With the perfect weather conditions were are experiencing on the coast at the moment offshore, anglers should be in a state of bliss. The oceans have had small swell, remaining almost as flat as a tack in close several days and wind strengths were also fairly light. The weekend allowed a lot of the smaller tinny that target estuary species to get among a few reefies. The inshore reefs have begun to shine with big spanish mackerel moving through to feed and moderate sized snapper showing up. Snapper migrate in towards the coast to feed up so that they can improve their condition ready to spawn on the close in reefs. Those big knobbies pull like freight trains in shallow water and test your skills to the max. Heavier line, high abrasion resistant leader and tight drag settings are needed to stop these fish. All reef species and pelagics become more accessible for small boats so catch rates increase overall during winter due to the calm ocean conditions. In next weeks story we will cover a few of the fundamentals involved with fishing the inshore reefs this winter.

The fishing has been hot this week in all areas. I don't know where to start, but the key stand out has been on the offshore scene. It's about time the spanish mackerel showed up and they've done so with bells and whistles. Most of our local reefs have been producing good catches of fish between 12 and 25kg. The rocky headlands around Noosa national park in particular have been the most consistent. Caloundra 5mile, Currimundi, the Gneerings and Arkwright shoal have also produced sizable Spaniards. These fish are taking, live fresh and trolled baits. Most of the local reefs have been consistent with a wide variety of species, with the standouts being big coral trout on North Reef, a 4kg blue parrot from Murphy's and several large yellow tail kingfish from the outer Gneerings 2 days ago. The new moon phase has had jew in excellent numbers this week. Plenty of school have been taking soft plastics in the Maroochy River and big jew up to 13 kg on live bait over night. Formation of holes and gutters along the coast has seen an increase in catches of pilot bream, large whiting and tarwhine. The best locations have been Teewah, Yaroomba to the Pin Cushion, Kawana and Currimundi. Quality jew have been taking flesh baits at Mudjimba and Sunshine Beaches over night this week as well.  

Whiting and dart along Teewah beach. Whiting from Munna Point and Weyba Creek. Quality bream in Noosa Harbour on the run out tide. A few flathead on the drift from tewantin to the river mouth. Flathead, tailor, trevally, bream and whiting inside the river mouth. Mangrove jack in Woods Bay. Coral trout, snapper, sweetlip, pearlies, parrot and spotties from North Reef. A few spanish mackerel up to 22kg on the local reefs.

Maroochydore: We had a 12.6, 8.66 and 6.10kg jew weighed in yesterday, these were caught off one of the local beaches. School jew up to 75cm, flathead and bream around the motorway bridges. A 13kg jew at bli bli. Bream and whiting in the mornings from Mudjimba beach. Flathead, school jew and chopper tailor from Maroochy Beach. Sand crabs, flathead and bream around goat island. Yellowtail kingfish up to 12kg and a few snapper on the outer Gneerings.

Mooloolaba: Bream, whiting, tarwhine, chopper tailor, and flathead in the between no 20 and 30. Gar in the sand basin. Bream, trevally, parrot and grassy sweetlip off the rocks at Point Cartwright. A few whiting in Mountain Creek. Estuary cod in the canals. Snapper, sweetlip and cod on Currimundi. Mud crabs in the upper reaches. Spanish mackerel and wahoo on Caloundra 12 mile.

Caloundra:  Trevally and sweetlip off the rocks at Kings Beach. Flathead of the Boardwalk and in the Blue Hole. Bream in the deep channels inside the bar. Trevally and small queenfish in the canals. Sweetlip and squire from Brays Rock.  Spanish mackerel up to 20kg on Caloundra 5 mile. Snapper up to 12kg on the coffee rock patches out from Bribie.

Steve Terrasi put in the hard yards over several nights in the middle reaches of the Maroochy River for this 13kg jew.

Blue-barred orange parrot are a prized catch among angers due to their excellent eating quality. Tony Hopkins hit the jackpot when fishing a special spot on Murphy's Reef on Monday.

Currimundi Reef is a great location to fish in the coming months and only takes about 15mintutes from the Mooloolah river mouth in my tinny. Mates John Blythe and Joel Anderson caught a 10kg spanish mackerel, spotty mackerel and a massive cod on the inside of Currimundi earlier this week.

The inshore reefs off Noosa fire year round and hold a wide variety of fish species with larger snapper showing up over the winter months. Wayne, Dean and John caught snapper, pearl perch and coral trout there this week.