OFFSHORE: It was a great start to the holiday season with little or no swell and light to moderate variable northerly winds setting the scene for almost picture perfect conditions on the local reefs. The morning sessions were best, ahead of the gusty afternoon north easterly sea breezes. The downside was that the fishing was patchy, especially on the outer reefs.

Those who traveled some distance were a bit disappointed with the Barwon Banks producing only average size reefies such as squire, pearl perch, moses perch and parrot fish. Closer in, the results at North Reef were the same but with the added bonus of the odd estuary cod and a few teraglin jewfish. Chardon's Reef ran hot and cold with mahi mahi, as per the photo above, being the standout species there. Emma Greenhalgh was out there this morning with friends and her 10kg 'bull' was the sparkle in an otherwise dull morning. Oh, her bait? A trolled garfish on a squid skirted, ganged rig.
It wasn't all doom and gloom, fortunately, with Sunshine Reef continuing to fire. The birds were working, the bait schools were boiling and happily, the mackerel tuna, small black marlin (there were plenty caught and released), bonito, Spanish mackerel and spotted mackerel were on the bite in good numbers. The only negative was that there were a lot of boats out there most days so it did get a bit hectic and heated at times. Local yak angler Ian Tagg (above) found himself out there yesterday morning when he hooked a large 'bronzie' on Jew Shoal just before first light and got towed out to Sunshine Reef on his Swing Angler fishing kayak before he figured out what he had on the line and cut it away. Finding himself amongst the pelagic action he slipped a whole pilchard onto a Davo's Spaniard Special and, after dropping a couple of fish, trolled up the 4.6kg 'Spotty' he's pictured with. He was armed with a 6kg-10kg Penn rod and a Shimano TSS4 threadline reel loaded with 30lb braid and 60lb Jinkai. The odd spotted mackerel was also taken at Jew Shoal.

ONSHORE: With the holidays in full swing the coastal surf beaches were very well patronised by holiday makers and beach fisho's alike. The North Shore, of course, had the usual heavy Christmas vehicular traffic but to date there have been no reports of any 4x4 incidents.
Whiting and dart were well spread along Teewah Beach (with some real thumpers in amongst the average fish) while bream were in good numbers north of the Third Cutting and a few chopper tailor were on the bite near the camping grounds.
Flathead were also worth targeting as Lyle Gothmann (right) found on Tuesday. Lyle was fishing the beach gutters on the run-out tide with Sean Chisholm from
Noosa Surf Fishing Tours when his pilchard bait was taken by this 62cm 'Lizard'.
Over on the east side, whiting and bream were the standouts at Peregian, Marcus and Castaways beaches.
In the river, trevally were well spread with best results coming from the Woods Bays, the Munna Point Bridge and, along with bream and flathead, in Weyba Creek (where mudcrabs were out and about) and along the Noosaville stretch.

Apart from that, mangrove jacks were on the bite up around the Noosa Harbour Marine Village. Local lass Amanda Witchard (above) was fishing there around lunchtime yesterday when her live herring bait was monstered by the 1.2kg specimen she's pictured with. She was armed with a Shakespeare estuary combo.