There has been no change from last month with the weather keeping us land locked more often than not, making a decent run of weather long overdue.

The mackerel fishing has still been very hit and miss, mostly due to the large amount of dirty water pouring out of the rivers and creeks, which in turn has kept the shallow reefs covered in murky waters. It’s a shame because as soon as the water cleaned up, the mackerel had a bit of a chew but the next lot of run-off just spooked them again.

We’ve still got time through late March and April to have a good solid run of Spaniards and past seasons have often seen this time throw up some of the best fishing of the season. Spotted mackerel can also really turn it on late season as they start their northern migration following the bait and warmer currents.

The amount of rain we’ve had this summer has certainly played havoc with the mackerel fishing to date, but the upside is that the fishery always benefits from this much rain in the long run.

April is when the larger Spaniards and wahoo turn up, so make sure your gear is up to scratch to give yourself a good chance of landing a trophy fish.

Amberjack, samsonfish and yellowfin kingfish normally put in a good showing on the wider reefs this time of year. This has certainly been the case on charter recently with good numbers of amberjack and samson in the 5-10kg range eager to eat live baits.

It’s amazing that after months of little or no current flow off the South Passage Bar now we’ve had some decent current flow, the fish are starting to show in numbers again. As the water temp starts to cool over the coming months the school sized ambos, kings and trag should be quite prolific on the 33, 35, 37 and 42 fathom reefs.

The number of fish lost to sharks continues to be a downer of late and in my opinion they certainly need to be thinned out a little. The sharks are not just on isolated areas; they are widespread with plenty on most lines of reef. On a recent charter we lost numbers of fish to sharks at three different locations, kilometres apart and in depths between 55-85m.

I’ve been chartering for 10 years now and in past years we might have lost a dozen fish a trip on some days.If you can get them past the sharks, the number of small snapper along with the odd larger ones that are being caught at present is quite promising for the coming winter snapper season. But the snapper have pretty much stayed around during summer and we had some great sessions on quality snapper running up to Christmas.

By now we will know which government we anglers have to deal with for the next few years. In the lead up to the election the lack of policy put forward on fishing issues by both major parties was disappointing. Let’s just hope if the LNP are elected they stick to their word from the last election and re-zone the green zones so that we can again fish these areas.