This cold weather up here in the Gulf has got the grunter firing and there were some awesome numbers of big grunter caught up the river when they turned up to breed.

The place near the power lines was packed with around 80 boats and most caught at least 6 fish for the day. These grunter were up to 70cm in size, so an awesome day was had by those there. It was also good to see the Fishery Officers in attendance to make sure everyone was doing the right thing.

Blue salmon will now be on the chew as they mass up near the mouth to breed. They will be found on the colour change that happens heading north from the Sunset Tavern. I like to use a running sinker rig with a mono trace, but you can use wire, as there is always a Spanish mackerel around that can make life interesting if you’re not prepared. Please only take enough for a feed to allow everyone to catch some as they are fun to catch and eat and do not take much to land.

Karumba is mostly full with visitors at this time of year, but there are vacancies now as another caravan park has opened up. Karumba Point Service Station at the point on the left hand side just before you get to the Tavern has 36 powered sites and 2 self-contained dongas. The owner Ron has been in Karumba for a long time and knows a lot about fishing, so don't be afraid to ask some questions. His garage also stocks fishing gear and bait. The phone number is 0747459318.

Sweers Island is a great place to be at this time of year as the fishing is red-hot.

The cold weather has got the reef fish biting and the calm weather windows have been awesome. I took a mate of mine over there to do some fish stock research and the photo will say it all. We were going to catch some reef fish and then we would go after Spanish mackerel. On the first day the wind had dropped so we headed out and by 2.00pm we had caught some big red emperor, nannies and golden snapper. The call was made to stop fishing on the first day as we had plenty and the next 2 days we let every thing go and had a ball.