been the place to target large flathead on the run out tide.
Soft plastics in a prawn profile have tempted some nice sized fish.
The hot afternoons have fired up the jacks for the night anglers.
Fishing the start of the run out tide has been the most successful with live bait or small fish style soft plastics.
Successful locations have been Woods Bays, the back of the Noosa Sound and river mouth rocks.
For those bait angler that don’t have live bait, fresh mullet has been the bait of choice as the oily flesh lets off a lot of scent.
Quality bream have also been hitting fresh mullet baits around the rocky stretches of river or around structure.
Woods Bays has seen quality trevally, queenfish, and tailor hitting surface lures like the 44 and 65mm River2sea Bubble Pops.
Mud crabs are making themselves known throughout the system. Get the pots in around the deeper stretches of river that are close to mangroves.
Weyba Creek has also been a successful crabbing haunt for quality bucks. Fresh bait like mullet seems to be the main drawcard.
With the warm weather, beach anglers have been out in force.
Dart, whiting and flathead have been bending rods along Teewah Beach.
Up towards Double Island, jew and tailor are coming from the deep gutters along the beaches, best time to fish is at night between sunset and moonrise, strip baits like mullet and tailor on a large ganged hook rig is the best set-up.
The closer gutter on the southern beaches are over run with dart, this make for great fun with the kids as they are also certain to pick up a few fish. Smaller bait like prawns, worms and pilchard pieces have been working well.
In the fresh water; bass have been holding hard against the weed and eating grub pattern soft plastics in Lake McDonald.
For the fish holding in the deeper part of the dam try tail spinners and blades.
Saratoga have been on the prowl in Borumba Dam and feeding on surface lures morning and evening. Fish deeper diving lures as the sun get a little higher.
So on behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures!
