The water should be starting to turn salty again after the big influx of fresh, which is really going to kick off the fishing. April is a great time of year as all our favourite species will be on the bite, especially bream as they feed up for their breeding season.

Bream love it when the water temp drops and a few larger ones should be starting to show up, so now is the time to start targeting the better fish.

Small vibes, suspending lures and sinking prawns are all the rage at the moment and a great way to chase a bream. Casting these up against structure and letting them slowly sink and working them off the structure should produce a strike, but a little patience and persistence may be required if the fishing is slow. The more casts you do will get the fish more interested, so stick with it.

If you are a more traditional type of angler and love your bait fishing then be sure to work up a good berley trail to attract the fish to you. The pick baits have been mullet and chook gut, whitebait, live yabbies and worms. Try around the rocks in Cobby Passage, the Powerlines, the dead trees off the bottom of North Straddie, the Stockyards and Little Rocky Point. The odd juvenile snapper and Moses perch are also being caught in these spots.

Whiting should still be about in good numbers on live worms but finding the bigger fish is a little harder. Alberton Sands in the Logan, the Pig Styes, the Gold Bank and the Never Fail Islands have been producing the better fish.

Smaller whiting should be available from the Green Bank, the Bedrooms, Tiger Mullet Channel, Tabby Tabby, Tipplers and near the entrance to Couran Cove and be sure to stick with live blood worms, beach worms and yabbies as bait, or small peeled prawns and squid.

For a feed of flathead try around Kalinga Bank, the Stockyards, Double Island, Mouth of the Logan and Pimpama Rivers, the Junction in the Logan River, Pandannus and Tipplers Island and near the Five Ways. Best baits to try are small pillies, froggies, big prawns, shallow diving hardbodied lures with a wide action in pink or white and the usual suspects in soft plastics. Anything that looks like a struggling bait fish will do in 3-5” with small 1/8-1/4oz jighead or just enough weight to make sure you can get to the bottom. Lizards will usually hit on the drop of the lure so don’t be afraid to use high lifts and steep drops in your retrieval.

The cooler water temps should fire up the mulloway as well, and there seems to be a lot more school sized fish about that shows that the new size limit of 75cm and bag limit of two is working and creating a better mulloway fishery.

Marks Rocks, Pitts Rocks and the Gazebo in the Logan River are all good spots for a mulloway or you could try further out near the point of Short Island, Kalinga Bank or out from Swan Bay in the deep water.

The start of the prawn season is upon us and there are only a few short decent weeks when you can head out and get some delicious banana prawns. They will usually school up along the muddy banks from Jacobs Well right through to Cabbage Tree Point up to the Powerlines and the mouth of the Logan. Heading up the River for a look is always a good option as they frequent around Marks Rocks, Redland Bay Channel and as far in as the Junction. Karragarra Island is another great spot to try and the deep holes off the western side of Macleay Island will be heavily targeted as well.

When the prawns are on you will see plenty of boats all in the one area, so be sure to use some courtesy when cast netting. Using your depth sounder searching for ‘puffs’ on the screen is a great way to help locate a school and a heavier faster sinking net should produce more prawns.

Thanks for all your reports and fish weighed in. If you need to order any bait or want up to date fishing information give me a call at Gem Bait & Tackle on 3287 3868 or email --e-mail address hidden-- I’ll catch you next month.