Fish Report - 14th March 2014

With the winds around the Bundaberg area expected to ease to under ten knots this weekend, this should give the offshore boats a window of opportunity to venture out and try to re-stock the freezers with reef and pelagic species. With the full moon Monday night, this should be ideal for those anglers wanting to fish at night, although the amount of run on the deeper gutters could be an issue.

The Cochrane Artificial Reef has been fishing well with reports of mackerel still in the area and mixed reefies holding closer to the bottom. Now that autumn is upon us, a better class of snapper should start being caught on the Cochrane Artificial and the Four-Mile out from the Elliott River. Well-presented baits and trolled lures at a variety of depths should do the trick.

Because of the weather, a lot of the reports coming in have been from the local rivers. All four systems – Baffle Creek and the Kolan, Burnett and Elliott Rivers - have all been fishing very well due to the amount of bait present.

The Burnett River has seen some massive flathead and good-sized grunter still all through this river. Live and peeled prawns fished about an hour and a half either side of the tide changes has been the key, and the anglers who put in the hours at night seem to be doing better. Also, good numbers of bream are starting to show up around Kirby’s and the North walls with some nice fish being boated. Looks like we’re in for another cracking bream season.

The Elliott River has been the stand-out in the past fortnight for bream, flathead and really nice whiting from Fallons Rocks to the mouth. Still a few prawns about, but a bit scattered. Still no reports of prawns off Woodgate, but they shouldn’t be too far away. As soon as the south-westerly winds start the prawns should school up.

On the freshwater scene, the Isis Impoundment (Lake Gregory) has been on fire with good bass being caught on both surface and sub-surface lures in the past week. First light on the lake is a magic place and walk-the-dog-style surface lures are an exciting way to target Australian bass over the shallow weed beds. Once the day warms up, find the schools in the open water using a good quality sounder and target them on soft plastics and blades.

Till next time,
Dale Smith