BITES HEAT UP AS TIDES MAKE TURN
WITH the very hot conditions, fishing has been patchy both inshore in the estuaries and offshore on the reefs.
However, some excellent fish are still being caught, mostly over the peak bite periods around the tide changes.
Reef fishing has been hit and miss for most fishermen but certain areas have fired up in the deep water on large mouth nannygai over the tide turnovers along with gold band snapper, cobia, red emperor and trevally.
Good mate Jason Swan and myself fished the inshore grounds off Cairns in the calm conditions last Sunday in his barra boat and enjoyed a quick hot session around the high tide breaks on nannygai landing six quality fish along with a couple of nice coral trout.
Despite plenty of bait and quality fish marking on the sounder, the fish only bit hard in a small window around an hour after the tide change.
Most of the charter boats are reporting catching good fish on their hot spots around the prime tide changes with Grafton Passage, Oyster and Michealmas reefs producing fish.
To the north, off Cooktown reef, fishing has been more consistent with plenty of bottom fish being caught along with a few quality Spanish mackerel trolling deep diving lures like Rapala X-Raps.
The southern islands, such as the Family Group, have fished well on grass sweetlips that have been thick, along with a few island trout and some good fingermark on live herring and freshly caught squid.
Fishing has been best in the calm early mornings before the strong northerly winds whip up.
Barramundi fishing has been mostly concentrated on the drop offs around low tide with several bigger fish caught trolling and casting areas like the Cairns Northern Beaches.
Casting soft plastic vibes is also seeing some big king salmon caught and these are a great eating fish.
The southern freshwater sections of the Tully River, Maria Creek and the Liverpool have seen barras, jacks, tarpon and sooty grunter all caught on lures.
The Cairns Inlet has fished reasonably well with fingermark, blue and king salmon, grunter and a few barramundi being caught on live prawns and strip baits.
The forecast for the weekend is for WNW winds that will get strong at times making planning a reef trip difficult.
Most fishing will be restricted inshore and with the neap tides, chasing fingermark, barra and salmon in the estuary holes on live prawns or sardines and jigged soft plastic vibes will be a good option.
Tinaroo Dam will be worth a crack, chasing a big barra, as will fishing the freshwater sections of the rivers, such as the Tully, Russell/Mulgrave, Johnstone and Murray Rivers.