14 January 2000 - Volume 4 Issue 1

Our Fish Are Y2K Compliant

Hi Everybody. I trust you all survived the New Year, Millennium, the Y2K bug or whatever was suppose to happen. I'm still here and so are the fish - funny about that !

Anyway, I'm still in semi-holiday mode so I'll try to make this fairly brief.

Blue Water

After looking so promising in November, with high hopes of big marlin captures continuing well into the new year, the season just died in the a.... ! A big south easterly change hit mid December, bringing heaps of rain and actually reversed the ocean current. Coolerwater was flowing North outside the reef, dispersing the bait schools and forcing the fish way out wide.

Light Tackle

The saviour of many otherwise fruitless trips, there are still plenty of Spanish mackerel to 15 kg about taking trolled garfish and ganged pillie baits. Tuna schools are scattered and very flighty, sounding as soon as the boats get within fishing range. Persistence pays off however and some stripies and small yellowfin are being caught. Sailfish, dolphin fish and wahoo are still about but once again very scattered.

Reef Fishing

Is definitely producing the most consistent captures of quality fish, coral trout, cod and nannygai on most reef structures and by floating a pillie while bottom fishing, this is accounting for spaniards and barracuda. This style of fishing is not for everyone but is sure productive.

River And Estuary

Although in the middle of our rainy season, careful planning and targeting various river systems that are not flooding is the way to go. Prime fingermark to four kilo's are a sucker for a well presented live bait fished in the deeper more structured areas. There have also been reports of blue salmon to 80cm taken along with medium sized queenfish, grunter and a few bream. Lure fishing is certainly a very exciting prospect during the summer months, most of our prime tropical fish are very active with the above species, along with mangrove jacks and big barra showing up in most captures.

Remember though, it is still closed season for the taking of barra, all fish caught must be released unharmed. The Gulf fishery opens again on the 21st January with the East Coast fishery opening up on the 1st February. Quite a few barra to 80 cm have been crashing lures and poppers in the salt water reaches of our rivers and estuaries and any keen angler should re spool that outfit, sharpen hooks and get prepared, only two weeks to go.

We had a bait fishing session down the Mulgrave river recently and while fishing a very prominent snag were quite surprised to land eight very aggressive barracuda, losing about a dozen big brutes due to their sharp teeth cutting the leader. There seems to be heaps of these fish to 50cm in our tidal rivers and estuaries at present and offer good sport on light tackle.

We are also about to add some new content to the site, so keep your eyes open ! That's it, back to relaxed mode

Catch you on the water,
Les Marsh