Reef now a lure for anglers
WITH the tides slowing off the moon, fishing the deep water will be an advantage with nannygai, emperor and cobia targets on the reef.
The forecast for the weekend sees winds around the 10-15 knots from the north and lighter on Sunday.
However, keep an eye on a low pressure system expected to head towards the Queensland Cape York Coast late in the weekend which could change conditions.
The estuary and creek deep holes should see nice fingermark and trevally caught on live baits along with mangrove jacks in the heavy snags on baits and lures. Trolling the deep snags and structure or jigging soft plastics and vibes is also worth a go.
Unpredictable northerly winds have made planning reef trips difficult recently with conditions changing rapidly.
Despite this some decent mixed bags of reef fish have been caught on the inshore reef off Cairns and Port Douglas with Batt, Pixie, Trinity Opening, Michealmas, Oyster and Sudbury Reefs all producing fish.
Coral trout are still the prime catch on the bommies in the 30-40m depths with good current and bait marking.
The deep rubble patches and isolated rocks have been a little patchy in certain locations but firing in others with large and small mouth nannygai, spangled emperor, red emperor, cod and cobia all being caught in reasonable numbers.
The secret has been regular shifts to find the fish and as always best fishing is over the tide changes.
One resource every fisherman should invest in is an Almanac which gives a time period of the major and minor bites and the time to be fishing your best marks.
Almanacs are based on the lunar cycles and in my experience are extremely accurate and cheap to buy.
Spanish mackerel have surprisingly stayed in reasonable numbers through summer and are still regular captures on floated pilchards and live baits while bottom fishing.
Giant trevally have been in big numbers on the shallow bommies which drop off into deeper water and have schools of fusiliers present.
Casting big poppers and stick baits produce exciting strikes and hard back breaking fights while, in addition, spanish mackerel are often also hooked along with bottom species including coral trout.
Casting the heavy timber in the inlet creeks have also produced some nice mangrove jacks that have also been in good numbers in the Russell/ Mulgrave River, Johnstone River, Maria Creek and Hinchinbrook Channel.
Fishing the areas not frequented by constant ski boat traffic on Tinaroo Dam is still seeing some big barramundi caught on a variety of lures including hard soft bodied minnows like Reidy’s B52’s, soft plastics and vibes.