A band in the ‘80s called Split Enz once had a hit song called ‘History Never Repeats’ which was a catchy song about a girl who once broke a guy’s heart.

It’s meaning seems so simple but if you relate it to our crazy weather patterns over this first quarter of this year, you could almost say it’s about Mother Nature breaking many anglers’ hearts all throughout South East Queensland.

During the song, lead singer Neil Finn’s lyrics are ‘I lie awake with great ideas’. I’m sure I can speak for the majority of self-confessed fishaholics out there, we have done this a lot lately, hoping that tomorrow’s weather will grant us a window of opportunity to feed our aquatic addiction. Easterly winds both from the north and south have turned our usually lovely northern bay into a moody teenager with it’s unpredictability almost enough to give anyone the ‘you know whats’!

The big freshwater rush of previous months is set to perpetuate the cycle of fishing that we saw last year with bait being flushed out of all rivers and creeks feeding into the bay bringing predators from everywhere making our northern bay an angler’s smorgasbord.

For those anglers who have shown courage over the past month and braved Mother Nature’s wrath, they have been rewarded for their hard fought efforts with fish still being found in all corners of the bay.

The stand out species for last month was bream, which have still been caught in good numbers even though water clarity has been affected by past rains. Finding cleaner water has been the key with scoring some good bream with river mouths and open waters being the pick of the spots due to the higher tidal flow, which pushes out the freshwater therefore increasing salinity.

Key spots that have been producing lately have been North Reef at Scarborough, Cooks Rocks and White Patch at Bribie, weed flats at the mouth of Ningi Creek and the reclaimed rock wall in the Brisbane River. All these areas have good tidal flow therefore reducing the presence of freshwater, which in turn keeps bait schools around in the area.

Chicken breast and mullet strips have been the pick of the baits with lure fanatics opting to darker more contrasted coloured lures to battle the lack of water clarity. Fresh yabbies’ have also accounted for some good bream catches up in Pumicestone Passage, but keep a close eye on the bait stealing toadfish who seem to plague many areas in the passage and can become quite frustrating.

Muddies have shown up in good numbers in our estuaries over these few weeks which has left some patient anglers rewarded for their efforts. The Pine River, Cabbage Tree Creek, upper reaches of Coochin Creek and the mouth of the Caboolture River have reported good-sized bucks being caught regularly with stinky mullet frames being the pick of the baits.

On the flood tides around the full and new moon phases it’s best to keep your pots up high in the mangroves but during periods of heavy rainfall try the main channels and drop-offs for more success. So next time you are ducking up the creek for a quick fish be sure to put in a couple of pots, you may be pleasantly surprised.

This time of year we can also expect to see our annual prawn run commencing with this time leading up to Easter being the best to grab a good feed.

At present smaller prawns have intermittently been popping up around Shorncliffe foreshore, Cabbage Tree Creek and the highway bridge in the Pine River but we are not too far away before the numbers and the size should increase and good reports will start to come in.

Sand whiting have still been caught in good numbers around our northern bay with the trusty bloodworms and squid being the money baits of late. Areas worth a try on the flooding tides are Red Beach, Coochin Creek, White Patch and Cook’s Rocks at Bribie. During the receding tide try Deception Bay, Margate foreshore and the mouth of Nudgee Beach. Also Hay’s Inlet has been producing good whiting with the top of the tide being the prime time to fish it.

Good numbers of small snapper have been caught in the Brisbane River recently with the pick of the spots being the reclaimed rock wall at the mouth and the deeper waters around the pipeline outside the BP refinery. Plastics and lures have been doing the damage with the pick of the lures being the Jackall Mask Vibs.

On the soft plastics front, Atomic 3” Prongs and Z-Man 3” Minnowz have done well with anglers coating there plastics liberally with fish scents like Megastrike and S-Factor. Dusk and early evening have been the pick of the times but be sure to have adequate boat lighting as the port of Brisbane still operates at all hours.

With winter not too far away, all signs are pointed towards another cracker year in our northern bay. With early floodwaters pushing bait out of our rivers and creeks during the summer, it’s only time until fishing really heats up with predators cruising in all corners of our wonderful bay.

Be sure to warn your loved ones that in the next couple of months you may be absent from around the house! Happy Fishing.