After a pretty long spell of less than average weather we have finally seen two weekends in a row of light winds and a small swell offshore. It is good to see customers and local anglers out on the water and getting amongst some fish.
Moreton Bay has produced good results for a variety of species. There have been plenty of school mackerel in the northern bay and around the various shipping channel markers from the measured mile to Tangalooma and further north. They are not huge fish but most have been legal and well worth targeting.
Mack Tuna have been in good numbers and size with quite a few fish to 6kg or more. Local anglers Kevin and Matthew caught and released half a dozen in a morning session last weekend, with most falling to soft plastics on light spin gear.
Reef fish such as grass sweetlip, spangled emperor and moses perch have been firing in the shallows around the bay islands and along the front of Wellington Point. Fishing lightly weighted baits of mullet or pilchard, or soft plastics such as atomic prongs, gulp minnows and zooms will produce all of the above species along with trevally, tailor and estuary cod.
Inside the estuaries prawns, crabs and bream have been in good numbers. The mouth of the Logan and throughout the Redland Bay channel have been thick with prawns at times, especially on the moons. Mud crabs have been taken in most estuaries from Brisbane to the Gold Coast.
The good weather over the last couple of weekends saw a huge number of boats heading offshore, in fact those who found themselves running a bit late had trouble finding a carpark at some of the boat ramps. There are still good spanish mackerel being caught right along the coast along with the odd wahoo and dolphin fish. If the water clarity offshore continues to improve we should see a lot more wahoo caught in the next two months, and hopefully a few billfish as well. Small yellowfin tuna have been in big numbers at times with areas like hutchies, the group and the sevens all good areas to try.
Adam and his mate Dave had a great weekend fishing for barra in the Boyne River below Awoonga Dam. The guys fished three pools upstream from Pike Crossing and below the highway bridge at Benaraby for over 40 barra in two days. Popular lures included Jackall Transams, Richo, Barra Classics, B52, and slick rigs. Fishing early in the morning produced the results with a mixture of trolling and casting keeping the fish biting. Changing lure colours when things slowed down soon got the fish biting again.
