Noosa

With winter well and truly with us, it is a little harder to get your nose out from under the doona, but with winter comes clear skies and quite often those favourable westerly winds that makes the run out super smooth.

With the pelagic’s season pretty much behind us now, we are all thinking about the snapper season. With very little fishing pressure over the past few months there should be some great opportunities to pin some of those bigger fish. At this stage we are looking at another closure on both snapper and pearl perch from the 15 July to 15 August so we will have to target other species over this time.

Sweetlip, cobia, mulloway and cod are all still on the menu along with some Coby Thomas with a pigeon pair of amberjack from the Barwon banks.

very sweet red fish from the northern reef systems. If you do manage to catch a snapper or pearl perch over the closure having some release weights is essential. These will give the fish the best chance of survival along with getting them down to their fishy homes before the sharks get to them.

For those still looking for their pelagic fix, there are still some good tuna around, most fish have been taken around the northern areas like North Reef up to Double Island area. There are some good schools of mac tuna with some quality long tails amongst them. They are tending to feed to the north and are very flighty so if they are feeding on bait schools you will have to try to get to the north of them and let them come to you. The bait they are feeding on is quite small so smaller slug, small stick baits and lighter jigs are your best bet. Make sure you cast to the edges of the schools as casting to the centre can quite often spook them. Let your lure sink a little more as the bigger fish tend to hold that bit deeper.

In the river, the past rains have certainly changed our approach as the water’s dirty. Whiting have been in good numbers as they love a bit of dirty water as it creates more cover, and they are happier to come up into the shallow waters to feed. This gives anglers that love to walk and cast smaller poppers and surface walkers some great opportunities. Areas like the Dog Beach and the Frying Pan in Noosa and Chambers Island, Picnic Point and Black Banks in the Maroochy are all perfect for this style of fishing. For bait anglers, a freshly pumped yabbies are hard for a tasty whiting to pass up.

Flathead numbers should also be good in these areas, this fish will be feeding on small baitfish still running to more saline waters. These fish will be lying in the shallow waters sunning themselves and increasing their core temperatures in those warmer shallower waters. Fish the start of the outgoing tide casting upstream and working a plastic or small fish bait back downstream. These fish are masters of camouflage and are quite happy to sit in 6” of water or less.

As we see that blue water come into our river systems with the incoming tides, we will also see some quality trevally and tailor also chasing those smaller schools of bait. Fast moving jigs like the Gomoku Trick Metals in the 18g size are perfect for the job, they have an assist hook on the front and a treble on the rear making it easy to pin the fish. For bait anglers you will have to upsize those leaders to cope with the sharp teeth of the tailor. In the Noosa River, fish the current line at the mouth of Woods Bays, in the Maroochy River mouth, or Twin Waters weir is a great place to start.

Bream will also hopefully return after all the rains earlier in the year to spawn as the salinity levels improve. This is the time of the year when we see those big breeding stocks in our rivers. The bigger models can be a little more challenging to catch as they are crafty and seem to be able to tell the difference between a bait

with a hook in it and one that has not. The best bit of info we can give you is to keep everything lightly weighted, light lines, light fluorocarbon leaders and of course very little sinker weight. If you do all this, you may be in with a chance of tricking one of the bigger ones.

On the beaches there has been plenty of erosion after the big swells earlier in the year and this has left plenty of exposed coffee rock, which is a great environment feeding fish.

Hopefully this year’s tailor season will improve from the last couple of years, we have seen plenty of fish in our rivers but off the beaches has been quite poor. The prime area to hunt seem to be North of Teewah up towards Double Island and then of course over to Fraser Island. Reports from down south have been promising so hopefully the fish will hold along the coast and not swim offshore like previous years. Prime times to fish are those bigger tides around the moon phases early morning or dusk. Casting lures like the Halco Twisty can be a good way to target them, but for the best results the good old pilchard is ideal.

Those bigger bream and tarwhine have been plentiful around the coffee rock all the way up and down the coast. Lighter setups using rods like the Gary Howard Breambo, or the Dart are perfect for the job. These rods can come suited to both spin and Alvey. Lighter lines up to about 8lb and light fluorocarbon leader. Baits of worms, pipis prawn, small crabs or strip baits of mullet

Mark Stallan with a nice Maroochy River mouth tailor.

Chris with a stunning snapper off the Gneerings.

have all worked well. • Don’t forget to check in to www.fishingnoosa.com. au for all the latest up to date info on fishing and bar crossings. The knowledgeable teams at Tackle World Noosa and Northshore Bait & Tackle at Marcoola can provide you with the right equipment, bait and advice to ensure success!