November has proven to be my best big jack month with several jacks over the magic 50cm mark coming over the side of the Polycraft with a sensational 58cm jack taken on a Halco Laser pro from Baffle Creek.

I have had a ball fishing surface poppers in the creeks and with the warmer water temperatures there have been plenty of willing takers. Bream, tarpon, trevally and mangrove jack are always happy to smash a wounded fish skipping around on the surface. December should see more of the same with plenty of hot weather and good fishing. There has been a bit of rain and I am expecting more, which should get the prawns and baitfish moving.

The Burnett River mouth has been producing some great fishing with plenty of pelagics being taken on trolled lures and floating pillies. The north wall has large schools of baitfish being herded up by all manner of predators like tailor, trevally, jewfish and trevally. Smaller lures trolled along this area will produce plenty of action on smaller fish but if you want to test yourself out drop over some larger lures like the 150mm Scorpions from Halco, the red/silver and the white/red are very good colours. They come in a Crazy Deep model that is perfect for trolling the drop-off of the channel where the big predators hang out.

Up river the water is pretty dirty due to the rain run off but there are still plenty of bream and flathead being caught. Try the Toft Rocks on an incoming tide but be careful there are plenty of rocks.

The Baffle has been fishing well for jacks as well as trevally and a few other regulars to the area. I have been fishing the upper reaches where the water was a very warm 30 degrees, which explains why the jacks are so active. I bumped into a boat at the ferry road boat ramp recently with two undersized mangrove jack in their keeper net and when I approached them about it they were sure they had reached the legal limit; let me tell you a 25cm jack is not legal and could cost you a lot of money.

Knowing the size and bag limit of the fish you are catching is your own responsibility and ignorance is no excuse. I know 90% of anglers adhere to the regulations but it’s this element of not caring which is why we still need fisheries inspectors.

On a lighter note the mouth of The Baffle has had a bit of weed floating around making fishing a bit of a pain but it’s still worth a look for some whiting and flathead on the big moon tides.

Brett Jones of Still Water Charters has been smacking plenty of barra with his clients all month with some great 15 fish days giving lucky punters fishing trips of a lifetime. Brett reports that they are mainly 60-85cm barra with the odd big one turning up and busting the unsuspecting anglers concentration and line. As the water really starts to heat up expect the barra to move around a bit to find the water temp they are happy with, this could mean fishing a little deeper to find them.