PIONEER RIVER, LOCAL BEACHES & HARBOUR WALL
The cooler weather has brought some quality fish, big Bream, Whiting and Flathead have been caught from Town Beach right up to Foulden in the Pioneer River. Fresh Yabbies and Bloodworms working well on Whiting while slab baits (Mullet, Gar and even Whitebait) have been producing some big Silver Bream. The gravel patch above Cullen Island on the making tide is fishing extremely well with kilo plus Bream being caught.

The northern Harbour Beach has been fishing well, Yellow Tail Trevally, Oystercrackers and some big Elbow Slapper Whiting on the run in tide using fresh Yabbie or big green Prawns being the best bait.

The Southwall was proving popular as anglers packed the wall after catches of Bluey’s, big Cod, Snapper and Jew being caught. One happy angler landing a nice 60cm Snapper on soft plastics. With the cooler weather it should bring the Knobbies (Snapper) in close to the Harbour Wall following schools of bait. Try ganging Pillies or fresh Gar or the good old fresh Squid, should up the catch rate. (Try Berleying!! It’s a must if you want to keep this fish schooled up).

SARINA & SURROUNDING AREA
The shoals in front of Victor Island and Haypoint has produced some nice Snapper, (fresh Squid, Pillies and Gar) working well. Drift fishing has proved to be producing better numbers. North and South overtalls are holding some good Spanish Mackeral, floating or trolling Ribbon Fish, or deep diving lures (Rapala Magnum 30, Lazer Pro 7mtr , Halco Tremblers) working well. Some nice reef fish being caught around Prudhoe and the Beverlies group, while the shoals in front of Taffy Island and Glendower Point has fished well (Spotty Mackeral, Grunter and some nice Nannygai). The estuaries, Plane Creek, Rocky Dam Creek and Boundry Creek are still producing good schools of Blue Salmon, big Bream and some huge Flathead and surprisely still plenty of Mudcrabs.

SEAFORTH & SURROUNDING AREA
Idian Head and Wedge Island has been fishing quite well, with some large Fingermark, Cod and Jew being caught on live baits and lures, live Herring and Squid have been the best baits. Try using a drawstring cast net around the back of Wedge Island for some good bait. Deep diving RMG’s 8mtrs seem to work better than any, trolled nice and slow 4-5 knots. There is still nice size Blue salmon and bream being caught in Murray Creek, Constance Creek, St Helens and Blackrock Creek with an unusual catch of Grey Mackeral being caught on fresh Prawns around Crocker Rock while chasing Bluey’

WHITSUNDAYS & PROSERPINE RIVER
Repulse Inlet has produced some huge Mangrove Jack and King Salmon, casting and trolling lures, (Gold Bombers, Reidys Lucifers and RMG Sorpions) all working well. Some nice Barramundi have been seen chasing bait in the shallows around Wilsons Beach and Conway Beach and with the neap tides on there way Proserpine River should fire again. With the cooler weather the shallows may be a better option for chasing the old elusive Barra (live baits or lures).

ISLANDS & REEFS
The shipping channel has fished extremely well this year. Huge Red Emperor, Nannygai, Trout, Grass Lipper and Yellow’s (spangled) in good numbers if you fish a favourite spot and it doesn’t fire then go back a couple of hours later, you will find the fish there eventually. The big migrating fish will follow bait schools, so drift fishing is a must. “If u want to try something different try using a knife jig once you find a school of fish or some pre rigged plastics set up on a paternoster rig, these work extremely well, try spaying the lures with Ultra bite spray and see what effect it has”. Still plenty of Spanish Mackeral on the chew, floating or trolling Ribbonfish is working well, though one angler nailing six beauty’s on Rapala Magnum 30 trolled slowly.

DAMS
Teemburra Dam and Kinchant Dam have been a little quiet for the big old elusive Barra while the Sooty’s have been fireing well. A good mate catching a dozen fat sootys working the timber using River to Sea Vibes and TT Swithchblades, and lost a couple of nice Barra slow rolling 120mm slick baits. A couple of anglers trolling Kinchant Dam said some huge Barra 120+ have been seen in the shallows, not paying any attention to lures. Peter Faust Dam still a little quiet with the odd Barra being caught, though reports of good numbers of Red Claw and good sizes.

DON'T FORGET TO BE WATCHING WIN LOCAL NEWS AT 6.25 PM FRIDAY NIGHTS FOR OUR WEEKLY FISHING REPORTS. ANY FISH PHOTOS YOU CAN SEND IN WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

May Fishing Report: With Capt. Josh Wight, Reefari Charters

Well hello again all and welcome to the May edition of the offshore fishing report. May has been a busy month with quite a bit of decent fishable weather and both our boats have been making frequent trips to the reef and shoals.
Our new boat Mako has finally kicked off and she made her first 2 day 2 night trip out to the reef. We left the harbour at around 5pm on the Friday and made the journey out to Penrith Island to spend the first night. The boys all fished hard for most of the night and were rewarded with a good haul of large mouth nannygai, snapper, cod and red throat. In the early hours of Saturday morning, we fired up the big V8’s and roared off to go in search of those elusive red emperors out towards Kindemar reef. By about 8am we were drifting one of my favorite little patches and was it going off. We fished hard until lunchtime when the tide turned and the fish went quiet, but, for the 4 hours that we put in, we were rewarded with countless red throat, some 15 decent red emperor, about 15 or so good sized trout and quite a few others including a juvenile Maori wrasse and a big barra cod – both of which were immediately released. While the fishing was quiet we went into the reef edge for an afternoon snorkel. Jeez there is some big GT’s out there around some of those reefs. We had 0ne that was at least 80 pound swimming around us showing absolutely no fear at all. We cast poppers and stick baits but he wouldn’t hit anything. After our swim we proceeded to head out to our anchorage for the night – a beautiful little detached bommie that I call red emperor reef. For the flood tide it was on once again and the boys just kept pulling them in. We actually lifted the minimum size for red throat from 38 to 48cm just to slow it down a bit. By the end of that session our freezer was getting very close to being full.
At 3am on the Sunday we once again fired up the engines and went searching. One more spot on the way home – why not. We visited a very secret little spot of mine that lies about half a mile from the edge of a massive green zone – so you can imagine what it can fish like. Again the fish just went mental with more big quality trout, emperor and XOS lipper hitting the decks. With every conceivable cold space on the boat packed full of fish we decided to take it easy and troll lures for most of the way home. With the lures set and the autopilot doing a great job, it was a fantastic way to top off an awesome weekend.
Day trips have also been frequent with all trips returning with big hauls of reef fish. The LM nannygai are still chewing their heads off as are the big barcheek trout. In fact most of the day trips that we have done almost everyone went home with at least one big trout in their catchbag. Snapper are stating to become more and more active with the cold weather and the specimens we are boating are getting bigger and bigger every trip. Our fearless leader, Greg Reynolds took a few of the trips out this month too and proved that even though he hadn’t been out for a few months that he can still find the fish. Big reds were on the must catch list and Greg has been slaying them with several fish topping the 10kg mar including one Monster Nannygai.
A particularly different catch also came up on one day trip in the form of a 6.7kg gold band snapper. These are typically a really deep water species that are rarely caught in less than 80 meters. At nearly 7kgs this was an absolute monster for this species and was a long way from home up in 37meters of water. They are a close relative of the rosy job fish and are superb eating.
Anyway guys and gals, that pretty much brings this fishing report to a close once again. Remember if you’re sick of dreaming about catching that big one and want to come out for a look, give us a call or visit the website for more info. www.reefari.com.au
And videos at http://au.youtube.com/user/Reefari
Tight lines
Capt. Josh Wight

Have a great week fishing.
The team at Tackle World Mackay