OFFSHORE – Wow 2 great weekends of weather and this one and next week is looking good too. good spotties around caloundra in good numbers. spotties and spanish on coolum reef. yellowfin tuna, yes yellow fin tuna in the bay at the moment. 3 different reports of smaller fish taking slugs. good to see. small spotties around old woman island and spanish and spotties at inner gneerings. sweetlip on murphys reef. red throat, parrot and moses perch on the top of the banks.

snapper and pearl perch floating around the ocean yes unfortunately ive had guys in this week with good hauls of these prize fish only to be returned to the water ( doing the right thing ) and these fish are all dying. not all i should say turned upside down but enough to wonder why we are having the closure in the first place. im all for protecting our stocks and 6 weeks isnt really a long time but more measures have to be put into place.

ESTUARY – Bream and trevally in the twin waters canals. mangrove jacks in coolum creek and in the woods bays in noosa on live bait. the dirty water line in mooloolah river has been producing a mixed bag of flathead, bream and trevally on plastics and hard bodies. whiting and bream at the mouth of marrochy on worms and prawns.

get out and have a fish on the weekend the weathers looking great. ill be thinking about you all while im working all weekend.

cheers ben

OFFSHORE – Some good conditions last weekend finally and its looking good again for tomorrow and sunday. last sunday there was good snapper and sweetlip on the outer gneerings. just unfortunate we cant keep them from now on for a little while. sweetlip, cobia, spanish mackeral and parrot out on the banks. coral trout and sweetlip on sunshine reef. spanish mackeral off coolum and spanish and spotties off murphys.

ESTUARY – Golden trevally on poppers along la balsa park early morning. bream and small trevs around kawana canals. small jacks in twin waters on lures. school jew off moffats beach. jew off marrochy north shore. flathead on the drift with plastics and live bait in the lower reaches of mooloolah river. jacks at the entrance of coolum creek. jacks and the odd small jew on live bait around bli bli bridge.

good luck if you happen to wet a line over the weekend.

ben

SOMERSET DAM – Somerset is still dirty in colour and the fishing has been tough for most anglers. Having said that on recent trips the fish have been found in quite large schools but they have just not been firing. In the next couple of weeks as the water continues to settle these fish should still be packed together and begin to become more active. If you do want to fish this dam in the next few weeks your best option is to use ice jigs that have some brightness to them or that are very dark in colour as these colours create a contrast to the dirty water. Also if hard-bodies are your go, noisy lures like cotton cordell spots in gold have produced some fish. The areas the fish have been found in the most part are on the steeper drop-offs from the flats. Places like the old river bed off pelican point and also the drop off from poly point. Some fish have also been found in around 15 feet on the flats off the spit but in all cases the fish have not responded well to most offerings. Stick with this dam as it will fire sometime in the next few weeks.

BORUMBA DAM – Borumba has probably been the pick of the dams over the last fortnight with consistent catches of Bass and Saratoga. The Bass have been found in the bay after the first weeding point on the left with good catches being recorded. The skiers can be a nuisance in this area so early in the morning is your best bet. Cast right to the banks with spinnerbaits and blades allow them to sink about ½ to ¾ of the way to the bottom and then slow retrieve. The bass weren’t smashing the lure, you would often feel some taps before a real strike. So slow is the key so not to pull the lure away from the fish and give it a chance to take it. There will be some snags on trees and weed but if you’re not getting that you won’t catch fish. Further up the dam in the Yabba Arm of the dam there have been consistent catches of bass and saratoga. The prime real estate to target at present is anywhere with lantana and some weed or lily pads as this gives the saratoga some cover to ambush their prey. In the morning use beetle spins, cicada imitations and any lure that can walk the dog. Later in the day spinnerbaits, subsurface 1-2m divers have also produced. The bass here also like the spinnerbaits being cast near the submerged, but not rotting, banksia trees. Best colours were gold, olive and lime green.

LAKE MACDONALD – After a few weeks of ordinary fishing, Lake MacDonald has begun to show some signs of life. Nice sized bass (48cm fork) have been taken way down the back on the weed edges adjacent to Noosa-Cooroy rd. Most of the larger fish have been found here by casting blades, spinnerbaits and lipless crankbaits to the edge of the weed and letting them sink a little before retrieving. Also if you cast in the weed, give the rod some sharp tugs to release it and then let it sink as this will often attract the bass. Casting to the gaps in the weed is also an effective strategy in areas of heavy weed. The 3 ways has also produced some fish but not to the same quality as down further. The fish in the dam also love plastics so be sure to give them a go if the going gets tough.

Hope this helps,

Brendan

OFFSHORE – Last weekend a few fishos got amongst some fish. sunshine reef produced coral trout, snapper, sweetlip and parrot. coolum reef there was sweetlip, snapper, moses perch and the odd spanish was trolled up on halco laser pros. outer gneerings there was snapper, sweetlip, parrot and cobia. this week its been too windy but this weekend its looking pretty good and it will be the last weekend till april we can go and keep a feed of snapper, pearl perch and trag jew as its closed on tuesday the 15th of feb till april 1st.

ESTUARY – Mangrove jacks in bli bli creek, upper reaches of mooloolah and around the motorway bridge at night. trevally early around kawana island on poppers. mud crabs through the middle reaches of the rivers. small trevally early at the mouth of mooloolah. small jacks in twin waters canals on shallow diving lures over the rocks. bream and whiting at the mouth of marrochy to chambers island. woods bay theres jacks and the odd trev at night. good tailor and trevally around tewantin.

have a good weekend. dont forget we have 20% off all braid, line and leader all this month

ben

Hi everyone,

Well finally we have had a chance to get out on the sweetwater and chase some fish. It has been an amazing couple of weeks with amazing amounts of water entering and flowing through all our major freshwater fisheries. This has made fishing literally impossible. However, short term pain for potential long term gain. In the next few months we should be back to normal and with some hot weather the bass, yellas and togas should still be in full swing.

SOMERSET DAM – Somerset was reopened on Australia day with a warning to be careful of floating debris in the water. Kirkleigh is your best bet to launch but the spit did look like it was in operation on the weekend. The water at Somerset is a milking, dirty, murky colour where you can only see your lure about 5 -10cm into the water. To see the marks of where the water went up to is astonishing and it is liking that this amount of water caused a lot of disturbance and no doubt we lost some fish over the wall. Having said that fish can be found in Somerset but they can be hard to entice. Most fish were located on the drop offs in deeper water than before Christmas. Quite a large school was found on a drop off than went from 8 to 13 m just on the edge of Pelican Point (The old river bed). These fish are most likely sitting in the cleanest water they can find at present which is deeper as the water settles. Not many of these fish were landed but louder and brighter lures worked the best with only one fish cracking 40cm. On a side note the red claw are prolific at this dam at present.

BORUMBA DAM – Borumba reopened on Friday and since then there has been very little boat traffic on the dam. The road to the dam was heavily flooded and there is some damage to both roads and bridges so be careful when getting out to the dam. The water is dirty but not disgusting and some water is still trickling over the wall. Most fish in this dam have sort shelter in the weeds and shallow edges as they can patrol the newly submerged grass and timber for bugs and grubs that are coming out looking for drier ground. The bays in the main basin that have this cover have been producing good numbers of bass but not terribly big. Fishing the edges of these bays with spinnerbaits (greens, olives worked well), blades and lipless crankbaits should see you snag a few fish. Head to the creek arms if you are looking for togas and once again attack the shallow water with cover (weeds, lantana, lily pads) using jitterbugs, surface walkers and fizzers early in the morning and later afternoons.

Hope this helps,

Brendan