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
The pelagic action in the bay has been relatively good of late, although it has been a case of being in the right place at the right time for a lot of anglers. Areas such as the Western Banks, Middle Bank, Shipping Channel and also along the front of Bribie have been some of the areas worth investigating. Along the inside of Moreton, from the mouth of the Rous to the Curtain Artificial, has been worth a look also, especially if longtails are your target. The spotties have been a little sporadic but the end of the leads out from the Brisbane River has often held good numbers. School mackerel have been caught in the top end of the Rous Channel, mainly on drifted pillies and spoons trolled behind planing boards. A few have also been taken in the Rainbow Channel as well as just outside the bay along the Coffee Rock off Moreton. Spaniards have also been taken in this area. Apart from school mackerel, the Rainbow Channel has also been productive for mack, frigate and longtail tuna, as well as spotties and bonito at times.

Peel has been producing a few pelagics, however most anglers are visiting in an attempt to catch snapper and sweetlip, which have been on the chew lately. Anglers fishing soft plastics along the edge of the reef have been catching some nice specimens of these two species, along with morwong, chinaman, estuary cod and even the occasional coral trout and parrot. The wreck of the houseboat has also been producing snapper, both on baits and plastics. It only fishes well when there are only one or two boats in residence. Any more and it is usually very quiet.

Mud and Green have also been worth a fish for snapper and sweetlip with plenty of good fish being taken after dark. Baits have been the most popular method but plastics will also produce results.

The estuaries have been worth a look of late also, with the Jumpinpin Bar area being a popular choice amongst anglers who like to jig plastics. Jew to 10kg have been caught lately and plenty of better specimens have been lost. The hole at the mouth of Swan Bay has been the popular spot, due to the deep hole and the submerged logs which provide good structure for the jew and give them something to rub you off on.

The banks and channels further in have been worth a try for flathead on the last of the falling tide. Both lures and drifted baits have been productive with flathead, bream, pike, trevally and occasionally tailor being caught.

Land-based spots such as the Hornibrook Highway Bridge, Woody Point Jetty, Wellington Point Jetty, Sandgate Jetty and the rock walls at Manly Harbour and Raby Bay Canals have all been worth a try, especially for bream, whiting, the occasional flathead and even squire.

Good whiting have been caught from the banks throughout the bay as well as the shallow flats at the mouths of most rivers.

Prawns have been worth the effort in most of the systems entering into the bay. Burpengary Creek, Caboolture, Pine and Logan Rivers have been some of the better places to chase greasy prawns and the occasional banana, which make great bait and excellent tucker.

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

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Moreton Bay - Wide
Finally some good weather has coincided with a weekend and allowed the recreational angler a chance to wet a line offshore. While Saturday was lumpy early, good catches came from the shallow reefs, with hussar, squire, cod species and mixed sweetlips dominating. Fusilier, coral trout, coral cod, coral bream and parrot have also added colour and bulk to the bag. Sunday was much the same but with the current offshore finally abating, pearl perch were caught in good numbers and size on the deeper reefs.

While the weather is predicted to deteriorate early in the week, fingers crossed the weekends will give us more offshore opportunities through April than we received in March.

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

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

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
Fishing was terrific over the Easter break, with many happy venturers coming back with a feed of good quality fish. The full moon provided little extra return. In fact it sort of put the fish off a little.

Our planned trip to the Banks came undone due to larger than normal swells, but we did manage to get out twice to Murphy’s and beyond to grab a few for the bag. Mostly sweetlip were the order of the evening, with an occasional small pan sized snapper and a couple of 6kg gummy sharks, which gave us some thrills a little later on. All in all a tad quiet to what we are used to.

Caloundra Wide suffered a little of the same fate but stronger catches of snapper, cod, parrot, red throat and trout were reported out beyond the 5 Mile Reef. The mackerel seem to be up further north at the moment with some 25kg monsters being landed up past Coolum. Still there are some smaller spotty and Spanish mackerel in closer at Brays Rock and out to the 5 Mile. They are either on or not.

Near on perfect weather greeted us on Easter Sunday but the weather has been a mixed bag this past week, with heavy rain, big swells and plenty of wind.

Closer in on the foreshore, flathead to 60 cm have been readily caught, along with an odd trevally and grunter. The whiting are still the mainstay for anglers in the passage, with good numbers hauled in when conditions did not allow outside angling.

Bait fish are plentiful around the traps with mullet to 18 inches being caught in cast nets around the pylons and jetties at Pelican Waters. Large schools of hardiheads are still around the Boardwalk and make a great bait if you are fast enough to catch them.

There are still some good greenbacks being landed on the beaches. The numbers are not huge but worth landing none the less. Bream and dart are the other main-stayers helping to top up the bag. The Cod Hole, using fresh yabbies and live worms, has produced some top bream and a number of good tarwhine of late. The back of Coochin Creek still has jacks and hundreds of chopper tailor racing to strip the bait off your hook. Those baits that hit the water and get a chance to sink are likely to capture a fish, with plenty of hungry ones around.

I watched some land based boys fishing from the rocks near Queens around from Kings Beach and once again an area that should be full of fish was a real let down. I have spent a number of hours excitedly waiting for a bite, to no avail. Never will understand how that top area has little to no fishing consistency.

Hopefully you can make the most of conditions and enjoy a trip or two.

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

I have just returned from an offshore fishing trip with my husband and two sons. We started out at 6.00am, returned at 2.00pm, and after eight hours of trolling around Sunshine Reef, Jew Shoal and Laguna Bay returned with two large tuna. The bait fish schools were smashed all day by big tuna, but alas no mackerel.

Earlier in the week, Spanish and spotted mackerel were taken on Sunshine Reef amongst some good snapper. North Reef is also a productive, popular destination.

In the river, the Gympie Terrace stretch, all along the foreshore, had holiday makers catching quality whiting and bream. Flathead were best targeted around the river mouth and the sandy drop-offs around the Frying Pan. Some good tailor, all around the 2kg mark, were taken by anglers moored on the North Shore side of the river mouth. Tailor and trevally have been taking lures and surface poppers in the Woods Bays and around Munna Point bridge. There's been a lot of reports of sand crabs and mud crabs on the move in the river too.

On the freshwater scene the bass at Lake MacDonald have been small, and other reports from Borumba Dam are mainly quiet.

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

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Hervey Bay

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

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Bundaberg
Over the Easter break and school holidays a fair bit of fishing was done by quite a few anglers. Whiting were a popular target, with big numbers about - both summer and northern. Catching a feed shouldn’t be a problem. Drifting the sand banks using prawns, yabbies and worms will definitely help you out. Other species that have been caught while drifting around include flathead, bream, grunter and even some nice salmon.

There are still some excellent mackerel around the river mouths with some big Spanish being landed, some reaching 25kgs. Mixed in with them are grey, spotted and school macks and some huge northern blue fin tuna.

Reef fishing has been excellent, with trout, reds, sweetlip, hussar, parrot and heaps more. When the weather comes good again, this will be an excellent option.

There's been more great barra caught at Lake Monduran by casting and retrieving Bombers, B52's and Halco Scorpions in the shallow bays. Trolling has also been popular. Using 4-5m divers around the headlands and timber lines has produced some huge barra.

Best breezes,
Tim Mulhall

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

Need I say we're still experiencing typical windy autumn weather? That is making catching a fish rather challenging to say the least.

On the rare occasions when it has been possible to venture offshore, the fish have cooperated. Reef fishing around the Keppel's has been reasonable for pan-sized fish and mackerel have been around in numbers in most places too. Just prior to Easter there was an appearance of schools of grey mackerel in the bay and I have reports of macks free jumping in some spots. Hopefully these schools will stay in the vicinity for another month or so.

It's nearly time to start looking for flathead in the estuaries on the dropping tides. I have always found April/May to be the best time of year to go walking the gutters in search of "lizards". Small pilchards and herring are as good a bait as any, but you'll also get lizards on the humble yabbie too.

There have been a few decent barra caught in the city reach of the Fitzroy and they should keep biting until the water temperature drops a few more degrees.

Other than that, it's going to remain tough going for a while yet.

Kim Martin

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

With Easters gone the township has all but settled back to normal pace - not that it doesn't ever speed up. Fishing wise things have slowed a little as well.

The reef fishing has been shut down due to the wind. There’s been plenty of boaties waiting to get out reef fishing but Mother Nature hasn't given them a chance. With winter just around the corner we should start to see a more stable weather pattern coming through. Winter is worth keeping in mind for up this way. It produces some of the best reef fishing you will experience, with nice weather and very little fishing pressure. I have often chatted with other fishos about the amount of untouched reef there is around here.

Estuary fishing seems to be giving a few a nice feed on the table. Bream, fingermark, salmon, cod and grunter have all been making their way into the ice bin. Squid, yorkies and live bait seem to be what’s on the fish’s menu. Good on ya Brent for a top quality fingermark.

Mud crabs as usual are still making a good show. Make sure you release the empty ones. We have been finding quite a few in the pots and if you mark the back shell of the crab with say a cross to identify it, in a few months there will be a nice full crab.

The road in is still just okay – a pot hole here and there but nothing major.
Remember to get your bookings in for the next half of the year to help save any knock backs.

Yours in fishing
Tony & Von

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
It's time to think about the upcoming giant black marlin season. I am taking bookings for this year’s Cairns black marlin season, which again looks to be bigger and better than ever. The past four years have been the best in the world, and again the rain north Queensland enjoyed early this year will set the waters off the Continental Shelf alive with bait fish.

Spanish mackerel are appearing early in the Whitsunday's, with a few being caught around the islands. However, I don't expect the big bite to occur until the middle of May when the water temperature drops to below 24 degrees C. (Currently 29)

Cheers Ken.

Capt. Ken Bryant
Marlin Blue Charters Ph 07 49465044

www.marlinblue.com.au

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Townsville

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

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Hinchinbrook - Lucinda
Hi Friends,

This past week saw conditions on Hinchinbrook Channel go from near perfect early in the week to darn right miserable for the latter. Strong southerlies chopped up most exposed waters in the channel with only the brave hearted venturing out.

In stark contrast to this, early in the week some great fishing was had with good numbers of barras and mangrove jack being landed. Sue and Chris Bishop visited with us from Swindon, England and were blown away with the numbers of fish landed.
Chris had been dreaming about barra for some years now and was not disappointed, with several fish up around the 80cm mark. The jacks also gave Chris a real insight into tropical sportfishing. “Core look at those teeth!” he exclaimed.

The younger generation never cease to amaze me with their dedication and application when it comes to angling. Young minds are great learners and it is a real pleasure to pass on lure casting skills to eager minds. It is really surprising the number of anglers out there that have never formally been shown the different applications that are associated with fishing. Many will stumble and bluff there way through their fishing exploits, never wanting to admit their shortcomings. On top of this there are countless numbers of self proclaimed experts out there that claim to know it all.

A good rule of thumb for saltwater anglers is to keep a record of time, tide and moon phase after each trip and it will not take long to work out when the bites are happening.

A bit of an update on conditions in the channel. Water temp is back up to 28 deg C again after the south wind had it down to 25 deg. There are lots of small prawns about. Give them a couple of weeks to size up. Crabs are steady. It just amazes me how they can keep the numbers up, given the huge amount of traps in the channel.

We are still not hearing much re the inshore finfish management plan. Will our inshore fisheries resources receive the sustainable protection it requires? If one studies the past form it will be pretty easy to call the result. Several species have all but disappeared and should be given total protection. The once common Yankee whiting [silver teraglin] is just about extinct. Triple tail cod are fast heading that way, along with the green sawfish and many other lesser species that will soon be a distant memory, along the more accessible parts of the north Queensland coast.
How many tropical inshore saltwater species are fully protected in Queensland? If you can count to one - the Queensland groper, you have the answer.
Might be an opportune time to do some research on these disappearing species, but in the real world of fisheries management in this state, if an inshore species is not commercial, then who gives a hoot.

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

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Hinchinbrook - Cardwell

The weekend's water was glassed out and subsequently plenty of boats were out fishing and looking. That was the key to the fishing. Find a creek that had minimal boat traffic and fish the drains at or near the bottom of the tide. It didn't really matter just so long as the drains were running. Some really nice barra were hooked and released, with the best being an 80cm+ beauty. Yours truly lost another 1m + fish as it tail walked out of the drain.

Good jacks to 44cm were also boated on the shallow side under the canopy and as a bonus a few good fingermark were hanging on the deeper snags. The southern end of the channel fired up also later in the week with keeper barra and some good jacks boated on the flats.

That’s all for this week. 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

With the early part of Easter blessed with good weather, many fisherman reaped the benefits of some excellent fishing, both in the estuaries and on the bluewater. While the reef fishing returns have varied from different locations, certain areas, like The Wide Grounds, have really fired on big quality large mouth nannygai, deep water bar-checked coral trout and spangled emperor. The Moore/Elford Reef area produced plenty of quality coral trout in the shallows, bottom fishing. Gibbson Reef has also fished very well on coral trout. However, plenty of big reef sharks are making fishing difficult by stealing fish.

Several big Spanish mackerel and cobia have been caught on jigs around the offshore wrecks, while the inshore wrecks are covered in plenty of doggy mackerel and trevally. A 32kg Spaniard was also reportedly taken on a troll line from one of the island barges.

Estuary fishing is producing big fingermark on live sardines fished in the deep holes of the Cairns Inlet, while barras and mangrove jacks continue to take lures. The hospital flats are also still producing plenty of blue and king salmon, while the run of good sized banana prawns is still present.

The highlight of my Easter break was a 1.15m barra caught casting a green Bobby Dazzler 12+ Barra Bait amongst the heavy timber of Peter Faust Dam. While fishing was tough, this was a magnificent fish that certainly had me smiling all Easter.

With strong SE winds forecast for early this week it will be hide and seek in the estuaries again, but with plenty of action happening in the Cairns Inlet it’s not all doom and gloom.

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
The past week has seen water and land temperatures drop slightly with strong breezes and douses of rain. The fishing has therefore been considerably slower and the neap tides have also contributed to this.

Catches to filter through have been small barra, a few mangrove jack, trevally and bream. The river and creek systems still have an abundance of bait including prawns, hardiheads and sardines. Best results are happening on the turn of the outgoing tide at the moment.

Snapper Island has reports of bigger queenfish recently and they are best gained by either floating live sardines at the pressure points or trolling 3-4 inch skirts on the surface. Conditions need to calm to gain comfortable access to these fish.

Beach and reef reports have been very quiet due to the very strong south easterly breezes pushing through between 20-30 knots. Those who have gone to the reef are catching their quota of coral trout, with spangled emperor the next best contributor.

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

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Cooktown
The barra were on the move over the full moon, with good fish caught around the local jetty and the rocks. They were also up the creek, at the mouths of small feeder creeks, and were taking live mullet or herring.
The pros have been killing the Annan for barra and crabs, so don’t waste ya time down there. However they are not allowed in the Endeavor and it is already improving in fish numbers.
The wind has been up this past week but the previous week it was perfect. There were plenty of trout out there so it was nice to get a feed. It looks like it might be the last chance for some time, so if you did not get out last time make an effort when it drops again.

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
Weather:
Light winds, a few scattered storms and showers early, then strong south east winds and showers since Tuesday (21C to 34C)

Fishing Methods:
Lure casting, trolling and live baiting

Clients Details:
Craig from Townsville; Mark, Andrew, Peter, Andrew and Mike from Toowoomba; Gavin, Vicki-Ann, Anne-Marie, from Brisbane, Brett from Sydney.

Species Landed:
Barramundi, mangrove jack, fingermark, queenfish, blue salmon, king salmon, golden trevally, tea leaf trevally, brassy trevally, gold spot estuary cod, black spot estuary cod, barracuda, doggie mackerel, narrow barred spanish mackerel, broad barred Spanish mackerel, longtail tuna, mackerel tuna, giant herring, wolf herring, black jewfish, coral trout, sweetlip, stripey, wire netting cod, black cod, tusk fish, dart, remora, archer fish, moses perch, grunter, tomato cod, ooglie, catfish. (39 species). Sighted dolphin, rays, manta rays, sharks, turtles, sea snakes.

Crocodiles Sighted: 4 (best day 2)

Report:
Well, the first official cast of the 2005 season was made by Craig and on the retrieve he hooked and landed a 7 kilo longtail tuna! ‘Welcome to Weipa!’ was my greeting as the tuna tore off – the prefect way to begin a new season.

New guide, Daniel Wright, Josh and myself have been kept very busy since that day. Big schools of bait have already formed down off Boyd Bay and Pera Head, so chasing tuna has been the go. There have been plenty of big Spaniards, trevally and queenfish in the same areas. Oh yeah, the sharks have already claimed their share!!

Up the rivers, there’s still quite a bit of fresh in the Embley and Mission but the Hey and Pine have been fishing well. We had some great sessions on barra this week, mainly on live baits, with fish to 85cm being landed. Craig lost one that was much bigger - sad story! The rivers have been alive with heaps of small to medium sized fingermark and some big jacks. Ten year old Anne-Marie landed a hooter jack, going 49cm, her first Weipa fish. Some big king and blue salmon have also been stretching arms in the deeper holes.

Josh and Craig found a patch of big black jew biting fiercely on one of the reefs, landing a swag around the metre mark, plus fingermark and trout. So it’s been a fantastic start to 2005 – and the fishing usually gets better from here on!

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

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Queensland Tide Times

Bureau of Meteorology