Southern
OLD
Summer catches on their way! NOOSA
Peter Wells
With the summer months upon us a lot of people are looking forward to that camping trip up the beach. The Noosa North Shore is a very popular spot at this time of the year for beach anglers, and hopefully we should see plenty of action. With a good tailor season this year I would expect to
see some nice fish taken off the beach as they make their way south after spawning. Usually, the heavier seas at this time of the year push them a little further out but there are always those rough tailor that seem to be around at this time of the year. Mulloway is another option and a lot of anglers won’t waste their time fishing during the morning, but rather opt to fish late into the evening chasing
Rob Baurer picked up his personal best whiting from the Maroochy River. The elbow slapper went 43cm.
a big fish. Tailor, mullet, squid or clumps of beach worms are all great baits for these fish. For the kids, the gutters have been full of smaller dart and whiting, this is a great way to get the kids into fishing as these fish are usually holding in the closer gutters, so a big cast is not necessary. Beach worms, pipis, and prawns are all ideal baits and easy for the kids to bait themselves. The past months have certainly seen good catches of crabs in the creeks and river systems. Plenty of bucks have been taken in Sunshine Coast creeks and rivers, as well as better than average catches in the Noosa River system. If we see more rain, a good tip is to place your pots in the deeper holes. Remember to mark both your pot and float and if you are tying off to a tree, there must be a tag with your name and number above the water line. The Noosa River seems to be the jack hot spot with plenty of fish between 40-50cm been taken. If heading upriver wanting to chase a jack, live bait of poddy mullet have been dynamite, rig them on a snelled rig for the best results. The many sandbars around the Noosa River mouth have been the whiting hot spots with worms, peeled prawns and live yabbies being the best bait. Don’t forget if the whiting are a little timid, drop your hook size and place red tube above the hook, this will improve your hook up rate.
Woods Bays are still producing trevally and queenfish in good numbers, these predatorial fish are feeding on baitfish brought down with the influx of freshwater or brought in on the tide. Fast moving slugs and plastics have been very effective for lure anglers, while live herring have been quickly gobbled up for the bait anglers. In the Maroochy River, flathead continue to be the number one species with plenty of legal fish reported. The whole system has seen good catches but the most productive has been around Bli Bli Islands on the run-out tide. For those looking to get into lures, flathead are one of the easiest fish to catch on a lure. Casting at the back of fallen trees where there are eddies is a great place to find fish. Flathead will hold here and pick off bait as it is dragged into the eddie. Another way to target them is to troll for them, deep diving hardbody lures that run close to the bottom will quite often be picked up by a big flathead. Trevally numbers are still strong around Twin Waters weir and the river mouth, most of the fish have been taken on the incoming tide while feeding on smaller bait fish brought in with the tide. Offshore fishing, as always, is dependent on the weather but with a little luck we should get plenty of good days in over the summer months. Sunshine Reef is my favourite in summer, as not only is it a shorter journey but the list of species to be caught here is very impressive. Coral trout of course is the
Benji Smith got this very solid queenfish from the Maroochy River on a live bait. first on your list when you get to Sunshine Reef early morning. As the sun comes up hopefully the Spanish mackerel and tuna come out to play. Trolling in this area can be very rewarding and with a good spread of lures you can quite often pick up some good Spanish, wahoo or tuna. Speaking of tuna, always keep a look out for surface bust ups with plenty of tuna usually feeding on smaller bait fish, like frog mouthed pilchards or hardiheads, in this area. This is the time to get the casting rod out and cast smaller
Noah Brown with a solid 63cm mangrove jack from the Twin Waters area. 30
DECEMBER 2022
slugs up to about 40g. North Reef has been a hot spot for big cobia and there have been plenty of big fish hooked in this area so check your gear is up to the job. Cobia love to swim with sharks and other schools of fish ‘even whales’ so if the sounder lights up there will usually be a cobia amongst them. The Sunshine Coast is becoming famous for its small black marlin fishery that has showed no signs of stopping. Chardons Reef is the spot to find these juvenile marlins and finding the bait schools on the sounder is the key. A well-presented live yakka or slimy mackerel fished deep next to the bait school will put you in good stead to find that nice bill fish. A trip up to the reefs off Double Island is always at the hands of the weather gods but this is where our big red emperor is the target fish. Along with the reds it is not unusual to find big amberjacks, nannygai and some very solid snapper and pearl perch, often the run is pretty strong so make sure you have plenty of larger sinkers on board to get to the bottom. • Don’t forget to check in to www.fishingnoosa.com. au for all the latest up to date info on fishing and bar crossings. The knowledgeable teams at Tackle World Noosa and Northshore Bait & Tackle at Marcoola can provide you with the right equipment, bait and advice to ensure success!
