According to this week’s fishing report the inshore reefs have been fishing red hot.
Inshore and offshore reefs
Inshore has been fishing red hot!
We have had plenty of good reports of big grunter being caught on most of the inshore reefs along the coast.
Fishing 20 g soft vibes in brighter colours such as pink and 5 inch jerk shads … slowly over reef and rubble bottom has worked a treat.
This time of year you should also start to see yourself getting into some quality inshore snapper, if bait is your preferred method prawns and strips of mullet will see you in with a good chance.
There has still been plenty of mackerel along the coast with most of them caught trolling gar or deep diving hard body’s in the early mornings.
Casting stickbaits and poppers can also be a really effective technique especially for the lure enthusiast.
Our offshore reefs are definitely fishing well, today saw a number of boats head out whilst it looks like it is the only good day we will get for a while.
Great numbers of cobia are around on most of the wrecks and reefs, whole squid and big strips of mullet fillet always work well on these fish.
If you want to catch one on a lure they aren’t too picky and will take soft plastics, jigs, vibes and hardbodies just to name a few.
Some monster grass sweetlip have been reported to be caught on patchy ground consisting of mainly fern or weed and rubbly rocky bottom, these fish love these areas and have been caught on whole squid and mullet strips.
Fingers crossed we get another nice weather window soon as a lot of us are itching to get out!
Burnett River
The Burnett is fishing well again this week with no signs of it slowing down heading into the weekend.
The crabbing and prawning has been the talk of the town with some great results for most giving it a red hot crack.
Targeting the prawns around the bottom of the tide has been the ideal time, with the big tides this week it has made finding and throwing on these prawns very difficult with the amount of current in the river.
Good numbers of trevally and queenfish have also been found in areas with plenty of current and structure like rock walls or fallen trees.
There has been a lot of big flathead caught lately, these fish have been found in shallow water or on the edge of sand flats along the drop offs but also in the town area around the bridges.
The go to bait has been either whole prawns or whole sprat.
Kolan River
Kolan River is fishing well, the last few weeks has seen this river continually producing quality fish for most anglers whether bait fishing, lure fishing or even on the crabbing front.
Good sized flathead, bream and grunter are being caught on the sand flats towards the mouth of the river.
There hasn’t been a specific tide getting more bites but it has been more about knowing where the fish will be depending on the tide.
If it’s the incoming tide the fish have been in the shallower water pushing up with the tide and during the run out they have been in the deeper water and along the drop offs surrounding the flats waiting for the bait to be forced into the deeper water as the tide drops.
Whole prawns, whole sprat or fresh yabbies have all been getting good results, small soft vibe lures like the MMD Soft Prawn Vibe have worked really well for the lure fishos.
Those after a good feed of crab should be placing there pots up the creeks in deeper sections, reports have shown that this week the crabs have moved deeper with the big tides so be sure to give this a go.
Large fish frames or mullet fillets have worked great at bringing in plenty of crab.
Elliott River
The Elliott is producing some quality fish.
The deeper holes up the river have seen good numbers of fish schooled up with grunter, trevally and some blue salmon being caught.
Small soft vibes hopped through these holes has got the bites.
The flats fishing has also been red hot!
A lot of flathead, bream and whiting have been found in the shallow water or along drop offs and have definitely been on the chew.
Throwing some whole sprat or small strips of mullet fillets onto the sand flats or along the drop offs has picked up some of these fish.
Around the mouth of the river has seen some solid dart caught as well as queenfish and trevally.
The occasional school mackerel has been passing through with a lot of anglers getting snipped off from these toothy critters.
They are great fun when you manage to get a good hook set on them though!
Baffle Creek
Baffle Creek is fishing great, the last few weeks has seen this river producing some very good fishing for most anglers.
The ‘bread and butter’ species have been the target for most, shallow water flats fishing with fresh yabbies is the go to technique at the moment for this river system.
Big grunter, flathead, bream and some solid whiting are all being caught in shallow water especially around the top of the tide on the yabbie beds.
Whilst soaking some baits try flicking either small soft plastics or hardbody lures along the flats or drop offs as this can often times pick up some cracking fish as well.
For those chasing mangrove jack, cod and even barra we have heard of good success fishing the numerous rock bars and deep snag ridden banks with live baits or whole prawns.
This river has also had a cracking run of crabs with the full moon getting them on the move.
The deeper sections in the main river or steep muddy banks up the creeks have produced the better sized crabs this week.
Lake Gregory
Lake Gregory is having a good week of fishing!
The bass are super healthy and feeding well at the moment which is proving to be great fun for most people fishing the lake.
Fishing the edges has still been really effective even with the dropping water temp.
Slow rolled soft plastics as always are a great way to cover ground and get a bite from the bass, if this isn’t working sometimes twitching a hardbody out of the weed will get a reaction bite.
As the water temp continues to drop we will see these bass start to school up in bigger schools throughout the lake.
When this occurs a sounder is a great tool to locate these fish and will increase your catch rate significantly.
Lake Monduran
Over the past few weeks we have seen some really good fish coming from the dam, big barra between 80 and 110 cm have been the most common sized fish.
These barra have been up in the shallows due to the cooler water temp allowing them to sit in this depth comfortably.
Hardbody lures like Samaki Redic DS80’s and MS90’s as well as Jackall Squirrel 79SP’s have been the two lures getting these barra to bite consistently.
Slow rolling Molix 140 Shads and Sicario DTF Minnows are also great options and are known to slay the big barra.
Early mornings, late afternoons and half an hour before or after the Kolan River tide changes have seen the barra feed more aggressively.
Sitting on a school of bigger fish is worth a shot during these times, especially the Kolan River tide change as the bigger barra have bit during this small window.
From the team at Tackle World Bundaberg.
