Well I guess it’s that time of year, the windy and crappy weather part that is. Nothing like a freezing winter morning and you’re out fishing in 25-30 knots and rain.

Not much can escape our northern frostbite when conditions turn extreme, and we have had our fair share in recent times. It’s been a long time since I can remember the lead up to early spring being so nasty. You can’t do much about it so just keep on fishing.

Some recent breaks in the weather have been kind to several anglers on the inner shoals and up at the family group of Islands.

It looks as though it’s going to be a cracker Spaniard season. We are even seeing a few Spaniards in the main channel as well. They should remain inshore for a couple more months before heading to the reef in October.

The offshore islands Gould and Garden have been teeming with heaps of smaller grunter around the 40-50cm mark, which has been the best early winter season for some years. The fish have been a little on the small side and remember the legal size on grunter is 40cm. We can only hope the larger fish will show up around September.

Garden and Gould islands have also been giving up some real nice golden trevally and mixed in among them are some nice queenies and diamond trevally. Most fish have come from the deeper headlands and we have been using mostly plastics such as Berkley Gulps and Gimps to entice some nice fish.

The benefit of targeting the trevs is sometimes your jigs get through the schools to the bottom and this is where fingermark often frequent. Fingermark will follow any kind of schooling fish, as they like to pick off the dregs that fall to the bottom.

There’s not many reports on the black marlin at present, mainly thanks to the prevailing winds but there’s been a few reports from Townsville a little further south. August should be the best month for the little blacks and sailfish so fingers crossed for some good weather in the coming weeks.

During August we should see much the same. The most predominant fish will be the Spaniards and trout offshore and salmon and grunter inshore. If you’re going to target salmon, then you should look at the deeper holes in the estuaries and look for clusters of smaller echos on your sounder. You will mainly find them in the holes on the neap tides or on tidal changes when tides are large. Soft vibes such as Gimps, Thready busters and Berkley Gulps will work a treat when jigged over their heads.

Live greenback herring would have to be the prime live bait if you’re going to use livies. Try suspending them on a dropper rig for the salmon, as it definitely seems to attract more bites.

The barra fishers have been scratching their heads a bit this year as they have become a little elusive. Maybe a poor wet season is to blame but I’m sure we will see some great barra action again when the waters warm up. Personally we are still catching a few big barra down deep but they have become reluctant to feed at times as well. Just as well the threadfin have been keeping us busy.

If you would like to book a charter for next year, organise your mates and book in early to secure the best possible dates. Contact us through our website at www.hookedonhinchinbrook.com