It’s starting to heat up already. The fishing has been red hot for a while now so it all looks good for the festive season.

Pelagic species are dominating catches in the Platypus Bay region with schools of mackeral, tuna, trevally and queenfish working the vast bait schools typical for this time of year.

Snapbacks, Gulps, Raiders and Flasha lures are working well, especially in colour patterns with blue, white and silver hues through them. Fluorocarbon leaders from 40-80lb test will keep you connected to most fish but when the mackerel are thick you will still loose a lot of gear.

Single strand wire will keep you connected when the toothies are about but isn’t as supple as mono and tends to spook fish to a degree.

Trolling a variety of rigged baits and lures this month is the best way to find billfish along Fraser Island. By working the whole depth spectrum from the crystal clear shallows out to the deep drop-offs you are giving yourself every chance of catching a marlin.

Fishing off the jetties has been a good way to get a feed. The Urangan Pier has kept anglers busy with flathead, whiting and bream in the first channel on yabbies and worms and all the pelagics working the deep end on lures and livebait.

Kingfisher Bay’s pier is situated in one of the fishiest places in the bay with so much structure it is possible to catch almost anything. In the shallows, flathead over 90cm have been about in numbers taking live herring and plastics; and off the end there has been catches of jewfish, queenies, yellowtail king, school mackerel, tuna and so on.

With so much bait congregated in the area it’s no surprise the fishing has been so good.

It has been a similar story down the Strait with good numbers of flathead, bream and whiting on yabbies, prawns and worms along the beaches, and blackall, coral bream, cod and mackerel along the ledges and shallow reefs.

Squid are still being caught regularly around rocky areas and creek mouths so flicking a jig around for some calamari or fresh bait is a worthwhile option.