Queenfish, pelagics, barra and mangrove jack have all been caught recently in and around Hinchinbrook.
Local lure tossers have taken advantage of the big tides on the mainland side of the Channel and have been rewarded with some good GT and queenfish. Deluge Inlet has fished well for pelagics, but if you’re after jacks or barra you’ll need to head to Gayundah.
Barra have been a bit fussy recently, refusing to take lures or livebait, but a switch to mullet strips often produces better results. Bigger barra have been favouring livebaits. Our best lures for the bigger fish have been silver B52s, silver flatraz and poppers in the shallow water.
Half tide is the best time to fish Missionary Bay. The bay’s barra and jacks have been reluctant to swallow lures, most seem to be just flashing at them. This is fairly standard for barra, but it’s a bit strange for jack.
Some nice barra have been caught by beach anglers fishing live prawns and a few good fish have also found their way into cast nets.
The weather has been atrocious recently with rain and wind keeping everybody off the water. Meunga Creek is still producing some keeper barra on dead and livebaits, despite the hammering it has had.
Matthew Poipol’s 98cm barra, caught during a local fishing competition, is proof that there are still plenty of good fish around.
Stephen Booth (QFM editor) has asked his writers to include some humorous incidents or fishing action in our reports. I’m all for that, as fishing is supposed to be fun.
I fished with some guys from Sydney recently and we were working our way along a bank, tossing lures at the snags. Lots of bait was being chopped up around us but we couldn’t get a fish to take a lure.
There was a might eruption of bait behind us and as we all turned to see what was happening a 55cm barra jumped into the middle of the boat!
Once we had recovered, we decided to throw it back and hope the next one was legal. I’ve had plenty of garfish end up in the boat when on the plane but that was a first.
Next month should be a cracker. All the barra will have washed out of the creeks so fish the drains along the colour change. Don’t forget to work downstream a bit, especially in a quiet eddy. Look for the bait schools on the flats and fish the snags in about 3ft of water.
Remember to ‘Fish for the Future, Practice Catch and Release!’
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