OFFSHORE: Moderate to fresh (15 to 20 knot) South South Easterlies dominated the week, setting the scene for rather cool, lumpy conditions offshore. Regardless, there were still a few windows of opportunity in amongst the chop although, on some days, a good dose of sea sick tablets were advisable for those with only marginal sea legs or less than cast iron stomachs. Squire, Moses Perch and Pearl Perch were common to the visited reefs. In addition, in close, Sunshine Reef produced some quality Snapper in amongst a generally mixed bag of reefies. A little further out; Chardon's Reef yielded Bonito and Maori Cod as did North Reef with the added bonus of Sweetlip and Parrot Fish. Apart from that, out wide, the Barwon Banks produced Rosy Jobfish, Gold Spot Wrasse, Maori Cod, Parrot Fish and Snapper. Cougar One was chokka block with martial arts experts over the weekend when Chong Hyup Rhee, right, a Master in Taekwondo, paid a visit to the Sunshine Coast clubs. Knowing he was a mad keen angler, the local instructors found the numbers to book the whole boat for the entire weekend. A happy Master Rhee is pictured with a 3kg+ Snapper he boated at 'The Banks' around lunchtime yesterday. He was kitted out with a Wilson Live Fibre rod and a Shimano 6500 Baitrunner reel loaded with 8kg line.

ONSHORE: Apart from the odd Flathead, Bream and Whiting landed over on the North Shore, the coastal beaches were pretty much a nonevent with Dart notable by their absence and good looking Tailor waters non existent. The river was also rather slow with Flathead making themselves scarce and Bream and Whiting up in quality but down in numbers. Best spots for the afore mentioned bread and butter species were the river mouth (together with Luderick and the odd Chopper Tailor), the Woods Bays (which also yielded Trevally and the odd Tailor), Harbourtown at Tewantin and up at Lake Cooroibah. Apart from that; Weyba Creek produced some quality Whiting and the Munna Bridge/Culgoa Point stretch yielded Chopper Tailor (on trolled C-Lures 'Small Frys' and surface poppers) and Trevally on cast Slider Grubs.

On the fresh water scene, the Lake MacDonald Bass were very much on the bite this week (chasing C-Lures 'Borer' deep divers, spinnerbaits and Slider Grubs) which was rather fortunate considering the big fella himself, the bearded burbler (Rex Hunt for the uninitiated), was in town to check them out. Rex and his production crew spent Tuesday afternoon on the lake with Shannon Watson (Davo's) and his girlfriend Shae (in the red hat) in the hope of boating a couple of these great freshwater sportfish. And did the Lake MacDonald Bass turn it on or what? On his very first cast Rex hooked up on a 45cm (2kg) specimen and during the afternoon caught and released half a dozen of these feisty fish (ranging from 35cm to 47cm) as did Shannon and Shae. Rex's daughter Rachel, above right, joined them later, catching and releasing three quality fish during what remained of the afternoon. All were taken on 1/2oz and 3/4oz Flathead Slider Grubs enhanced with Halco freshwater/estuary 'Catch Scent'. Most productive colours? 'Baby Bass', 'Plum' and 'Catalpa'.