By JACK MANGROVE
THE Noosa River has been fishing exceptionally well over the last week with some great catches being reported.
Starting at the mouth, mangrove jack have been feeding hard on live baits and soft plastics. A lot of anglers have been losing their gear as these ambush predators use the hit-and-run technique from their hide-aways in the rock wall near the mouth.
School jew have also been on the chew on the incoming tide. They are chasing schools of baitfish into the river.
Woods Bay has seen good sized trevally, tailor and queenfish, all chasing bait on the surface. Surface popper and stickbait have worked a treat as they feed aggressively.
Whiting have been right through the lower sections of the river with Weyba Creek also producing some nice elbow slappers.
Upriver there have been some cracker flathead coming from the first ski run.
Offshore things have been equally good with Laguna Bay seeing good quality Spanish mackerel, mac tuna and longtail tuna. Floating pillies, trolled baits and lures have all been working well.
Down on Sunshine Reef, the bottom bouncers have been having a field day. Quality trout, sweetlip, snapper, cod and spangled emperor have all hit the decks and with the pelagics hitting bait on the drop, anglers have been kept pretty busy. North Reef has also been busy with large schools of spotted and Spanish mackerel, tuna and lot of reef species including pearl perch, snapper, and cobia.
A couple of locals headed south through the week and fished the ground around Arkwright Shoals with good results. They came back with Maori cod, sweetlip, longtail tuna, Spanish mackerel and a scarlet sea perch.
On the beach we are really starting to see an increase in the amount of tailor caught, as the water cools they will start making their way north on the annual migration to spawn. Heading up past Tewah on Noosa’s North Shore is a great place to target them, with most of the larger specimens being caught on the evening tide. Jew, large winter bream and trevally are also be in the mix.
On behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures.
