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
Offshore conditions have been fair on the Gold Coast over the last week, with the southerlies continuing to blow during the day. Once again mornings were the pick of the times to get out there amongst the fish.

The mackerel have really started to taper off during the past week, with catches down considerably from a fortnight ago. The mackerel have now moved south so your best bet to tangle with a few stragglers is to fish Palm Beach, Mermaid, Burleigh or the shallow reefs off Tweed and further south. Due to the low numbers of fish the best bet has been to troll small skirts and minnows in an attempt to find congregations of fish. There are still a few Spanish mackerel, wahoo and yellowfin tuna being taken on the Tweed Nine Mile on Halcos, Rapalas and Mackbaits. Off Southport the 36 fathom line has been turning up a few dolphinfish on small skirts. These fish have also been taken off Burleigh and around any fish traps or buoys. The bottom fishing is still fairly quiet with a mixed bag of squire, parrotfish, trag and pearl perch on the 24 and 36 fathom reefs. Fresh, naturally presented baits have been the way to bring home a feed, so try strips of slimie mackerel or tailor weighted as lightly as possible. The 50 fathom line has been affected by strong currents this week though jigging or fishing live baits on the bottom turned up fair numbers of yellowtail kingfish and amberjack.

The rivers have been fishing very well with a mixture of species taken during the week. The Seaway was a popular spot to wet a line with plenty of bream and a few tailor and trevally coming from the rock walls on whitebait, pilchards, soft plastics and metal lures. The hole at the end of the north wall has been fishing well around the top of the tide for school jew, trevally, mangrove jack and small sharks. Live baits such as mullet, slimie mackerel, herring and strips of tailor or mullet all worked well for these species, as did soft plastic lures. A few luderick have been turning up around the Wavebreak Island rock walls and in front of the Seaway tower on green weed and cabbage. The weed beds to the north and west of Wavebreak have produced plenty of garfish during the week on the incoming tide. A steady berley trail of bread is the best way to have a school of these fish at the back of your boat and they make very good tucker or troll baits for offshore fishing.

Further up the rivers the whiting fishing has been good around Chevron Island, Sorrento, Paradise Point and around Fingal in the Tweed River. There have also been some nice bream turning up in the mid to lower reaches of the rivers on baits, hard-bodied lures and soft plastics. The water has cooled a little over the past fortnight and this has resulted in a lot more flathead becoming active over the shallow flats and in the river systems. Trolling small minnows or casting soft plastic shads has worked well for these fish and allows you to cover plenty of water during a fishing session.

The beaches have been fishing reasonably well with a few tailor turning up just prior to dawn and in the early evenings. While these fish have been unpredictable, try South Straddie, the Spit, Narrowneck or Burleigh. Pilchards and metal lures have both been equally effective. The shallow gutters have been producing whiting and dart for those using beachworms and pippies, as well as some good flathead on frogmouth pilchards and whitebait.

The fishing in Hinze Dam has slowed down a little but the action is still exciting, especially in the early mornings and late afternoons. These are the prime times for casting surface and sub-surface presentations to medium sized bass in the inlets and shallow bays. Yellowbelly and the odd cod have also fallen to deep diving lures around the steep banks and rocky points. Saratoga have been fairly quiet but try the western arm in the mid morning before the wind gets up to score a couple of these acrobatic fish.

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
Pelagics are still the talk of the town with good schools being located in all corners of the bay at certain times. The shipping channel area between the Four Beacons and Combyuro seems to be one of the more productive areas, although the Sand Hills and Lucinda Bay areas are also producing numbers of tuna and mackerel. If you are after a feed then it is still worth jigging the beacons in the northern ba, as school mackerel are still being caught with this method. The TT Assassin slugs are good for this pursuit as they are rear weighted and sink straight down, reducing the chance of being bitten off, as is the case with slugs that flutter.

Peel has been fishing well for snapper with the plastics anglers getting good numbers and quite a few legal snapper to 5kg being caught. There has been plenty of bust offs on better fish, many of them being sweetlip, which head straight for the nearest piece of structure when hooked. Parrot, cod, chinaman, morwong, pike, bream school mackerel and even the occasional coral trout are often caught in this area on plastics, to add a bit of variety.

Mud has also been worth the effort for the plastics fisherman, mainly for snapper with the occasional sweetlip also being caught. The bait fishos have been getting a few also, with the darkened hours providing the best fishing, especially for those with good fresh baits.

Live baiting the northern beacons and areas such as the Cowan Ledge, Captain Nelson, Curtain Artificial and Western Rocks has been producing the occasional longtail and cobia. Large mack tuna have been the main species caught.

The Pumicestone Passage has been fishing well lately with a lot of variety to be had. Species such as grunter, mulloway, trevally, sweetlip mangrove jack, estuary cod and moses perch have been reported lately, which adds a bit of variety from the usual bream, flathead and whiting. Whiting reports have come in regularly from around the Avon Wreck area, as well as the mouth of Elimbah Creek. Glasshouse Mountain Creek has produced some quality bream around the rock bar at times, with specimens over 1kg being caught. The occasional jack is also taken here on live baits.

The odd mulloway is still being caught around the Jumpinpin area, between the bar and Kalinga Bank. Live baits and plastics fished on the early morning run-in tides have been the most productive. Plenty of flathead are being caught along the edges of the banks and the gutters at the back of some banks on plastics, minnow lures and baits.

May your bait be nervous.

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

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Moreton Bay - Wide
There has been no offshore fishing this past week due to the strong south-easters and swell.

A happy and safe Easter to everyone.

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

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Southern Freshwater

Rob Clouten & Paul Cass
Fishin Essentials
robdinga@gil.com.au

BEJELKE PETERSEN DAM:

Trolling Smak spinnerbaits at the top end of Bejelke Petersen Dam produced both bass and yellowbelly. A few bass were also taken in the deep water, jigging soft plastics and tail spinners through the schools.

Peter Taylor
Mullet Gut Marine
Ph (07) 46329770


BOONDOOMA DAM:


Peter Taylor
Mullet Gut Marine
Ph (07) 46329770


CHINCHILLA:


Peter Taylor
Mullet Gut Marine
Ph (07) 46329770


CONDAMINE:


Peter Taylor
Mullet Gut Marine
Ph (07) 46329770


COOBY DAM:

The Toowoomba Fish Stocking Association released 30000 yellowbelly fingerlings into Cooby Dam last week and this should give a real boost to fishing next summer.

Peter Taylor
Mullet Gut Marine
Ph (07) 46329770


COOLMUNDA:


Peter Taylor
Mullet Gut Marine
Ph (07) 46329770


CRESSBROOK DAM:


Peter Taylor
Mullet Gut Marine
Ph (07) 46329770


GLENLYON DAM:

Glenlyon Dam has been fishing well for yellowbelly and silver perch on both live bait and lures. The cod have been a bit quiet but will be worth a go over Easter.

Peter Taylor
Mullet Gut Marine
Ph (07) 46329770


GOONDIWINDI:

The town reaches of the river at Goondiwindi produced some reasonable yellowbelly early last week, mainly on spinnerbaits. A few undersized cod were also caught and released, and they will be worth targeting over Easter.

Peter Taylor
Mullet Gut Marine
Ph (07) 46329770


LESLIE DAM:

Leslie dam has been fishing well for yellowbelly, with one angler landing five yellows casting Daiwa Jackall and Mira Vibe lures along the old creek banks. (need to use a fish finder) Trolling the points late in the afternoon has also been productive. A 10lb cod was landed recently while trolling lures.

Peter Taylor
Mullet Gut Marine
Ph (07) 46329770


SOMERSET DAM:

The spit area at Somerset Dam produced some quality bass in the deeper water, with jigging Luckycraft bibless lures and soft plastics producing the best results.

Peter Taylor
Mullet Gut Marine
Ph (07) 46329770


STANTHORPE:


Peter Taylor
Mullet Gut Marine
Ph (07) 46329770


ST. GEORGE:


Peter Taylor
Mullet Gut Marine
Ph (07) 46329770


STORM KING DAM:


Peter Taylor
Mullet Gut Marine
Ph (07) 46329770


TEXAS:

A few yellowbelly were taken downstream of Texas, mainly on lures. A few undersized cod were caught and released above the Bonshaw Weir, mainly on spinnerbaits.

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
Once again it is all happening on the Sunshine Coast at the moment. The fishing has been non-stop, with loads of reported catches, both in the estuaries and out on the reefs.

Caloundra 5 Mile fired last week when conditions allowed, producing emperor, trag, cod and the odd coral trout, along with the other repetitious reefies that drive us all mad. It was the same for Murphys, with reefies in great numbers and good sized sweetlip to 5 kg making a nervous comeback to our waters. The closer in reefs, such as the Gneerings, had their share of action, with snapper, parrot, spangled emperor and cod the main stay.

The Banks has seen the best of the action with some thumper emperor, big pearlies to 5.5kg, good snapper and a run on small black marlin. The top of the Hard is the spot at the moment. It may be a little way out, but it is a case of drop a line, and hang on!

The rivers have plenty of bait back in them, with the hardiheads in huge schools around the usual haunts. Prawns, beach worms and yabbies are also in plentiful supply, so there is no excuse for missing out on a bag of fish.

The beaches produced dart, trevally to 3kg and bream up to 900g through last week and should continue to excite the few dedicated anglers who work the gutters and holes. The beautiful weather of late makes it all that much easier to cop walking a distance to a great spot and dropping a line.

The boardwalk and passage have produced some elbow slapping whiting down as far as the boaties and around the Cod Hole, with the flathead creeping up the ladder in numbers. Trevally and bream are ever present, helping to top off a great outing on the water during any time or tide.

Just out over Caloundra Bar, near the first marker off Brays Rock, we landed a stack of yellowtail and some quality squire early last week. It is amazing the amount of bream that hang around there, making it difficult to get your line to the bottom.

I have enclosed a picture of the Caloundra Bar looking east out to Moreton Island. Note the deep cuts in the bank on the beach side, from the tides in recent weeks. There are occasions when they can drop off over one metre. This is a relatively calm day but you get the idea how shallow the bar is at the moment, by the waves.

Have a great week fishing!

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

Gavin Platz
Tie ’N’ Fly Outfitters - Ph (07) 5444 0611
tienfly@sun.big.net.au
Northern Sunshine Coast

Soft plastics, metal slugs and surface poppers are all currently good choices for lure fishermen in the Noosa River, and some quality trevally have been taken on fly. Flathead have been the top profile species, taken mainly around the mouth on soft plastics and drifted whitebait. Mangrove jacks have been on the prowl around Noosa Harbour, in Tewantin, preferring live herring and deep diving lures. Trevally and tailor have been active in the Woods Bays and into Weyba Creek, lures are working well.

Laguna Bay ran hot and cold, but when the bait fish were hammered by boils of mac tuna, bonito, longtail tuna and mackerel it was all systems go. Other offshore action was at Sunshine Reef with sweetlip in excellent numbers, squire, pearl perch, spotted mackerel and fantastic coral trout.

On the surf beaches, Peregian Beach produced some good thumper dart last week and good sized whiting, as did northern Sunshine Beach, and at Castaways it was chopper tailor on the bite.

On the freshwater scene, at Lake MacDonald the bass have been few and far between and very small in size. The odd saratoga and bass have been taken on Jackalls and spinnerbaits at Borumba Dam.

Good fishing.

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

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Hervey Bay

With the small tides catches have been on the quiet side. Coral bream have been on the Arti and outside the harbour. On the shallow reefs most fish have been on the small side but this should improve as the tides build during the week.

The same applies to whiting off the beaches. With the full moon approaching, catches should improve dramatically.

In the river systems, prawns have been the main area of interest. While catches have been reasonable, this only applies to those who are putting in the time and a considerable amount of effort.

Ray Ozich

From the Feral Kiwi

Dave Ingrey
Fisherman's Corner - Ph (07) 4128 1022
fishcor@bigpond.net.au

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Bundaberg
Barra at Monduran seem to be a hot topic this week, with some great captures coming from the shallows and around the timber lines. On the flats, shallow diving lures such as B52's and Bombers are hot favourites. An ever better way is to cast from the bank into the shallows. In the timber lines, the Halco 3 metre divers are showing results through casting and working slowly back to the boat.
The Isis Electric Bass Tournament was held recently and it was great to see a few locals behind it, with four out of five as a top place-getter. 'Onya, boys!
Some nice whiting have been caught, with yabbies and worms the preferred bait. Some nice bream are starting to move in along the breakwalls. There are also a few jack, cod and small barra in the rivers, as well as a few mackerel around the river mouths early in the morning before the wind gets up.
There are still a few prawns running, so don’t forget the cast net.
Best breezes,

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

Everyone's focus this week will of course be on the Easter break. Easter is synonymous with two things - fishing and chocolate. You'll have to look after your own chocolate needs, but maybe I can help a bit with where to look for a fish.

Full moon falls on Easter Saturday, so if the sky is clear, campers will enjoy the best of the great outdoors. But the full moon also means that the morning high tides will be reasonably big. There will be Causeway run-throughs throughout the break, and they will be very fishable. At this time of year, expect mixed bags from the lake, including grunter, bream, flathead, the odd jack and barra, plus medium sized GT's and queenies.

The morning run-up tides are also perfect for fishing the beaches. Kinka Beach will be popular over the break, but please do the right thing and throw back the many undersized whiting you will inevitably get on that beach. Farnborough Beach should fish well, as will the main beach at Yeppoon, near the rocks. Struber's Creek and the beach south of Keppel Sands will produce a feed of decent whiting, I would suggest.

The estuaries will be crammed with eager fishers for sure. The large morning tides will see Cooroman a bit quiet until late afternoon, but there have been some patches of very good grunter in the system lately and I know of some real quality fingermark coming out of the creek too. Corio Bay and Waterpark Creek should produce some big whiting in the deeper channels and all the usual mixed bags associated with the area. There are still a few quality mud crabs around, so dropping a couple of pots in might see you dining on crustacean over Easter.

Rockyites are still catching a fair few decent barra in the Fitzroy. Some have been taken on soft plastics lately and more and more people are experimenting with this technique.

If the weather gods are kind, the offshore scene will be pretty good. There will be a lot of run in the morning tides, so fishing the deep water and in the exposed waters around the Keppels might be a tad difficult. However, the afternoons would be the go. The morning tides though are near perfect for chasing a mackerel or two. Keep an eye out for schools of grey mackerel feeding off the surface and there’s no reason to think the Spanos won't still be around in numbers. Outer Rock, Lisa Jane, Man and Wife and Barren will be popular haunts.

You should be able to at least get a feed somewhere, but if worse comes to worse, there's always the chocolate to fall back on. Beware long-eared rabbits.

Kim Martin

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Stanage Bay
How'd from Stanage Bay, Shoal Water and surrounding islands.

Well it's one of those reports this week that doesn't change much from last week’s. The people who made the effort to get out on the reefs were very well rewarded. Trout, lippers and cod made their way into the ice box. Those reds that we all dream about have still been a bit quiet, with most people only reporting one or two per trip. Hopefully they are getting ready for a big appearance over Easter.

The estuary fishing has been a bit of a mixed bag. Some fishos have reported some really top catches of cod, salmon, bream and grunter, then the next group have had to put a lot of time in. Maybe it's just the spot. Barra have been a bit of a hit and miss affair but that’s what fishing is all about.
Mud crabs are still going strong but there have been a couple of empty ones amongst them, which are returned to the water and should fatten up within a few weeks.

The road coming in is still good. We came across it a couple of nights ago in the old ute and the ride was still comfy.

Well that’s it for this week. Don't forget our Easter fishing comp, with all the other events such as the huge crab tying event - so come along.

Until next week, yours in fishing and crabbing,

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

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Mackay / Seaforth

Arthur Lovern
Seaforth Fishing Tours
Phone (07) 49590318
Peter Faust Dam / Eungella Dam

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
Muddy Spiders
Mud crabs have been taken everywhere over the past week, with some reports of them being that thick that they were like spiders crawling all over a web. Many of the pots had crabs hanging all over them. One bloke reported a catch of seven good sized bucks from one pot left overnight in the Haughton River.

The orange pro pots with the four entrances have been out performing the rectangle collapsible pot 4 to 1. The pro pot is a round pot with access into the pot being easily found by a hungry crab, from any angle, whereas the rectangle pot is accessible only from either end. If you are using the rectangle version it may pay to leave them a little longer to allow for the crab to find the entrances. The top of the falling tide is proving most productive, however the last of the falling tide can sometimes produce crabs also, but usually the number of jennies captured at this time in the tidal phase makes the exercise a little frustrating.

Barra have been quiet of late, however some of the smaller creeks have been producing some nice mangrove jack with the tidal run in these systems not being as strong as in the larger systems. There have been some reports of good grunter being taken in the Missionary Bay (Hinchinbrook Island) area, with mullet slabs proving to be the most productive.

The fishing in general of late has been a little frustrating, with plenty of fish showing on the depth sounder but not willing to play the game and take the bait. However, with the full moon just around the corner hopefully things will improve. The offshore scene has been very limited, if not non-existent, and hopefully that will also change very soon.

Play safe

Danny & Rosalie Brooks
Tackle World
Ph. 0747251266
tackleworldtsv@beyond.net.au

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Hinchinbrook - Lucinda
Hi Friends,

Last week here at Lucinda we experienced some typical early autumn weather - warm days with the nights starting to cool some. With the larger summer tides now behind us anglers can look forward to some great fishing that is associated with the pending smaller winter tides.

Now to what’s been happening on the fishing scene over the past week. Water temps have jumped back up again to around 27-28deg C after the dramatic fall that was associated with the rain events two weeks ago.

Some nice jacks have put in an appearance on the first quarter of the moon. One party visiting for a couple of days from Scotland landed nine nice fish on lures, whilst fishing in a couple of creeks near Forrest Beach.

Lots of smallish barra were encounter with only a couple of legal fish landed but I guess this is a direct result of commercial harvesting in the first couple of weeks of the open season where total populations of breeding sized fish were eliminated. One netter was acceded with removing hundreds of barra from one creek system. Do we call this sustainable management of a community resource? I think not!

In the channel proper, smallish GT’s around a couple of kilos have put in an appearance with good numbers jumping on lure and fly. Most of these fish are coming from the snags but as the water cools down more they will start to school up out on the flats.

One interesting observation and question is why have the estuary cod shut up shop? There are a few around but not in the plague proportions one would come to expect in the channel.
My theory is that the water temperature has just been too hot for their comfort, resulting in a move to deeper cooler waters.

For the bait fishers, there are plenty of sardines and pockets of good sized prawns but it may take a little running around to find them.

Talking tackle - there are so many innovations and new products on the market at the moment it’s just about impossible to keep abreast of it all. Traditional profile crankbaits are now being produced in semi soft plastic. I guess this is a natural progression given the massive explosion of soft plastics over the last couple of years. Bibbed lures with soft bodies are nothing new. I have some mint soft bodied lures in my collection that were produced by the Burke Lure Co in the USA some forty years ago. The most popular models being the little and big Dig.

Well the rat race will really be on here at Lucinda this coming weekend and I for one will be steering well clear of the Dungeness boat ramp, preferring to launch at some of the more remote launching points.

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

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Hinchinbrook - Cardwell

While slow early in the week, fishing came on with the better weather. Some nice grunter to 60cm were boated off the mud banks near Hecate Point. The secret was to burley up heavily - most of the fish were full of the chopped up fish flesh.

Missionary Bay is still slow but the jacks and cod came on near the bottom of the tide in creeks 3 to 9. The rest of the area is slow by all reports but the Marina is still fishing okay, with some nice barra and jacks off the rock walls on live bait.

That's all for this week so, Safe Boating and I'll See Ya on the Water and remember "Fish for the Future, Practice Catch and Release".

Jim Lee
Un-Reel Sportsfishing Adventures
Ph (07) 40660032
0408 842691
jimlee@qldnet.com.au
www.un-reel-sportsfishing-adventures.com.au
Cairns

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

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

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Karumba
Cyclone Ingrid came and went last week, with the bottom of the Gulf receiving little or no rain from the system that went on to terrorize the Northern Territory and Kimberley areas of Western Australia.

The fishing at Karumba has been reasonable over the last couple of weeks with plenty to keep the wolves from the door but the pickings have been far for extensive.

There have been a few barra around at the mouth of the river but the ever increasing tourist flow should put paid to that quickly, as boat traffic and criss-crossing lures do their best to put the fish off. The Easter period, which brings smaller tides this year, should see success with deep diving lures and live baits both producing fish.

There have been a few grunter about the place, and the odd blue salmon frame at the dump, but nothing outstanding.

Be careful at both boat ramps as there has been a quite reasonable sized saltwater croc in the vicinity.
Photo - This croc was sitting directly opposite the town boat ramp and was big enough to eat a human.

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
Weather:
North east to north west winds most of the week, with showers and storms most days (23C to 33C)

Fishing Methods:
Lure casting/jigging, fly fishing.

Clients Details:
Ken and Gavin from Mackay, Ross from Proserpine

Species Landed:
Barramundi, mangrove jack, fingermark, queenfish (3 species), golden trevally, tea leaf trevally, brassy trevally, giant trevally, gold spot estuary cod, black spot estuary cod, barracuda, doggie mackerel, narrow barred spanish mackerel, longtail tuna, coral trout, stripey, tusk fish, dart, remora, archer fish, moses perch, tomato cod, catfish. (25 species). Sighted dolphin, rays, sharks, turtles, sea snakes.

Crocodiles Sighted: 6 (best day 4)

Report:
Cyclone Ingrid fizzed its way across the Cape just a few days before the boys arrived, with only a couple of hours of 25 knot winds and very little rain, nothing like the extreme event it was supposed to be. Thankfully, long overdue heavy rain has fallen since Ingrid headed further west, with showers and storms happening almost every day since. The rain and the big north westerly swell from the monsoon trough did hamper some of our fishing, with the beaches being too dirty and rough to fish. The rain also dirtied up the rivers towards the end of the week.

Ken and Ross, as Loomis ProStaffers, headed up a Loomis rods demo at Weipa News and Sports, as soon as their feet hit the bauxite, which was well attended. Next day, it was up to the Pennefather River for a fly fish but the beach was wiped out, and we were forced to head to the river mouth. As Ken, Ross and Gavin were part of a special pre-season promotional trip, the guides got to fish as well! New guide Dan landed the best fish, a big jack, and Gavin a nice golden trevally, plus a few small queenies, when the heavens opened, the wind stared howling and we headed off before the bog holes got too deep.

Highlights of the remainder of a busy week included finding some big barra up the top reaches of the Mission. Josh landed the best at 93cm. We also had a wonderful day down the coast landing a swag of great fish on lures and soft plastics. Some new Snapback models accounted for a number of hefty fingermark and a big golden trevally, and were bitten off a number of times by big mackerel. Gavin and Josh both landed big coral trout around the 5 kilo mark while Dan and Ross landed longtails around 8 kilos. Dinner that evening consisted of fresh tuna sashimi followed by barbequed trout and fingermark. It doesn’t get much better than that!

The final morning before the afternoon plane was an absolute fly fishing gem, with all of us fishing ourselves to a standstill on rampaging queenfish off the banks at Wooldrum Creek. A couple of dart and a golden trevally came along as well. In spite of the rain and the ‘relaxed’ pace of the week, the results auger well for a great 2005 season coming up!

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

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Archived Weekly Reports

5/1/2004 12/1/2004 19/1/2004 27/1/2004
2/2/2004 9/2/2004 17/2/2004 23/2/2004
1/3/2004 8/3/2004 15/3/2004 22/3/2004 29/3/2004
5/4/2004 12/3/2004 20/4/2004 27/4/2004
4/5/2004 10/5/2004 17/5/2004 24/5/2004
1/6/2004 7/6/2004 15/6/2004 22/6/2004 28/6/2004
5/7/2004 12/7/2004 19/7/2004 26/7/2004
2/8/2004 9/8/2004 16/8/2004 23/8/2004 30/8/2004
6/9/2004 13/9/2004 20/9/2004 27/9/2004
4/10/2004 11/10/04 18/10/2004 25/10/2004
1/11/2004 8/11/2004 15/11/2004 22/11/2004 29/11/2004
6/12/2004 13/12/2004 20/12/2004



1/1/2002
7/1/2002
14/1/2002
21/1/2002
28/1/2002
4/2/2002
11/2/2002
18/2/2002
25/2/2002
4/3/2002
11/3/2002
18/3/2002
25/3/2002
1/4/2002
8/4/2002
15/4/2002
22/4/2002
29/4/2002
6/5/2002
13/5/2002
20/5/2002
27/5/2002
4/6/2002
10/6/2002
17/6/2002


1/1/2001
8/1/2001
15/1/2001
22/1/2001
29/1/2001
5/2/2001
12/2/2001
19/2/2001
26/2/2001
5/3/2001
12/3/2001
19/3/2001
26/3/2001
2/4/2001
9/4/2001
16/4/2001
23/4/2001
1/5/2001
7/5/2001
14/5/2001
21/5/2001
28/5/2001
4/6/2001
11/6/2001
18/6/2001
25/6/2001
2/7/2001
9/7/2001
16/7/2001
23/7/2001
30/7/2001
6/8/2001
13/8/2001
20/8/2001
27/8/2001
3/9/2001
10/9/2001
17/9/2001
24/9/2001
1/10/2001
8/10/2001
15/10/2001
22/10/2001
29/10/2001
5/11/2001
12/11/2001
19/11/2001
26/11/2001
3/12/2001
10/12/2001
17/12/2001
24/12/2001


3/7/2000
10/7/2000
17/7/2000
24/7/2000
31/7/2000
7/8/2000
14/8/2000
21/8/2000
28/8/2000
4/9/2000
11/9/2000
18/9/2000
25/9/2000
2/10/2000
9/10/2000
16/10/2000
23/10/2000
30/10/2000
6/11/2000
13/11/2000
20/11/2000
27/11/2000
4/12/2000
11/12/2000
18/12/2000
25/12/2000

Queensland Tide Times

Bureau of Meteorology