Weather challenge for fishers
WHILE the forecast for today tips winds around 10-15 knots, the trend has been closer to the 15-plus knots all week and winds are set to increase over the weekend before dropping off again into next week.
Reef fishing will be restricted to the bigger boats but with neap tides, the deep open water will fish best which will be difficult to fish in the conditions.
With little tidal run fishing the deep estuary holes should get some nice fingermark and the occasional barramundi caught on live baits and jigged vibes and soft plastics.
The upper freshwater sections of the major river systems will produce barra, tarpon and sooty grunter casting the flooded feeder creeks and gutters.
Once the tides start to build again from Monday mud crabs will again be a priority target.
Our late wet season rolls on with heavy rain continuing to keep our estuary and river systems in flooded dirty condition.
Fishermen will be further frustrated with the Met Bureau forecasting more heavy rain along the FNQ Coast early next week. While the rain is needed after less than average rainfall during our summer months it is becoming frustrating for eager anglers looking to fish clean water.
While May is traditionally the prime crabbing month the never-ending heavy rain is pushing them to the deeper water or estuary flats to escape the fresh and not in their mangrove holes.
The secret when the fresh influence is strong is to find where the crabs are held up or travelling.
Cairns Inlet has fished pretty well despite the conditions with good numbers of barramundi being caught on live baits along with some thumping mangrove jacks on lures and baits. Fingermark have been marking up well in the deep inlet holes on the rubble and bait but hooked fish are being lost to bull sharks which are in plague proportions. After years of ignoring fishermen and denying shark numbers are rapidly increasing, fisheries management are finally accepting fish deprivation due to sharks is a real issue as demonstrated in the present Spanish mackerel assessment papers.
Dickson Inlet at Port Douglas has been producing some excellent numbers and quality mangrove jacks in the high 40cm range with soft plastic paddle tails producing well.
While the rivers have been in flood, fishing has still been firing on barramundi, tarpon and sooty grunter in the mouths of the upper freshwater drains pumping water into the major southern river systems like the Russell/Mulgrave, Johnstone, Tully and Murray Rivers. The Daintree River to the north of Cairns has also produced plenty of barra in the fresh.
The inshore sheltered reefs are fishing well for the bigger boats with coral trout dominating catches.