The Pelican Waters canals are fishing well for queenfish, along with bigeye trevally and small GTs. Anglers are also encountering schools of kalekale trevally, which come on in the cooler months.

Lure fishers are catching most of their trevally on small soft plastics or 5-10g micro jigs, with very light 6-10lb fluorocarbon leader. We’ve been getting good results on 10g Samaki Torpedo V2 Spinners, Samaki Tuna V2 micro-jigs, and Halco Madeye 3” Paddle Prawns in jelly prawn. When using jigs and plastics for these fish, you should work them very slowly with plenty of time on the bottom.

The queenfish are taking poppers and stickbaits with gusto, with two of the stand-out lures being the Ecooda Pop 100 and the 80mm Atomic Hardz K-9. When chasing queenfish on surface walkers you should employ a fast walk-the-dog retrieve, and if you’re using poppers you should use a slow to medium retrieve.

The sand flats in front of the powerboat club and military jetty are yielding good catches of winter whiting and bream on live yabbies and live bloodworms. Further towards the river and around the boardwalk, anglers are picking up the odd big tailor up to 3.5kg on whole pilchards and live bait. There are also good catches of bream starting to show up on mullet gut and chook gut along the boardwalk at the bottom of the tide.

The luderick have turned up at the boardwalk but they’re not really feeding yet. It appears that all they can think about is the upcoming spawn, but after that’s done and dusted they should feed well for a couple of weeks. Until then, you have to be lucky to catch them feeding.

At the river mouth guys been catching nice size flathead on small pilchards drifted along the eddies on the last of the run-out tide. We’re also seeing good catches of big dart to around 50cm at the mouth. They’ve been taking small pilchards, peeled prawns and even small slugs.

When it comes to rock fishing around Caloundra, anglers fishing at Kings Beach, Shelly Beach and Moffat Beach have been getting good catches of squirey snapper. Most fish have been caught at first light or sunset on the run-out tide using fresh mullet or squid. The odd school-size mulloway has turned up as well.

The coffee rock off Bribie Island always fishes well at this time of year for small snapper and grassy sweetlip, and they can be caught on a variety of baits. Still, if you want to minimise pickers and catch more keepers, soft plastics are the way to go. We’ve had good success using ZMan scented 5” Jerk ShadZ in coconut ice and new penny, matched with a 3/8oz HeadLockZ jighead and 15lb leader. This set-up should get you multiple catches of snapper off the coffee rock. You can also try Brays Rock for a variety of smaller reef fish.

Currimundi Reef has been fishing well for Venus tuskfish, small snapper and grassy sweetlip. For bigger fish, Caloundra 12 Mile has been fishing exceptionally well for snapper up to 7kg. There have also been nice pearlies up to 45cm caught out there, and you should always float out a livebait because there’s still a chance for a big Spaniard. Always take a rod rigged with a slug, too, as there are still plenty of mac and longtail tuna around, busting up baitfish on the surface.

The low end of the Barwon Banks has been fishing well for big snapper, pearl perch, cobia, kingfish and cod. Live slimies are the best bait, and make sure you berley up. It really is essential to get a good berley trail going if you want consistent results.

This month if the weather is good you should make a beeline for the inner reefs, get those soft plastics out and target snapper and sweetlip. If the weather is bad, your best bet for a feed is to fish the Pumicestone Passage for whiting, bream and the odd tailor.

• For all the latest info on what’s biting and where, drop into Caloundra Fishing World at 7/8 Yay Ave, Caloundra or give them a call on (07) 5491 4566.