The water temperature has dropped right off so the bream fishing is going to fire up! But do remember the new limits that came into effect on 1 March 2010: 25cm length and bag limit of 30, which include pikey, yellowfin, and tarwhine.

For bream you can’t go past old favourite spots like Kalinga bank, the dead trees off the bottom of North Straddie, the eastern tip of Crusoe Island, Short Island, the beach off South Straddie in the deeper gutters, the Powerlines, the north wall of the Seaway and the mouth of the Pimpama River. These spots always produce good quality fish and there is even a pretty good chance that you could land a squire in the mix.

Squire usually congregate in the same areas as bream, in deeper water around decent structure, and eat the same sort of baits so it’s not an uncommon by-catch. Best baits to score yourself a feed are live yabbies, worms, mullet fillets and gut, prawns, squid, white bait and even bread balled up on your hook works well.

Flatties are still around in good numbers and quite a few larger ones are still being caught and, of course, released if over 75cm. They can’t seem to resist a live mullet or herring but it is becoming increasingly more popular to use lures that mimic the action of a baitfish.

Whether you try soft plastics, holographic swim baits, trolling hardbodied lures, using vibes or even poppers in shallow water, you’ll find that flathead are very aggressive fish and will strike violently at pretty much anything that is presented to them.

Best flathead spots are around the sand flats at the top of south Straddie, the broadwater around Wavebreak Island, Kalinga Bank, eastern point of Short Island, the mud flats just north of Cabbage Tree Point and Cobby Passage.

Tailor should be schooling up the coast feeding on the schools of whitebait, pilchards and hardiheads. They ball up these schools inside the Bar to feed and smash them breaching the surface, which makes them fairly easy to spot.

There’s nothing quite like being in a tailor feeding frenzy with the water literally boiling around the boat and if you head out during the week when there is less water traffic you’ll have a better chance of this happening. Always use lures the same size as the bait they are feeding on, 10-40g is about the right size.

Winter whiting should be around in good numbers and great fun for the kids as they are easy to catch and handle. Identifiable by the dark spots along their flanks, they have no size limit but a bag limit of 50.

Fish as light as possible using a no.8 or 6 long shank hook with yabbies, worms, squid or peeled prawns. Try around the Green and Gold banks, Tiger Mullet Channel, the bedrooms or Never Fail Islands.

A few good sized school jew have been coming from the Logan River near Marks and Pitts rocks, Giants Grave and the jew hole off Swan Bay. John Caric landed a 15kg Spanish mackerel inside the bar near Kalinga Bank on a Herring. We’ve had reports of a few people being busted up, presumably by mackerel because when fishing inside the Pin not many have the gear heavy enough to handle a speeding mack.

Thanks for all your reports and fish weighed in. If you need to order any bait or want up to date fishing information give me a call at Gem Bait & Tackle on 3287 3868 or email --e-mail address hidden-- . I’ll catch you next month.