The fishing is mostly red hot at the moment, although it has been up and down at times. The trevally is one species that has been getting around and anglers are catching quite a few. There’s also bream, the odd flathead, jacks and whiting. Dead bait, live bait and lures have all been working a treat in the canals.

The surface bite has well and truly fired up — whiting fighting over your lure, bream and mangrove jacks smacking anything that passes through their territory, and big trevally that can't help themselves to a well-presented lure. Hardbodies that have been working well include the Bassday Sugar Pen, Strada Dancer and OSP Bent Minnows. Casting around sand-lined banks with these lures on any tide at dawn or dusk should bring you some action and get the heart racing!

Mangrove jacks are in good numbers right up river systems and into the mangroves. Look around Coomera, southern Gold Coast, Logan, Jacobs Well, and throughout all canal systems with pontoons. If you’re a live bait fisho, keep that bait right in the strike zone, and a good spot is around bridges at night. Good livies include tailor, whiting, small mullet and herring.

If lures are preferred, something around 4" in white or natural colours rigged on a 1/4oz-3/8oz jighead is something worth throwing around for these canal beasts.

The odd flathead is getting around the Broadwater and canals, but not in large numbers. I won't go into too much detail, but try fishing at the canal mouths. Rock walls where it's nice and deep are the go, so keep that blade, plastic, bait or hardbody right near the bottom.

The odd tarpon has been swimming in packs in some canal systems. It's very hard to find them though, and they will move quickly. The best way to track them is sound them up or find the bait, and then cast plastics and then medium/fast wind them back. They aren't in very big numbers at the moment.

In the next month we should see the surface bite get even better, with fish smashing the surface more often as the water temperature rises slightly. We will see more afternoon storms, which will really fire the jacks up. Fish for them either the day after a big storm or just before the storm hits.

Plenty of trevally have hit the canals in search of baitfish. If you sight fish busting up on the bait, cast over the school and fast wind back, making the lure act like a wounded baitfish trying to escape. Good structures to fish include rock walls, bridge pylons and pontoons. These predatory fish will patrol the rock and retaining walls from around 3-6.00am and 5.00-7.00pm. If you can find a nice, bright light at night, the baitfish will sit there, with the big predators not too far away.

That's it for me for another month, I hope you get out and into a few because there's plenty to be caught! Make sure you jump over and check out my Instagram account at --e-mail address hidden--

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Harry Taylor with an elbow slapping 41cm whiting taken on the surface with a Bassday SugaPen.

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Trevally can't resist a plastic wound fast across the top. This solid brassy trevally fell for a Z-Man 3.75" StreakZ in Smokey Shad.