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Pick your days for successful trips
  |  First Published: July 2017



The Capricorn region has been all over the place in terms of weather. The past month has played host to calm blue clean oceans one day and murky, windy waters the next. People who have picked their days right have had great success, both inshore and offshore. The Keppels and beyond have produced a great variety of both reef and pelagic species and the creeks and rivers have produced some great estuary catches.

Freshwater regions

Freshwater regions are still a great source of bait. You can catch these fish using hooks and sinkers, lures or opting for bait traps of some kind. For perch, use tiny bits of cut up bait on the tips of very small fine hooks along with a very small sinker. If you were looking to trap some freshwater prawns or yabbies, a fine mesh opera house would be a great choice. When using freshwater traps, the darker, less prominent colours seem to be the best, and a good old loaf of cheap white bread as bait can see you emptying traps for weeks on less than a dollar.

The Fitzroy

The river has been fishing well for many anglers and a lot of people have been producing good fish. It shows that persistence pays off. A lot of fish have been caught near the mouths of the feeder creeks. Try anywhere that will be creating a pressure point.

The barra have been starting to sit a lot deeper in the areas where the temperature change throughout the day is a lot smaller. Devils Elbow and the mouth of Gavial Creek have been producing well for both barra and threadies. Most have been taken on vibes or deep divers.

Inshore regions

The Keppel Group has been fishing well, along with coastal headlands. A great variety of species have been caught, like large mulloway through to mackerel and coral trout. Double Heads has been a go-to for many land-based anglers wanting to chase some pelagics from the rocks when the water is clean in close to the mainland.

Anything goes off this headland. Wolf herring are quite common but anything from golden snapper to tuna are caught off there. Other great spots inlcude Emu Park headlands and Tanby Point, commonly known as ‘the Haven.’ These other headlands are more effective when fished with heavy weighted plastics or vibes.

Estuaries

The estuaries have been fishing great for a whole host of species. An increasingly large amount of permit are being caught as well as the bream and whiting schooling up on the flats for winter. Many smaller queenies and a multitude of different trevally species are holding up in the gutters and channels, which has been great fun.

Some of the best bait going for these species in the estuaries is the live prawns and herring getting around. Using these live and lightly weighted can gain great results. If lures are your go-to fishing method, upgrading the trebles to larger, heavy-duty singles can prove to be a good idea.

Crabbing

Although the river has been getting cooler, many people are still pulling ripper crabs out around the port and Thompsons Point. They are reportedly getting these crabs deeper in the channels. The numbers are not what they were a few months ago, but at least the sizes are still great. Anyone who likes a crabbing session should definitely get down and get some crabs while they are going hard. If you’re new to the process, crab pot kits are readily available.

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