With the humidity pushing 100% and temperatures above 30C, February can be a tough month to fish, but with a bay full of pelagics and reef and estuarine species going off it’s worth battling through it. So grab a big hat put on the 30 plus and get amongst the action!

The pelagics are on fire with large schools of baitfish being mauled by Spanish, school and spotted mackerel, mac tuna, trevally and black marlin from Arch Cliffs to Rooneys and beyond. Trolling a spread of lures, live baiting or casting slugs and plastics are all viable options depending on the angler’s choice, weather conditions and of course the fish.

On the flats golden trevally, queenfish, shovel-nosed sharks and flathead are in good numbers succumbing to a well presented livebait or lure. Whiting are still around taking worms and yabbies on the building tides with some great catches coming on the night tides. The creeks are performing well with threadfin, jacks, grunter and flathead in good numbers taking live herring and mullet, plastics and hardbodies. Mud crabs have been about but a few are a fair way from being full.

The reefs have been producing plenty of fish, it has just been the weather keeping most anglers away. The 25 fathom and Rooneys Reef systems have all fished well for coral trout, cod and red emperor on live bait and plastics and there have been plenty of the smaller bread and butter reef fish like hussar, sweetlip, blackall, moses perch and tuskfish taking flesh baits, squid and plastics.

Cobia and Spanish mackerel are taking live and dead baits fished mid water and on any given day you can expect school and spotted mackerel, mac tuna and longtails working in the area. Closer to home on the local reefs there have been plenty of anglers getting out of the wind and catching a few fish over the holiday period, with Gatakers, Scarness, Maringa, Sammys, Bagimba, The Arti and Boags Hole all fishing well at times. Common catches have been sweetlip, blackall, cod, coral trout, golden trevally and tuskfish taken on a combination of live and dead baits and plastics.