The July Fishing Report, Week Two 2005, Noosa, Queensland, Australia, brought to you by G-Loomis.

Sunrise on Laguna Bay Friday July 8th 2005

OFFSHORE: All in all it was quite a good week for the offshore brigade with a light to moderate variable wind pattern dominating until Saturday afternoon ahead of a strong Southerly change. The accompanying strong wind warning effectively shut the offshore gate from Sunday onwards but while the going was good there were boats of all shapes and sizes seen working the local reefs. Squire, Snapper, Parrot Fish and Moses Perch were pretty much the common catch at most locations.
Snapper

Out wide, the Barwon Banks produced Spangled Emperor, Cobia and Rosy Jobfish while a little closer in; Chardon's Reef yielded Sweetlip, and Cobia as did North Reef but with the added bonus of Pearl Perch, Shiny Mackerel, Jewfish, Scarlet Sea Perch, Maori Cod and as you can see by the photos above, Northern Bluefin Tuna and quality Snapper. Local angler David Garwood (above right) boated the 17.5kg 'Longtail' he's pictured with while out there on Friday. He was armed with a Penn overhead combo loaded with 15kg line and a wire trace. His bait? Live Yellowtail on 4x6/0 ganged hooks. And above left; Stew Wylie from Moffat Beach boated this 6.1kg Snapper at North Reef on Saturday while on a full day Cougar One charter. He was kitted out with a Gary Howard rod and an Alvey 825C reel loaded with 30lb Pioneer Flexline. Closer to home; Sunshine Reef was the spot for Yellowtail Kingfish, Shiny Mackerel, Pearl Perch and Maori Cod while Laguna Bay was relatively quiet, with Tailor and Squire just out from the cove points and a few quality Snapper North of Jew Shoal.

ONSHORE: The coastal surf beaches were a lot more inviting and productive this week with quality Dart in good numbers up and down the coast. On top of that, on the North Shore there were Chopper Tailor on the bite opposite the Third Cutting and up around the township of Teewah (along with Whiting and Bream) while further North the standouts were Tarwhine and Bream. Over on the East side; the Northern end of Sunshine Beach produced mostly Whiting, Marcus Beach yielded quality Bream, and Castaways Beach was the spot for Chopper Tailor, Bream and Whiting. In the river, despite the level of fresh water still in the system, Flathead and Bream were on the bite up around Lake Cooroibah, along the Tewantin stretch (together with Trevally and Tailor), around Munna Point (where Whiting were also on the bite) and down in the Frying Pan. Apart from that the Woods Bays hosted most of the Trevally activity (soft plastics worked off the bottom), the odd Mangrove Jack (on live baits) and, as per the photo on the right, Whiting. Brian Kettlewell landed this 500gm specimen while fishing the area using whole Prawn baits as his draw card. He was armed with a Jarvis Walker spin combo loaded with 10lb line. Things were quiet on the freshwater scene with nil reports from Borumba Dam and murky water at Lake MacDonald effectively shutting down activity in the short term.

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