LOCAL fising guru Bob Spees from Whitsunday Tackle World shares his knowledge to help you maxamise your chances of landing a fish this weekend.

"There have been plenty of bait schools around the inner islands with plenty of grey and spotty mackerel feeding on them. Try small metal slugs, live garfish and small stick baits for best results. Queenfish are also feeding with best results coming from using live herring unweighted,” he said.

For those planning a trip to the islands Mr Spees warned the inner islands had been very hard going because of the water colour.

"(But) places like Narra and Hook Passage have been fishing OK for mackerel, queenfish and GTs, bottom fishing has been slow. Outside Hook, Hayman and Whitsunday Islands have been fishing quite well for coral trout, grassy sweetlip and blue tusk fish for those fishing the bottom.

"Dolphin Point has been fishing quiet well for billfish, spanish mackerel and long tail tuna. Mackerel Bay has been producing some very nice mackerel and cobia using metal jigs into the bait schools. Grimson Point is fishing very well for all types of mackerel along with long tail and mack tuna.”

Land based anglers will be pleased to learn the rockwalls around Airlie Beach have been fishing well.

"Rockwall have been producing some nice finger mark along with mangrove jack just on daylight with best baits being 1/2 pilchards or live herring. The Ecooda live prawn has been working as the best soft plastic along with Squidgys,” Mr Spees said.

"With the bigger tides coming up throw in a couple of crab pots, the Proserpine River has been producing some nice king salmon but not in large numbers, along with grunter and flathead around Wilson Beach and Repulse Bay.”

The dam will be very busy this week with a tournament going ahead.

"With the water temperature rising try the sticks early morning with surface stick baits and soft plastics. The main basin has been improving and will continue moving into the moon phase.”

Heading off shore to the outer reef Mr Spees said some nice nannygai and red emperor have been coming in during the week which were caught fishing the deeper holes around the reefs.

"Mackerel have also been biting well on live fusiliers along with some very large cobia,” he said. "The reef edges are still producing good red throat with the trout still a little slow. For those chasing pelagic GTs are in good numbers around the fusilier bait schools.”