Whiting and flathead continue to dominate estuary catches, especially for those using bait. Trolling lures is producing a few mixed species like trevally, tailor, herring, hairtail, tarpon and mangrove jack.
There are a few chopper tailor being caught on the beaches at daylight and dusk and dart are in big numbers.
They are not in big numbers, but there were a few mulloway caught in the Brisbane River, the Pin Bar and Seaway over the past few weeks.
Around bar entrances they are biting on the leading edge of a tide change. In the Brisbane River the best results have been around lighted areas at night.
A few mud crabs were reported again this week. They’re not in big numbers but it’s worth putting a few pots in and there have also been a few sand crabs in the northern bay.
There have been schools of mackerel in the bay, mainly inside South Passage to the dogleg in the Rous and north along Moreton, although they have surfaced for short periods off Goat and the Measured Mile.
There have also been longtail tuna in the northern bay.
On the offshore scene spotty mackerel turned up on the shallow reefs off the Gold Coast this week. There are no big numbers as yet but a few fish were caught last weekend.
Bottom bashing with paternoster rigs has been pretty slow with a mix of small reef species and there are still a few dolphinfish hanging around FADs and wave rider buoys.
Live baiting on the bottom around wrecks and reefs has been a better option, with kingfish, cobia and a few mulloway landed.
Trolling is turning up a few small marlin and the odd wahoo and Spanish. The further north you go, the better the catches.
On the freshwater scene there’s plenty of bass schooled up but getting them to bite has been hard. Live shrimp is the best way.
Timbered areas have been the best for yellowbelly.
Cod season opens in a few days, and we should see some good fish caught after November 30 by those targeting them.
They are not in big numbers as yet, however if you put in the effort you should catch a feed of redclaw overnight.
Barra dams to our north are starting to fire up, with good catches reported around lily-lined foreshores at night.
