OFFSHORE: With the blustery south easterlies dominating the beginning and end of the week the offshore brigade had to make the most of whatever opportunities came their way. Thursday through until Saturday were the better days but, unfortunately for the smaller boats, Laguna Bay and the closer reefs were a bit of a fizzer.
Out wide, the Barwon Banks produced cobia, as did The Hards but with the added bonus of gold band snapper, squire, pearl perch, snapper, hussar, and parrot fish.
Don from Brisbane (above) made the long run to the 'Banks' on Friday and was very happy with the 28kg cobia he attracted with a whole pilchard bait.
Closer in, North Reef was another producer and although there were reports of sharks on the prowl in big numbers out there, there were also some reasonable catches of reefies recorded with the standouts being snapper, squire, pearl perch, moses perch, Maori cod, teraglin jewfish and sweetlip plus mackerel tuna, bonito and cobia. Sean McKendry from Cleveland (above) was out there on Saturday on a three quarter day Cougar One charter when he boated the 4.5kg snapper he's pictured with.

And Gail Ryan from Toowoomba celebrated her birthday by boating this 10kg cobia on the same Cougar One charter.

ONSHORE: The coastal surf beaches were a little more accommodating this week with whiting on the bite on the North Shore around the camping ground and south of Teewah where bream and dart were also active. Over on the east side, whiting and quality dart were in good numbers at Sunshine Beach (with chopper tailor on the chew at the northern end rocks), at Marcus Beach (along with bream) and down at Peregian Beach where tarwhine and flathead were also biting.

In the river, 'whiting on poppers' was the 'buzz' term this week with some elbow slappers being boated on clear and 'beer ' tinted 45mm River2Sea Bubble Poppers in the stretch from the Woods Point to the river mouth.
Riley Thomson (above) had an absolute ball working that stretch with a clear popper yesterday morning, boating bream, chopper tailor, giant herring and a number of 500gm whiting.
He was armed with a G-Loomis rod and a Shimano Twin Power reel loaded with 2lb braid and 6lb mono leader.
And Mitch O'Brien (right) nailed a few whiting in the same area last week.
The odd flathead was also active in that lower stretch while in the Woods Bays, surface poppers were accounting for a few trevally around dusk. Mangrove jacks were the other species to watch for with best results coming from the Munna Point Bridge, the Noosa Waters bridges, the mouth of Lake Cooroibah and the stretch between the lakes.
On the freshwater scene; the Borumba Dam bass were responding well to 'Blades' in the Kingham Arm.

ATTENTION ANGLERS

Davo's Bait and Tackle are having a 20% off Storewide Sale (excluding kayaks) this Saturday, 24th January.

SALE STARTS AT 7AM AND FINISHES AT 5PM SO WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T MISS THIS ONE!