OFFSHORE: Ahh, what a difference a couple of days makes! Last week's blustery south easterlies finally ran out of steam and by Wednesday morning the winds were well and truly in the light to moderate category. The river mouth bar crossing was a bit tricky due to the murky runout but those who took their time had no trouble getting out.
Conditions still weren't settled enough for a trip 'out wide' but there were few complaints from the fish starved boaties with North Reef (which was as far as anyone was prepared to go) producing squire, sweetlip, pearl perch, parrot fish, quality snapper and, on the dirty water line on the way out there, northern bluefin tuna and the odd school and spotted mackerel.
The closer reefs, however, provided the best results. Arkwright Shoal and Victor Bailey's Reef produced squire, parrot fish and sweetlip as did Sunshine Reef but with the added bonus of snapper, pearl perch, moses perch, mowong, Maori cod, spangled emperor and, as you can see by the accompanying photos, yellowfin tuna and plenty of coral trout.
James Henderson and Grant Zeller (above) were out there on a Noosa Yacht and Rowing Club fishing club outing with Noosa Blue Water Charters on Saturday when they got onto some good reefies and a couple of 3kg and 4kg 'Trout'.
And the day before, 'Woody' (above) hooked and landed a 20kg yellowfin tuna while doing a spot of bottom bashing wide on Sunshine. After boating enough reefies for a good family feast he was bringing in his last rig prior to heading for home when this thumper tuna swallowed the squid bait on a 4/0 hook at the side of the boat. Woody, who was armed with a Shakespeare Ugly Stik and a Penn Senator reel loaded with 30lb line and 50lb trace, took 35 minutes to boat it.
More trout? Well, why not. Mark Arnall (above) popped out to Sunshine Reef in his rubber ducky on Thursday for a quick look around and came home with a couple of grass sweetlip and the 3kg coral trout he's pictured with. He was using a Shimano TLD15 combo loaded with 20lb line and squid baits. The only other reports of note were of brief, fast moving mackerel tuna boils about 1km out from the national park headland and about 3km's to 4km's north east of Jew Shoal.

ONSHORE: There wasn't a lot to report from the coastal surf beaches this week. The only reports from the North Shore were of a few quality whiting coming from up around Double Island Point. Over on the east side, some good surf gutters at Castaways Beach produced quite a few quality dart and a number of big pilot bream and while it was a similar situation at Marcus Beach there was an added bonus, in the deeper gutters there, of chopper tailor to 1.5kg.

The estuary system was still very murky and as a result very quiet. Most of the activity was concentrated in the lower system with flathead on the bite in the Munna Point area, grunter bream at Munna Bridge and the odd trevally in the Woods Bays. James Hamilton (above) was fishing at the Munna Point caravan park on Wednesday morning when his prawn bait was monstered by the 1.65kg 'Lizard' he's pictured with.
On the freshwater scene, the Borumba Dam Saratoga were showing a preference for well cast MegaBass Anthrax lures.