March is my favourite month for surface fishing by far! Warm waters are at their peak and the baitfish rise in the water column, because of the heat and predatory fish feeding! Bream, trevally, tailor, mangrove jack and bass in the freshwater are only some of the fish that will be seen slashing baitfish on the surface!

I can’t say it enough – early mornings and late afternoons are the best times to fish surface lures. On the late evening of a hot day, where the rocks of a bank will be hot, baitfish like to hug these sorts of areas. I have a good feeling that over time, larger fish know this too! Areas with mangroves, sand canals and mud all draw larger species.

Surface lures of poppers and walk-the-dog style lures work a treat. Brands like Lucky Craft, Halco, Strada and DUO are up there with my favourites. Lures around 50-70mm are great on bream, trevally and bass, while 80-120mm work a treat on tailor and jacks, as these lures are larger and make a lot more sound!

Bream are on the bite and taking small plastics and small suspending hardbody lures worked extra slowly around pontoons and rock walls. The early parts of the canals produce plenty of fish around this time of year. I’ve also caught decent bream deep in canal systems where the water is dirty. In this situation, try darker plastics as well as plenty of scent!

Flathead have started to show up on patches, but haven’t been hammered by fishing of late. The north wall of the Seaway is producing on most days. Crab Island, Tipplers Channel, Jacobs Well and early parts of the Nerang are all worth a look at before giving up for another couple of months. ZMan 3” MinnowZ and 4” SwimmerZ are near to irresistible to a lizard when bounced past their nose!

Within the next month or two we will see surface fishing go off with a bang, as more baitfish flourish in our estuaries. So it’ll be quite common to see plenty of bust-ups from pelagic fish. On the other hand, we should start to see the temperature start to drop. In the last few months, temperatures have been soaring and records have been broken all over Queensland. More rain may be on the forecast, which will be good at times to give our systems a flush out and it will make a productive time for fishing.

March is a perfect month. Surface fishing is firing and the bottom dwelling species are just as fun and lively! Keep persisting and keep doing the research. I’ll see you out on the water!