Photo: Caeden and Callie Choo with a couple of nice Buckley’s Hole summer whiting.
Well what a week hot, hot, hot, and not just the temperature. The fishing is also hot as well.
Outside is going crazy with fish pelagic fish getting taken from most areas both on the troll and while bait fishing. Fish like kingfish and cobia are the most common fish to be taken from both bait and troll. The small black marlin still keep all the game fishos excited as there are still plenty of them around.
In the bay there seems to be an unending supply of school and spotted mackerel with fish being taken all around the bay with any channel marker that is holding bait the best option. Try drifting past a marker and tossing a metal slug at it let it sink then retrieve as quick as possible. As the tides do run fairly quickly in the bay you will only get a couple of casts every drift but that should be enough. Four beacons is where the shipping channel bends towards the Brisbane River and as the name suggests there are 4 channel markers. These hold a lot of bait which in turn hold mackerel and other species that will feed on the abundant supply of food. When fishing this area it pays to have a bait on the surface as well as the bottom as there have been some big cod caught there as well.
The passage seems to have come alive over the past week with a lot of surface action near the mouth. This has been golden trevally following in bait schools and pushing them to the surface; these fish are large (around the 3-4 kg mark) and put up a big fight when hooked. They can be caught on both, bait and plastics as well as metal slugs. If you see them have a go at getting them as they are not resident in the passage and will be gone as soon as the bait is.
The hot weather doesn’t really affect the fish just the fisho so make sure you have plenty of sunscreen on and take plenty of water and wear a good hat.