Northern Bay

Plum time for prawning

NORTHERN BAY Tackle World Lawnton

After being rather scattered over the early to mid summer season due to fluctuating weather, the prawns have finally decided to turn up in good numbers. What a great way to get an A+ feed for the family. easy to unsnag a prawn net without damage and a new one can be expensive. As always make sure you stick to the regulations with what you can keep. Currently it’s 10L per person, or 20L per boat, which is a lot of prawns to feed you and the family.

Also, there have some good reports of mud crabs and sand crabs moving through the estuaries after offshore over the next few months to spawn. As time goes, the prawns will become less common further up the creeks and better catches will come from places like out the front of Clontarf Beach and Nudgee Beach.

We should also continue to get some good crab catches. There has been some good flush outs due to the storms and rain over summer so hopefully this will continue to get the crabs on the move.

Unfortunately for the estuaries the heavy and somewhat frequent rain we received over summer has keep the creeks and waterways a little dirty the further up the systems. Hopefully this should start to clear up and improve the fishing. In saying that, there have still been some good catches of the regulars such as whiting, bream and flathead. This time of year, bream will be quite active feeding up before they spawn and are a great fish to target on both bait and lures. It’s a great time to try catching bream on surface lures as well. This method has worked well throughout the last few months and March will be no different before it gets colder. Try lures like the Bassday Sugapen, Daiwa Slippery Dog and MMD Splash Prawns for best results.

Flathead are still a popular catch this month and should be found scattered throughout the estuaries. it’s bouncing off the bottom you’re in the right spot! This time of year when the prawns are running, it’s also worth sounding around for some larger predators like mulloway and threadfin salmon. If you find them try throwing a prawn imitation lure as that will most probably be what they are feeding on.

BAY

Even through the weather hasn’t been the best, there have still been some good catches of school mackerel in the usual haunts. It’s always worth heading to the shipping markers and doing a drift by. Floating down a gang pilly is always worth a go. However, I like throwing small metals, like the Halco Twisty lures. Cast to the zone, let it sink to the bottom then a quick retrieve back to the boat. If the fish are present they won’t be able to resist it!

Coming out of the hotter months we should also start to see better numbers and size of snapper and grunter turning up on the rubble patches and inshore reefs off Redcliffe. Floating down a pilchard, strip bait or squid should see you getting some action. It’s also worth targeting them on some plastics. Try a big ribbon tail grub plastic or a jerk shad type plastic. If snapper are around, they will be sure to have a go at these. DAMS

As mentioned last month

Jamie Rule got a good haul of prawns this month.

Most people chasing prawns these days use a 10-12ft chain bottom cast net with the top pocket. It takes a bit of practice, but once you have your casting down pat you will increase the size of your catch. Make sure you keep an eye on your sounder to see what the bottom looks like – it’s not the rain. Fish frames work great for bait, and make sure you give the pots a good soak to increase your chances of a good catch.

RIVERS AND CREEKS

This month we should continue to see prawns scattered throughout the estuary but they will start to thin out as they head

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the bass have started to spread out over the dams as they transition a little from the edges to more in the deep as we move into the cooler months. At the moment bass can be caught throughout the systems so the best thing to do is get out there and find them. Bait fishos have been doing well on live shrimp (even though they have been a little hard to get recently) and live African crawler worms. For the lure fishos, spinnerbaits and chatterbaits and small plastics are still the more preferred lures used in the dams this time of year. Lake Kurwongbah is at 100% capacity after all the rain we received, and Lake Samsonvale around 65% (due to water releases), so the dams are looking rather healthy coming out of summer. Hopefully we get some Emma Smith with a tasty sand crab. good weather over the next month so we can get out on the water more and enjoy this great time of the year. • For more up to date information on fishing in and around Brisbane call into the guys at Tackle World Lawnton and they can point you in the right direction. The friendly staff at Tackle World Lawnton cater to all levels of experience and offer the widest range of brands at the best prices. They are located at 640 Gympie Road Lawnton (07) 3205 7475 or find us on Facebook and Instagram.

Family prawning with the Smiths! If you’re having trouble finding them when using soft plastics, troll around using small hardbodies along the edge of the flats. Once you hit a pattern and find a few. Anchor up and fan cast through that area. A favourite trolling lure for flathead is n Marine and Auto Electricial nAll types of Welding Steel Truck Body Repairs Aluminium and the Zerek Tango Shad. A nice small profile that seems to get the hits. Just make sure when trolling your diving n n n Stainless Steel n Aluminium n Mild Steel Boats Repaired nFuel & Water Tanks Canopies n Bow and Stern Rails n Hand Rails Shed 1 281 Jacobs Well Road Behind Freedom Service Station, lure is bouncing off the sandy bottom. This flicks the sand up and attracts the fish. If nT Tops for centre console boats Alberton 4207 n n n Custom Vehicle Tool Boxes Bait Tanks for jet skis Side Rails centre console boats T-Tops for Phone 3807 7846 Mobile: 0414 736 606 or 0427 142 201

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