Pre-Christmas Boating!

With the school holidays but one day away - I hope you are reading this early enough to fit in a few decent hours fishing before the onslaught of junior boaties, sandcastle builders, swimmers in your favourite gutters and of course hundreds of 6ft kiddie rods cast off every jetty, rock wall and beach between here and the shopping centre (where their very smart-thinking mothers buying Christmas presents in air-conditioning!).

I predict the shopping centres will be getting a work over with thanks to Mr Rudd's kind bonus to many people in need.  As well the influx of interstate and international tourists is evident from the record crowds already hitting the local beaches and rivers.  With this in mind, remember to play it safe on all water ways during the Christmas and school holiday period.

The Noosa, Maroochy, Mooloolaba and Caloundra water ways are always crowded with all types of water craft and swimmers during the busy Christmas to New Year's period. Along with all the visitors on the water, keep in mind the majority of working Queenslanders only get about a week off over Christmas and most intend to spend time on the water or on the bank. Be cautious and take extra care by considering a few of the safe boating regulations.

•·         Abide by 6 knot zones as they are in place for safety reasons. I see a lot of boats speeding through the Cod Hole area even though it is a 6 knot zone. The slow zone 200m either side of the Motorway Bridge was put in place due to the quantity of boating traffic to pass through this area. 

•·         Stay 30m+ away from any swimmer or non-motorised craft.  The number of injuries caused by getting a too close can easily be avoided by keeping a safe distance.

•·         When using the boat ramps allow plenty of extra time in your schedule to launch as most major ramps will probably have affair bit of congestion over Christmas. Make sure your boat is completely ready for launching when you back down to the ramp to avoid holding others up.

•·         Slow down to 6 knot within 60m of the ramp so that those launching their boats don't get bashed with a wave of wash.

With these rules in mind and consideration of our fellow boaties and recreational anglers - everyone should have a relaxing and enjoyable time on our beautiful waterways!  The team at Swan Boat Hire would like to wish everybody a safe and happy Christmas and may Santa listen hard to all your tackle requests and put something special under the tree!

Kids Fishing:

Now that the holidays have begun, it's time to get out and enjoy the water!  The weather has been beautiful for early morning fishing as the sun gets up - which is around 4:30am! But if you want to sleep in because you can now that school is over, be sure to slap on plenty of sun cream as the sun is hot and powerful by morning tea time.  Find a nice shady spot where you can set up a rod while keeping cool.  In the Maroochy River I suggest under the Motorway Bridges, in the Maroochy Canals, Yinni Street and up around Bli Bli's Muller Park where there are some large shady trees close to the bank.  If you are planning to swim to keep cool - be careful of boats and jet skis buzzing around. Don't stay under the water when you can see a boat near you - make sure you make yourself seen by the driver by waving to them!   Remember if you get any nice size whiting, bream, flathead, trevally or even something you can't identify, bring it into Swan Boat Hire so you can find out what it is and maybe get your catch in the Sunshine Coast Daily newspaper or on Channel Seven T.V.

NOOSA: Spanish mackerel and quality parrot on Sunshine Reef. Cobia to 12.5kg out from Granite Bay. Tailor up to 2kg at night along Teewah beach. Whiting to 500g in Woods bay, in the frying pan and off Munna point. A 1.5kg cod form the yacht club. Mangrove jacks from Noosa Sound, around Munna Bridge and in between the lakes. Flathead from the rock groyne in the river mouth.

MAROOCHYDORE: Tailor and bream off Mudjimba at dusk. Whiting from the sand banks around Bli Bli and throughout the lower reaches. Giant trevally and small queenfish at the weir early in the morning. Mud crabs up both the creeks. Jacks in the cod hole, both creeks and the upper reaches. A 2kg jack was taken on live bait in Petrie Creek on Thrusday.

KAWANA: Spanish mackerel to 80cm and spotty mackerel to 6kg around the blinker on trolled livies and big hard bodied lures. Whiting, dart and bream from the washing machine. Whiting in the sand basin and above McKenzies Bridge. Big trevally at dusk from the pontoon at Kawana boat ramp. Mangrove jacks around the bridges and rocky bars throughout.

CALOUNDRA: Spotty mackerel to 6kg and dolphin fish to 5kg from Caloundra 12 mile reef. Flathead, whiting and bream to 44kg between the bar and Coochin Creek.  Mangrove jacks in Bells Creek and Currimundi Lake. Tarpon and Bass in the lake behind Pelican Waters Golf Corse. Quality whiting from the sand flats between Golden Beach and Coohin Creek.

Attachments:

Six year old Bailey Tobin was fishing with live yabbies in the Woods Bays, when his bait attracted the attention of this elbow slapping 500gm whiting.

Darrin Hamilton had another good morning session fishing for whiting on one of his favourite yabby banks in the Maroochy River for quality whiting.

Mitchell Bow went to check his crab pots early this week before school and was lucky enough to score this 1kg buck crab from a hot spot in Eudlo Creek.

Rob Bower drifted the Bli Bli flats in his kayak over the weekend for these quality whiting.

Noosa: Good flathead throughout the lower reaches of the river, whiting in Woods Bay and off Munna Point, mangrove jacks between the Lakes and trevally being caught around the river mouth at night. Plenty of dart, whiting and small dusky flathead in the gutters north of Teewah Village up to Freshwater.

Maroochydore: Good flathead taking prawn soft plastics and small hard body minnows along Godfreys Road, in the South Channel and near the sand bags at the river mouth.   Plenty of whiting and bream between Picnic Point and Channel Island.  Tailor throughout the lower reaches on the high tide. Still mangrove jack in the middle to upper reaches of the river.

Mooloolaba: Plenty of dart and whiting along the surf beaches, along with tailor and bream off the rocks at Point Cartwright.  In the river; whiting and trevally at La Balsa Park, whiting under McKenzie’s Bridge and in the upper reaches of the Mooloolah River. 

Caloundra: Flathead throughout the lower end of Pumicestone Passage, in the Blue Hole and along The Boardwalk.  Whiting opposite the Power Boat Club and off Golden Beach the past few days and along the NE tip of Bribie in good numbers yesterday.  Trevally and queenfish in the canals and a few mangrove jack in Bells Creek.

Gary Holder with two large whiting caught on blood worms along the sand banks in the middle reaches of the Maroochy River. 

Noosa: Good snapper, cobia, moses perch and sweetlip at North Reef.   Trevally and jew off the rocks at the National Park. Whiting throughout Woods Bay and along the Noosaville stretch. Trevally being caught around the river mouth.at night. Flathead on surface poppers in Weyba Creek and by the Sheraton yesterday.    

Maroochydore: A great catch of whiting and bream was hauled from Picnic Point today, with poppers. Tailor throughout the lower reaches. A 1kg mangrove jack caught in the middle reaches of the Maroochydore river. Bream and whiting from the North Shore. Flathead to 50cm caught at the sand bags and along the Bli Bli stretch.  

Mooloolaba: Plenty of dart and whiting along the surf beaches, along with tailor and bream off the rocks at Point Cartwright.  In the river; whiting and trevally at La Balsa Park, whiting under McKenzies Bridge and in the upper reaches of the Mooloolah River.  A few mackerel and snapper on Murphys Reef yesterday. 

Caloundra: School and spanish mackerel, were caught on the 5 Mile Reef. Good flathead inside the bar and along Golden Beach. Big whiting along Golden Beach, throughout Bells Creek, and in the southern end of Pumicestone Passage. Quality tailor from the NE tip of Bribie Island.

Pic; Jason Grey agrees Summer is on it's way after landing this nice 4kg jew along the Bli Bli reach.

Whiting on lure

Although most anglers target whiting using conventional baits like yabbies or live worms, the trend of targeting these fish using small lures is ever increasing. Whiting love to follow a moving bait and with increase of soft plastic and small popper fishing there are more being unexpectedly hook with this method.

Using poppers to target summer and golden lined whiting is the latest craze to sweep the east of Australian's recreational fishing scene and with the whiting season under way at present it's a good chance for any one who hasn't tried it yet to have a go.

At this time of the year it's not uncommon to see small prawns skipping across the surface as they are being chased by fish. A lot of the time these fish chasing the prawns are bream, but some may not realize that whiting can act the same way. When small prawns are moving in or out of the river on the tide and work their way over the shallows whiting will ambush them on or below the surface much like a GT would ambush a herring. This is when very small poppers come into their own. Anglers flick the poppers over the shallow sand banks at the right stage of the flood or making tide so that you have at least 30-40cm of water and bloop away. Flick the popper over the bank, retrieve very slowly with the occasional bloop and if the whiting are hungry they should be all over it like a rash. Try varying your retrieval speed between a fast and slow until you find what the whiting like. It is best to target whiting  on days when light wind blowing over banks and there is full sun light rather than over cast conditions.

When it comes to using soft plastics in the rivers, most anglers would be targeting flathead, but it good to know that there is the chance of hooking a quality whiting on the yabby banks in the process.

Exude 2 ½  inch trout worms in strawberry red are similar to a skinny version of the blood worm and have proven very successful on whiting. The storm wild eyed twitching nippers are one of the most realistic soft plastics on the market and are a dead ringer of the saltwater yabby. These can both be rigged on either a small light jig head or onto a standard long shank hook on a running sinker rig. The main aim with worm and yabby imitations is to have them move along the bottom as natural as possible, because whiting aren't as gullible as dusky flathead. They won't just hit anything that move past their nose, you need to work the yabby or worm as slow as possible with the occasional twitch and jerk of the tip. Tidal movement is enough to create life like movement of the small legs and nippers on this lure. Any small jerks and twitches make the twitching nipper look like a yabby that has been startled by something and is fleeing away. Both these soft plastics can be worked throughout the sand banks of coastal river or in the surf gutters for whiting.

If the thought of using live worms to target whiting seems a bit boring or you just love lure fishing, then maybe its time you got your hands on some hard bodied or soft plastic lures to target them.

Offshore:

Cobia and small snapper from North and Sunshine Reefs. The odd spotty mackerel around Little Hauls reef. Rat kingfish and a few school mackerel around Old Women Island. Small grassy sweetlip and snapper up to 4.35kg from the Blinker. Snapper to 3kg and school mackerel from the 12 mile.

Beach and estuary:

Noosa: Tailor up to 5kg and a few whiting along north shore. Quality mangrove jacks in Noosa Waters, Weyba Creek and between the lakes.  Whiting in Woods Bays and along the Noosaville Stretch. Giant trevally on poppers in Woods Bay and on soft plastics around the river mouth. Good numbers of mud crabs along the back of Tewantin, with one customer that came into Davo's potting 11 quality bucks.   

Maroochydore: Quality whiting and a few solid bream in the mornings and a few tailor up to 2.6kg at dusk along the Maroochy North Shore. Mangrove jack to 1.8kg on livies from Bli Bli bridge and in Petrie Creek. School jew, mangrove jack and the odd trevally in the cod hole. Whiting to 38cm from twin waters. Bream and gar from picnic point.

Mooloolaba: Whiting along the surf gutters and trenches between Point Cartwright and Wurtulla. Plenty of smaller bream along La Balsa Park. A few elbow slapper whiting on the banks either side of McKenzie's Bridge and up mountain creek. Flathead on livies in the middle reaches. Silver, big eyed and giant trevally around McKenzies bridge and Minyama Island.

Caloundra: Quality tailor over night between Wurtulla and Currimundi. Flathead from the power boat club and in the deeper holes. Quality whiting throughout the passage with good result on small surface poppers. Small Queenfish on lures in the canals. Giant and big eyed trevally form the boardwalk over night.  

Pete Murray has returned to form after a recent slump in his tailor tally. He fished the northern side of Maroochy River mouth using fresh mullet fillets for this 2.6kg greenback.    

This assortment of surface poppers and stick baits from my tackle box range from 3 to 5cm in length and are all tried and proven whiting slayers. They include River2Sea Bubble pop35 and 45, SureCatch JR40TW, Hawk Splasher and Hawk Jaywalk. Transparent colours and metallic golds and silvers have all worked on whiting.

Zac Walker tempted this thumper 3kg GT at the Munna Point at sparrows fart using a soft plastic as his draw card.

There are still quality snapper on our local reefs at present. Michael Wilkinson from the Maroochy RSL fishing club ventured out to the Blinker on Tuesday this week and fished with pilchards for snapper to 4.35kg and plenty of pan sized reefies.