The weather is hotting up now, and so is the action on the summer species.

As I write this report, anglers are still catching tailor, bream and dart on all beaches. These species have begun to thin out though, making way for my favourite – and possibly the most prized tablefish off the beach – the humble whiting. This species has become quite active, and we have seen very good sized ones turning up around the bottom end of Fraser Island, and most shallow gutters on both Rainbow and Teewah beaches.

I have a few tips for everybody fishing for whiting in this area:

1) The last of the outgoing tide and the first hour of the incoming work best.

2) Use livebait. The best baits are wriggler worms and mangrove worms, but beach worms and yabbies are also good.

3) Pick out shallow drains or gutters as whiting love to dwell there. I've seen and caught nice whiting no more than 3m in front of my feet – just remember not to stand in the water as these fish spook easily in the shallows.

Flathead are still in good numbers between Carlo Point and Fraser Island. Flesh baits and soft plastics are doing the trick, with the larger fish falling for live poddy mullet.

Sand and diver whiting are quite common around Big Mick beacon and up the inside of Fraser Island.

Mud crabs are being potted in Carlo, Teebah and Kauri creeks. These guys never really slowed down this year, and it will only get better as the temperature rises. Hopefully we’ll also get plenty of rain to stir them up.

The wider southern ground has really been cranking, with myself and other local operators getting stuck into squire. The majority of these have been around the 2-3kg mark, but there are also some bigger fish to around 6kg.

Using pea sinkers and floating them down very slowly had us bagging out in no time. One customer of mine tried using no sinker at all and, although extremely slow, his rig landed a couple of quality snapper a quarter of the way down.

In the same area, using a standard dropper rig, big parrot were very thick amongst some Moses perch, gold-spot wrasse and the odd coral trout and lunar-tail trout.

Red emperor have really come on, with the best catches from out fairly wide. They're bound to turn up in close soon though.

Livebait is the go for reds in close, but out in the wider country the fish aren’t as fussy. A recent trip I did out wide produced a whopping 18.5kg red emperor – a beautiful specimen.

November is also a good month for reds; maybe a little slower on other reef dwellers. On the other hand, we may see our first run of spotted mackerel, which are always a lot of fun.

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.

[CAPTIONS]

1) Danny Richings from Cooroy with an18.5kg Red caught on Keely Rose. It was his first time offshore, and I think he’ll be back!

2) Amy, Emma and Debbie with a nice catch of cobia, pearl perch, snapper and red emperor.