Now that the cooler weather is finally here it’s time to chase the cold water species that have arrived in Hervey Bay. Winter whiting are schooling up off Scarness and Point Vernon. It’s easy to find these schools as a group of boats will often give away their location. If group fishing is not your thing then drifting is the best way to find fish. Blackall and coralies have been on the chew along the ledges on the inside of Fraser Island with fresh squid the pick of baits.

These areas are producing trout, scarlet sea perch, cod, coral bream and snapper are starting to school up. If you’re chasing snapper at the gutters try to find a spot with plenty of good ground in 32-40m of water. This should put you on the ledge and is as good an area as any to bag a few knobbies.

I was up at Monduran in March and was amazed at the drop in water level since I was last there in September. At 24% of capacity most anglers were restricted to using the main concrete ramp to launch their boat and it has since dropped further. Without some decent rain it will be some time before this changes.

The water levels however didn’t deter the barra and on the evening of the full moon Mick, John and Tony from NSW cleaned up while trolling after dark. I met these guys at the boat ramp at about 11pm and as they emerged from the darkness the first thing I could see was their cheesy grins. They had lost fish during their previous trolling sessions but it all come together for them once the sun went down. The boys landed five barra between 75-97cm within a 150m stretch of water on Predatek Vipers in gold. The gun lure of the night was the red head/white body Viper that accounted for three fish including the 97cm one.