By Andrew Chorley – @herveybaysportfishing

May is a fantastic month for fishing on the Fraser Coast, with cooler starts that have many anglers dusting off their snapper gear. Our winter snapper will begin to move into the bay, and we will also see some great fishing inshore for our bread-and-butter species like whiting and flathead. 

In the Burrum River, reports of some queenfish, mackerel and whiting coming from around the mouth of the Burrum River, with soft plastics fished around bait schools, are effective on queenfish. Some nice barramundi, grunter, and mangrove jack captures have also come from further up the system, with hardbodies and weedless-rigged soft plastics tight in the snags getting the best results.

Around Toogoom, summer whiting will respond well over the larger tides with worms and yabbies working the best. The beaches from Toogoom to Dundowran have also produced some whiting catches.

Wider snapper have been found on the 25 fathom, Burram 8 miles. Soft plastics, live baits, and cut baits fished on a berley trail have been successful. Further towards the southern gutters, coral trout, sweetlip, hussar, parrot cod, and red emperor were all reported recently.

The guys at Anglers Den have reported flathead, whiting and bream coming off the Urangan pier. The better-quality bream have been taken at night, using mullet and pilchards fished tight against the pylons. As we move into winter, the bream fishing will improve.

Around the Bay, squid have been found in patches of coffee rock, weed beds, and rocky points. Areas to start looking at would be the Picnics, Big Woody Island, Point Vernon, weed beds, and coffee rock along Fraser Island. Casting squid jigs around those areas should see you with a nice feed or some fresh bait.

On the local reefs, various mackerel species can be found by dropping metal lures to the bottom and quickly retrieving them. Grass sweetlip, blackall, golden trevally, and cod have also been taken on fresh cut and live baits.

Along the flats of Fraser Island, whiting catches have been taken in some areas, with generally good-sized specimens being reported. Live yabbies, worms and small surface poppers have all been successful. Flathead have also been reported along the flats with some nice-sized fish coming in on soft plastics.

In the Mary River system, barra and threadfin salmon were a popular target over the past few weeks. Fishing live baits around drains, rock bars and creek mouths has been successful. Grunter, bream and flathead have been the other catches from that area.