Fishing Monthly - Latest Fishing Reports - Updated Weekly
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COMPILED WEEKLY BY GARRY SMITH IN CAIRNS:
e-mail: lavallesmith@iig.com.au
Gold Coast

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

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Moreton Bay
I spent a relaxing day on the water last week, although the fish did not want to play the game. We fished some plastics around the Cowan Ledge and Curtian Artificial for only a handful of squire. There were a few big yellowtail kings in the 8-10kg bracket cruising around The Curtain but as usual they were too smart to eat one of our live yakkas. We did manage to pull up an anchor and chain after one of the lines became entangled in a length of rope. We could also see another piece of rope but when we retrieved it we could not pull up that anchor and tied off to it while we live baited and then let it go again.

Angelo Zappala took his new 5.7m centre console out for a few trips last week and managed to get onto a few longtails in the area between Mud and the Measured Mile. They were feeding in small groups but were willing to eat a slug when they could get close enough. He reckoned his new Yamaha four stroke definitely helped him in this regard.

There has been an occasional report of mackerel from the Rous Channel area for anglers drifting pilchards and from the beacons in the northern bay for anglers jigging chrome slugs.

A handful of quality longtails and cobia have been caught on live baits at Western Rocks. The cobia have not been big by bay standards, at around 15kg to 18kg. The best is yet to come though and they should get more prolific and larger over the coming months.

The snapper fishing in the bay and offshore has been pretty quite for most, although the quality fish are still about. Anglers have been doing well on plastics fished around the bay islands with Peel being the most consistent for good fish.

The Jumpinpin area has fished well over the last few weeks, especially for bream and flathead. As a general guide, fish the tops of the flats on the higher stages of the tide and the adjacent gutters on the lower stages. Drifting baits such as frogmouth pillies on an appropriately sized snelled-hook rig is a very productive and easy way to fish. This bait will catch everything from whiting to school jew when drifted in the estuaries with just enough lead to keep it near the bottom. Lures should generally be small and bright and capable of reaching the bottom when trolling the edges of the gutters. Some of the popular ones are Mann’s 5+, Micro Mullet, Mini Micro Mullet, Micro-Min, Min-Min, Attacks, McGrath and Deception Shrimps. Good colours for flathead include pink, gold, chartreuse, grey ghost, orange and Elton John.

Most banks in the bay are producing good whiting, with all the popular areas producing fish when they haven’t been netted for a while.

May your bait be nervous.

Gordon Macdonald
Tackle Warehouse
Ph. (07) 3398 6500
masterbaitertackle@hotmail.com

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Moreton Bay - Wide
Apologies for no report last week. I was laid low with the flu due to the influx of country folk with their germs for the Ekka. Gotta love them country folk. Anyway, on with the tale.

Fishing this week was highlighted by quality snapper, with quality rather than quantity being the order of the week. There were a few specimens over 80 cm to delight the lads on board. Large parrot and pearlies made up the bulk of the catch, but there was a fair bit of water between them.

When the going got really slow we had to dig deep into our bag of tricks to get results, with bait presentation being paramount. For instance, a few larger snapper came during the middle of the day using spinning gear and float lining down a pilchard on two snooded hooks weighted with a no.1 or no.0 sinker. Painstaking work, but it got results where all else was failing.

The weather was perfect for boating, so we did a bit of exploring North and East looking for fish and fishy structure, which paid dividends as well. There is still a huge amount of bait near Moreton Island for those who like drifting livies in the bait schools. Cobia have been present but are very boat shy at the moment.

Regards,

Keith Hall
INCREDIBLE CHARTERS
20 Courageous Ct,
Scarborough 4020
Tel: 3203 8188
Fax: 3203 8199
incrediblecharters@bigpond.com

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Southern Freshwater

Peter Taylor
Mullet Gut Marine
Ph (07) 4632 9770
Fax (07) 4639 2543
mullet_gut@bigpond.com

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Lake Boondooma

Lance & Kristy Frahm
Lake Boondooma Kiosk
Open 7 days 8am-5pm.
Ph 07-41689694, fax is 07-41689691,
PO Box 24, PROSTON 4613.
lakeboondooma@wondaishire.com
Stop Tailor Netting - Phone (07) 3284 0043 or 0414 376 217
Bribie Is. & Caloundra

Brad McKendrick
Raine & Horne - Caloundra (07) 5491 3555
Compiled by Brad McKendrick from local fisherman with local reports.
brad@caloundraproperty.com.au
Currimundi to Coolum
Currimundi Creek has produced some nice bream over the last few days on soft plastics, mainly on the run down tide. There should also be a few flathead moving around, especially after the last few days of hot winter weather. There's still a few bream coming from here at night.

Currimundi Reef still has quiet a few school mackerel in the area, mainly on the morning tides. Trolling pillies has been the most effective method.

The guys fly fishing have been doing it tough as the water is so clear the macs can see the wire trace and are just shying off the fly. If you’re having trouble take off the wire and strip fast, but you'll only get a couple to the boat.

Kawana Beach has been slow, with the only real activity being a few tailor on dark out in front of the lighthouse, on the rubble reef.

Murphies Reef has produced a few good feeds of squid - damn good chewing. The squid heads are definitely the best reef bait at this time of the year, for big sweetlip, snapper and pearlies. Fishing the deeper areas around 38 metres has been best.

Mudjimba Island is producing a few school mackerel and tailor on dark, on pillies, but it’s quiet slow.
At Coolum Reef the clear water has made it hard on all the shallow grounds, with the best time being dusk and dawn, with heaps of berley and very lightly weighted baits well presented - not bunched up on the hook but lying nice and flat so they don't spin in the current.

Prick a lip

Gavin Platz
Tie ’N’ Fly Outfitters - Ph 07 54440611, tienfly@sun.big.net.au
Northern Sunshine Coast

Davo's - (07) 5449 8099
www.fishingnoosa.com.au

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Hervey Bay

The good weather reports have been flying thick and fast. The bay is full of bait at the moment, with longtail tuna crashing and feeding.

In Platypus Bay over the last few days we have had reports of rat marlin hitting trolled baits and lures. They usually turn up in late October. Also in the bay are a few snapper.

Whiting catches are good. Late afternoon along Shelly Beach is the go for them.

Flathead are coming from River Heads and the creek mouths along the inside of Fraser Island.

Jim Sullivan
Fisherman's Corner - Ph (07) 4128 1022
fishco@bigpond.net.au

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Bundaberg
The past two weeks have seen near perfect weather. The fishing this week has been fantastic both in the river and offshore, with bream being a hot favorite.

The weekend before last saw the final qualifying round of the Australian Bream Tournament with our own Matt Costar qualifying in 5th place, earning himself a seat in the grand final. ‘Onya, Matty!!!

There were quite a few other species caught during the competition. All the bream and the other species were caught on soft plastic lures. Other species included fingermark, jew, cod, flathead, queenfish, trevally, pike and a few barra. So, it proves how effective these lures are.

The reefs have been firing also with some nice trout being caught on livies. Some big parrot, sweetlip and the odd red emperor and big snapper have also been landed.

There are still a few big macks around and some big black king as well. Dolphin fish and a few small sailfish and black marlin have been getting around, so as the weather warms up we can get out amongst a few billfish.

Tim Mulhall / Matt Costar / Ben Shorten
Salty's Fishing Team
Salty's - Ph (07) 4153 4747
info@saltys.net


Brett Jones
Still Water Charters
stillwatercharters@yahoo.com.au
www.stillwatercharters.homestead.com

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Yeppoon

Kim Martin

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Stanage Bay
Howdy to all from Stanage Bay, Shoalwater Bay and surrounding islands.

This week has been a challenge for all fishers and crabbers but extremely good catches of mackerel were reported with the weigh-in results bringing broad smiles to the faces of the fishermen and women. The mackerel grounds and the Marbles proved very popular. Best baits for the week were pilchards and calamari with the odd mackerel lure also bringing them in. Pilchards and squid were a very popular choice for red emperor and parrot fish from the reef.

Thirsty Sound proved its reputation once again with good catches of barra, salmon, king and bream.

Once again the muddies proved to be elusive, however struggling pros managed to fill their weekly quotas.

Remember the jew should start migrating back to our famous jew hole from the beginning of October through to March and our ever present barra can still be legally caught till 1st November. So fellow fishers it would pay to get in now and start fishing the creeks and headlands before the State Government legislate to have our creeks closed (low water to high water) in the green zones.

This week’s road report: Not much different to last week. Still some corrugation with loose gravel and lots of dust.

Remember to give Von a call asap for all your accommodation needs and information on our beautiful area. There have been some cancellations for the December school holidays, which won’t last.

Until next week,
Happy and safe fishing and keep reeling in the big ones.

Yours in fishing and crabbing

Von Ann Ireland
stanagebaymarine@bigpond.com
www.stanagebay.com

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Mackay

Bruce Nash / Tony Lisciandro
Northside Fishing Centre - Ph (07) 4957 2272
Peter Faust Dam / Eungella Dam
Andrew from Melbourne (Water temperature in dam - 17-22 C)
Two days ago Andrew was in Melbourne. Today he fished with me. The dam was like a mirror until 10am, which made for easy fish spotting. We spotted three fish before we got our first hook-up - a 77cm barra. Then 20 minutes later Andrew said, “There's one following me!" I turned to see a big barra leap in front of the boat, race around from side to side and then launch itself out of the water surface-to-air style. It wasn't long before Andrew had the fish tired and landed. We took some happy snaps and measured her at 107cm, and guesstimated her at around 40 pounds.

Andrew's second hookup was also a corker. This time knitting a sweater between trees. While fighting this fish we saw two more meter plus barra shoot out of snags. Before the last treble dislodged itself I netted Andrew’s second 107cm barra. Well played Andrew! This one we weighed. It bottomed the 30 pound scales out by at least 6-7 pounds. It was also slightly lighter than the first fish. I bet you'll remember seeing those barra hit your lure for a long time to come Andrew.

Andy Thomsen (Fishing Guide)
www.andysfishing.com.au
0409 466 336

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Airlie Beach / Whitsundays

Andy Thomsen (Fishing Guide)
www.andysfishing.com.au
0409 466 336
Whitsundays - Bluewater

Capt. Ken Bryant
Marlin Blue Charters Ph 07 49465044

www.marlinblue.com.au

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Townsville
The weather has been fairly good over the past week and with the full moon on Monday the fishing should continue to get better as we get closer to the moon. All week the fishing has been picking up with good catches of school mackerel coming from within Cleveland and Halifax bays.

Spanish mackerel have also featured this week with some big fish coming from the shoals in Bowling Green Bay. Most of these bigger fish are being taken on wolf herring trolled on downriggers. It appears that the bigger fish are down deeper and if you can get a bait down deep enough you're in business. Some of these fish are over the 25 kilo mark and certainly are good fun on light gear.

This year it seems as though all the billfish are to the north of us and with this year’s NQ Mining Industry Billfish Challenge only a week away, a lot of boats believe they will have to travel to Britomart Reef to be in the hunt for this year’s honors. That means a 140 nautical mile, daily round trip to reach what has been this year’s real hot spot. Traditionally Bowling Green Bay, situated some 50nm to the south of Britomart, has been recognized as being the prime location, however this year things are going to be different. I will keep you up to date with all the news.

Inside the estuaries the fishing has been steady with the bread and butter species like bream and grunter keeping everyone happy.

As the temperature starts to rise so should the catch rate of the barra. There have been some very good catches coming from the freshwater. As you can see from the photo, fish this size can not only be a problem in the boat but they're also hard to handle in the heavy timbered waters of Peter Faust Dam. This fish was one of three landed last weekend and measured 107cm.

Tony Katsaros
Tackle World
Ph. 0747251266
tackleworldtsv@beyond.net.au

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Hinchinbrook
Hi Friends,
As we bid farewell to August [the windy month] we are now looking forward to September and spring. The last week or so was a period I would prefer to forget on the weather scene, even though we landed some nice fish.

Phil from Sydney visited for the first time and on the first day landed twelve barra and one nice jack. The second day seven barra were landed. Not a bad introduction to the area considering the water temperature and the windy conditions.

Later in the week Jake and Willy out of Townsville experienced some top javelin fish action, with numbers of fish to 60cm being landed.

The creeks have been a little hard to fish due to the big tidal run up to the full moon, but being in the right spot at low tide for the first push in has provided some great action.

The entrance to Enterprise Channel at Dungeness has been a nightmare for boaters during the extremely low tides of the past few days. I really do not know what the answer to this problem is, but one thing is for sure, anything under .3m low tide is wait and walk even for the smallest of boats.

The establishment of the new coastal state marine parks is still causing lots of to and fro lobbing, especially by the commercial sector. In some way you have to have sympathy for commercial harvesters who have been issued with permits to commercially fish a resource that in many cases is in decline and can not reproduce at a rate that is any where near the current extraction levels. The roll over affect of effort from no fish marine park areas to the old state marine park waters by both recreational and commercial fishers is unquantifiable at this time. One thing is for sure, you are going to have more and more fishers squeezed into much smaller areas along the coast.

Here we have on one hand the Federal Government doing their dandiest to protect as much of the barrier reef marine park as they can, and on the other side of the coin you have the state boys who want to appear to be part of this process but are in many ways hamstrung by powerful lobby groups. I believe that the only way forward with fisheries management in this state is the establishment of a stand alone fisheries portfolio. Under the current structure there is a possible conflict of interest between commercial optimization and the introduction of sustainable management strategies for fisheries resources across the board. Maybe the day will come in the not too distant future where our fisheries resources will be managed according to resource levels and not by economics.

Al Goodwin
Crackajack Sportfishing Adventures
Lucinda Ph/Fax 61+07 47778365
crackfish@ozemail.com.au
www.crackfish.com

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Mission Beach

Malcolm Hills
FNQ Fishing Adventures- Ph (07) 4068 9000
fnqfishing@bigpond.com
www.fishingnorthqueensland.com

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Cairns

Last weekend produced good fishing conditions again and most anglers took advantage of the great run we have experienced in recent weeks.

Reef fishing seemed to slow a little with most fishermen reporting tough fishing during the day. However, night fishing has seen some excellent catches of small mouth nannygai, particularly around the Pixie Reef vicinity. Several small black marlin were also tagged and released by the game fishing fleet during the week.

The local wrecks also fired up again this week with plenty of school mackerel (doggies) taken on metal jigs retrieved at break-neck speed. If bled and chilled immediately these fish are top table fish.

The queenfish have finally shown up in good numbers around the mouth of the Russell/Mulgrave River system. The sportfishermen have been in heaven using surface lures like the Banana Boats and Bubble Pens with several fish over the one metre mark providing spectacular jumping action on light line. Some nice barra have also been taking lures on the sunken rainforest logs in the same system.

Cairns Inlet continues to produce some nice barra, with plenty of reports filtering in from local fishermen. Live prawns have been the best bait under a float.

With the full moon on Monday night and the temperatures on an upward spiral it would be well worth giving Tinaroo Dam a shot this week targeting the resident monster barramundi. Either trolling large minnows like the 6" Barra Baits or casting the shallows with surface fizzers could produce a world record size fish.

It may be worth a look early in the week in the estuaries targeting barra and queenfish or heading up the hill to Tinaroo Dam to battle a monster barra.

Robert Erskine
Erskine's Tackle Shop
51 Mulgrave Rd Cairns
Ph (07) 4051 6099
erskinestackle@bigpond.com
Cairns - Reports compiled by Garry Smith

Garry Smith
lavallesmith@iig.com.au

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Port Douglas

Lynton "Heff" Heffer
Ph (07) 4098 5354
www.fishingportdouglas.com.au

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Cooktown
The last few weeks has seen great weather with some monster fish caught. There have been good macs out the front with the best one going 61.5 lbs and some good trout as well.

In the creek we have landed some thumping, solid, black spotted jew in the snags. There has also been the snag snapping jacks making short work of the Victorians. There has also been some good grunter taken on river herring, over the flats.

With the weather coming down again, it will be back out the front, when I can, to get into the macs. So, fuel up your boat now.

Leonard Todaro
Reel River Sportfishing.
PO Box 829 Cooktown Qld 4871
Ph 07 4069 5346.
reelriver@hotmail.com

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Karumba

Jason Jesse
Gulf Sportfishing Adventures
P.O. Box 228 Karumba
Phone - (07)4745 9434
gsakarum@tpg.com.au
www.gulfsportfishingadventures.com.au

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Weipa

Barra Dave Donald
Dave Donald SPORTFISHING - Ph (07) 4069 9064
DDSPORTFISH@bigpond.com
www.weipafishing.com

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