Transition through the month

MACKAY

Cameron Christian

While autumn started in March, April is really when we begin to transition from the hot, humid wet season to our coolish winter. As a result, the start of April is still great for summer species like barra and jacks, while the end of the month should begin to produce more winter species like flathead, queenfish and sooties.

There was plenty of rain over February and if this remains consistent over March there should be absolutely tonnes of big juicy prawns in all the systems around Mackay. During times like these, live baits will usually produce the best results. A cast net and electric motor are essential for collecting prawn and they can usually be found around spots like the mouths of small gullies or small sheltered bays. Prize barra will usually mooch around looking for the best baits hence anglers should only use the best prawns they can find and its always worthwhile rigging several prawns on a large circle hook.

When the weather begins to cool off plenty of barra should still be around but they may be harder to find and get to bite. Looking for warmer water will increase chances and fishing sand or rock bars on the incoming tide after they have been baking in the sun can create perfect conditions, particularly on days where the wind drops off. In this situation, barra will typically chase bait up into the warm shallow water and can often be seen with their backs sticking out of the water.

When barra are seen actively feeding like this, lures like shallow divers worked erratically with plenty of stop-start movement to imitate small whiting can produce great results. Fishing areas like productive sessions.

While fishing the flats or rock bars around the mouths of Mackay systems during April anglers should spot plenty of queenfish bashing about. Surface lures like poppers, shallow divers and floating stick baits are great for targeting these fish and can be worked fast and erratically for queenfish and slow and gentle for any

Imitating the garfish using surface lures like long slim minnows or pencil poppers typically works well.

April should also be a great time for anglers to chase both barra and sooties in the dams around Mackay. With luck the rain will ease off and give the dams a chance to stabilise, with this the barra should be feeding like crazy as these should also see plenty of flathead catches during April, if flathead imprints can be seen in the sand at low tide, then fishing that area during the incoming and high tide, using any barra lures but also trying smaller soft plastics, prawn imitations, vibes and flies should lead to barra nearby.

Queenfish will also hang around the inshore islands like Round Top, Flat Top, Slade Island and those around Seaforth. Looking for garfish on the surface, a favourite prey for queenfish, will help to locate where they are getting around.

Fishing’, Geoff Newby and his grandson Finn Gee primarily fished a shallow point less than 2m deep filled with weed towers. Despite being equipped with the some of the best Lowrance electric motor and sounder technology, the team took a stealthy approach using a lead weight anchor and busy pumping new barra fingerlings into Teemburra. Recently 10,000 at an average size of 110mm were released, purchased using SIP funds. At the time of writing, 33,000 barra fingerlings will soon be released into Teemburra, an original order of 16,500 very generously doubled at no cost by Bass they try to fatten up for the cooler times ahead. Looking for the warmer waters during the warmest parts of the day should help anglers to get onto a bite time. This is typically done by fishing shallow, windblown bays and points during late afternoon to sunset.

MTA

MTA recently held a fundraiser comp for MAFSA fishing 2-night sessions at Kinchant, raising over $700, which will go a long way to restoking Teemburra after the flooding earlier in the year.

Winning team ‘Love no sounders as they were choked by all the weed.

The team mentioned persistence was essential while fishing this type of terrain as majority of retrieves would be fouled with weed. Also mentioning that x-raps were very useful as they could effectively slash through the weed. The team also used Zerek live mullets in dark ale during the day and fat betty during the night, modifying these swimbaits by removing the belly hook and fixing a treble to the tow point to avoid catching weed.

MAFSA have been

Barra and Barcoo to assist with the recovery of the dam after the flood loss.

As the weather really cools down and impoundment barra become hard work to find, many anglers will switch to chasing sooties and some practice early April will be perfect for anglers fishing the 18th INDT world sooty comp taking place on the 29th and 30th April. The competition is MAFSA’s major fundraising event and offers over $10,000 in prizes so get in and nominate before nominations close on the 22 April.