THEY’RE BITING
BARRAMUNDI continue to be the prized target species with some red hot sessions being enjoyed by lure fisherman along the FNQ coast.
It looks like we are also in for a period of light winds and hot days which will see plenty of activity both inshore and offshore on the reef.
The Barron River in the Kamerunga region has fished very well, with large soft plastics accounting for some quality fish. The local headlands and northern beaches rocks are producing fish, as is the Cairns Inlet.
Daintree River has finally settled down and cleaned up and big numbers of small barramundi are being caught casting the weed beds and grass with lures like gold bombers producing multiple bites.
Most of the southern rivers are fishing well for barramundi and mangrove jacks, with both soft plastics and hard bodied lures working well. The fresh is fishing well for small barra, sooty grunter, tarpon and jungle perch.
My mate Jason Swan and I fished Hinchinbrook Channel late last week and enjoyed several red hot lure casting sessions on barramundi, including several double hook-ups and hooking over 50 fish. I also lost one massive fish which cut me off on oyster rocks and then tormented me by jumping several times trying to dislodge my Classic Manta-Ray lure. The two killer lures in the snags were the Leads Hi-Jacker and +3 Classic Barra 120 with its loud rattle stirring the fish up in the dirty water.
The Cairns Inlet since cleaning up has seen a run of nice fingermark caught on live sardines along with a few blue salmon and mangrove jacks.
Tinaroo Dam has fired on big barramundi again over the ideal full moon phase, with multiple metre-plus fish caught. Tableland resident Laurie Wright caught and released a nice fish measuring 1.22m.
Reef fishing has continued to see plenty of small and large mouth nannygai, spangled emperor and cobia being caught on the rubble patches off Thetford Reef and the open passages like Trinity Opening and Grafton Passage.
Conditions for the weekend look excellent, with winds around 10 knots forecast and expected to last into next week.
This will see plenty of reef fishermen heading to sea and with the smaller tides and heat deep water fishing chasing nannygai, red emperor, gold band snapper and spangled emperor will be popular.