I hope everyone got out for a fish last weekend and had a crack at the VMR Family Fishing Classic comp.
With the prizes on offer it would have been worth your while having a go.
There were some great catches at the weigh-in tables with a 6.2kg snapper, 7.3kg coral trout and a 26.9kg cobia. Â Â Â
Inshore – offshore
Still plenty on offer with lots of school mackerel taking a liking to metal flasher lures that are cast out and left to sink to the bottom and crank them back like your next meal depends on it.
Let’s face it, a fresh feed of mackerel beats going to the fish and chip shop with the Mrs rubbing it in about having to pay for fish.
I have heard that the snapper have been on the chew late in the arvo on the inshore reefs and some big cobia stretching people’s arms and equipment to the limit out wide on the wrecks.
All the usual suspects still on the chew out wide from trout and red emperor to big Spanish and everything in between.
Local rivers
At this time of year, the bream are schooling up getting ready for the love season and trying to pack on as much size as possible and the females will be full of row.
With that being said, the Burnett River has been producing some monster bream with sizes averaging 40-45cm and in good numbers.
It has been slow on the winter whiting but they shouldn’t be far off, so dust off your old faithful and have a crack this weekend.
It’s the best time of year to target the old flathead. Â
I find in the morning they like to try and warm up in the shallow water along the edge of the rivers and if the tide is up, they will be in the shallows over the sand banks and yabbie beds having a feed.
The grunter, whether it be the smaller spotted grunter min size 30cm or the barred grunter min size 40cm, they fall under a javelin species and are not a bream species.
Although they love a well presented bait, they also love a soft plastic lure slowly twitched along the rock walls and sand banks with the 10g Samaki Vibelicious or a you beauty Zman 3 inch minnow.
Monduran Dam and Lake Gregory
With these colder days Lake Monduran has been best fished in the arvo once the water has had the sun on it.
I find hard bodies are best this time of year like a Jackall Squirrel so you can suspend it in their face and get that aggressive/territorial bite, worked in the warmer bays and points leading in to those bays.
Lake Gregory boat ramp has been closed for maintenance so best fished by a kayak at this stage, with a few bass being caught every session.
That’s all folks,
Stay safe on the water and be mindful of your fellow fishers.
Josh Mortenson
Tackle World Bundaberg
