In partnership with tackleworld Hervey Bay we decided to offer a full day guided fishing for the winner of the show us your pic competition for the last season. The winner was 5 year old Harry Rails and on our days outing he caught a few nice fish on plastics and learnt some new tecniques, young Harry is already a quite accomplished angler and I think we will see his face holding a few nice fish in the future!
This winter has seen good numbers of snapper through the bay with some clients landing up to 7 fish in a session, some around 8kg in weight. Most fish have been caught on berkley gulps but recently I had Nerada and Kai from Sydney who caught this double hookup on 6kg fish using squidgy pro flickbaits. On this day the squidgys outfished everything else 6-1.
This year we received an unusual 300mm plus of rain at the very start of june which is very unseasonal. Plenty of freshwater run off and dirty water has changed the habits of many species for a few weeks until the water clears. Snapper have come on strong with the dirty water and bream,whiting, grunter and flathead will have a bumper season after the fresh, fishing today we caught plenty of stud whiting and bream over 40cm on poppers.
Most tuna have dissapeared from the surface but will be found hunting deep on larger baitfish but larger longtails will still be about around the edges of dirty water and current lines needing a stealthier approach to get a hookup.
Here is a very recent picture of John Haenke, producer of the famous FISHING DVD series on one of his days off hooked up to a big longtail tuna.
Hi everyone, the forecast for this weekend is for freshening south winds reaching 25 knots by sunday so offshore fishing will be limited. Inshore the waters are dirty from the rain last weekend and areas like river heads are running pure fresh towards low tide so fishing will be tough. This rain will set us up for a terrific winter season and everything from snapper, whiting and flathead will bite well as the dirty water clears.
Any mud crabs still in the systems will be flushed out and some nice muddies were taken last weekend as the fresh came out. A few mac tuna schools are about towards wathumba and some nice snapper have taken plastics around the rooneys area.
Last week I managed to get out for a fish myself and caught some big snapper, sweetlip to 4kg and some pearl perch on 7 inch berkley gulps just off the wide bay bar. We also hooked a few monsters that were just too big, possibly big cobia. Big whiting are becoming active and are taking small poppers in ankle deep water, a fast retrieve is the key to getting bites.
Lenthalls dam is now at 100% and has had a good overflow so hopefully the recent stocking of barramundi fingerlings have not escaped over the wall, fingers crossed and this spring should see good numbers of baby barra caught from this impoundment. Water temps are about 20 degrees and dropping.
Geof’s first tuna on saltwater fly tackle was an estimated 14kg fish, the next day he landed a 9kg golden trevally also.
May has seen some great longtail action in the straits. Here is Chika from Sydney with a 15kg fish on a plastic.
Bargy really knows how to put you on to the decent fish.
A typical longtail experience aboard Hervey Bay Fraser Island Guided Fishing Charters.
The new polycraft is brilliant! Spray chines added up front and minn kota wired up and already the quietness of the boat is proving a winner! This a quick snap of a quick test run.
