At last there has been some good pelagic activity on the Sunshine Coast. Hordes of anglers have been enjoying the excellent run of mackerel and tuna. There are lots of stories are around of empty spools and spectacular bust offs. A few fish have even been landed!

At the top end of the Sunshine Coast spotted and Spanish mackerel have been chased with a vengeance and northern bluefin and the occasional yellowfin tuna have gotten in on the act as well. A few rare grey mackerel have also been caught.

Trollers have done very well lately with chrome Arafura Barras being the standout lure after a number of recent hook ups on these versatile lures. On one such occasion a angler hooked up to what she assumed was a big northern blue. She was holding the rod across her chest when the lightning fast hook up occurred and within no time her spool was empty.

On the same outing several Spanish and grey mackerel (or broad barred Spanish mackerel) were trolled up less than a kilometre offshore. The best colour has been silver chrome with red stripes. A few trollers have also been using the Lively Lures Blue Pilly in both blue and green.

Those floating baits for mackerel have encountered plenty of good fish too, although using mono leader often results in lost rigs and not many fish. On more than one occasion anglers have wound in to check their bait only to discover the terminal gear had been neatly snipped off by a toothy critter. This can happen without a bite even being registered, and unfortunately means mackerel are swimming around with hooks attached. Wire needs to be deployed when this starts to happen.

Snapper have been on the go with some very good catches in close. A few good fish have been caught on the troll again with solid body lures without rattles. The results over the past few winters have shown that snapper will respond to trolled lures without rattles more than any other options. Some very good fish have also succumbed to big soft plastic baits bounced around the rubble. This is a growing technique but one that certainly works.

Out at the Barwon Banks several parties have absolutely cleaned up with outstanding catches of snapper, pearl perch, amberjack and cobia. One group were annoyed when a big mob of cobia turned up and they couldn’t get baits to the bottom structure. Sounds like pretty good problem to me!

Closer in squire and snapper have been close to the top of catch lists with pearl perch and a few good sweetlip amongst them. As the water continues to cool we can expect to see better and better results for those chasing reef fish. June looks like it will be excellent time to hunt for a feed of succulent fillets!

In the river outstanding catches of flathead have surprised a few anglers. It never ceases to amaze me the number and quality of this species that the Noosa system delivers despite enormous fishing pressure over the Christmas and Easter holiday periods.

Ryan Murnane from Davo’s Bait and Tackle enjoyed an excellent session on the Noosa River recently. Ryan drifted livebaits for eight 80cm flathead that were all released. Chris Lacey from the same establishment pulled a monster 93cm flathead when trolling a gold Mars shallow runner, once again in the Noosa system. Naturally the big fish was set free.

In other news, which for a change is all very good, bait sessions to the end of April have been very productive. The lowly dead prawn did the trick for one angler fishing near Harbourtown late one afternoon. His catch list included flathead, mangrove jacks, tailor, trevally, tarwhine and a 4kg jewfish! Most of the catch was released however I believe the jewie made it to the BBQ plate.

Birthday boy Mark Tippet christened his new kayak with a few very successful trolling runs in the Noosa River. Mark also used a shallow run minnow and scored flathead and some jacks.

All in all June looks to be a very productive month on the fishing front, however I don’t think there wouldn’t be too many willing jacks!