Well, there's been plenty happening for us over the last month, and the biggest news for us has been the purchase of the Pro Tackle store in Townsville. Combining the 2 stores will ensure our growth and ability to deliver the best available service in the area. It's an exciting time, and allows us to continue previous owner Peter Hazard’s legacy of community support and keeping the old school tackle store alive and thriving.

The internal changes to the store itself have been exciting as well, and the response from our customers has been amazing. As they say, you give support where you get it, and we're happy to support the local clubs and fishos. Being a completely independently owned store allows us to deliver customer services major chain link stores just can't, so come and see what everyone’s talking about — from premium custom packed baits to reel servicing by Australia's most creditable reel engineer, Daniel Erskine, who works his magic from the Precision Reel Engineering or PRE, workshop at the Akwa Marine store at 16 Dean Street, South Townsville.

While the days have cooled off, the fishing is heating up and the mackerel bite is happening everywhere from inshore to the outer reef. All the traditional techniques are getting action. Trolling gar, both on downriggers and skirted skipping baits has been accounting for plenty of Spanish, and as far as lures go, the faithful Laser Pro 190 is racking up plenty of captures. Apparently there have been plenty of tuna schools smashing bait off the surface as well, and the light line guys have been having a ball on the speedy buggers.

The inshore reefs have been smothered in trevally of all descriptions, and the hard fighting diamond trevally have been stretching plenty of the soft plastics and micro jig brigade. Halco have just released their new micro jig contribution, the Outcast, which comes in several weights and is ideal for the reefs and shoals that see large populations of lure eaters inhabiting them. Available in 40, 60 and 80g weights, they come fitted with the best available componentry and are set to take this market head on. Snapper fishermen down south right through to the trout, fingermark and nannie brigade of the north will welcome this affordable addition to their tackle boxes. Actually, the species list that these relatively small lures are accumulating is quite astounding.

Fingermark have been patchy, but in the 10-15m depths have been reasonably consistent, with the average fish around the 70cm mark. Many of the deeper reefs are packed with GTs and even queenies, but the welcome news is that the cobes are around in big numbers. When you find the schools, they’re taking all sorts of things from lures to dead baits. You can only imagine what will happen to a livie fed down anywhere near 1 of these big boofheads.

Salmon have been coming through in schools, and mixed in with them are tarpon up to 70cm and small queenfish, with the odd giant herring thrown in just to mix the bag up a little. I always have a 2” prong rigged and ready to throw at these acrobatic sportfish, and even though some of the schooling fish may not be crash hot on the table, they pull a heap of light line and keep you giggling as they cartwheel around the boat.

They are a great way to bend a rod when the jacks and barra are a bit slow, but that hasn't been a problem of late, as both species have been playing the game nicely over the last couple of weeks. Reasonable numbers are smacking lures over a session. The size has increased also, yet just a month ago the jacks were very much on the small side and it was hard to find a legal fish amongst the captures.

This month’s been more productive. Some of the bites have been brutal as you lose line, and sometimes lures, as they head back into to the snags. I don't mind the lure losses at all, and when you come to a good snag you need to be on your game, as jack fights are won or lost in the first few seconds.

I'm using the new Samurai Runoff series of rods at the moment, and my favourite for the jacks is the 10-17lb model that has the all-important soft tip for skipping and flicking the lighter lures. Resting on top is the Shimano Chronarch Ci4+ 150 that takes bugger all effort to cast. Spooled with Unitika Braid and 30lb fluorocarbon from the same stable, it’s the perfect combo for jacks in the sticks.

I have a tendency to fish things to the limit, and in the sticks a decent jack or barra will give you some stick on this outfit, but most of the fish can be extracted — apart from the odd smoking by an unstoppable. I find it boring to know that I am going to land every fish I hook, and it's walking the fine line of redlining your outfit to stop them that I enjoy.

The barra are taking all sorts of lures, from deep vibes and plastics through to the shallow diving Laser Pro 3 Hookers, and plenty of visual bites have been keeping the nerves on the twitchy side after every cast into a likely spot.Mangroves around the river mouths at high tide have been fairly consistent. There doesn't seem to be too many big fish amongst them, but a barra that is just over legal, which is the average, is still great fun in the tiny drains and submerged branches of the sticks. When the wind drops out you can sight cast to them, but when they are up top like this, try not to land the lure too hard on the surface as this can spook them. Try putting it just past them, waddle the lure back into their zone, and then watch the action unfold.

Morrissey’s, the Houghton, Alligator and the Bohle all have some pretty impressive crocs in them, and this time of year they can be seen sitting up sunning on the banks, which is nothing new. It's those that are regularly being spotted off the beaches and around the marinas that is a bit spooky. We have plenty of people relating close encounters in the store at the moment, so don't think you’re out of harm’s way just because you have street lights soaring above you.

Hopefully the wind will have pis... gone away by the time you read this, and with plenty of anglers coming in to stock up on bait in preparation for a break in the weather, the new boat ramp complex on the Ross River should be copping a workout.