By Jack Mangrove
With the breeze up a little the past week, only the larger craft ventured out. For those that did get out, the reefs where really firing.
There were good numbers of snapper being taken on Micro Jigs on North Reef. The 40g-50g sizes seemed to be doing the job.
There are some good schools of bait showing on the sound at the moment so make sure you have a good supply of bait jigs.
The Barwon banks and the Hards have been fishing extremely well for pearl perch, snapper, cobia and jew making the long trip from the bar well worth it.
A little closer to home mixed reef species like parrot, sweetlip, cod and squire have been keeping anglers happy at Sunshine Reef along with some quality coral trout still hanging around. Good sized mackerel are also in good numbers with both spotted and school mackerel taken around jew shoals and Sunshine, pilchard floaters seem to be the best of the baits.
For the fisherman who can’t get offshore, the Noosa River is really starting to fire up as we move into the warmer months.
September means two things which are big flathead and the start of the mangrove jack season: this is when those two species start to show up and excite river anglers.
Flathead you’ll find will start schooling up as we move into their spawning season, the larger females start cogenerating on the edges of the deeper channels on low tide and the shallow sand flats on the high tide, these big girls attract many young male suiters so it is not unusual to pick up a good feed of flathead from the same spot.
This is also the time of year we start to see the mangrove jack fire up, as the water temperature and humidity rises.
The upper reaches of the Noosa River is a great place to start your hunt with the area between the lakes really firing in the low light periods.
Live bait is one way of tangling with a jack so having a good cast net and collecting some herring or poddy mullet will help the cause.
Cast these lives into structure and if there is a jack living there it won’t be long before all hell breaks loose and you are in touch with one of these thought fighting fish.
Whiting have been in good numbers along with bream, plenty of quality fish have been taken from the river banks over the last week, prawns, worms and yabbies have all been ideal baits.
Good schools of hungry golden trevally and giant trevally have been keeping anglers busy in the Woods Bays. Surface walker and poppers have both claimed some good fish in the low light periods.
On the beaches, tailor are still around with the later tide seeming to be the time to target them, pilchard, mullet and bonito have been the go-to baits, whiting are in good numbers and have been more prevalent on the mid run out tide, bream and flathead are also in the gutters, so prawns and small baitfish have proven there worth.
So on behalf of Jack Mangrove, best of luck on your fishing adventures!
