March didn’t have much to report as no-one wants to go fishing when the winds are reaching 35 knots. I’m thinking I must have used up all my fishing weather mojo on the brilliant five days we had before the bad weather arrived.

During the five days we managed 12 barra over the metre mark and another 15 over 90cm. But the most fun was catching 18 giant threadies. I have had plenty of good hot bites over the years but this one was pretty special as they all came on lures – I don’t think I have had so much fun in quite some time. It is not very often that you experience double hook-ups on threadfin over 1200mm long, but it happened three times!

It is amazing to see the results of a fishery closed to barra nets as this year has been outstanding. We are starting to experience some good growth in the fishing tourism department and are starting to become known as a ‘good value for money’ destination again. You should come and enjoy it, just in case some new government legislation puts an end to it.

It has been interesting to read the GBRMP outlook report as it still mentions fishing as a future threat on the reef and mentions that there will be ‘Enhanced protection measures’ to come before the year 2014. My guess is that they will introduce the further closures in the 2011 review by using their new weapon introduced last year called the ‘Precautionary Principle’. Looks like we might have to go through it all again and this time I don’t think there will be too many survivors, particularly in the charter fishery. If they go ahead with this lunacy it should be the radical Green groups that are pushing the buttons to fork out for compensation issues and not the Aussie taxpayer. Let’s all hope that things can change in the political arena and get something going our way for a change.

That’s enough politics, lets talk about fishing opportunities for the month of May. I would recommend during periods of good weather to start looking for early season Spaniards. Best place to look is the bait schools in the shipping lane, and any inner-reef wrecks or shoals particularly on the making tides.

The reefs should see some good scarlets and red emperor making another appearance for the approaching autumn and winter season. Big flesh baits around the deeper trenches should account for some of these beauties. Most people search for big red blobs on their sounders when looking for reds, which is fine if they are holding up. However, sometimes their bladders are deflated and don’t show a good return on your sounder so look for a faint light coloured echo return that is quite often schools of fish on the move or foraging.

Don’t be afraid to use your head while playing with depth sounders, they are not that hard to understand. Take advantage of our fishing tuition trips and take a shortcut into understanding your sounder.

May is generally one of the best mid season periods for the year just before the waters experience a sudden cooling and most trips usually see some good results of all species.

Fingermark start biting better during the daylight hours in this period too. Try dropping some live greenbacks around structure and you will usually come up with the goods.

Hope the weather starts fining up and don’t forget our fantastic packages on offer, call me on 0418 538 170 for more info.