Brought to
  you by...

OFFSHORE: Hooly dooly, it doesn't get much better than this! Well, weatherwise, anyway. Light to moderate variable northerlies dropped away to barely a whisper over the weekend before taking on a cooler southerly flavour this afternoon. Little or no swell meant that every man and his dog was at the boat ramps well before the sparrows passed wind and as a result there were boat trailers parked in some very interesting spots all over Noosaville and Tewantin on the weekend.

The reason for the mass stampede out over the bar was that the mackerel, Spanish and spotted, were reported in numbers (and boiling) initially around Castaways and then at Sunshine Reef.
As is the way, of course, with a whole armada of large and small boats charging around Sunshine Reef over the weekend, hardly a scale was raised, and as soon as everyone went home to Brisbane or back to work, the fish came out to play again. Funny how they do that.
Anyway, local angler John Thomas (right) took a punt that the fishing would improve as soon as the boat activity dropped away and he was right on the money. John did an early run out to Sunshine Reef with a mate this morning, and using whole tailor baits, trolled up three Spaniards and (with smaller baits) a couple of spotties. The 30kg+ Spaniard he's pictured with was, however, his standout.
Laguna Bay fired over the last few days with mack tuna and bonito hammering the bait schools and spotted and Spanish mackerel chasing trolled, hard bodied, shallow divers around the shark nets.
Further out around the middle reef belt, North Reef produced squire, teraglin jewfish, moses perch, pearl perch, venus tusk fish and mahi mahi.
For those with the bigger boats, Double Island Point was the spot for the common species like moses perch, pearl perch, venus tusk fish and teraglin jewfish plus bonus species like scarlet sea perch, red emperor and snapper.
Joel Lane from Mooloolaba (above) was at D.I. on Saturday on a full day Cougar One charter when he boated the 3.5kg red emperor he's posing with.
And on the same Noosa Blue Water Charters excursion, Steven Packer from Ipswich (below) was very happy with the 4.5kg snapper he's holding for the camera.