MARLIN AND MACKEREL ON THE BITE
FISHERMEN finally saw a small break in the strong winds during the past week and numbers of boats headed to the blue water to fish the reef and islands.
The boats at the reef reported excellent catches of both coral trout on mid-depth bommies and nannygai in the deeper water on the rubble and isolated rocks off Cairns. Anglers to the south also reported some solid catches of nannygai on the shoals and wrecks but lost many fish to sharks.
Spanish mackerel as expected have schooled up thicker with the cooler water and several fish where caught trolling rigged garfish and deep diving lures like the Halco Laser Pros off Cairns.
Local fishing enthusiasts Darcy and Josh Flower enjoyed a top light tackle day fishing off Cairns with Rob Mulloch. Darcy caught and released his first ever black marlin (pictured) while Josh landed several spanish mackerel for the dinner table. Both the small black marlin and spanish mackerel will continue to increase in numbers over the next few months of cooler weather.
The southern islands have seen spanish mackerel in areas like forty foot and the Cathedral off Dunk Island and slowly increasing numbers of spotty and school mackerel. Floated pilchards and high speed metal jigs have worked well on the spotty and school mackerel.
Estuary and river fishing has been mixed with a few barramundi and mangrove jacks caught on soft plastic prawns. I fished Mourilyan Harbour last Sunday and worked hard to land three jacks but was menaced by plague numbers of blackspot cod. Hinchinbrook Channel has probably been the most consistent system.
The major rivers like the Russell/Mulgrave have queenfish back in chasing the bait and some exciting surface casting action is just around the corner. These queenfish are aerobatic fighters with some fish over the metre mark and will combine with schools of large giant trevally to get the adrenalin flowing as they smash poppers and stick baits.
The winter species of whiting, bream and flathead have been caught in most river system mouths with the Murray River firing at the mouth and up in the fresh on sooty grunter. Locally the Barron River mouth is also producing the winter species. This weekend strong south-east winds will keep anglers inshore. The big night tides will suit targeting a grunter on the estuary flats and creek mouths.