Despite a few weeks of nasty 25 knot southeasters and bad barometrics, there has been a few glimmers of a silver lining.

Fishing inshore has been difficult as lots of fish move deeper and become dormant, but a few periods of brilliance has seen great captures of big winter barra. Alan Sumich from the Tablelands and his mates all caught their PB, four fish over a metre, while trolling. This takes our metre-plus tally for the year to 96 and we still have the best months ahead of us, what a year it’s been!

The only other reports have been a reasonable run of school size grunter. Most bread and butter anglers are having some okay sessions despite the bad weather. Grunter are a good fish for visiting anglers to target because they are easy to catch, preferring baits such as squid, pilchard and mullet on a simple running rig.

Grunter are also caught over a wide area. A good place to start is to look for mud with shells in it, around 3-5m of water. Retrieve your anchor slowly to check what the bottom type is like, as mud and shell will usually hang on until the anchor reaches the surface.

There have not been very many offshore reports this month because of inclement conditions but a mate of mine did get out to the reef off Mission Beach, just to Hinchinbrook North, during one of the breaks in the weather. The trout and reds were abundant as they only had to fish one spot before a quick swim and back by lunch.

Mission Beach is a great destination to access the reef, the closest is only 18 miles out. There are good boat launching facilities at Clump Point ramp and if you have any trouble with your boat while you’re up there, call in and see Dean and Carla at the Tinnie Shack.

August, which is normally the coldest month, most attention should be out wide as the reef species get active on the making tides, with Spaniards and billfish being high on the agenda for the pelagics. It is also a great time to fish Eva Island and the offshore wrecks for big GT, if you’re into personal punishment.

August can be the quietest month for barra, although I reckon I can still get the big girls to chew if the weather’s fine. In the estuaries, fingermark and grunter are most likely the best option for anglers this time of year as they still feed well in the coldest water, like most foragers do.

The Dept. of Environment has been very quiet of late regarding the east coast and coral sea closures, anyone would think that we have an election coming up! I would bet any money that next year we will see it all start again, plus the review of the GBR marine park is due in July next year. The word ‘climate change’ has hardly been muttered either, so maybe they are finally waking up to the fact that people are starting to realise that climate change is only a political tool to introduce further taxes and extreme environmental policy.

We must take the balance of power off the Greens this election. If you like your hobbies and lifestyle that you should be enjoying, and for the rights of our kids to enjoy the environment not stuck behind a computer screen-“ that’s not living Daniel.

Call us on 0418 538170 if you planning a charter to NQ.