MACKEREL SHOW UP IN DROVES
THE calm conditions have prevailed again this week which has seen plenty of boats fishing the reef, islands and wrecks.
Bottom fishing has been very patchy inshore but some quality large-mouth nannygai and red emperor are being caught in the deep water on the rubble and shoals.
Areas such as Moore Reef, the open paddock of Grafton Passage and the shoal areas of Jenny Louise have fished well.
With the building tides this week, spanish and doggy mackerel are starting to show up in bigger numbers with several fish caught off the Green Island and Fitzroy Island wrecks on metal jigs.
Cobia, queenfish and a variety of trevally species are also stretching the arms of those jigging.
The bommies holding bait are also producing a few fish on floated pilchards.
With neap tides over the weekend and clean water, the spearfishermen enjoyed the perfect conditions and coral trout were in good numbers on the shallow bommies along with tusk fish and several crays.
The shipping channel off Tully has seen big bait balls attracting queenfish and grey mackerel that have been slicing through the bait and taking high-speed metal jigs retrieved as fast as possible.
Barramundi have been in great numbers again in the Cairns Inlet on this set of building tides.
Live prawns have been most successful fishing the structure and the prawns are easily assessable and in big number along the mangrove edges on the falling tides.
A few nice fish have also been caught on lures casting the small gutter on the low tide as the barra sit feeding on the prawns pumping out.
To the south, the brackish and freshwater sections of Mulgrave River have fired on barramundi again casting lures along with trevally, mangrove jacks, sooty grunter and jungle perch.
Hinchinbrook Channel has seen barra and jacks being caught on lures along the mangrove roots on the falling high tides and in the snags and gutters around the low.
Like the Inlet, prawns are in good numbers and the perfect live bait on both species.
The islands are fishing well on fingermark both on fresh caught squid and jigged soft plastics.
With the wind picking up tomorrow, most boats will be restricted inshore and the obvious target will be barramundi in the estuaries and rivers.