Team Rocky Refrigeration took out the Abu Garcia River Rumble, recently on the Fitzroy River. Big congratulations to them and everyone else that fished the competition. Barra and threadfin have been fun for anglers with the blue salmon and flathead moving up the river. Out wide, you can expect the queenfish and mackerel are going ballistic, along with mulloway and other reef dwellers.

The Fitzroy River has been strong as usual. Great specimens are being caught, and especially by anglers who put in the hours on the water. The blue salmon have moved well into the river this year, which is great to see, and people have been taking some for a feed. These fish have typically been sitting in 6-10m of water, but can be found anywhere around rubble patches and other soft structure forms.

As the recent Rocky River Rumble proved, there are still heaps of barra around the river. The best lures of the competition were short deep divers, soft vibes and weighted weedless plastics such as Lucky Craft Pointer, Fish Candys and Atomic Plazos, respectively. Barra and threadies have been a little slower to the take than normal, due to the temperature drop, so a slower, doughier action is required. A lot of short strikes can be turned into fish if the lure is worked a fraction slower.

The top spots have been the mouth of Gavial, gravel patches near the Southside boat ramp and the rock patches near Moores Creek. People have told me about good prawning sessions in the river lately, with some bloody big prawns being caught. Use the smaller ones as bait for the salmon and take the larger ones home for a feed. Many of the prawns have been gathered in the drains of the mud banks.

The Hummocky Island area and coastal headlands around Curtis Island have been fishing well. Some great catches are coming in with a lot of coral trout, reds, nannies and other bottom dwelling fish. Decent mackerel are getting around lately, along with some brute giant trevally.

Tonnes of squid are in, and white or pink jigs appear to be the go to colours. For a good day on the water, grab a feed of big squid and smaller ones for bait on the reef. Afternoons are the best time for chasing squid while drifting weed beds. At night, anchor up and have a bright light in the water. This draws the squid and other baitfish up close to the boat. Places like Liza Jane and Hummocky have been fishing well with many good reef species being captured and some horse-sized Spanish mackerel caught off Ship Rock next to Hummocky.

The estuarine regions have been awesome fishing for almost every species. This time of year, the bream have moved well and the flathead will be more active in a few weeks. There is a good deal of baitfish activity around now, especially on the flats around small structures. All it takes is an odd rock to hold a decent amount of bait, which in turn may attract anything from a bream to a barra. One little rock recently held a bunch of big blue salmon while another small bit of dead mangrove held a sizeable flathead.

The pressure points formed by rock bars and trees around the estuaries have been fantastic to pull grunter and cod. On the drops near the rock bars, some medium running hardbody lures have produced a great number of whiting.

Crabs have been going well with many captures of big bucks around the Narrows and Curtis Island. Left over reef frames make great crab pot bait, and GPS tagging your pots will make some easy work. Save them as waypoints in the GPS and delete them when you’ve collected the pot.

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Connor landed this nice coral trout on his Samurai Elevate 25-40lb outfit.

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Patrick Egan landed this wicked barramundi after his sounder lit up with activity, while searching the area.

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Clayton has a flathead from the causeway lake, taken using a Sunline Super PE and and X-Rap 8.