The influx of freshwater into the rivers recently has most systems pushing dirty foamy water filled with logs, sticks and leaf matter into the Sandy Straits and Hervey Bay. A sharp eye is needed when navigating some areas and a good rule of thumb is to approach current lines with caution.

The pelagic action is hot on some days and a little cool on others. On the good days spotties, longtails, mac tuna, yellowfin and billfish can be seen working baitfish from Coongal to Rooneys Point. Sharks are still a problem taking hooked fish before they can be boated. Upgrading tackle can help improve the odds but the taxman still gets a few.

Out wide the Rooneys and Gutters reefs have fished well for trout, sweetlip, hussar, cod blackall and snapper on the bottom and mackerel, trevally and cobia subsurface.

The reefs have been firing on all cylinders with good catches of sweetlip, blackall, trout, Moses perch and small snapper on live baits, fresh baits and plastics. Cod are really on the chew with plenty of fish around the 40-50cm mark and a few fish pushing 1m.

Live bait has been the key and securing a bait tank full of livies has at times been harder than finding the fish. Cod aren’t too fussy so most small fish will work if premium species are hard to get. Blue parrot have also been around with some fish topping 10kg and at that size they are a real handful no matter what the tackle.

The injection of fresh water is starting to stir up the prawns and crabs and if we have half the run of prawns we had last year it will still be a beauty. Barra are back on the menu and with good numbers of fish caught and released during the closed season things are looking good.

Threadfin and jacks have been consistent and continue to fish well, with jew and grunter also starting to turn up. Bream, flathead and whiting are all responding to plastics, worms and yabbies on the flats and around creek mouths.