Southern Bay

A good flush of the rivers

SOUTHERN BAY

Nick

Whyte With plenty of rain around the last month the river systems have had a good flush. Prawns, mud crabs, flathead and whiting are all on the move towards the Jumpinpin and snapper, mackerel and maybe the odd tuna getting around central to northern bay.

Summer whiting are in great numbers around the Lone Pine in the Logan and around the sand flats in the power lines area at the mouth of the Logan River. Light lines with fresh baits have been working best. Pumping your own yabbies or gathering small soldier crabs as well as fresh worms will do the trick. If you can find some clean water around the bottom of the tide, long skinny poppers worked fast on top up in the shallows can be a great visual technique and seems to get the Aquatic Paradise have been producing good numbers. Live baits have been accounting for the majority but there have been a few caught on prawn imitations, like the Zerek pontoons should see you in with a chance at a fish. The closer to the structure, the better the chance of a bite.

School mackerel have been around in a few numbers. The few reports of some spotties and longtail tuna more north of Harries. Keeping a small slug on the ready is a great idea. The Mustad Mezashi casting jig in the 15-30g sizes

Jason with a nice soapy on a Zerek Fish Trap.

Gold spot cod taken on Mustad Ink Vader.

better quality.

Mangrove jack have been active this month. The canal systems in Raby Bay and Live shrimp fished close to structure. Hardbodied lures or paddle-tailed soft plastics burned along the edge of the Luke Cameron with a lovely black spot tusk fish.

beacons, Rous and Rainbow channels and the northern side of Peel Island are all areas worth a look. There’s been a have been the standout for me the last couple of months. If you are finding most of the fish are holding deeper then try trolling the areas holding lots of bait with your slugs behind a paravane.

The bay islands have been producing plenty of pan-sized snapper and grassies. Low light periods of dawn and dusk have been the best times around the shallows. Unweighted baits or very lightly weighted soft plastics have been the go. The use of 3-4” lures will get a lot more attention up in

Dan with a cracker Brisbane River thready. the shallows and help tick the numbers over. Majority of the bigger quality fish have been coming from the deeper water. Harry Atkinson artificial reef, the sunken houseboat or the west artificial reefs at Peel are all worth a try.

There’s been a few tusk fish around the shallows of Peel and Mud. You have to make the effort to get the right bait before heading out. Small live black crabs are best bait with big fresh green prawns a close second. If looking for some bigger fish look for some of the isolated coffee rock up the Rainbow channel or any of the coffee rock ledges up around the top of Moreton Island around Cowan. If you’re keen to have a crack on artificial lures, prawn imitations work well, I’ve caught a few on Fish Traps fished really slow or the Mustad Ink Vader’s are a deadly Lure on them on the deeper ledges.

If you have a great capture from the southern bay you would like to share email them through to nick@techfishing. com.au. Till next month, Tech-it-easy.

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