The fishing this month has really been quite useful. Mulley’s Rock has been working well with some nice, 2kg tarpon schooling off it at various times. It has also produced jacks, barra, nannygi, doggy mackerel and golden trevally, most of which were taken on soft plastics and poppers. On the down side there have been a lot of barracuda attacking lures and they can really stuff up the soft plastic jigs.

Some really nice queenfish have been boated in Missionary Bay; local farmer Stan Maton caught two around 26kg and yours truly hooked and released a personal best of 110cm. Number 3 Creek finally fired up - some good jacks were boated and young Ashley Dansie caught a released a nice grouper of over 1m. The Dugong Channel is a little bit slower this month with the grunter but has produced some lovely nannygi, once again on soft plastics.

Early in the month there were plenty of barra but it slowed down towards the end. Some really nice barra have been taken off the rocky headlands and there were a few tarpon amongst them as a bonus.

I have a report that the Tully and Murray Rivers have been fishing well, producing barra and jacks. Delachy Creek is inundated with blue salmon at the moment but they usually don’t hang around long. For those persevering there have been some nice fingermarks hooked amongst them.

Meunga Creek has been good with barra and grunter being boated in the mouth, while the fresh has been fun with plenty of barra (around 45cm), jacks and tarpon. Kennedy Creek has been getting better with sooties and jungle perch the main catches.

Apart from a variety of soft plastics, the best lures for us have been the silver B52s, Gold Bombers, pink Flatratz and the ever-reliable Leads in a gold colour.

Next month still has some big tides in it; I try to find a bank of mangroves that back on to a beach for these tides. My theory is that the fish can only go back as far as the beach. Work your day out so that you are fishing the half tide in and the half tide out. With the big tides the drains should be working so go to your favourite creek and fish them when they are running: the Small Boat Passage is a good one to try.

Before I sign off, I have to thank Gary for the big rap in his article last month. As to fishing with blunt hooks, that’s not quite what I meant. I was simply commenting that new hooks seem to get snagged more quickly but after you have been using the lure for a while, they “walk” through a lot better.

Once again that’s it for this month. Safe boating and I’ll see you on the water. Remember, “Fish for the Future, Practice Catch and Release”.

Ashley Dansie with the grouper he caught in Number 3 Creek.

Jim Lee lands this 110cm queenfish – a personal best!