King threadfin salmon and big grunters are still fair game in the estuaries, but the closed season for barra is here so they’re now off limits, unless we venture to the impoundments. The beaches are packed with whiting and bream in the gutters ready for the Christmas break.

In the past month some terrific threadies have been caught along the Fitzroy, as well as the odd mulloway. These fish have been pulled off rock patches and rubble beds and will most likely stay there until after Christmas.

The Narrows has also been quite productive with a few large jack being reported from locals caught up amongst the timbers and mangroves.

During December, the mangrove jack become a more heavily targeted species. Many anglers use smaller more weighted lures to entice the jacks and avoid the barra.

The local rivers, creeks and beaches will be fished heavier in the holiday period as they are more accessible to anglers. Deeper gutters and drop-offs have been fishing well and this will certainly not change through December.

Bream and whiting are an easy to target species and are great to start the kids out in this exciting hobby. As the water heats up, the afternoons are incredibly hot most so species will move down into the deeper pockets of water or out into the cooler beach waters.

Through November there have been massive amounts of prawns in the systems, however most of them are still only little fellas. A good dose of rain should see lots of big healthy prawns scattered along the flats making bait gathering or even catching some larger eating specimens all the more easy.

Tarpon are in high population and just on dusk is the time they have really given any lure a beating.

Never caught a fish on a lure before? Grab a popper and head on down. Casting out at any treelines or structures in these lagoons will surely hook you up. The best retrieve for poppers would be slow constant pops or a large pop; let the ripples clear then a small tap.

Stick baits are effective on a constant retrieve, but stop after they have been hit to encourage anther strike. Anything will work in these situations, lightly rigged, small hardbody minnows, surface lures, they are just going off.

Crabbing has been going off its tree lately with many people sharing stories of massive catches around. Most of the crabs lately have been caught on plain old mullet heads, which are cheap and if they are working why not?

Most of the catches lately have been down in the deeper waters and not on the mudflats and mangrove lines, which is unusual in comparison to this time last year and even last month.

I am a big believer in the motto ‘limit your kill not kill your limit’, over any period it is important to remember the limits to help fish populations recover and continue to thrive.

Christmas is also a great time to take kids or mates out fishing and teach them about this fascinating life style. Throughout the holiday period I hope all the readers have a great time fishing and safe travels.