Big blow making it hard for all
Strong winds have continued to buffer the Far North Queensland coast, ensuring less than favourable conditions on the water. Those braving the conditions and putting in the time are being rewarded with some nice fish.
Dragon Lady Charters, off Port Douglas, has fished the inshore reefs in the sheltered locations and has had some nice catches of coral trout, large and small mouth nannygai, emperors and a variety of trevally species. While many anglers disregard the eating quality of trevally, certain species, such as the tea-leaf, eat quite well if cooked from fresh.
The occasional Spanish mackerel continues to be caught while bottom fishing on floated pilchards, garfish and live baits. Spaniard numbers will pick up after the weekend once the tides start to build again to the full moon.
To the south, Spanish and doggy (school mackerel) continue to be caught around the islands such as Dunk and the Family group. A few nice fish have been caught on forty foot off Dunk trolling baits, but fish need to be landed quickly on heavy gear to avoid loss to sharks.
The Cairns Inlet has fished reasonably with a few barramundi and mangrove jacks caught on live baits and lures. One lucky angler was surprised when he hooked and landed a metre-plus barramundi this week casting the snags for jacks. Fingermark have been the main catch on live herring and prawns in the deep holes but the bull sharks have also been active and fish need to be landed quickly to avoid donation to the grey suits.
The southern river systems have been a little quiet with the upper freshwater sections continuing to fish best in the late afternoons for barramundi, sooty grunter and jungle perch. Hinchinbrook Channel fished well on fingermark over this set of neap tides in the deep holes on the rubble and holding bait. Last weekend saw good numbers of mud crabs caught in the Cairns Inlet, Mourilyan Harbour and Hinchinbrook Channel over the bigger tides.
Conditions should ease into the weekend, slightly moderating from strong wind warnings to around 15-20 knots from the south east. The neap tides will be ideal to fish the deep estuary holes chasing fingermark on live baits and jigged soft plastics like Gulp. Trolling the deep river snags and structure should also roll a few nice barramundi and mangrove jacks.
Mud crabs will fire up again after the weekend when the tides start building again up to the full moon. The river mouths of the Russell, Johnstone and Tully Rivers should see action on queenfish and giant trevally casting surface poppers, stick baits and walkthe-dog style lures.