As we head into May there is a lot to be positive about when it comes to fishing our surf beaches.

The seas from Cyclone Wati calmed off in early April and the beaches are a little more eroded after a low pressure system removed lots of sand three weeks before Wati struck. This created some quality holes and gutters and also removed the hincksia weed that has been such a problem.

Surf species such as bream, tarwhine, dart, whiting and tailor should be more readily available with good structure available for anglers to fish. May is usually the peak period for bream in Teewah, things are looking particularly good.

Newly created gutters between the first cutting and Teewah, with coffee rock exposed in them, are always an excellent location to find schools of bream and tarwhine. Sweetlip catches will also become more common as May progresses.

These same gutters are also likely to hold the first of the northern migrating chopper tailor and the last of the southern greenbacks at dawn and dusk. Spinning surface lures over these rocks has been an effective method for tailor in the past, and helps anglers avoid the gear loss associated with fishing baits around the rocks.

Golden and giant trevally are often found around these rock structures in May too and love quickly retrieved slugs. I have had a lot of success with goldens in particular on calm moonlit nights when fishing a slug in these gutters.

North of Teewah where the coloured sand hills start through to Double Island Point has any number of small shallow gutters that were formed in March. Excellent whiting in good numbers will be frequenting these gutters and feeding on the beachworms that are around in numbers. For those who can't catch their own worms, the best way to target whiting is to use the valve of a pipi. Cut the rest of it in half and feed it onto a No.2 hook using as little weight as possible. The smaller target tends to hook more fish and also helps the pipi populations that are now under constant pressure. Dart, bream and tarwhine should also be in good numbers north of Teewah with pipis and worms the best baits.

I have noticed that people collecting pipis on the beach often don't take any notice of the high traffic flow on Teewah Beach. Parking in the middle of the hard sand 'driving zone' causes traffic chaos at times and is particularly dangerous for the people focused on the collection of the pipis. I would suggest parking higher up the beach in the softer sand and being aware of oncoming traffic from both directions. If there are a few people collecting, don't scatter all over the beach, work in a line that makes the path the driver needs to take obvious.

In early April mackerel and tuna schools returned Laguna Bay. Autumn often provides opportunities for land-based anglers to reach these schools from the beach with spinning gear. Watching the water for feeding schools and bird activity while driving along the beach can yield wonderful results.

Recently I saw a school of northern bluefin tuna feeding in close around Teewah. A 10kg longtail liked the look of my 45g Slider and took around 250m of 4kg mono before heading back to shore. It’s important that when chasing these pelagic schools from the beach that your gear allows for distance casting. Anything above 8kg line is almost impossible to throw far enough to reach these schools. I tie about 6m of 10kg mono to the end of the 4kg to give strength to the casting of sometimes heavy slugs, which also helps avoid bust-ups from larger fish.

Double Island Point (DI) is an excellent location to chase jewfish, tailor, trevally, bream, tarwhine, dart, yellowtail kingfish, mackerel and tuna. Depending on your preferred method of fishing, all of these species are a potential catch in May. Jew can also be taken in the gutters between the Cherry Venture and DI at night.

Queenfish are a favourite of mine from the beach at Rainbow, which is now weed free. Metal lures retrieved at high speed around schools of baitfish or over coffee rock can occasionally produce fish in the 5-10kg bracket with the majority between 3-5kg.

Flathead are a regular catch at the mouth of the Noosa River despite a lot of sand from Main Beach being deposited there recently. This sand hasn't helped gutter formations on the immediate north shore with the gutter that had been producing quality tailor for the last two months is almost gone. Tailor are still available there although the gutters are further east and require wading through a fair bit of water to find a bank to stand on so go there at low tide only.

Noosa River Ferry have had a number of enquiries lately about the Sliders that I mention in my articles regularly. These Sliders are a metal slug designed for tailor that work very well with other species. They aren’t related to the soft plastics being imported from the States. For more information on the lure itself and where it is available from, readers can contact me by email at --e-mail address hidden--