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September estuary madness
  |  First Published: September 2015



The fishing over the last month has been insane, from great offshore activity to absolutely brilliant inshore estuary and river fishing. Thankfully, the last month has seen great weather and that should stay the same through September.

Some key places would be Nerimbera area for the threadies, any coastal headland for land-based mackerel fishing and finally in the coming month, the Wollwash area for tarpon and barra!

Lagoons

The freshwater lagoons and creeks around the region are beginning to fire up. I personally have not fished them yet with all the great estuary and headland action going on, but many people coming into the store have some great photos of large tarpon on poppers, and even some fun sized barra on shallow divers and wake baits. The wake baits are particularly good in the late afternoon as they wiggle across or just under the surface with a constant roll. The idea of using surface lures at this time of year is to stir up the surface and fire up the barra and tarpon sitting just below.

Estuaries

The common winter season estuarine species are all in amongst the mangroves and flats of all the creeks and inlets, particularly the Corio Bay. The grunter have really started to come out of late, with many reports of these fish being caught. Through this past month, places like the Fitzroy River and Corio Bay have seen a large number of salmon move in, from king threadfin in the creeks to the blues out the front on the flats and beach gutters.

Whiting have been found just along the drop off line around the estuaries coming off the flats, fresh yabbies and worms will see you bag out on these in no time.

Flathead have been an easy to take fish this year with a massive hype on soft plastic vibes and almost all manufacturers getting their hands in the pot. There are now sizes for any species from bream through to coral trout. There are quite a few good 80mm vibes, which have worked well for flathead around the region.

Fitzroy

The Nerimbera area of Fitzy has produced some great thredfin recently, many of which are being taken on live baits at night, with lures being easily viable during the day. Areas to target these fish at the moment would be the coffee rock areas in amongst the flats. One of the best live baits in the area at the moment is the adequate supply of poddy mullet, and these can be targeted with either a cast net of fish trap. A single 6/0 circle hook pinned through the shoulders of the bait will be easily capable of capturing any of the inquisitive salmon.

OTHER Inshore regions

The coastal headlands have been great in recent times with amazing water clarity and weather conditions. It has become a heaven for both land-based fisherman and the fish. It has finally given me a chance to test out my 9ft micro jigging rod to great success, capturing mackerel, wolf herring and other species, predominately from Double Head. Other anglers have had success on queenfish and bonito off similar headlands. As always, the Halco Twisty slugs have proven to be a sure winner with the Spanyid Maniac coming a close second! Letting the lure sink for 10-15 seconds and then medium pace retrieving them through the water columns seems to be the most successful technique.

If you have any fishing photos of the Rockhampton or Gladstone region, feel free to send them through with a brief description of where you caught the fish and how you caught them --e-mail address hidden--

Fish light get the bite.

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