OFFSHORE: Those who got out over the bar earlier in the week made the most of some relatively calm conditions before a 2m+ swell and 20 to 30 knot south easterlies pretty much shut the offshore gate to most boats from Friday onwards.
While the going was good the Barwon Banks and The Hards were certainly an option. Unfortunately, those boaties that went that far reported only fairly average catches of only the basic species such as squire, moses perch and parrot fish.
Most anglers, in fact, found that Sunshine Reef (on the good days) produced quite good catches of sweetlip, parrot fish, snapper (in close), northern bluefin tuna, spotted mackerel and, as you can see by the photo above, quality coral trout.
David 'Hatchy' Hatch attracted this 6.5kg specimen out there on Wednesday using a live yakka as his draw card. He was armed with a Silstar Power Tip rod and a Penn 320GTi reel loaded with 30lb line. 'Sunshine' was also the spot for quite a few Spanish mackerel in the 8kg to 12kg range plus one thumper Spaniard which tipped the scales at 25kg. Northern bluefin tuna (to 10kg) were taking cast metal slugs not far off the National Park headland while in Laguna Bay the northern bluefin tuna, bonito and mackerel tuna were hammering the bait boils at Granite Bay, Tea Tree Bay, around the shark nets and in the stretch from the river mouth to Big Hall's Reef where Spanish and spotted mackerel were also active.

ONSHORE: The North Shore coastal beach stretch produced quite well this week. Dart were well spread and in numbers with chopper tailor in amongst them. The better quality dart, however, were taken north of Teewah along with sweetlip, tarwhine, bream, school jewfish and whiting. It was quiet at the top end with bream being the standout species there.

With a lot of fresh in the system, most of the action this week was in the lower estuary. Quality bream were on the bite (on prawn baits) down at the river mouth with the top of the tide working particularly well. Those areas that experienced less run-out flow and thus held more salt water produced best with the back of Noosa Sound and the Woods Bays yielding most of this weeks mangrove jacks (on live baits) while the waters opposite Ricky Ricardo's had a few trevally chasing Gladiator prawn lures. Big news of the week, though, was the capture of a 7.5kg (85cm) barramundi (pictured above) in the Woods Bays on Friday. John the 'River Rat' was slow trolling a live poddy mullet there around 4.45am when this beautiful 'Barra' smashed into it and then went aerial. John managed to keep the 4/0 hooks set and after an exciting tussle, boated his prize. He was armed with a Shakespeare Ugly Stik combo loaded with 20lb line. Apart from that, the odd mangrove jack was on the prowl in Noosa Waters while quality bream were on the bite at the Noosa Marina at night.

On the freshwater scene, the Borumba Dam saratoga were responding well to Blades in the Kingham Arm while the bass were going for Blades in the deeper waters of the main basin and Megabass Anthrax lures in the Yabba Arm. Local angler Mal Favager (above) caught and released this 45cm bass (and three others) in the Yabba Arm using his favourite 'Blade' lure. He was kitted out with a G-Loomis rod and a Shimano Chronarch 50Mg reel loaded with 20lb Fireline to a 20lb trace.