New dynamics in FNQ

PORT DOUGLAS

Lynton

Heffer www.fishingportdouglas.com.au

We are on the cusp of a new change in the tropics heading into a cooler period or, as we call it, the dry season. The warmer days did linger a bit beyond their expiry date this year but the angling tact must now concentrate on producing the best results for the middle stages of the calendar.

The reef fishing is heading in the right direction with catches improving all the time now. The South East trade winds have already made their presence felt and this does tend to bring the fish on the bite. The trick is to navigate these winds for comfortable boating.

We are happy to report large-mouth nannygai are up and about and there’s also a steady flow of small mouth nannygai to be taken advantage of. These are schooling fish, generally found in solid numbers and can be at a hectic pace if you are able to track them down. A good starting point is to follow the contour lines 30m from off the reef and then deeper to isolated pinnacle and rubble patches if you have the marks. Typically associated with the nannygai schools can be various trevallies and also Spanish mackerel mid water. The mackerel are best caught floating a pilchard or trolling garfish and hardbody lures around the vicinity. The nannygai are experts at sourcing bait schools accumulated in deeper water and other target species will follow their movement.

The highly valued coral trout continue to be a match winner being caught in depths ranging from 35m and shallower to 20m. They just tend to get stronger in numbers as the cooler months take a stranglehold. Other prized species, such as red emperor, cobia and green jobfish have played a role on any given day. Sweetlip, stripeys, baldy bream and cod species are the icing on the cake.

If calm water fishing the rivers and estuaries is your forté we are still experiencing outcomes with barra, mangrove jack, fingermark, river trevally and grunter all using live bait and fresh dead bait. They will still have an impact more so on the days with a bit of run in the tide and sunny weather.

The new players on the scene are some bigger queenfish, which are a great angling experience and they are very partial to taking a surface popper lure. The best time is work the incoming tide, preferably towards the entrances, to these systems. They will also travel in numbers so whilst wetting a livie or dead bait take the opportunity to flick around a surface lure and this may take your day to a new level. We are also seeing a shift in momentum for bream, which is great entertainment for the young and old. A quality peeled prawn on the end of the line will see a lot of action around snags and structured banks like rock walls. will be running hard in the NFZ, will be the mud crab. Crabs love this time of year as the females begin to moult, which gets the big male crabs out of their holes. Dropping in your pots is definitely worth the effort. Some things to remember when crabbing in the NFZ. Don’t use too much bait or else the crocs and bull sharks will take a liking to your pots. Also keep them well marked and use plenty of rope so they don’t lift up and roll away with the tide. Not much will change next month in terms of the techniques described above. However, the waters of the NFZ do tend to clean up in July making lures much more visible to the fish that will increase your chances of catching them.

With the change of seasons so does the fishing, but it never stops in our part of the world.