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.
Lately the weather around our local area, and indeed over most of Queensland, has been extraordinary with most of the state receiving more rain in the past few weeks than they have in the last ten years.
The Burnett River alone has flooded twice since Christmas, and is up again this week because of rain received way up in the catchment area. As a result, all of the river systems and dams are either full or over-flowing. This has meant that most of our local salt water rivers and creeks are running very fresh.
The only fishing options have been around the river mouths, especially on the bigger tides, as this will push a bit of salt back up into the rivers.
From those anglers who have managed to throw in a line, the main catches that have been reported are flathead, bream and the odd grunter. It is also worth putting in some crab pots, as this is the time the mud crabs will be heading back upstream.
Well, we have seen our fair share of rain around the Bundaberg area over the past few weeks and this has slowed the fishing right down. There was still a truckload of fresh coming down the rivers and creeks, and the water has been dirty up to a couple of miles out to sea.
If the forecasts are correct, it’s likely to be like this for a couple of months. This will mean your only option of catching a fish will be around the river mouths.
While it is good to see all the dam levels rising after being so low for so long, it does make the fishing a little bit harder for a time until things settle down again.
So, this will be a good time to do a bit of maintenance of all your fishing gear as well as on the boat and trailer, making sure it’s all ready to go when the weather is in our favour once again.
When the weather has allowed us to get out the front, the offshore fishing has been great. The gutters have been producing some sweetlip, parrot and the odd trout.
With the amount of rain in recent weeks, most estuary systems in the local Bundaberg area are running fairly fresh.
This has slowed the fishing in our district, however targeting the cleaner water at the entrances to the rivers and creeks has been producing some nice sized flathead and whiting, with the odd trumpeter further upstream.
On the upside, there are plenty of crabs and scattered prawns moving about the river systems.
Mangrove jacks have also slowed because of the dirty water, but live-baiting around rock walls and fallen structure such as trees, has been producing the best results.
The reef scene has also been fairly quite because of weather conditions, however those who have been making the most of the windows of opportunity have been returning with a nice bag of spanish mackerel, red emperor, parrot and sweetlip.
Well, lately we just can’t pick the weather around the local Bundaberg area, as we’re now into the first week of December and temperatures are still quite cool. We have also had our fair share of wind, rain and more wind. Surely it will let up sooner or later.
This wind has kept the bigger boats from heading offshore, but a few smaller boats have been fishing the coastline with some great results. Good catches of tuna, mackerel and even cobia have been caught. Live baits have been best with yakkas and pike being the favourites. The preferred rig has been 10/0 hooks rigged on light trace wire with one hook in the nose and the other in the tail.
The Burnett River mouth has also been producing some smaller school mackerel. Trolling the rock walls with Spoons, Flashas and small deep diving Minnows has been the best way to target mackerel. Even the guys fishing off the rocks have been getting mackerel on pillys rigged on gang hooks and by casting and retrieving them.
We have finally had a great run of weather with some calm, hot, sunny, windless days around the local Bundaberg area, allowing a lot of boats to head offshore.
Most landed their fair share of fish, including some big coral trout. These were caught by dropping big livies to the bottom and hanging on! Sweetlip, parrot, cod and hussar made up the rest of the catch.
Some big spanish mackerel and cobia have been caught by floating out a live bait or a dead slimey or yakka.
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