Off Shore: Snapper to 10kg, cobia to 20kg, pearl perch to 4kg caught at the Caloundra Wide and 8 Mile Reef, onboard the Mooloolabah Fish and Crab Tours charter boat.

Noosa:  Whiting and dart during the day in the surf gutters.  Mangrove jack and trevally between the lakes. Whiting at dawn and dusk in the river mouth, Noosaville reach and Munna Point. Trevally to 3kg, mainly on live bait in Woods Bay. Flathead between the river mouth and Munna Point.

Maroochydore: At dawn, quality school mackerel and giant trevally taking lures around Old Woman Island.  Trevally and dusky flathead on drifted baits at the river mouth and on soft plastics around the Motorway Bridge.  Good whiting between Channel and Chambers Islands, the mouth of Eudlo Creek and along the Bli Bli stretch.  Mangrove jack still reported around the Bli Bli Bridge and Petrie Creek. Jew fish to 3kg on soft plastics caught at the Cod Hole this morning

Mooloolaba: Bream, dart and tarwhine in the gutters between Point Cartwright and the entrance to Currimundi Lake.  IN the river, bream and trevally throughout the lower reaches, bream, flathead and whiting upstream from McKenzies Bridge.

Caloundra: Tailor to 3kg from the tip of Bribie and a few choppers in the bar. Good whiting along Golden and Moffatt Beaches. Flathead on drifted white pilchards or minnow soft plastics just inside the bar.  Trevally from the Boardwalk and in the canals.  

Luke Smith with this Ratking fish, caught at the Noosa National Park

Noosa: Good size snapper and moses perch at North Reef, along with the odd maori cod at Sunshine Reef. Along Teewah and North Shore, whiting and dart during the day in the surf gutters.  Mangrove jack and trevally between the lakes. Whiting at dawn and dusk in the river mouth, Noosaville reach and Munna Point. Trevally to 3kg, mainly on live bait in Woods Bay. Flathead between the river mouth and Munna Point.

Maroochydore: Early on yesterday, good school mackerel and giant trevally taking lures around Old Woman Island.  Trevally and dusky flathead on drifted baits at the river mouth and on soft plastics around the Motorway Bridge.  Good whiting between Channel and Chambers Islands and along the Bli Bli stretch.  Mangrove jack still reported around the Bli Bli Bridge and Petrie Creek.

Mooloolaba: Sweetlip and small snapper from Murphy's and the Gneerings before the wind picked up. Bream, dart and tarwhine in the gutters between Point Cartwright and the entrance to Currimundi Lake.  IN the river, bream and trevally throughout the lower reaches, bream, flathead and whiting upstream from McKenzies Bridge.

Caloundra: Tailor to 3kg from the tip of Bribie and a few choppers in the bar. Good whiting along Golden and Moffatt Beaches. Flathead on drifted white pilchards or minnow soft plastics just inside the bar.  Trevally from the Boardwalk and in the canals.  

Fishing between the lakes at Tewantin, Chris Lacey caught and released four mangrove jacks (1.2kg) using a Cultiva Savoy Shad lure.

Fishing Report November 30  2008

NOOSA: Spanish mackerel being caught off Double Island Point. Spotted mackerel, tuna, large spanish mackerel and quality snapper from Sunshine Reef. Trevally being caught from Woods Bay. Quality bream at high tide from the river mouth. Flathead, whiting and mud crabs throughout the lower reaches. 

MAROOCHYDORE: 5 spot dart and tailor up to 1.2kg from the river mouth at dawn. A 2.3kg golden trevally was caught off Chambers Island. A 60cm flathead was taken in Eudlo Creek. Jew to 3kg in the cod hole. Mud crabs throughout the upper reaches. Giant trevally up to 1.9kg, small dusky flathead and whiting from Chambers Island.

KAWANA: School mackerel and spotty mackerel from Currimundi Reef. Bream and trevally are being caught along La Balsa Park. Quality whiting and bream from the washing machine at Point Cartwright. Quality mangrove jacks from around McKenzies bridges. Quality dart and whiting out from access 18 at Kawana Beach. 

CALOUNDRA: Mangrove jacks being caught from Bells Creek, Currimundi Lake, Coochin Creek and throughout the canals. Good sized whiting on poppers from the Power Boat Club and Bells Creek. Quality flathead on the drop off tide from the Blue Hole and off the Boardwalk. Quality mud crabs throughout Pumicestone Passage

Spring Dusky Flathead

Flathead are one of the bread and butter species targeted by anglers in the estuaries and beaches of Queensland. At the moment good numbers of both larger fish with plenty of smaller school flathead have moved into our coastal waters to feed and breed over the next few months providing anglers of all ages hours of fun.

Flathead are fairly poor swimmers and tend hide out in areas of lower current strength or will burry themselves in the sand in an ambush position with only their eyes showing.

They lay waiting for small bait to swim over them and with a short burst swallow the bait fish with their large bucket mouth.

 A combination of week swimming ability and ambush feeding style helps us as anglers to locate areas that we believe to be good flathead habitats. The best locations to try your luck in the estuaries are along rock walls, bridge pylons, snags, under pontoons, bends in the river, change in depth along the river banks and sand/mud bars. Areas of low current behind structure are where baitfish congregates. Try to fish on the down stream side of a structure or banks when the tide is running out for best results.

 Drifting in kayak or boat over water with varying depth is also a great way of catching flathead. One of the best things about these fish is that will eat almost any bait that drifts past their nose. My preferred baits are live herring, whitebait, small W.A. pilchards and larger green prawns. Flathead readily take lures of all shapes and sizes so it is well worth throwing or trolling a lure around an area that you believe to hold flathead.

So far this season me and my work Darrin have had great results from the mud flats in the middle reaches of the river using soft plastics. The best results were achieved when working the edges of sand banks and channels as the tide floods across them. We used an array of plastics with the stand outs being:

• Berkley Powerbait in 3" and 4" in Rainbow Smelt, Glow Scales, Clear Gold Fleck scales and pumpkinseed.

• Exude 5" Saltwater RT Slug Rootbeer/Goldbeer Black Flake and Native Shrimp - these work really well on bigger dusky flathead and seem to monstered by a lot of big females flathead over the 70cm.

Drifting with soft plastics and small baitfish like white bait, blue sardines, frogmouth pilchards and hardy heads is a great way to target dusky, as you will cover a large surface area. Drifting allows you to cover a huge surface area including sand bank drop offs, yabby banks, channels and holes, which are all flathead haunts. The flathead are here to stay right thought the spring and summer months so make sure you take advantage of there feeding habits and bag a few.

Where are the fish biting?

Noosa: A few snapper to 3kg this week on north reef. A few whiting along Teewah beach.  Mangrove jack and trevally between the lakes. Whiting at dawn and dusk in the river mouth, Noosaville reach and Munna Point. Trevally to 3kg, mainly on live bait in Woods Bay. Flathead between the river mouth and Munna Point.

Maroochydore: Good flathead to 58cm from Bli Bli bridge and the river mouth. Sand whiting to 450g throughout the lower reaches on the ebb tide and off the bank opposite Yinni Street on dusk. Chopper tailor in the cod hole. School mackerel on trolled whitebait around Old Women Island.

Mooloolaba: Sweetlip and small snapper from Murphy's and the Gneerings. Cobia, amberjack and snapper on Caloundra wide and 12 miles reefs. Bream, flathead and trevally throughout the lower river. Dart, bream and tarwhine along the beaches with the odd big golden trevally in the deeper gutter near the Kawana surf club and in the corner of point Cartwright.

Caloundra: A few school mackerel have been caught on lure out from Moffat head. Tailor to 3kg from the tip of Bribie and a few choppers in the bar. A few good elbow slapper whiting along the Golden Beach stretch. Flathead around the bar and along golden beach.  Trevally from the boardwalk and in the canals.  

Father and son team Hayden and Chester Bertoli-Simmonds are at it again with several quality trevally in Woods Bay this week. The biggest weighed in at 2.7kg and took a herring bait.

Don from the Maroochy RSL fishing club had a bit of luck earlier this week fishing on the edge of a yabby banks situated at the bottom of Goat Island and hooked this 58cm dusky flathead on a live yabby.

Jason had an over night session in the Maroochy River Cod Hole using mullet for bait and scored a 3.5kg school jew for his efforts.

Lawrence Bills is enjoying a spot of fishing with his dad while on school holidays and had some luck using fresh green prawns from Picnic Point and scored this pan sized dusky flathead.