Cooper 'that's hectic' Ager christened his spanky new boat with this solid 11kg red emperor, last bait of the day.
Cool & Windy Next Week
Last weekend was a tad too breezy for open water boating. Better conditions arrived as many headed back to work, but even those lighter breezes weren't as light as the BOM was spruiking mere days before. What's ahead is more of the same, only cooler, with lighter winds on the weekend than during the week for a change.
If you got out yesterday, then you enjoyed may happen to be the best on offer this week. The cool southerly change that blew in overnight made rising from the cot that little more challenging early this morning, and sets the scene for coming days. The breeze will drop out this afternoon and pave the way for an early Saturday morning session in good conditions.
Saturday's wind should peak later in the day at 15 knots, before prevailing at that strength or maybe up to 20 knots Sunday. The weekend will be sunny at least, and refreshingly cool. Better than the forecast thereafter it seems, as a high in the bight drifts slowly eastward mid-week and sends persistent trade winds our way. Expect 20 knots or more from either side of south-east pretty much all week if the BOM has it right.
Spoil your mum on Sunday and spend quality time with her instead of risky time on the water. If you must, then remember that lighter southerly winds inshore early can open a brief window of opportunity for early risers. Stay local and within a quick bash from shelter and you can sneak in a quick trip if you and your vessel are up to such a task. Otherwise, Sunday through next week looks like times for sheltered waters, estuaries and onshore activities.
The moon is very favourable for at least one of the above suggestions, with the half-moon of the last quarter phase falling this Sunday. That waning moon will darken our night skies as the tides 'make' from these neaps and create the perfect opportunity to get amongst many of our warm water loving predators before the chill of winter really sets in.
Electric combos = beating the sharks. Dane with a 5kg red hauled from 65m of water that never would've made the boat on standard tackle.
Extracting hard-fighting offshore reef dwellers like this red bass of Cooper's is made much easier with quality tackle.
Fisho's staffer, Logan, with a solid green jobfish caught from shark-infested waters with the aid of a Daiwa Seaborg electric reel.
Flamies were part of a mixed haul of reefies that blooded Cooper's new offshore rig.
Tips for Catching Pier Flathead
Masses of herring have decided to settle beneath Urangan Pier again for now, and they are generally much larger than the vagrant herring of recent weeks. Pike have joined them in decent numbers too, so the ingredients are there for a decent bite once the tides begin making next week.
Latest reports suggest flathead are a worthy target species; made even more worthy by the return of the pike. For my money, you can have your herring, as a live pike will be deemed much more appealing by the resident flathead pretty much any day. Catching the pike can be a challenge for the uninitiated, particularly at low tide when flathead can be spotted and the bait you need proves elusive.
Catch your pike via bait jigs sporting larger hooks and sturdier branch lines than the tiny-hooked ones you would use for fussy little herring. The Jarvis Walker size 6 jigs or similar will do the trick nicely. Alternatively, wog a micro minnow 40cm behind a 3-ball sinker on a 15-20lb leader if you don't mind fishing upside down in the first channel when the water is too skinny for jigs (if you can't work that one out then come see me instore).
Catch your pike from either the first channel or from the slope out the deep end and deploy them nearby for flathead. Do so by casting your lip-pinned live pike upstream a little where it can sit nervously awaiting inhalation in the early flood tide. A 7-ball sinker or similar will secure it there, but be ready to react as the flathead scoffs it and charges back under the pier aided by the inbound tide. Strike too early and you will get back a mauled pike. Let the flathead turn it head-on and swallow it – a nerve-wracking exercise you will learn with practice.
Spend time looking for flatties through polarised sunnies and you can target specific fish instead of plonking randomly. Their banded sides give them away by the way. So too the elongated kite-shaped marks in the sand they left behind, to which they often return next tide. There you go, there are enough old-school tips above for you to catch pier flathead regularly. Remember to respect the size limits (particularly the maximum) and don't go on a mass murdering spree just because numbers turn up. Expect flathead to be a regular pier feature from now well into winter.
If pelagics are more your thing, then you can probably look forward to more action again this week. As the tides improve, the return of broad-barred, school and the odd spanish mackerel will be welcomed. Recent captures included all three, as well as the odd golden trevally. The queenies have been scarcer of late and the GTs appear to have moved on. Thankfully, those flaming whalers have also wandered off elsewhere this week, so landing fish is easier once again.
If we call the bream caught from the pier under last week's full moon the first of the season, then it is still a very slow and slightly belated start. Bream numbers are bound to improve dramatically in coming weeks, particularly around the periods of stronger tidal flow associated with the new and full moons. Bait fishing bream fans will have plenty of herring to catch and slab, fillet or (even better) butterfly as baits, and will relish colder times ahead.
Aedan Arnold went deep dropping and scored some ripper jobbies such as this ruby 'snapper'.
Plumb the depths offshore east of Breaksea Spit and you can haul in thumping big bar cod like this one of Aedan's.
Shore-based But Not Forgotten
Beach fishing has been fairly lack lustre due to unfavourable (small) tides and won't get too exciting for a few days yet. Increased current flow later next week will create far better feeding opportunities. Whiting may be worth pursuing from the town beaches after dark, but would seem a better option nearer the creeks at the extremities of town.
Try tiny topwater offerings from a stretch of sand or mud with the breeze at your back. Bream might even join the whiting on the beach flats as they begin their migration to their winter spawning grounds. Remember, it's generally a faster and constant retrieve for whiting and much slower presentation broken up with pauses for the bream.
Flathead are an option for those wandering our creeks and nearby foreshores. Grunter might surprise the luckier fishos, as might queenfish, blue salmon or even cooler estuarine predators. There are hardy heads gathered along stretches of our town beaches at present, with seemingly no predators attending. Surely their presence won't escape the predators forever, so keep an eye out for the hardies showering out of the water in your travels.
River Heads fishos are in with a chance this week - wind permitting. Jewfish are a prime target for lure fishos or live baiters. Bream might start to turn up in better numbers soon too, whilst flathead and estuary cod are always a chance. Salmon captures will likely come to more agile fishos presenting shallow-diving hardbodies or plastics to fish cruising the rocky peninsula. Cast netters keen on a feed of banana prawns continue to risk their nets on the rocks out there, so they must be getting some return for effort/risk.
Jacko has been into the Burrum's flathead population again. Water is cleaner and the fish are biting hard up there.
Arma Flats Doctor and Skip Doctor soft plastics are dynamite on our flathead and a host of other estuarine predators.
First Winter Whiting Have Arrived
Cooler conditions at this time of year always spur dedicated winter whiting fans into action. Recent efforts over the full moon were rewarded too apparently, with a decent feed caught by some and even bag limits by at least one crew.
Traditional whiting grounds are well known in our near-shore waters, but not all fire at a given time. Early reports suggest the grounds off Woodgate, Toogoom and the NU2 have been the better producers from the minimal effort put in so far. Quality has been mixed, but that can be expected at this time. Colder waters and the approaching new moon in a week's time should see whiting catches continue. Will that be from the above spots, or somewhere closer to Gatakers Bay? Only those on the water will know at that time.
Drifting with baited bait jigs or small paternoster rigs is the go for most winter whiting fans. Select bait jigs were labelled by us at Fisho's as the 'winter whiting slayers' years ago for good reason. Whiting were discovered to be a 'pest' on unbaited bait jigs when trying to catch pike from the Bait Grounds etc, so when jigs were split into two sets of three by the manufacturer, it was a godsend for winter whiting fans.
These cheap and incredibly effective jigs not only out-fish all other presentations most of the time, they are ready to clip on, very sturdy, and the whiting rarely ever swallow the hooks. Spike them with a tiny slither of squid strip or GULP worm by pinning it once and letting it trail. The whiting will climb one after the other, and you will catch plenty of triples even when only baiting two of the three hooks. Get some. They are that good!
Brax broke in his new Daiwa Infeet - Tatula BF combo in style with this nice bass.
Local spearo Dax Gallagher with the results of a recent swim.
Get Ready for Snapper Season
These neap tides may not aide you in your 2026 snapper quest, but the upcoming new moon will. Cooler conditions invite snapper to move into bay waters in readiness for spawning later this winter, and many fishos will be out there hunting for them.
Any caught to date have been kept under wraps or non-existent so far it seems. One must wonder if any of us stand a chance of landing larger fish inshore at present with so many bull sharks around. Heaven help the spawning biomass that enters Hervey Bay waters early this season, as our shark depredation issues are not improving.
Notwithstanding, an ever-growing throng of eager snapper fishos will be in hot pursuit of those most gorgeous and delicious old knobbies in coming weeks. More and more are sporting the best tech that money can buy along with finely-tuned tackle and some ultra-impressive artificial presentations to trick them with. Last year's hottest snapper plastics may yet be out-shone by newer entrants in the field this year. So many red-hot options; so, here's hoping the snapper actually show up.
Squire have been caught randomly from deeper reefs within our shipping channels, but no real numbers as yet. Grassy sweetlip out-number them big-time and continue to feed families intent on gleaning a feed close inshore. Those sweetlip numbers will decline as our waters cool, whilst their average size is generally bigger. Fish bettering 50cm can be common on the best grounds heading into winter, though few if any ever make it to 60cm close inshore.
Sharks have been relentless lately and will continue to be. Keep mobile to avoid them and capitalise on shark-less grounds when and if you find such sweet spots. Coral trout, estuary cod, nannygai and grunter are all possible inshore at present, though sadly, few hooked actually make it to the boat. Fishing shallow doesn't appeal for reef species this time of year, so grunter fans might score along our shallow reefs, but those seeking other quarry will have to take on the risks in the depths.
Logan with the remains of what was a stonker red bass caught offshore yesterday with Cooper.
Not all deepwater ooglies are big, but they are all tasty. Dane stumbled onto a patch of pretty perch yesterday.
Mackerel Giving Our Herring a Hard Time
Cooling waters mean more and more baitfish in Hervey Bay, and larger ones on average than what's here in summer. Herring are the most prolific inshore at present, followed closely by pike. Both are superb live and dead baits for reef fish, whilst the herring in particular, are attracting the attention of the marauding mackerel schools.
School mackerel are widely spread throughout Platypus Bay, the southern bay and the western bay. They are even making a nuisance of themselves in the northern bay. Find them off Woodgate, the Burrum and across 'the banks'. Many a reef site in Platyypus Bay will be hosting plenty and they are quite large schoolies too. Look for the herring and you will eventually find the mackerel.
Spanish mackerel are scattered throughout the northern, central and eastern bay. Generally, school-sized spaniards of appropriate eating size by Hervey Bay standards, with the odd massive freak still possible. Favouring yakkas, bonito and other larger baitfish, the spaniards will also devour herring and pike. Setting a live bait suspended out the back whilst fishing the bottom was a tried and proven technique of many a past fisho. The risk of a shark taking it today sees more and more pursue them on lures cast or trolled.
Broad-barred mackerel have been the star of the mackerel show close inshore. Big numbers are being reported from shallow waters in the southern bay and upper straits. They are avid hunters in the skinny waters of our flats and can be seen terrorising the garfish and hardy heads around the bay islands quite often. Spinning for broadies with spoons or other metals is super easy and a ton of fun for the kids. Look for them between Coongul and Kingfisher across to the bay islands and you will find some.
Tuna numbers vary with each passing moon, but one thing is a constant - they get bigger. There may not be as many longtails in the southern bay in coming weeks as past weeks, but their average size just keeps improving. This is great for the sports fisho keen to test their tackle and stamina on these never-say-die barrels of muscle, but it isn't so good when it comes to beating the sharks.
It is time to bust out the stickbaits and go looking for new PB tuna, but it is also time to consider appropriate tactics should you hook such a beast. Get lucky and it will be a simple, clean, albeit lengthy and exhausting battle. Any noahs nearby and it won't end well. Unless you see the sharks coming that is, and free spool your tuna letting it race away unhindered when it needs to. It will take some pretty flash boat manoeuvring on the skipper's part (not to mention lots of luck), but this tactic works a treat.
Longtails were last reported up the island in Platypus Bay, with very few closer inshore towards the straits. That may change with this next set of making tides, as so often happens, so those waters off Kingfisher and the Picnics could be worth monitoring if it isn't too windy.
It was back on the troll and into the big inshore broadies for Luke.
School-sized spaniards like this one of Jake's are a lower risk eating proposition than larger spaniards.
Jake had fun subduing this fine queenfish. There are plenty around and they will bite well into winter
The girls with a monster blackall caught aboard a Hot Reels Fishing Charter.
Estuary Options Galore
Windy weather and favourable tides will see our creeks and rivers come alive with traffic this week. The Great Sandy Straits will maintain popularity amongst those looking for grunter, salmon, barra and jewfish, whilst the improving water quality of the Mary system invites more folks to go in search of barra and salmon.
Many of the biggest grunter down the straits may favour the channels and ledges for now, but some of them will creep back upstream in the creeks with more tidal flow. Masses of smaller grunter are moving with the tides and feeding up on the creek flats as the tides flood and in the main creek channels as it recedes. The same goes for the threadfin salmon, with the exception of them favouring the muddy drains for the last of the ebb where they focus intently on jelly prawn.
Blue salmon schools often give themselves away as they smash the herring and mullet mooching along the open banks flanking the straits' channels. The Turkey Straits has ample sizeable blues cruising its waters right now and they are suckers for virtually anything you throw at them.
Threadies are making their way upriver for periods then drifting back when the tides get big enough. Fair to say that too far upstream will put you in the domain of the tiniest of threadies at present, albeit lots of them. Barra fishos have scope to head in all directions, yet many fish are schooling and making moves towards grounds they favour for winter. Snag-bashing will be that much easier this week than last, so go get amongst them before they get too lethargic with the onset of winter.
The Burrum system is improving dramatically water quality wise and is vastly cleaner than a fortnight ago. Baitfish are returning and joining masses of various-sized prawns to create an appealing food chain that isn't going unnoticed. It might be only flathead you find, or it might be barra, threadies, jewfish and jacks. Either way, the Burrum system is a great option for wind-blown days this week.
Take a cast net for the prawns whichever system you target this week. There are ample down the straits, plenty in the lower Mary and enough to justify some effort in the Burrum. Woodgate produced again last week and is very likely firing today as you read this. Onshore winds will blow it out next week, so get there Saturday perhaps; very early at dawn should the winds stay southerly for long enough.
The mud crabs just keep on coming it seems, from the beach and mudflats to the lower reaches of our streams. More run in the tides later next week might see better results, but that won't slow the effort from the pros. They are making a good living right now, and recreational crabbers are scoring a feed most sessions too, so happy days for all.
Mindy was stoked with a feed of mud crabs from a local creek system.
Deep dropping produces delicious pearlies of this calibre for offshore regulars like Josh McGuire.
Save the Dates Fishos – 3rd to 5th July 2026
Here's the big event that Hervey Bay fishos have long been waiting for. Qld Fishing Classics is proud to present the inaugural 2026 Hervey Bay Fishing Classic this winter and this is an event you do not want to miss.
Spurred on by the huge success of the overwhelmingly popular Woodgate Fishing Classic, host Brandon - with the aid of his many actively involved sponsors (including Fisho's Tackle World) – are inviting fishos from all over to come and test their skills against like-minded competitors in what is set to be a fishing comp like no other.
Already boasting in excess of $120,000 in prizes and quite possibly more to come, this event will be both family oriented and a downright serious fishing comp all at the same time. Winter is a popular time of year for major fishing comps up and down the coast, yet this is the one to commit to early.
Like few other destinations, Hervey Bay's incredibly diverse and protected waters, coupled with Fraser's insane offshore fisheries, offer budding competitors a plethora of options in good weather or bad. Few can make that claim, and none can offer you the chance to see your name on the leader board as the first ever inaugural winner.
Registration is open, so head on over to herveybayfishingclassic.com.au and secure your tickets in what is going to be an uber-popular event. Early bird prizes are up for grabs, including Fisho's tackle World Gift Vouchers that will be announced and drawn in the weeks to come.
Whilst you register, check out the long lists of fish species categories you and your family can be competing to catch. Serious fish for serious fishos, and everyday catchable species for allcomers. Marvellous prizes are up for grabs for 1st and 2nd place as well as a secret weight for each category. Seniors 16 and over will compete for separate prizes than the juniors, so your family could be bristling with new goodies galore after you bring in your best fish.
There will be super draws and 3 boat packages up for grabs. Highly appealing raffle prizes will keep you buying tickets at the event and you can score limited merchandise online at the above website if you get in quick enough. Remember folks, this is the inaugural event, and no-one can ever reproduce merch from this first of its kind occasion.
The list of activities that will entertain you and yours onsite at the comp is mind blowing, and a little too much to comprehensively include in this week's report. We will bring you more details in upcoming fishing reports and in time help you towards your prize-winning goals. For now, though, get online and register as soon as you can. You simply cannot miss this one!
The Hervey Bay Sports Club grounds where the inaugural Hervey Bay Fishing Classic will be run in July.
Click here to grab your tickets and go in the draw for Early Bird prizes.
Good luck out there y'all …… Jase