Written by Andrew Chorley
Happy New Year! It’s that time of year where anglers will be setting their goals and hopefully ticking that trophy fish off the bucket list! Summer is a great time of year to be on the water with plenty of pelagic action ahead of us.
Burrum
Jacks are still about in the Burrum and are taking live baits, hardbody lures and soft plastics. Barramundi have also been reported and with the Barramundi season opening on Feb 1 anglers will be keen to get into the action. Other captures have been flathead, whiting and bream from around the mouth with the odd queen fish also about.
Local Reefs
The local reefs have been fishing well with sweetlip, blackall, blue parrot and golden trevally being reported. The close grounds off Point Vernon fish well this time of year with coral trout a great target species up there. On the deeper reefs pencil squid are still about in numbers taking small squid jigs.
Platypus Bay
Up the Island the fishing has been generally slow but things are slowly coming together as they should this time of year. Spotted mackerel, longtail tuna, mac tuna and Spanish mackerel can be found rounding up the bait. Metal slugs and soft plastics have been producing the results. For the reef fishos, scarlets and sweetlip have been taken on the reefs at night up there.
Urangan Pier
Off the pier flathead, whiting and bream had been taken before the northerly blow. The dirty water will not deter the whiting and can actually make for better fishing when targeting whiting from the beach and off the pier. Out the end pencil squid have been taken at night along with a few tarpon. During the day the odd GT, longtail tuna and golden trevally have been reported.
Sandy Strait
Down the Strait, good whiting had been reported along with flathead, grunter and threadfin salmon. Our good run of spawning salmon continued over the last full moon but they have now spread out more throughout the system. Trolling has been a great way to find them along with working vibes. Mud crabs were active on the big tides but reports have dropped away over the past week.
