As the water temperature continues to rise this month, pelagic species start to show up on the radar of offshore anglers fishing east of the South Passage Bar.

Let’s hope that this next mackerel season is more productive than the last one, which didn’t really get started due to the amount of murky water covering the close reefs after all the rain we copped in the South East.

Some years we get an early run of just-legal Spaniards in late November/early December. The coffee rock in close to Moreton as well as Shag Rock and The Group off Point Lookout are well worth a troll with a livie or a well-rigged dead bait.

It’s also been a few years since we had that terrific run of early season wahoo in the Hutchies area. It could well be worth dragging some high speeds in the same area over the next month or so.

In October, it was still all about snapper. They dominated most of our catches on charter, but should start to steady a little this month as the water warms up. However, we still got reasonable catches right up to Christmas last year, especially on the wider grounds.

As I mentioned last month, Shallow Tempest can also hold good numbers of snapper this time of year and they are normally solid fish in the 4-6kg range.

Kingfish and amberjack should also get more active, with jigs and live baits good options to get some serious back-stretching action.

Soaking a pillie or livebait around the wave buoys should attract the attention of a mahi mahi or two and they are normally better quality fish this time or year.

Enjoy your fishing, take care on the coastal bars.