Fishing Monthly - Latest Fishing Reports


	These reports are updated weekly. Last Edited: Tuesday, 22 June 2004 Quick Jump Links: Gold Coast, Moreton Bay, Freshwater, Bribie Is & Caloundra, Sunshine Coast, Hervey Bay, Bundaberg, Yeppoon, Stanage Bay, Mackay, Whitsundays. Townsville, Hinchinbrook. Mission Beach, Karumba, Cairns, Port Douglas. C ooktown, Weipa, Archived Reports, Weather & Tides.
COMPILED WEEKLY BY GARRY SMITH IN CAIRNS: e-mail: lavallesmith@iig.com.au

Gold Coast

The weather during last week has been very ordinary for offshore fishermen. Strong winds and rough seas persisted throughout the week making conditions very difficult.

Despite the weather quite a few boats ventured out to the reefs to try to catch a feed. Most boats are now fishing the bottom rather than chasing pelagics, though a few diehard game fishermen were still pulling lures around. Most of the attention was centred off Tweed, where there are still a few spanish mackerel and wahoo around. These fish respond best to large dark coloured skirts or Halco Lazer Pros. There are also plenty of mack tuna up and down the coast with a few yellowfin thrown in on the wider grounds. The shallow reefs have been fishing very well and have been generally calmer than the deeper reefs. In the early mornings and late afternoon some nice snapper and trag jew have been taken on pillies and live slimies. Using lots of berley and light glow sinkers have been the best bet to hook a good fish. During the day there have been plenty of tailor, parrotfish and squire that can be caught on pilchards or flesh bait. Once again, keeping the sinker as light as possible is the key to getting the better fish. There were also a few decent jewies taken after dark on the 18 and 24 fathom reefs. Out on the 36s and 50s a mixed bag of reef fish could be expected using pillies and slices of oily fish flesh. Tailor, parrot, trag, squire, morwong, pearl perch and a few snapper were the most common captures. There have also been quite a few cobia falling to unweighted livebaits on the 36 fathom line. Jigging is starting to produce some better fish with some good kingies and amberjacks falling to River to Sea and Daiwa jigs during the week. Fishing livebaits close to the bottom will also tempt these tough fish.

The estuaries continued to fish exceptionally well over the past week. Once again bream have made up the bulk of the catches and have been taken from the river mouths right up to the brackish sections. The area adjacent to the river mouths consistently produces some quality fish on a variety of baits. Small livebaits, whitebait, frogmouth pillies and yabbies have been working the best in these areas. Further up the rivers baits like mullet gut, prawns and yabbies are a better option. This is also the area that soft plastics and small hard-bodied lures come into their own. Casting around any form of structure – bridges, pontoons, beacons, rock bars, overhanging branches and moored boats – will produce bream at certain stages of the tide. There were not a lot of whiting caught during the week but a few decent specimens were taken around Chevron Island. They fell to live blood worms, yabbies and peeled prawns. There have been good numbers of school flathead both in the Broadwater and further up the rivers. The lizards seem to be most active around high tide and generally prefer a smaller lure than they would in summer. Trevally have been active throughout the river systems with Lake Intrepid producing plenty of fish. The Seaway fished very well throughout the week, with a variety of fish taken. Tailor and trevally could be taken on metals along the rock walls on an incoming tide. The hole at the end of the north wall produced school jew, mangrove jack, tarpon, trevally, kingfish and sharks on livebaits and soft plastics. Kingfish were also taken at the northern rock wall on Wavebreak Island on flies, poppers and soft plastics. Quite a few luderick were taken on weed baits along the Wavebreak Island rock walls and along the wall in front of the Seaway Tower.

The beaches have fished very well but the tailor were rather erratic last week. A few were taken from the beaches along the Spit and Narrowneck, but other than that the main captures came from South Straddie and down towards Fingal. The best baits were pilchards on ganged hooks or frogmouths on two smaller hooks. Casting metal lures also produced a few fish. The deeper gutters along the coast produced some nice dart, bream and tarwhine on beachworms, pippies and frogmouth pillies. There have only been a couple of whiting taken from the shallow gutters and holes on beachworms.

Hinze has been fishing steadily if a little slow at times. Bass can be taken in the bays and inlets on soft plastics and small diving lures. Early in the morning or late in the afternoon is the best time to try this method. During the middle of the day the bass are sitting in the deeper water and can be taken on ultra deep-diving lures, spinnerbaits and soft plastics. Fishing from the bank with livebaits and soft plastics has produced the odd bass as well as a few silver perch and some catfish.

John Polson & Paul Revie
The Fisherman Pty Ltd
Sporty's Warehouse
32 Strathaird Rd. Surfers Paradise
Gold Coast. QLD 4217
Australia
Phone: +61 7 5531 6511
Mobile: +61 418 751220
www.thefisherman.com.au