By Andrew Chorley @herveybaysportfishing

The Easter break is here, and I hope everyone is enjoying some time on the water. Generally, April will see the weather settle down with a few south-westerly winds later in the month. It’s a great time of year for fishing on the Fraser Coast with inshore and offshore species on offer. 

Burrum has been producing a few nice barra throughout the river, and working the snags with hard-bodied lures has been getting results. For those with live scope, some bigger fish have been taken in the deeper holes and pressure points. As the water cools, the barra will slow up, and we will see flathead, trevally, bream and whiting catches improve. Out the front, golden trevally and blackall have been reported on the Burram 8 mile, along with a few tuna.

The local reefs have been producing some good-sized cod and coral trout of late. Live baits have been working well along with soft plastics. School mackerel and a few grey mackerel can also be found on the reefs. Working metal lures around the reefs is the best method for finding a few mackerel.

The Pier has been producing some cracking big queenfish the past few weeks. Golden trevaly, mackerel and longtail tuna have also been reported. In the first channel, whiting, flathead and gar have been reported.

Up in Platypus Bay, mostly mac tuna have been active on the surface. School mackerel and golden trevally can be found hanging deep around the schools. For reef fisho’s scarlets, sweetlip, and blackall have been the main catches with best results after dark.

Crews that made it out to the wide grounds of the southern gutters and the 25 fathom hole have reported coral trout, sweet lip, hussar, cod, snapper and Spanish mackerel. As the water temperatures continue to fall, we will see an increase in snapper catches, starting with the wide grounds.

In the Straits, prawns can be found in most of the creek systems. Working the gutters at low tide has also turned up a few. Barra, salmon and grunter have been reported from the Mary, with some good whiting catches also reported. Along the western beaches and flats of Fraser Island, whiting have been in good numbers along with flathead and grunter. Broad Bar mackerel will make an appearance shortly in the straits, so having some chrome spoons and slugs handy would be a great idea.