What’s that sound? Oh yes, it’s my teeth chattering! Call me dramatic but you could easily mistake South East Queensland as the North Pole with this sudden onset of cold weather that has left Brisbanites diving into cupboards for their winter woolies.

Nevertheless for us diehard anglers, we see the sunshine amongst the clouds, knowing that this cool weather is brought on by brisk westerly winds, letting anglers who like to fish inshore and estuaries to get out to their favourite spots. During westerlies, the land acts as a good buffer for the wind, keeping areas like the mouth of the Pine River, Redcliffe Peninsula, Cooks Rocks and Red Beach accessible for fishos even in smaller boats. So this time of year there is definitely no excuse not to be on the water!

Flathead numbers are on the rise as the onset of cooler weather has started to bring the larger spawners into our rivers. These are closely accompanied by smaller males giving anglers a field day when fishing tide lines, run-offs and creek mouths, as often 3-4 flathead are pulled from one area.

Anglers are having equal success with baits and soft plastics. Those that are choosing to anchor up at river mouth’s are finding baits are working well, and anglers drifting or moving with electric motor are finding soft plastics are more effective.

Places with good reports lately have been, mouth of Nudgee Beach, Clontarf foreshore near boat ramp, Queens Beach, mouth of Caboolture River, Tiger Rocks at Bribie, mouth of the Ningi and Glasshouse Creek.

Bream activity has been really good of late with anglers being rewarded in shallow and deeper waters. Numbers have become less widespread but more concentrated as bream start to look at spawning times in these cooler months.

Bream quality has been exceptional over the past month with the increase bait schools fattening the bream up giving them a good lead into their annual spawn. There has been good reports coming from all corners of the bay with fishing being more electric on the flooded tides at dusk and dawn.

The Pumicestone Passage has reported good healthy bream around the Ningi Flats, the mouth of Poverty and Glasshouse Creek, Cooks Rocks and Tiger Rock with anglers finding the higher tides during the moon phases produce the better fish. At the Peninsula, try Drury and Osbourne Points, The Wells on the ebb, North Reef, pylons of the Ted Smout Bridge and eastern side of Woody Point Jetty.

Cranks have been the recipe for a good time for the lure fanatics with lures worth a throw being Atomic Crank 38 (in the clearer colours), Cranka Crabs, Ecogear CX35, Pontoon 21 Crack Jack 48SP and OSP Power Dunks 48SP. For the plastics throwers, Z-Man GrubZ, Plazos, 2 3/4” Jerk Minnows and Squidgy 80mm Wrigglers and Z-Man 4” curly tail StreakZ on light jigheads.

Numbers of mulloway are growing as the cooler months set in with fruitful anglers braving the cold to chase these river beasts in the darker hours.

Brisbane River has been the stalwart this year, with good specimens being pulled from deeper waters during the day hours around the mouth of the river and numbers being caught up river in shallower waters at night. Numbers are slow but there are signs of mulloway being caught in the deeper waters of the Pine and Caboolture rivers.

The use of a good sounder helps in locating bait schools in these rivers where the bigger predators are often found lurking waiting to pounce on any stray or injured bait. Bribie Bridge has still also been producing the odd mulloway at night with fishos finding success when bait schools are more abundant and holding tight to the structure.

Good juvenile snapper are still being caught through Scarborough and the Redcliffe Peninsula with areas resembling Chermside Shopping Centre carpark on the weekends as both boaties and kayakers wanting to get their slice of the pie.

Bait and soft plastics have both been working well with bait fishers finding fresh, lightly weighted baits working really well. For the lure rats, not getting your hands dirty and choosing the soft plastic option has also worked well with popularity swinging towards shad and minnow style plastics. One’s like Atomic 3 3/4” jerk minnows, Z-Man 5” StreakZ, Fish Arrow 4” J Splits and Castaic 5” Jerky J Swimmers have been topping the popularity ranks with the old faithfuls like Atomic 4” Prongs and Gulp 4” Minnows being also hard to pass.

With water temperatures on the slide, this is one of my favourite times of the year to chase the dinner table favourite tiger squid. Usually found around the shallower reefs on the Redcliffe Peninsula this month has definitely seen an increase in numbers with these cephalopods feeding both on flooding and receding tides.

Slow rolling squid jigs has been the preferred technique of late but ensure line tension is kept at all times as squid are often lost when swimming in after their initial few lunges as most squid jigs on the market are only fitted with barbless hooks for quick removal.