Written by Andrew Chorley

One upside to the recent flooding is it will fire the fish up and be a good productive winter season.

Burrum

The Burrum has been great this season for barra and jacks and continues to deliver. Working with soft plastics around the snags has seen the best results along with hard bodie lures. Small gt’s, queenfish and cod have also been reported up the river. Around the mouth whiting will be a good option with live yabbies always getting results. Out the front, mac tuna can be found under the birds along with a few longtail tuna.

Sandy Straits

In the Sandy Straits, whiting, bream, flathead, trevally, cod and grunter have been reported coming from the creeks. A few blue salmon have been reported in the Turkey Straits area on soft plastics and soft vibes. Barra have been caught in the lower reaches of the Mary on a range of techniques. Crabs should be on the move as well, so make sure you take the pots with you.

Local Reefs

The local reefs will fish well for cod, a late season coral trout, golden trevally, small snapper and blackall this week. Keep an eye out for busting tuna schools as there have been a few schools about in the shipping channels from the Fairway to Little Woody.

Platypus Bay

It has been tough fishing deeper in the water column of late with the continuous threat of being sharked. Targeting big fish is a waste of time as they rarely make it to the surface. Longtail and mac tuna are still about with some good numbers working the smaller bait on the surface and are a little easier to get past the sharks. The tuna should hang about for a while longer as it seems the bait is not ready to leave. A few small and large mouth nannygai have been reported so taking some fresh baits at night.

Urangan Pier

Recent pier closures have seen most reports from the first channel. Whiting, bream and flathead have been common captures.

Wild Grounds

The wide grounds have been producing the usual catches of reef species of late. Snapper will soon move in once we see the water temperature begin to come down through the month with the 25 fathom hole area seeing the first run generally. There is still stacks of pelagic activity out there so take a spin rod and some metal slices and stick baits.