Inshore and offshore
With our inshore reefs swarmed with yakka the pelagic fishing has been red hot.
Lots of anglers have been having fun using top water lures and catching some cracker queenfish, tuna and trevally whilst these predators are smashing bait balls.
Fishing the pressure edged side of reefs has been a great technique or keeping an eye out for any action along the top of the water.
Using 5 inch jerk tail soft plastics either wound through the school of feeding pelagic fish or hopped along the pressure edged side of reefs has been really effective.
Some cracking mulloway have been found through our inshore reefs with big soft vibes working a treat.
These fish will be patrolling along big drop offs, bommies or hanging underneath big bait balls waiting for an opportunity.
Our offshore fishing has been great over the last few weeks with big coral trout, red emperor, tusk fish and sweetlip being the most common fish caught.
The coral trout have been loving soft plastics like the Ecooda Live Shrimp whereas the red emperor have preferred large flesh baits like fish fillets or whole squid.
A lot of the tusk fish and sweetlip haven't been picky and most baits dropped down have caught these fish.
Burnett River
This week on the Burnett has seen a lot of monster grunter being caught towards the mouth of the river.
Rock walls and gravel beds is where these fish have been getting caught and the go to bait has been whole prawns or small sections of mullet fillet.
Soft vibes and curl tail soft plastics have been catching heaps of these grunter as well.
Covering ground whilst trying to locate these fish is so important, drifting with the tide along the gravel beds has been a killer technique this week.
The usual flathead, bream and cod have been still caught along most of the river’s rock walls with the top of the run out tide producing most of the fish. Fresh yabbies, mullet fillet or chook gut has worked very well.
This weekend’s big tides will have the mud crabs on the move so putting the pots in overnight in your favourite sections of river should work a treat.
Lake Monduran
With Lake Monduran beginning to produce some quality barra there is good reason for anglers to be keen on a trip to the dam whilst plenty of metre plus fish have been hitting the deck.
This has brought with it a lot more boat traffic which in turn can disturb some of the barra especially if they are in well known locations.
Finding bays that are out of the way or a long way to get to will help you find fish that are willing to eat.
Barra that have had hundreds of lures wound past their face over the last couple of days are definitely going to be harder to tempt a bite out of than ones that haven't seen a lure in a while.
Stealth is crucial when sounding barra so to give yourself the best chances of getting a bite make sure to use your electric motor or drift so you aren't starting your outboard whilst near fish.
Plenty of bays are now filled with fish so finding them shouldn't be the issue, getting one to bite is the hard part.
Soft plastics between 4 and 5 inches with a light jig head has been the go, a gentle slow wind has got the most bites.
Providing the weather stays warm and we get some consistent winds we should see some great fishing during the Tackle World Bundaberg Lake Monduran Family Fishing Classic on the 22nd and 23rd of October.
If you are planning on fishing this comp it is a good idea to do a few trips to the dam beforehand.
Lake Gregory
This week’s warmer weather has seen more bass being caught throughout the day but the go to time has been late afternoon.
Slow winding small soft plastics along shallow points and drop offs with heaps of weed as structure has been where most bass have been caught.
Topwater lures have been catching some great bass in the late afternoon but plenty of missed hookups along the way.
The bass aren't fully committing to these topwater lures which results in a lot of missed strikes.
Seeing a bass charge after your lure and come out of the water is still pretty cool though!
For now the dam just needs a little bit more warmer weather and the bass will be fired up in no time.
From the team at Tackle World Bundaberg
