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Feast or famine offshore
  |  First Published: July 2014



This past month has been a real mixed bag. Some days the fish want to jump in the boat and other days we’re struggling to get a bite!

On the days we struggled, the sounder was showing plenty of fish and bait schools but they just didn’t want to feed. Most of the spots where I went looking for snapper, seemed to be holding good numbers of fish but the water temp was still holding between 24.5-25ºC – we just need a cold snap to kick start the season.

Once we see the water cool, we will be in for another good season that will go right through to around Christmas, especially in the deeper water around 80-90m.

When the snapper didn’t play the game, we had a couple of reasonable sessions on parrot down around Point Lookout and a few good sessions on school sized amberjacks in the 4-8kg range that were keen to eat live baits. We did pick up a few yellowtail kingfish to around 10kg but ambos well and truly out numbered them.

Because the water temp has been up there, the pelagics have also been hanging in there. Late May/June saw a few Spanish mackerel and wahoo caught in the Point Lookout and Cape Moreton areas.

We had a couple of short sessions on Spanish mackerel at Shallow Tempest, but then when we started getting bitten off by snapper we got the spin gear out and managed to nail a few.

If you’re keen on a good mackerel, Flinders Reef is worth a troll this month with big baits as there’s quite often a few winter brutes hanging around there this time of year.

East of the south passage bar this time of year is all about snapper and once that water cools there should be plenty of red fish hitting the decks.

• Until next month, enjoy your fishing, take care on the coastal bars and if you’d like to join me on charter (max. 8 persons) give me a call on 07 3822 9527 or 0418 738 750 or visit my new website www.outlawcharters.com.au.

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