Strong wind and plenty of rain was the story last month but we still caught some good fish and had plenty of fun aboard Keely Rose, as always.

I saw the first good catches of bream for the season in late May. These fish were good quality and were caught on Rainbow Beach and Teewah Beach.

The best of the bream were found in the deeper gutters just before the full moon on the rising tide late afternoon. A few tailor were also caught in the same gutters to keep things interesting. The bream seemed to have a liking for mullet flesh, pilchards and live yabbies.

There are still a few whiting about but they have thinned out compared to last month.

The Straits was the best place to fish last month due to the weather. It was a good time to do some investigating right up the nooks and crannies in the creeks. One local fellow, Big Glen Calender, did just that, making his way up into a creek only accessible on a very high tide. Seeing his catch proved it was well worth the effort – some huge bream caught hand-over-fist, along with some good mangrove jack, flathead and garfish, topped off with his bag limit of mud crabs. He won't reveal exactly where it is but he's promised to take me there soon so long as I wear a blindfold.

There a still a few spotted mackerel, school mackerel and mack tuna between the mouth of the Wide Bay bar and Big Mick beacon. Squid are still being jigged up around Carlo Point and I've found calm sunny days are best for catching them and last month we didn’t have much of that.

Weather conditions kept most boaters at home last month. I managed only three trips offshore and didn’t see any other boats out there, but each of those three trips was very good. The first trip was a good mixture of snapper, parrot, Maori cod and gold-spot wrasse from around 10 miles offshore. The second trip I only did in close and we caught sweetlip, squire, Moses perch, pearl perch and parrot. The third trip was the best, and with a nice break in the weather we headed out wide and landed plenty of sensational red emperor.

I've had a few QFM readers ask me what sort of gear they need to bring up here for deep sea fishing. I tell them I like to keep things very simple and uncluttered. There’s no need to have a double-decker-triple-stacker tacklebox full of expensive gear.

I'll start with rods and reels. My rod is a 10-15kg Wilson Live Fibre fitted with a Shimano TLD 25. There's not much I can't do with this set-up. I have another mixture of rods for charter which are all fitted with deep sea Alveys. These reels are very simple and reliable and usually suit most people who haven't done a lot of fishing.

I take a small selection of hooks in sizes 4/0, 5/0, 6/0 and 10/0. I prefer Gamakatsu Octopus hooks as I feel they hold up better than most other chemically sharpened hooks do. For a cheaper hook you can't go past an old fashioned Mustard 542 in a 5/0 or a 6/0.

I take a variety of sinkers to suit conditions. I recommend a small selection of ball sinkers to about an number 8 and some medium size dropper leads to start off with.

I use Super-Schneider nylon line in 40lb to 50lb and take a handful of swivels and some bait jigs. The only other thing you need is some frozen squid, mullet and pilchards and you’ll have the lot covered.

June usually is a reliable month and if the weather stays good we should see some great fishing.

Ed Falconer’s charter business, Keely Rose Reef Fishing Charters, makes regular trips to the reefs off Rainbow Beach. If you’d like to go on a trip with Ed you can contact him on 0407 146 151.