The water temps have remained consistently high at Wide Caloundra, even the whales are taking the outside lane in 100m+ to keep cool.

TheIncredible is still catching hussar in 60m of water among the pearlies. Good sized Venus tusk fish in excellent numbers, Maori cod and undersized red emperor are consistently coming up on the paternosters.

In the shallows, the worst kept secret at the moment is the abundance of 40cm+ red throats being taken. These guys fight hard and chew great – they just aren’t normally on my target species for July and August in South East Queensland!

The snapper are very late arriving but should be here any day now, and the bigger breeding pearlies should head out wide soon as well. Everything points to a late snapper season, which will probably hang on to October or even November.

The amberjacks have not hung around in their usual haunts, but TheIncredible has boated a few cobia around the 15kg mark as a very welcome by-catch.

Trag jew are fishing very well on dusk. Double headers are the order of the day as they are voracious feeders. There are plenty of trag to be had so after you have got a feed please move on as they are almost impossible to release alive.

Hopefully my next report will be adorned with pictures of bumpy headed snapper. Fingers crossed!

The upcoming Federal election is the most important election in Australian history to set the tone for future No Fishing zones in Australia. Please, in this Federal election make your continued access to fishing grounds your number one reason for deciding who to vote for!

Currently, Greens are claiming 12-16% of the primary vote. Because of the current Government’s dependence on Green preferences to hold power, any decision made on fishing closures will be made to keep 12-16% of voters happy – all of whom probably don’t fish.

The 80% of us who do enjoy fishing, eat fish, or earn a living from some aspect of the marine industry, will be easily overlooked. Therefore, it is possible that 80% of people will be forced to abide by views of 12% of Australians. Doesn’t sound fair, does it?

It means not voting for Peter Garrett or anyone who supports his radical stance for huge No Fishing zones around Australia. It means not voting for anyone who claims that ‘Marine Protected Areas’ are the only tool that will protect fish stocks. It means not voting for any party which is relying on Green preferences to get elected.

My skipper Neil Bailey and I helped some professional netters pull their nets at Scarborough during the week. While we were pulling the nets the pros talked about losing 80% of their grounds to Green and Yellow Zones. They were very unhappy about all the rec anglers and themselves being herded into increasingly smaller fishing areas which was resulting in possible conflict between rec and pro anglers. These gentlemen did not receive any money from the EPA buyout of licences. This has left pros struggling to make ends meet with less than minimum sustainable areas to fish.

These blokes were catching mullet. The by-catch, of just a couple of bream and a flathead, were released to swim away. Next time you see the pros pulling nets, go and have a look at what they are doing, and have a chat. In the main they are decent hard working blokes who are struggling to eke out a living under this Government’s Fisheries policy.

If you would like to catch a feed of great reef fish, please give Keith at Incredible CHARTERS a call on 3203 8188 or email him on --e-mail address hidden--