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Hoping for cool weather for better endeavours
  |  First Published: March 2017



The northern bay has kept anglers on their toes over the last month, giving them glimpses of brilliance and then nothing but peanuts as anglers head home empty handed. Northerly winds and warmer currents from up north have been the story of the summer with baitfish numbers being scarce for this time of the year.

After a slow month, the main rivers and the Pumicestone Passage have started to fire. Increased flathead activity is often a sign of good things to come. An old fisher’s saying ‘a drought on the land means a drought on the sea’ has been somewhat true this month, but with the cooling weather starting to show some stability, we may be in for a better fishing month ahead.

Pumicestone
Passage

Sand crabs have been the hit of the month at Bribie with numbers being good throughout the system. Donnybrook and Sylvan Beach have been the standouts during the ebbing tides. Many crab pot floats provide quite the obstacle course for fishers traveling through the passage. Bream numbers have been steady. The usual haunts like the Banksia Beach Canals, Ningi Flats and Cooks Rocks have been fishing reasonably well.

Ultra light presentations have been the key to getting good bream this month. Anglers have beeen using 3lb straight through fluorocarbon to increase their catch rates. Flathead numbers have been on the increase in recent weeks, with many anglers reporting females being caught. This would explain the increase in activity with smaller males entering the system in hunt for that spawning partner. White Patch, Gallaghers and Dunlops Gutter have been producing the goods, and the fish haven’t been fussy. Plenty have been caught on fresh bait and soft plastics.

Pine River

The Pine has had a rather slow start to the year. Welcomed cooler weather has brought about more consistent catches that have coincided with a good run of prawns through the area. Many prawn hunters have been in the area of late, which is a great sign for anglers. Predators are often near these areas. Upstream of the Bruce Highway Bridge is a notable prawning hotspot with many working the upstream areas all the way to the wreck to get a good bag of prawns.

This summer was dominated by whiting around the Hays Inlet area, and they are still being caught there. Flathead and bream have just started to pick up, with bream catches starting to rise around the Wells and pylons of the Ted Smout Bridge, which has been attracting the attention of many anglers. In the upper reaches, mangrove jack are still being caught. As the water temperature has started to decrease, anglers have found it easier to catch them at night on live baits than during the daylight hours.

Redcliffe
Peninsula

The Peninsula started to fish quite well over the past few weeks. With the cooler change kicking in as autumn gets underway, the fishing should get better and better. The addition of our yearly prawn run around the Pine, Nudgee Beach and Deception Bay gives the Redcliffe Peninsula the boost it needs with squire, bream and estuary cod activity.

Woody Point has been the star attraction of late with many early morning anglers being rewarded with hungry plate-sized snapper to keep them happy along with great bream – a welcome by-catch for many anglers. Queens Beach South, Osbournes and North Reef have also been noted squire spots. Many kayak fishers find these places are only a short paddles away.

Fresh baits have always been a popular choice at this time of year, but good results can still be had on soft plastics like ZMan Trick SwimZ, Zerek Flash Minnows and ZMan 3.5” GrubZ.

The bream fishing has been good, with hardbodies and lightly weighted plastics accounting for most of the catches. Deep diving cranks like Atomic Crank 38s, Jackall Chubbies, OSP Dunks and Daiwa Presso Rolling Cranks have been ideal for fishing the rocky/rubbly bottom of the peninsula.

Many anglers choose a braid and fluorocarbon leader combination to upgrade and downgrade their leader size depending on the bite patterns. Many have donated a good week’s pay of lures to Redcliffe fish over the years, so fishing a little heavier can sometimes be a saviour. Newport waterways have also been fishing well for bream and flathead, and the start of the run out tide is the pick of the bite period.

Tip of the Month

With the most humid summer on record winding down very slowly, don’t forget the value of hydration when fishing. Soft drinks, flavoured milk or your favourite beer don’t cut the mustard when it comes to replacing fluids in your body during and after a good day’s fishing. Water is the key, and the body needs a minimum of 2L for your organs to function normally. Have you had enough water today?

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