Rivers

THE rivers are still crabbing well. Checking pots regularly and moving them around the creek seems to be the difference between a couple of crabs and a great feed.

Fishing has been a little slow. This will improve with the smaller tides coming up.

The run out tide has been fishing best with baits and soft plastics casting around creek mouths, drains and rock bars.

Grunter, flathead, whiting and salmon will all be found in these areas.

Deeper bends and holes will be the spots to target salmon and better quality grunter on vibes and baits of fresh prawns.

Rockwalls

SMALL plastics, vibes and spoons cast around early morning and late afternoon are accounting for some quality queenfish and trevally at Shute Harbour and Port of Airlie.

The Sailing Club and Whisper Bay rockwalls are fishing well for grunter and mangrove jack on lightly weighted prawn or pilchard baits. A couple of surprise catches last week was coral trout and sweetlip off the rock walls.

Islands

PELAGICS have been a little hit and miss, tuna schools are starting to thin out.

Having a rod ready to go with a small metal slug will be the way to hooking a fish when the schools surface.

Jigging Mackerel Bay, Narra and Dolphin Point has been producing the best results for mackerel. Fishing off the fringing reefs to around the 20m depth should see some quality sweetlip, trout and other tasty reef fish come over the side of the boat. Lightly weighted baits of pilchard, prawns and squid will to the trick. If the weather drops out over the weekend the tides are looking favourable for searching the deeper water out wide for reds, nannygai, jewfish and fingermark.

The back of Hayman, Leaper Shoal and the Edwards group will be places for some good fishing.

Ryan Fuller, Whitsunday Fishing World

Dingo Beach/ Hydeaway Bay

A COUPLE of days of snotty north westers are about the only thing that has interrupted a week of nice steady fishing.

There are still some nice crabs being caught up the creeks but the prawns have tapered off a little.

Out in the front of our local estuaries on the flats the bait is starting to build up which is a good sign for the start of the barra season.

Off the beaches not too many fish have been caught as the water temps are right up there, causing most of the flathead and whiting to scarper. A few diligent anglers are getting some nice squid though.

Using lightly weighted squid jigs and targeting shallow rocky/reef patches is a good starting point to target these tasty morsels.

The reefs in close around the mainland are working better than the outer islands at the moment with coral trout, sweetlip and a few school mackerel being the main catches.

Be prepared to up anchor and keep moving regularly to stay on a constant bite.

Mick Underwood, Reel Addiction Sport Fishing