With the water temperature on the rise, anglers will be dusting off the trolling gear looking for early season pelagic action.

The billfish brigade has already been tagging a few billies (marlin and sailfish) and with a little luck we might also see a repeat of last year’s awesome action when we had a very good early run of wahoo and Spanish mackerel starting in late November. The wahoo were not big fish, but there were plenty of them around Point Lookout and Hutchinsons Shoal off Cape Moreton and they responded well to small skirted lures as well as hardbodied divers like Halcos and Rapalas.

The Spanish mackerel quite often turn up early in the Point Lookout Area and both Shag Rock and The Group will usually hold a few fish so it’s well worth a troll in these areas with a well rigged dead bait or a slow trolled livie.

The Point Lookout area this time of year gives anglers an opportunity for both pelagic and bottom fish with the Cathedrals just south of the Point often fishing well for quality snapper, especially if there’s a bit of current around and bait is schooling in the area.

Back to the bottom fishing and the first couple of weeks of October saw no change with the deeper reefs off Moreton Island still holding good numbers of snapper and on charter we’ve had no trouble getting our bag limit. The quality has gotten better with a lot of fish getting up to and over 2kg. As mentioned last month, Shallow Tempest is a good option for quality bottom fish in spring and the area has been a consistent producer over the years and it’s a delight floatlining in shallow water after spending several months working the deeper reefs. Remember to fish as light as possible to increase the number of strikes when fishing this shallow water.

With the warmer months with us there will be more current out wide on most days and although it makes it hard and the fishing a little tougher, the old saying of ‘no run, no fun’ is so true. With the aid of a quality sea anchor you can still get a nice drift with the current and maximise your opportunities. On the deeper reefs yellowtail kingfish, amberjack, Samson fish and trag jew can really fire up with some good flow in the water. On charter at this time of year we fish livies on braid outifts and the species previously mentioned respond well to this style of fishing.

Although the snapper are no in their peak season, floatlining a pilchard on the wider grounds (around 90m depth) can still see some red hot action.

Enjoy your fishing, take care on the coastal bars and if you’d like to join me on charter (maximum 8 persons), give me a call on (07) 3822 9527 or 0418 738 750.