Inshore
The Inshore reefs are definitely still fishing great at the moment and plenty of variety is on the cards if you are fishing these reefs.
Finding the bait has been key, most of our inshore marks are holding great amounts of bait and with that has been plenty of school mackerel and some really good sized schools of spanish as well.
Trolling garfish or hardbody lures work well especially if you are trying to locate bait and fish.
If you find an area in which the mackerel are schooled up in, dropping down a Flasha spoon and winding it back in as fast as you can is one of the easiest ways to catch a mackerel, even the big spanish love this technique.
Some great sized grunter and grassy sweetlip are also around on the inshore marks, fresh squid has been the go to bait for these fish.
Casting curl tail and jerk tail soft plastics is also a great way to target these fish.
Make sure your lure is coming in contact with the bottom regularly during your retrieve, this is crucial for getting the bites.
Offshore
With the run of great weather we have had over the last few weeks there has been plenty of action happening out wide!
Those who have found good patches of ground isolated from any other surrounding reef structures have been rewarded.
Dropping big flesh baits like mullet fillet or whole squid in 40 m is producing cracking sized red emperor, spangled emperor, red throat, nannygai and plenty of cobia.
The shallower patches of reef in about 10 to 30 m of water have been holding great numbers of coral trout, grassy sweetlip and venus tuskfish.
Smaller baits like whole pilchards and mullet strips worked really well on these fish and they seemed to chew really hard around the tide changes.
The local wrecks have seen some monster cobia continuing to be caught on them with big flesh baits being very effective on the larger fish.
Plenty of the smaller cobia have ate jigs and soft plastics when jigged erratically through the water column, the big cobia have also taken a liking to this technique at times as well.
Burnett River
The Burnett has fished well again this week, good numbers of blue salmon are still being caught in the Town Reach area on soft vibes.
Targeting these fish around the tide changes can be a good way to capitalise on a bite window as these fish often feed during the tide changes.
Great numbers of big bream are at the mouth of the river along the rock bars and have been caught on a variety of techniques.
Slow rolling medium to deep diving hardbody lures along the rock bars has worked really well on these fish.
Floating out whole sprat or mullet fillet is also a great way to get into the bream action. With the little bit of rain paired with the increasing tides this week the crabbing has been firing up again.
For now the better numbers of crab is coming from steep muddy banks.
Kolan River
The Kolan is fishing well with the shallow flats and drop offs in the cleaner water towards the mouth holding some quality fish.
We have seen fresh yabbies doing the trick on the sand flats on species like flathead, bream, whiting, and big grunter!
The incoming tide and the start of the run out have been the prime times to target these fish.
Flicking some small soft plastics and hardbodies has also paid off big time.
The mouth of the river has seen good numbers of queenfish and numerous types of trevally on the move as they follow schools of bait being pushed up river.
Twitching some small soft plastics around structure which is getting hit with the current has been the most effective way to target these pelagic fish.
Good sized grunter have also been found feeding hard during the run out tide up river in the dirty water, mullet fillet and whole sprat have been the two baits doing the damage.
Elliott River
The Elliott has been fishing red hot, this time of year always sees this river fishing well with grunter, bream, flathead, queenfish, dart and tailor being common catches as the water cools.
The mouth of the Elliott has seen some good schools of trevally, dart and queenfish feeding on schools of bait during the incoming tides.
Finding these fish can sometimes be tricky as they move super quick, however looking for bait flickers and pressure points in the river system will get you fishing the right areas.
Good numbers of flathead and grunter have been caught in the deep holes during a run out tide, whole sprat, prawns and mullet fillet are all great options if you are into your bait fishing.
If lures are your thing, a soft vibe is absolutely deadly on these fish.
Be sure to have a crack on the whiting whilst the tides are increasing, big tides get these whiting on the chew so be sure to pump some fresh yabbies and fish the incoming tide over the shallow flats.
Baffle Creek
Baffle creek has been producing really good fish for most who are giving it a good crack this week.
Plenty of bream, whiting and flathead are being caught throughout the river but the prized fish this week has been the grunter.
Most anglers who have been targeting these fish have had the best luck when fishing the rock bars around Winfield and up river from there, or along the drop offs at the mouth of the river.
These grunter have preferred live or dead sprat as well as mullet fillet.
If you are into lure fishing soft vibes or curl tail soft plastics are great options for these fish.
A lot of estuary cod are being caught whilst chasing these grunter when fishing the rock bars but they are a welcome bycatch for most families or those wanting a feed.
Fishing the deep holes up the creeks during a run out tide has also found some quality flathead sitting in them, soft vibes hopped through these deep holes work really well.
Whole sprat or even a live mullet fished in these deep holes has got the bites from some quality flathead as well as grunter, cod and even some big bream taking a liking to the whole sprat.
Lake Gregory
Lake Gregory has been producing some quality bass with plenty around 35cm to 40cm.
Most of these fish are schooled up throughout the dam so having a sounder to find these schools of fish is a great tool.
Slow rolling small paddle tail soft plastics, spinnerbaits and hopping vibes through the schools has been really effective on these schooled up fish.
Likely areas to look for these fish are off the points in the deeper water, casting along the edges and drop offs has also worked well if you can’t find any bass on your sounder, or even if you don’t have one at all.
Twitching deep diving hardbody lures along the drop offs has worked great to find some fish sitting in the weed, and some of the bigger bass have been getting caught along those drop offs.
From the team at Tackle World Bundaberg
