THE WARM weather last month made the barra come on the bite, but then a cold spell coupled with some slow tides made fishing ordinary. They promptly came back on the chew when the sun came out again.

The barra usually bite best in discoloured water at the top of the tide. A nice barra of a 1m was caught recently around Macushla.

Dennis Gode, who was camping at Macushla, recently boated a mackerel of about 10kg off Cape Richards where the green and yellow zones meet. There’s been a variety of fish hooked of Mulley’s Rock, including some large bream, but last time I looked some joker had cut loose the buoy that marks it. Be careful in that area as it’s not a nice thing to hit up on the plane!

Morrissey’s and Five-Mile creeks have been producing barra but only after some hard yards in the casting department. Mark Brady scored a couple of nice grunter fishing the flats with herring strips. The fish were 2-3kg, which was good work on 1kg!

With the warmer weather arriving the rock bars have slowed down and plenty of catfish have been attacking lures. After seeing the area in one of those really low lows, I now have a new respect for some of the flats I’ve been planing over.

The best lure for us has been the B52, which has hooked some nice barra and even managed to entice a large bream. A pink and gold Leads has been working well in the creeks, boating some nice jacks. Callan Ihle boated a nice 87cm barra on a livey out the front of the marina (that was the best I could get out of him)! If you see a battered old punt pushed a long by a tiny outboard, called Speed Demon, that’s Callan!

The freshwater is starting to fish well, and I recently had a nice morning at the top of the Tully with my mate David ‘Lumpy’ Milson, We managed to catch and release nine or 10 sooty grunter, hooked on a variety of lures but mostly small poppers.

Over the coming month we can expect good warm weather with some good tides around the 2nd and 3rd weeks, with the rest of the tides slow or neaping. Fish the mangrove roots and snags on the high (the barra are still feeding on top of the tide), and fish your favourite creek on the lows but get back on the flats as soon as water depth allows.

The rock bars are still worth a look on the neaping tides. We have found some fish in the snags in some of the estuary mouth on these tides as well.

That’s it for this month. Safe boating and I’ll see you on the water – and remember, fish for the future: practice catch and release!

[CAPTIONS]

1) Callan Ihle with an 87cm barra taken on a live sardine.

2) Dennis Gode with a 12kg Spanish mackerel.