The April Fishing Report, Week Five 2007, Noosa, Queensland, Australia, brought to you by River2Sea Quality Fishing Tackle.

As at Monday April 30, 2007

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River2Sea Quality Fishing Tackle

OFFSHORE: Yippee yahoo! It was another great week here in Noosa with light to moderate, 5 to 15 knot winds (variable southerlies to start with and west/north westerlies as the week wound up) dominating, and glassed out seas more the norm rather than the exception. With conditions as good as they get for this time of the year it was an added bonus to find the reef fish well and truly on the bite with Parrot Fish, Moses Perch, Squire and Sweetlip common to all of the visited reefs. On top of that, North Reef fired quite well, producing Maori Cod, Estuary Cod, Cobia, Snapper, Shiny Mackerel and plenty of sharks while 'The Coffees' yielded Teraglin Jewfish, Pearl Perch, Cobia and Shiny Mackerel. Also worth a mention; Chardon's 'Wide' was worth a look for Scarlet Sea Perch, Cobia, Estuary Cod and, as you can see by the photo on the right, quality Pearl Perch. Local angler John Dunn boated this 3.5kg 'Pearlie' while out there on a full day Cougar Too charter on Friday. Closer to home, Arkwright Shoal yielded Shiny Mackerel, Pearl Perch, Maori Cod and Red Throat Emperor plus the odd Coral Trout as local angler Kevin Telfar (below right) found to his delight on Friday morning. Kevin tempted this 6.5kg specimen with a Trevally fillet on a 7/0 circle hook and in In the process christened his new Shimano Catana rod (purchased from Davo's). His reel? A Penn 230 loaded with 30lb line. And just up the line; Sunshine Reef was the spot for Amberjack, Mowong, Railway Perch, Spotted Mackerel, and, as per the photo below, Spanish Mackerel. Ignoring the erroneous poor weather forecast Aaron Budd and Shane Dunlop from Sunrise Beach hit the jackpot there on Sunday when their Pilchard baits on ganged 4/0 hooks (and a good burley trail) attracted the attention of the 8kg and 14kg 'Spaniards' they're pictured with. They were armed with Shimano TSS4 threadline combos loaded with 20lb line and 80lb trace. Laguna Bay, apart from the odd Yellowfin Tuna, was relatively quiet. ONSHORE: There were no trophy fish caught on the coastal surf beaches this week but there were certainly plenty of the bread and butter species to go around. With little in the way of a shore dump the North Shore was a great spot to have a family picnic and wet a line with Whiting and Chopper Tailor (at night) in good numbers, especially around Teewah. Across the bay a few lucky rock anglers were hooking up on Spotted Mackerel (on Frogmouth Pilchards) off the rocks at Tea Tree Bay and Sweetlip off the headland, while further south there were heaps of Whiting and Dart at Marcus Beach.

In the river, Flathead (50cm-60cm) and Whiting (to 570gm on live Yabbies) were in good numbers and of excellent quality from the lower Gympie Terrace stretch down to the river mouth (where Tailor were active at night) and around the Frying Pan. And coincidentally, it was in the lower Gympie Terrace stretch that local angler Mick Bourke (above left), armed with a Jarvis Walker threadline combo, landed these two 400gm Whiting last Monday afternoon. Flathead and Whiting were also on the bite in the lower Weyba Creek area along with Trevally, quality Bream and, as per the photo above right, Mangrove Jack. James Peters was fishing down near the mouth of the creek on Saturday afternoon when this excellent 3kg 'Jack' slammed his 3" Cultiva medium diver minnow lure. He was kitted out with a Rex Hunt Signature rod and a Shimano Calcutta 200 reel loaded with 10kg braid. Apart from that there were a few Trevally chasing soft plastics at the Munna Point Bridge plus the odd Mangrove Jack (to 2.4kg) at the Sheraton Bridge and up around Tewantin where Trevally and Bream were also on the bite. Last but not least, the top end of Lake Cooroibah was another Flathead option while the stretch between the lakes produced Bream, Tarwhine and more Mangrove Jacks. On the freshwater scene, the Lake Borumba Saratoga and Bass were responding to spinnerbaits in the Yabba Arm while at Lake MacDonald the Bass were chasing Jackalls at 'Three Ways' and in 'Bass Bay' and surface poppers along 'Gerry's Run' around dawn and dusk.