At a recent gathering I was enjoying an ale, or two, discussing the past piscatorial year with a couple of mates, and what stood out the most was the changing angling and fish behaviour.

Popper-crunching whiting and flathead are now a regular occurrence. The soft plastic revolution has anglers catching species that traditionally could only be caught on bait. As anglers we are evolving with the technology, and we are not alone in our evolutionary progression. It seems fish are right there with us.

This year I’ve heard of snapper taking surface trolled gars, mullet being caught on lead slugs and parrotfish smashing mid-water hardbodied lures. The unknown is what fishing is all about, and it looks like we are in for a few more surprises.

These rivers have fished well for flathead bream and whiting on yabbies and squid strips. Threadfin and blue salmon have also been taking cut and live baits.

There have been a few grunter and jacks taking lures and baits and this time of year is great for chucking lures at queenfish and trevally.

In the bay the fishing has been great with mixed bags of estuary and reef fish keeping anglers busy.

Blue and cocky parrot, cod, scarlets, blackall and coralies have been responding to a mixture of crabs, squid and flesh baits.

The flats are still producing quality flathead and summer whiting, and goldies have been all over plastics, livies and fly.

Things have gone up a notch out wide with consistent hits on black marlin around Rooneys Pt and the Break Sea Spit.

Spanish mackeral, longtails, spotties, mac tuna and mahi mahi are all a possibility on any given day throughout the summer months and are easily accessed by trailer boat fishers in Hervey Bay.

Big cobia have been taking trolled and deep jigged lures around reef structures and shallow sandy ledges. Cobia love eating crabs and school up in the shallow drop-offs around sand bars. Trolling a spread of lures along these ledges can result in explosive pack attacks from cobia, causing multiple hook ups. Catch you next year, have a safe and fishy Christmas.