OFFSHORE: With the light to moderate variable northerlies settling in, the temperatures rose steadily as the week progressed. There wasn't a lot of swell on the bar to contend with, unless of course you ignored the channel and crossed slightly to the left. The outer reefs, unfortunately, ran hot and cold and many anglers had to work hard for a feed on the down days. The good news was that cobia were schooling in numbers which tended to make up for the lack of activity from many of the other species.
With conditions so settled, Chardon's Wide was worth a look, and those who went the distance reported catches of snapper, pearl perch, hussar, venus tusk fish and, as you can see by the photo below, gold band snapper. Jason from the Gold Coast was out there on Sunday on a Cougar One 'Maxi Day' when he boated this 5.5kg specimen.

Chardon's Reef itself worked better than most, producing one of the season's first keeper (5kg) Spanish mackerel, a couple of quality 5kg spotties, plus Maori cod, teraglin jewfish, pearl perch, snapper, venus tusk fish, moses perch and, as per the photo below, cobia. Melbourne visitor Chris Bolt nailed the 9kg black kingfish he's pictured with while out there on a 3/4 day Cougar One charter on Thursday.

North Reef was the spot for average size pearl perch, Maori cod, moses perch, teraglin jewfish, some quite decent snapper and the odd quality cobia while at Sunshine Reef the standouts were pearl perch, squire, sweetlip and cobia.

Local yak angler Ian Tagg (above) paddled out there on Saturday morning and after a slow start picked up a few reefies then attracted the attention of this 9.5kg cobia with a whole fresh banana prawn. The bait was obviously very tempting because when Ian first engaged his Shimano Baitrunner 4500 drag it pulled the hook. He was left reeling in a slack line for about 30 seconds before the hungry fish came back and gave it a second try, this time hooking itself successfully.