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Summer’s got us feelin’ wahoo!
  |  First Published: November 2015



Anglers fishing east of the South Passage bar are starting to switch their focus to pelagic species, and with the water temperature on the rise, these fish shouldn’t be too far away. This upcoming Spanish mackerel season will be interesting. With Spaniards still being caught off North Stradbroke and Moreton Islands as late as August the question is – when will they turn up this season?

Small Spaniards, not much bigger than legal (75cm) usually turn up in numbers in the Point Lookout area and sometimes on Moreton’s Coffee Rock reefs. It might be worth having a quick troll around a tide change to see if there is any activity. I prefer to livebait for these early season fish and then switch to swimming garfish as the season progresses.

Although Spanish Mackerel have certainly been in good numbers this past few seasons, we are certainly overdue a good run of wahoo. In past years we’ve had some solid runs of school sized wahoo up around 6-9kg in late November, early December, but the last couple of seasons they simply haven’t turned up. When they do arrive, a great way to start the day is with a bit of high speed trolling to bag a few wahoo before you head reef fishing. These fish respond well to Halco Laser Pros, Rapala CD’s and smaller skirted lures dragged around as fast as you can keep them in the water. Make sure your hooks are razor sharp to penetrate their hard beak like mouths.

Reef fishing

On the reef fishing side of the equation, there are still plenty of options for the bottom fisho east of the South Passage bar this month. We’ve still been pulling some good squire and snapper on charter of late, mainly working the wider grounds and the only days we’ve struggled is when there has been no run in the water. On those days you’ll pull a couple of fish off a lump on your first drift, but go over them again and you won’t lose any bait! So you have to move on and find another patch of fish. As I mentioned last month, the spring months are the time to work the Shallow Tempest line of reef, a very productive area for some real quality fish if conditions are in your favour. Off North Stradbroke Island, the bottom end of the Cathedrals has been producing good snapper and mulloway on both the 50 and 60m lines on live bait. Out on the 42 fathom there will be increasing numbers of amberjacks, samson, and yellowtail kingfish eager to hit both live-baits and jigs as the water continues to warm. Sharks continue to be a problem, once they turn up, you just have to move on and find another patch of fish.

Until next month, enjoy your fishing, take care on the coastal bars and if you’d like to join me on charter (max 8 persons) give me a call on (07) 38229527 or 0418738750 or visit my website at www.outlawcharters.com.au.

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