Fishing

I HOPE everyone is staying safe during these crazy times The Western Australia border was still closed at the time of writing this article, though I am sure it will reopen in due course to allow us east coasters the opportunity to venture over to the west coast to explore. A couple of our favourite destinations on the west coast …

Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan review The Australian and Queensland governments are reviewing the Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan, also known as the Reef 2050 Plan. This plan is Australia’s long-term strategy to protect and manage the Great Barrier Reef. The plan sets clear actions, management goals, objectives and outcomes. These drive and guide the short, medium and long-term management …

THERE are lots of places to troll for snapper and your best bet is to start looking at maps with contours lines, Beacon to Beacon charts and even your sounder if it has a detailed Navionics card. To give you a few ideas of good places to start trolling for snapper, I would look at Peel Island, Mud Island, Green …

THERE have been plenty of tailor getting caught in recent weeks, both in the estuaries and along the beaches, so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to run through a few tailor tips, and some of my favourite lures and techniques for catching this aggressive predator. Finding tailor The first thing we need to do is find the …

G’DAY everyone, in this month’s article I will discuss some ideas for targeting one of our hardest-fighting estuary species: trevally. The Gold Coast and Tweed Heads area harbours numerous trevally types including bluefin, diamond, brassy, golden, bigeye and giant, with the last two the most prolific. The common theme with all these trevally is they become more active on the …

I HOPE everyone has been keeping well and getting about on the water. Restrictions have eased in Queensland and allowed us to travel through the state. The first place we headed was the Bunker Group at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. We took my old man’s Sailfish 2800 cat for its maiden reef voyage and all I …

WINTER has flown by and we are already almost into spring, though our winter species here on the Gold Coast will still be in full swing. Here in Queensland we have just experienced our first year of the snapper and pearl perch closure, which was in effect until August 15, meaning you could not target or keep either of these …

QBFP officers in Port Douglas seized a whopping 70 unmarked crab pots from Dickson Inlet, Mowbray River and Mossman River over two days. A reminder to all fishers that crab pots must be marked with the user’s surname and address and your gear should be removed from the water when you finish up. Crab pots that are left in the …

CONSTRUCTION of the 10m high steel tower and 32 concrete modules which will form the innovative Tweed Offshore Artificial Reef is now almost complete! Australian company Pacific Marine Group will soon begin loading its massive 55m barge with the completed reef modules for the trip to Tweed Heads. The reef will be installed in 25m of water 7.5km south-east of …

WINTER has been dealing us a mixed hand in terms of weather, however for those who have made the effort to get out on the water, the results have been pretty positive. We have landed some good catches of bream and flathead, with the influx of bait and seasonal change also triggering a stack of by-catch, including flounder, stargazers, some …