Well, we have finally cracked a few days of good weather, but we are now left with a Coral Reef Finfish closure which came into place in Wednesday, 3rd November and will be effective until midnight on Sunday, 7th November.
This means we will have to stick to the local rivers, creeks and dams for the weekend, and the tops of the tides around the river mouths will be a good place to start.
Finally this week we've had a run of good weather around the local Bundaberg area. With 10-15 knots being the average forecast, this allowed a lot of boats to head offshore.
Some good catches were landed with a good mixed bag of red emperor, coral trout, sweetlip, parrot and the usual other mixed reef species. Pilchards seem to be the preferred bait for these bottom species. Those anglers floating out a bait around these reefy areas scored good catches of spanish mackerel and cobia.
Due to the wind and recent rains, there has been no reef or offshore fishing being done in the local Bundaberg area, so most of the fishing has been confined to the local rivers, creeks and dams.
The upper reaches of the Burnett River are still running a bit fresh, so most of the fish have been pushed down to the cleaner, saltier water, where there's been a good number of bream, flathead and grunter caught.
The weather around the local Bundaberg area has been a bit unsettled over the past few weeks, with patches of showers and wind about. However, when the weather has been good, the fishing has been good as well.
The Elliott River has been fishing well for summer whiting, with the night time tides being the better tides to fish for these fish. Yabbies and beach worms have been a favourite bait, and the incoming tides seem to be producing the most fish.
There have been a few prawns in most of the local rivers. Don't forget, the limit is a 10 litre bucket per person.
Finally we have had a run of good weather around the local Bundaberg area, but unfortunately for the reef fishermen, we can’t do much due to the Coral Reef Fin Fish closure. This a 5-day closure finishing on the 9th October this year to allow most of the reef fish to spawn for future seasons. There will be another 5-day closure about the same time next month from 3rd to 7th November inclusive.
Well, it’s been great to see some rain with some good falls around the Bundaberg area during this week. This has put the river into a bit of a spin as a lot of fresh from upriver is now washing down and the upper part of the Burnett is not only fresh but very dirty.
The local fishing has been great lately with a good list of species being caught in the rivers and estuaries around Bundaberg as well as offshore.
The bream have still been about in good numbers, mainly around the rocky areas. Gary Leather and myself has a session on the bream recently and managed to land some good ones by using small TT bladed lures, fished along the bottom with a few hops in there for some extra action.
Well, the fishing has been great lately with a good list of species being caught in the local rivers around Bundaberg as well as offshore.
The rivers have produces some top class fish with some excellent bream being caught around the rocks. The sand flats are producing some top flathead fishing with best results coming from using soft plastics by fishing with 3” to 4” plastics rigged on 1/8th size jig heads. Some of the flathead have been over-sized, so please remember their maximum size of 75cm.
This week in the Bundaberg area we have had some great reports coming in from our offshore anglers, who tell us that they have been able to fill their ice-boxes with a mixture of reef species.
On the outer reefs sweetlip, parrot, hussar and red emperor have been filling the creels, and the occassional spanish mackeral is still patrolling around these outer reefs.
The closer inshore reefs and gutters are producing some nice sized snapper up to about 5kg.
With a window of opportuinity predicted in the Bundaberg area this weekend, the local reef anglers should get the chance to wet a line.
On the outer reefs sweetlip, hussar, red emperor and spanish mackeral will be the main target species, and live baiting for these should produce best results.
On the closer inshore reefs and gutters most anglers are targeting snapper. Creating a good berley trail increases your chances of catching these fish.
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