Although the weather was a bit windy, there was no rain to dampen the spirits of the kids taking part in the annual Take a Kid Fishing Day held at the river mouth at Elliot Heads on Sunday, 3rd April 2011.
This day is held every year and is sponsored by Sunfish, the Department of Primary Industries, the Australian Fishing Trade Association and Tackle World Bundaberg.
The day is aimed at children up to fifteen years old, to get them involved with fishing and educate them in responsible fishing practices. Fishing specialists are on hand to help them with their fishing techniques, so the children and their parents can come along and have a fun day together, with a positive outcome.
Tackle World staff were there on the day to lend a hand with the fishing, and to help any of the kids who needed to be shown how to rig up their tackle, as well to man the sausage sizzle and to present the awards and lucky draws.
Recently I spent the weekend pre-fishing Cania Dam for the Cania Bass Electric Tournament. Well, the time for the comp had finally come, so “How did it go?” you may ask.
Well, the lead-up during the week before saw near perfect conditions – hot, calm, windless days, but come tournament time, a severe weather change had come around. With cloudy, overcast days, 20-25 knot winds and rain squalls, we knew that it would be tough as bass don’t like those quick weather changes.
This is a two-day event, and the first session was on the Saturday afternoon from noon to 7.00pm, so 25 boats, powered by electric motors only, lined up for a start. Off we went, all to the secret spots we had pre-fished a couple of weeks before, and man, the fishing was tough!
We all made our way back to weigh-in to see what how the fishing went for the first session and there were only five bass caught. Mega-tough fishing!
The rains earlier this week in the Bundaberg area have made our local rivers run fresh again. This fresh will sweeten up the water and this is a bit of a downfall as the river was just starting to come good.
However, the fishing has still been okay with bream and grunter being the most talked-about species. The rock walls have produced the best catches of bream and sizes up to 40cm have not been uncommon. Chook gut and mullet cubes have been the best baits. The lure anglers have been getting their fair share also. Slow rolling small 35cm to 45cm deep diving hard bodies lures with rattles have been the best in the off-coloured water.
Gig grunter to 60cm have still been caught throughout the rivers as well as the odd jack.
With all the recent floods, rains and wind, many anglers in the Bundaberg area are looking for alternate places to go fishing. One option is the Isis Impoundment - Lake Gregory.
Although this is a freshwater lake, saltwater anglers can have a lot of fun here if they change their fishing tactics and tackle. The bass that have been stocked in the lake are a great sport or fighting fish.
Although it is a small lake, it can be hard to fish, but by knowing what to look for it can be any easy and fun task.
The main features of the dam are points leading into bays and weedy edges as well as the isolated weed patches in the middle of the dam. These are the places we'd target for bass. The main basin of the dam can hold large schools of bass also, and the key is to use a fish finder to locate the schools and then target them with lures.
Most anglers these days have a soft plastics outfit suitable for bream fishing. This also can double as a great bass fishing outfit.
Well, the Bundaberg area finally saw break in the weather early in the week and this allowed a lot of boats offshore.
All reports show some excellent catches, with some big coral trout caught by using live baits, and some good red emperor were also landed. The rubble/reef areas have also produced some sweetlip and tusk fish. Please remember we are currently in a snapper and pearl perch closure, which will continue until the 31st March.
Another species that has been talked about is mackerel – they have been in big numbers along our coast. Most of the inshore areas are really firing with a mix of spanish, school and spotted mackerel being caught. Trolling diving lures in any chrome colour has been popular, but slow trolling pilchards has been the most effective method. A few schoolies have been caught by high speed spinning with metal chrome lures.
Due to the bad weather, rain, wind, flooding, etc over the past few months, the fishing in the local Bundaberg area has improved only slightly in the last few weeks. It is improving slowly, but we thought’s we’d feature a popular freshwater fishing spot – Cania Dam, near Monto.
Work mate and fishing buddy, Gary Leather and I decided to do an overnight trip to pre-fish Cania before an upcoming round of the Bass Electric Tournament. Cania is at 100% capacity after all the rain, and this we wanted to see!
So, we left Bundaberg early on the Saturday morning for the 2.5 hour journey and booked into the caravan park when we arrived. This place is fantastic for all the family.
The fishing in the Bundaberg area is well and truly on the improve as the local rivers and creeks stop flowing from the recent floods, and the salt water pushes back upstream, taking the fish along with it.
The bream seem to be about in big numbers, mainly along the rock walls, with small dark-coloured soft plastics and blades doing the damage.
A few flathead have also been caught by trolling small diving hard-bodied lures around the sand flats.
Some of the deeper holes up river have produced some big jacks and cod with live baits being the most popular method to land a big one.
When the weather has allowed the boats to get out, the offshore fishing has also been great and there have been reports of some excellent catches of coral trout, red emperor, sweetlip and tusk fish being taken.
The fishing in the Bundaberg area is well and truly on the improve as the local rivers and creeks stop flowing from the recent floods, and the salt water pushes back upstream, taking the fish along with it.
The bream seem to be about in big numbers, mainly along the rock walls, with small dark-coloured soft plastics and blades doing the damage.
A few flathead have also been caught by trolling small diving hard-bodied lures around the sand flats.
Some of the deeper holes up river have produced some big jacks and cod with live baits being the most popular method to land a big one.
When the weather has allowed the boats to get out, the offshore fishing has also been great and there have been reports of some excellent catches of coral trout, red emperor, sweetlip and tusk fish being taken.
Well, the fishing in the local Bundaberg area is improving as the salt starts to make it’s way back up the rivers and creeks after the floods.
The Elliott River seems to be fishing the best at the moment as most of the fresh has stopped flowing. Some big grunter, bream and some great flathead have been caught. Using large baits such as mullet fillets and large prawns have been the best baits.
The Burnett River has been a bit harder to fish as the fresh is still flowing, but the rocky areas around the mouth have produced some big bream and the odd jack and cod.
There are also a few crabs getting about, so try your luck and drop in a pot or two.
The inshore reefs are producing some great snapper and grunter as well as some big spanish mackerel. Trolling garfish is the best method for landing the mackerel.
Well, the heavy rain in the Bundaberg area has stopped for now and the river flow has slowed right down. With the bigger tides at the moment, this should see some salt starting to push back up the rivers underneath the fresh.
The fishing has been improving and will only get better if we don’t get any more rain. The rocky areas around the local river mouths have been producing some good quality fish including big bream, cod and the odd jew, by fishing with mullet fillets as bait.
The beaches are also fishing well for whiting and flathead. Worms have been the best for the whiting, and whitebait for the flathead.
Further up the Burnett River there has been the odd jack but the catfish seem to be giving most a hard time.
The inshore reefs have been producing some excellent fishing for snapper, sweetlip, grunter and spanish mackerel.
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