The fishing over the last month has been pretty spectacular, from great offshore activity to absolutely brilliant inshore estuary and river fishing. Thankfully the weather has been perfect and that should stay the same through October. Some key places are Nerimbera area for the threadies, any coastal headland for land-based mackerel fishing, and the inshore islands, like Ship Rock, for some great pelagic action!

The freshwater lagoons and creeks around the region are pretty much in full swing with a good deal of surface activity. There has been a couple of tarpon caught on fly gear over September, so October should prove even better!

The wake baits are particularly good in the late afternoon as they wiggle across or just under the surface, with a constant roll imitating an insect. The idea of using surface lures also at this time of year is to stir up the surface water and get a take from the barra and tarpon sitting just below basking in the sun.

The common winter season estuarine species are all in amongst the mangroves and flats of all the creeks and inlets, particularly Corio Bay. The mangrove jack have been out and more active recently, falling for prawn imitations along with bream and flathead. Through the past month, places like the Fitzroy River and Corio Bay have seen a large number of salmon move in; king threadfin in the creeks to the blues and flat salmon out the front on the flats and beach gutters.

Whiting have been caught sitting closer into the rocks and rubble than on the open water areas. Many people have caught them around the coffee rock areas in Corio Bay, the muddy rock that feels hard but easy to break.

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

The Nerimbera area of Fitzy has pulled some great threadfins recently, many being taken on live baits at night with lures being easily viable during the day. The areas to target these fish at the moment would be the gravel sort of coffee rock areas in amongst the flats.

One of the best live baits in the area in the adequate supply at the moment is poddy mullet; they can be targeted with either a cast net or 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.

The coastal headlands has been great in recent times with amazing water clarity and weather conditions. It has become a heaven for the fish and land-based anglers. Micro jigging has definitely taken many local anglers by storm, we have sold heaps of micro jigging gear and are more and more regularly running people through the process. It has definitely proved to be a successful technique as many people are pulling great fish around the Keppel Group on light jigs 15-80g. The techniques are pretty easy to do but can take some practice to get right, a quick YouTube search of micro jigging techniques and slow pitch jigging techniques would be a great start. It certainly is another great craze that definitely has a place in amongst all the methods, a great excuse to head out and buy another rod and reel combo!

If you have any fishing photos of the Rockhampton/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--