The Logan River continues to improve, now producing bream, flathead and school mulloway as far up River as Carbrook, top of the tide has been the most productive. A few mud crabs are moving back into the River as well, although up around the Junction is still pretty barren.
Gold Coast waters are turning up whiting, bream, jacks and mulloway in the Seaway. Divers reported there’s been a lot of small bonito in the Seaway over the past few days. They are been hard to catch, best bet is the smallest chrome slug you can throw, 10g to 20g is the best. As water temperatures drop over the next month the whiting will move further up river and bream will move towards the Seaway and improve in numbers.There’s been plenty of mulloway around if you fish for them with live bait but I haven’t heard of any big ones. The average size is about 1 metre long.
There are still prawn in the southern Bay although not in the numbers they were a few weeks ago. The best catches have been around Lamb Island and down the eastern side of Russell Island. Further north catches off Scarborough have slowed, at this time of year Nudgee is usually the hot spot however as a result of the recent Brisbane River toxic spill many have been choosing to give the area a miss. There’s been lots of pan-size snapper reported from Moreton Bay. Most are coming from artificial reefs. There’s still some tuna activity in the northern Bay and a few mackerel reported inside South Passage Bar and around Peel Island.
Offshore fishing at this time of year usually focuses on snapper, so far there’s been no big fish reported but plenty of keepers. Float lining the shallows is producing a good feed of mixed reef species. There’s also a few bigger pelagic fish taking live baits on the bottom. On the freshwater scene not a lot has changed over the past few weeks, the bass have been a bit hard to find but once you locate the schools there’s been good numbers caught. Yellowbelly have been in good numbers in the timbered areas of most impoundments. Redclaw catches are easing off but you’ll still get a bucket if you put the effort in.