Promising prospects ahead for autumn bags

PORT DOUGLAS

Lynton

Heffer www.fishingportdouglas.com.au

Having experienced a proper tropical wet season, which created a few headaches at the beginning of the year, the general feeling now is of optimism.

For example, we’ve had plenty of rain ranging from 150mm up to 370mm in a 24hr period. This surprisingly equates to good fishing in the following weeks and the sense is the highest of this precipitation is behind us. However, a tropical low pressure system during the March/April period can put us on the back foot again and the weather pattern will be watched with anticipation in FNQ.

The positive signs we’ve seen of late have occurred mostly outside of the heavy rain periods. Offshore we’ve had no real serious extended winds to contend with so heading to the reef has been viable most times. The reduction in water temperature it appears has created a burst of activity from a variety of species and overall numbers have been above expectations. There’s been a good supply of coral trout to go around, small and large nannygai have contributed evenly and some high-quality red emperor have made cameo appearances as well.

Outside of this there’s been a mixed bag adding to the fishing creel with the likes of big gold spot and tea-leaf trevally testing angling abilities. Green job fish, monster cod, baldy bream, cattle dog cod and spangled emperor all featuring at some point.

Floating a pilchard whilst bottom fishing has also turned over quite a few Spanish mackerel up to 10kg. They’ve been the icing on the cake on quite a few occasions.

Looking ahead leading into April these early signs are very encouraging where currents and conditions turn the tables in the angler’s favour.

Along the coastline we’ve already started to see the benefits of the rains with a massive supply of bait spread not far from shore. The pelagics have cottoned on to this and there’s already been substantial catches of Spanish mackerel and trevally ready to pounce. Medium-sized poppers worked across the water have received serious attention. Look at the size of bait flicking around and match the hatch with a similar sized lure. Soft plastics and metal slices will also play an important role in your success. Headlands and islands are a good starting point to explore.

Within the calm waters estuary systems will fish best immediately after a good rain and the bigger river systems may take a couple more days.

Draining gutters on a low tide have already been a popular haunt to lure up some good barra. Don’t dismiss the size of the drain trickling water out of the mangroves, the smaller ones may just surprise you as to what may lay in waiting.

The deeper snags are positive for fingermark and mangrove jack with live bait being the locals’ choice of method.

As our coastal systems settle and water clarity returns, it won’t be long before we see some thumping queenfish amongst the action, along with a solid supply of river trevally and GTs on those decent tides with a steady flow on the incoming tide.

The next month or so I always highlight on the calendar because when the conditions align, it is hang on by the seat of your pants action!

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