It the great time of the year when things really start to change, we really have the best of both worlds with the start of the pelagics offshore, the mangrove jacks come out of hiding in the rivers and, of course, this is prime time for tailor and mulloway off the beach.

Starting with the Noosa River, the mouth has been really firing with quality bream, tailor, trevally, school mulloway and ludrick. Flesh baits like mullet and bonito strips have been one of the best performers with soft plastics like the Zman StreakZ curly-tailZ in the 4” a real favourite. Slugs are also claiming some quality fish.

Down towards the sand bags on the Dog Beach, quality whiting have taken a liking to fresh bloodworms. Smaller poppers and surface walkers have also claimed their fair share of fish, the Skinny Dogs from River2sea have been going off with the whiting with the 65mm a perfect size.

Woods Bays has again been the home of some quality trevally. Anglers have been enticing them with surface poppers in the low light periods and soft plastics through the day.

The Gympie Terrace stretch of the Noosa River and the Black Banks section of the Maroochy has fished well with families enjoying whiting, bream and the odd flathead.

In the ski runs in both rivers, flathead have been plentiful with the run-out tide the best time to plan your attack. Soft plastics in reds and pinks have been very productive.

Mangrove jacks will start to feed in the upper reaches of the rivers, and surface lures like the Lucky Craft Sammy are excellent. Just cast in close to the timber that lines the upper reaches of the Noosa and Maroochy rivers first thing in the morning and late in the afternoon and you should see a result. In the brighter part of the day, diving lures like the Eco gear CX60 are perfect for dragging over rock bars and the deeper sections of the rivers.

The Offshore fishing will be equally amazing, as the water warms we will see the influx of smaller spotted mackerel with the larger Spanish mackerel soon to follow, just look for that bird activity as these speedsters of the sea smash the bait balls from underneath. The northern most reefs will be the first to see the pelagics, as the warmer currents move south so will the fish and if last year is anything to go by we are in for a great season. Fast trolled lures are a great way to cover a lot of ground when things are a little quiet, work those drop off and edges, as this is where these fish like to congregate and feed on smaller bait schools.

There has been some real advances in deep trolling lures over the last few years and most are now able to travel at up to 10 knots. The Samaki Pacemakers are one of the standouts and the colour range is tremendous.

Sunshine Reef is still producing some great coral trout, remember to fish your lure or soft plastic hard to the bottom and you will be rewarded. Also at Sunshine, the sweetlip are on the chew as well as good tuskies and snapper.

The deeper Reefs like Chardons and North reef have also come up with the goods, with larger snapper, pearl perch, sweetlip, cobia, and mulloway.

The charter operators have been taking advantage of the great weather and doing the run up to Double Island with some outstanding results. Snapper, venus tuskfish, pearl perch, mac tuna, Moses perch and lots of amberjack have all been on the menu. Down south, Murphys has produced some cracker snapper as well as some stonker gold-spot cod.

The closer reefs like Coolum, Arkwright and Handcock sholes have also been great for pan-sized snapper, sweetlip and tuskies.

On the beach, the Noosa Northshore has been inundated with anglers and there 4x4s heading up the beach in search of those elusive tailor. Anglers were not disappointed with some good catches reported, along with the tailor there were some nice bream, flathead, whiting and bigger dart. Most anglers are bait fishing with pillies, mullet strips, and salted bonito.

Those that didn’t have a 4x4 were also in the hunt with the gutter just in front the Northshore Caravan Park holding good fish.

To the south, the Maroochy North Shore has been the place for some quality mulloway. This time of the year is one of the best for big mulloway and with the warmer water and good tides we should see some outstanding fish. One of our best fish last year was taken around this time at 1.5m and over 25kg. This outstanding fish was a real challenge in the surf.

The key to mulloway is big baits like quality squid or fresh mullet, and try not to strike on the first bite, but instead let the fish run. Many a quality mulloway is lost in the enthusiasm of anglers striking too soon. Mulloway love to pick at baits, or roll it round in their mouthsm scaling before they swallow. Strike too soon and you will simply pull the hook from the fish’s mouth.

• For all the latest information log onto www.fishingnoosa.com.au for up to date bar and fishing reports and don’t forget to drop into Davo’s Tackle World Noosa or Davo’s Bait &Tackle Northshore at Marcoola to find out what’s biting and where, and remember, tight lines and bent spines!