Fishing News

RoLy Newton

UNFORTUNATELY, the strong winds we experienced last weekend were unsuitable for offshore fishing, which has frustrated many anglers. With the arrival of the cooler conditions, we started to see the first numbers of migratory Spanish and School Mackerel showing up both around the islands and the various shipping channel shoals.

Many of the Spanish were juvenile fish around the 60cm. mark indicating that they had a very successful spawning run last year. Last year was the first of the closed spawning closures for Spanish Mackerel, and I personally believe that there should be closures for most species. Look at how successful the Barramundi and Coral Reef Finfish Closures have been.

The School or Doggy Mackerel have also started turning up at many close-in inshore grounds, such as the Barnard Islands and the Family Group. These grounds usually begin to fish well for this species during mid to late May. Of course, the massive schools of School and Spotted Mackerel arrive in mid-July; however, in the last few years, the Spotted Mackerel numbers have been considerably lower than in earlier years.

The estuaries in the coastal creeks are starting to return to normal; however, the massive tides last weekend kept the water clarity poor, resulting in tough fishing. There were some very lovely Mangrove Jacks and, to a lesser extent, Barra caught, but the going was pretty tough. There was also some school Trevally, Flathead, and even some small creek Fingermark caught.

The popular waterways were reasonably busy, with most boats concentrating on working their crab pots. Reasonable numbers of Mud Crabs were caught, and the coastal creeks are full of Banana Prawns at present.

As usual, under these conditions, the Hinchinbrook Channel offered plenty of opportunities, Mud Crabs, Barra, Mangrove Jacks, Grunter and Fingermark. Even though the fishing was still challenging, some great reports came in. The number of metre plus Barra being caught from land-based locations around Cardwell has been staggering this year.

The freshwater is still fishing well, along with the Barra; there was also some excellent fishing for Sooty Grunter and Jungle Perch in the headwaters and feeder creeks.

Unfortunately, looking forward to this coming weekend; strong winds are predicted. This will once

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PO Box 1100, TULLY, 4854 70 Butler Street, TULLY again confine fishing to the estuaries and freshwater. The good news is that the smaller tides should result in cleaner water conditions which are ideal for many species, especially Mangrove Jacks. I know what I will be chasing. I will set a few crab pots Saturday afternoon, chase some Jacks, and repeat during the Sunday morning run-out tide.

The early morning run-out tide will also suit fishing for Grunter both in the coastal creeks and in the Hinchinbrook Channel.

Good Fishing

Roly Newton

Tackle World Tully