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Fishing Reports

This Fishing report is a weekly report and is updated every Friday so before you venture out check it out on fishntales. For all those magnificent fish that get caught here why not show them off in our photo gallery and rub it in. If you do not live here we will show your photo as well. Just E-mail your photo's and details to the webmaster@fishntales.com and we will show them to the world.

The past week of fantastic weather saw some great fishing over the new moon period. Things got a bit tougher as the bigger tides fell away, coinciding with a plummeting barometer, but all in all it’s been a great week for anglers on the Fraser Coast.

Looks like we are in for a bit more wind by the weekend so check the latest forecasts and plan your trips accordingly. Luckily, conditions in our big rivers have improved a lot, as they are good options over the neap tides, particularly as the tides start to build again.

The Burrum system is on the mend after a lengthy spell of too much fresh water. Whilst the Burrum itself is fishing okay in the lower reaches for whiting, bream, flathead, jacks and grunter, the Gregory and Isis are currently a lot cleaner and have produced jacks and a few barra over the past week.

The Mary system is also improving, with barra and threadfin salmon the main targets on either lures or livies. Fish are moving further into the river system chasing the mullet, gar and jelly prawns. Grunter, jew, bream and flathead are all worthy targets in the lower reaches as well.

The Straits continue to fish quite well for a variety of species, including barra, jacks, salmon, jew, bream, whiting and a few flathead. Grass sweetlip, blackall and cod can be found on some of the deeper rocky ledges. Both mud crabs and sand crabs are active, and it would be a good idea to carry a cast net as prawns are possible, albeit a better option when the tides are bigger.

Pelagic activity in the bay seemed to peak over the bigger tides last weekend, tapering off again with the cloudy weather and waning tides. Longtail tuna are still the main target for sportsfishos, drawing visitors from far and wide to chase these hard-pulling speedsters.

Many tuna schools, both longtail and mack, are turning up in the central and western parts of the bay as well as up the inside of the island. There are a lot of bonito schools in the lower bay at present, providing great fun for the kids and good baits for reef fishos.

School and broad-barred mackerel are scattered throughout the bay, with good fish being found over a few of the Platypus Bay reefs, Arch Cliffs, Outer Banks, Coongul, the Baitgrounds and off Gatakers Bay.

A few nice snapper were caught over the new moon from around Rooneys and at the Gutters. Inshore, the odd bigger fish is turning up at the Arti and Burrum 8 Mile, but smaller models to 50cm are more common as yet.

The Fairway is holding a lot of baitfish, which in turn is drawing mackerel, sharks, tuna and trevally. Migrating schools of snapper often make an appearance around the Fairway from now into winter, so don’t be surprised if you score a knobby on a livie or plastic out that way in the future.

The Gutters fished well over the weekend, though the bite diminished thereafter. Sharks were terrible, but constant moving from spot to spot resulted in mixed bags including coral trout, reds, scarlets, snapper, sweetlip, jacks, moses perch, venus tuskfish, cod and others.

Sharks are a problem off Rooneys as well, but snapper, scarlets, sweetlip, hussar and cod were reported over the weekend. Mackerel and tuna were also active in the area.

Winter whiting have made an appearance to the west of Gatakers Bay. As they start to arrive and build in numbers from now on you will find them in small numbers, but often of better size. Very few folk have achieved their 50 bag limit this week.

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