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Perfect piscatorial paradise
  |  First Published: November 2009



December in the Whitsundays is often one of the most productive fishing months of the year. The warm tropical waters off the islands are alive with fish life and the warmth usually makes the fish more active and easier to catch.

Surface feeding GT’s

Giant trevally will be an excellent species to target this month in the Whitsundays. Having a bit of knowledge of GT such as their preferred habitats, prey and feeding times helps a lot in terms of choosing an area that holds fish.

Once you’ve found a good spot, try to stay well out from the area and make long, wind-assisted casts right up the back of the strike zone using lures like large stickbaits and poppers.

After landing the lure behind the main strike zone, slowly work the lure back over the zone with lots of pauses and large disturbances. Try mixing the retrieve up with small and large pops, fast burns and long stops. This will make the lure seem like a naturally injured or feeding baitfish on the surface and GT love an easy surface meal!

We like to fish for GT in the afternoons and early mornings around this time of year as the middle of the day can get quite hot. It’s also usually a peak feeding time for these fish too as they move up into the shallow bommies and reef features hunting baitfish.

Flathead

Flathead will be another great option in December especially when casting plastics, metal vibes, small hardbodied lures and the occasional topwater strike. These flat, sand coloured fish are experts in camouflage and will bury themselves in the sand to wait for baitfish moving past in the shallow water.

Flatties are a great target with soft plastics, especially baitfish imitations with a shad style tail. Plastics that we’ve found to be dynamite for flatties include the 10cm Squidgy Slick Rig, Squidgy Stealth Prawn and the Atomic Prong. Rig the Stealth Prawn and Prong with light jigheads and trim a bit of weight out of the Slick Rig before using these plastics to make them great flathead catchers.

The best spots to cast plastics for flathead is where the sand on a beach meets a patch of large rocks or oysters. If there’s a lot of baitfish hanging around this area, the chances of flathead are very high.

These fish will bury themselves in ultra shallow water on an incoming or high tide and will often be in ankle deep water. The bigger flathead seem to like slightly deeper water or shallow water that is close to the deep. They seem to like having deep water to cruise into if they become spooked.

Faust barramundi

Peter Faust Dam will be a great lake to fish in December. This is usually a great month for fishing in all of the barramundi impoundments in Queensland. The warm waters mean the barramundi will be actively feeding and there should be a lot of fish activity in the lake.

During the daylight with bright sunlight, fishing in deeper areas is a good idea. The water in these areas is cooler and darker which the fish tend to prefer over bright, clear water.

Peter Faust Dam has a lot of timber towards the back part of the lake and this provides lots of fallen and horizontal branches which the fish love hanging around. These are good spots to cast to as they seem to attract lots of barramundi.

Night fishing should also be a great option with the warm air comfortable to fish in. The nights during December can offer some great fishing as the dark, warm water provides the ultimate conditions for barramundi to hunt and look for food. Barramundi have great night vision and can easily sense the smallest of baitfish through their highly sensitive lateral line system.

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