The January Fishing Report, Week One 2001, Noosa, Queensland, Australia.

As a result of the predominantly unfavourable conditions (the first half of the week was mostly strong wind warnings) the Snub-Nosed Dart

only outside reef activity came over the last two days of the week. Fortunately this also happened to be the weekend so there weren't too many complaints. The catch at Chardon's Reef was Cobia, Teraglin Jewfish and Tailor while for those anglers with the determination to head out wide, The Hards produced Squire, Pearl Perch and Rosy Jobfish. In the relative shelter of Laguna Bay earlier in the week Hall's Reef produced most of the Spotted Mackerel action while Jew Shoal had the Spaniards. The Bay itself yielded Mackerel Tuna, Bonito, Trevally and Tailor.

ONSHORE: With less swimming and surfing activity than the rest of the shire's ocean beaches this week the North Shore proved to be the most productive. The gutters from the river mouth to Double Island point were well worked and Tailor, Whiting, Flathead, Bream and Trevally were representative of the catch. The stretch North of Teewah was the top scorer with the odd surprise, like the 3.2kg Snub-Nosed Dart on the right making things interesting. Ipswich angler Beres Abraham picked up this nice bonus on Wednesday morning roughly 1km North of Teewah. He was armed with a 12' surf rod, an Alvey 650 reel, 12lb line and trace and Pippi on a 1/0 hook. On the East side, Castaways Beach performed best with Bream, Whiting and Tailor the standouts. In the river, Whiting and Flathead were by far the most prolific catches with the best action coming on live baits from the mouth itself, the Frying Pan, Munna Point, Weyba Creek and Harbourtown. The better quality Bream were taken around the Gympie Terrace jetties (on Mullet fillet and Prawn) while the Mangrove Jacks were going for live winter Whiting, Herring and Prawns in the stretch between the lakes, Harbourtown and the Woods Bays. Trevally were well spread in the lower estuary with live Herring and Prawns the most favoured baits and the Frying Pan, the Woods Bays, Munna Bridge and Harbourtown the most productive spots. On the freshwater scene, the stretch opposite the boat ramp at Lake MacDonald saw Bass going for trolled and cast spinnerbaits and Minnow lures while Borumba Dam fired all week with Bass and good quality Saratoga caught and released, examples of which as you can see below.

Alf Rombout, left, from Bingarra in New South Wales was at Borumba Dam on Friday with Jed and Steve from Noosa Eco Fishing and had just lost a bigger Saratoga (70cm) before boating the 58cm one he's posing with. Alf was trolling a purple and chartreuse spinnerbait and was armed with his own gear; a Shimano 2-3kg rod and a Johnson closed face reel loaded with 20lb Fireline. And a trolled black and purple 1/4oz Kokoda spinnerbait worked well for 12 year old Daniel Grahame, right, from Brighton, Victoria when he and his father were out with Jed and Steve yesterday. Daniel had a great day, catching and releasing two small Bass, a 42cm 'Toga' and then the 52cm specimen he's holding. Highlight of the day was hooking up on an absolute monster 'Toga' that, according to Jed, was over 90cm long and would have weighed well over 4kg. Daniel was kitted out with a Silstar Crystal Tip rod, a Daiwa Regal reel and 10lb braid mainline.

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As at Sunday 7th January 2001		Brought to you by...
OFFSHORE: It wasn't the most auspicious start to the New Year with the fresh to strong 25 to 30 knot South Easterly blow and it's associated 2.5m+ swell continuing through from last week. This effectively curtailed all offshore activity beyond Laguna Bay until Saturday morning when the wind strength eased to a more modest 10 to 15 knots and the swell dropped to around the 1.5 to 1.8 metre mark.