Fishing Reports

Well, the winds around the local Bundaberg area just won’t let up for the offshore fishing, so it has been a good time to do maintenance on the boats that usually head offshore.

The river fishing however, has been red hot with most or nearly all of the fish being caught on lures.

The Bundaberg area has seen an early run of school mackerel running along the coast. They are only small and you do have to measure some of them, as most are about 55cm, and with 50cm being the minimum you do have to be careful. They also have a bag limit of ten per person.

Here are a few tips to help you catch a schoolie mackerel.

If you are bait-fishing for a schoolie, you can’t go past pilchards for bait. I prefer the WA pilly as these are usually a firmer, shinier and fresher pilly. I also prefer a rig using 3 x 4/0 to 5/0 hooks ganged together, rigged on a length of 80lb mono trace line about 40cm long. I like the mono over wire as you’ll always catch more fish as the school mackeral can’t see it. Yes, you do occasionally get bitten off but you do catch more with the mono. I just think in the cleaner water the mackerel can see the wire sometimes and just shy away from the baits.

Earlier this week saw a few days of excellent weather which allowed a few boats to go offshore. Those lucky enough to get the time off to head out were well rewarded. There were some big red emperor caught as well as some coral trout, sweetlip, cod, and tusk fish. Some big cobia and spanish mackerel have also been caught in these areas.

Some of the boat wrecks such as the Barjon and Karma have also been producing some great fishing with squire and sweetlip both being caught on them. There has also been a few cobia, and the trevally are thick and are great sport fish. Throwing chrome lures to the bottom then using a quick retrieve should see you into some red hot pelagic action.

Back to the rivers – most of our local creeks and rivers are firing with the usual bream, whiting and flathead and the salmon are still moving about the Burnett River. A few guys have them worked out on lures and are having a ball, with lures such as Blades and Thready Busters being favourites.

Well, the fishing around Bundaberg is still red hot, probably the best we have seen in years. This is thanks to the floods that caused such havoc earlier this year.

The offshore fishing has been great. When the weather has allowed us to get out, catches of big red emperor, sweetlip, parrot and a great mix of other species have been taken.

However, it is the river fishing that is really shining. We have seen some top quality fish over the past few weeks. These have included some monster whiting of 40cm plus, bream to 1kg, and some flathead reaching their maximum size of 75cm. Some of the deeper stretches of the Burnett River are still producing some excellent salmon fishing with live prawns being a favourite. Some other species have included big grunter, jack, cod and even an odd barra.

The river mouths have been producing some school mackerel and some nice tailor. Trolling spoon lures or anchoring up and floating out a small pilchard seems to be working well.