OFFSHORE: It was a bit of a patchy week as far as the offshore scene was concerned with variable easterlies prevailing. Tuesday and Wednesday were a bit blowy, as was Saturday and today but if you were game, most days were fishable although at times lumpy. There were some good size snapper boated but most of the other reefies were pretty average.

The swell dropped away as the week progressed so there were no problems with the bar crossing. Nobody ventured out wide this week, however, with the middle reef belt being as far as anyone cared to go. The only reports from that area were from North Reef which at times ran hot and cold, producing (on the good days) pearl perch, moses perch, teraglin jewfish, sweetlip, Maori cod and, as per the photo above, quality snapper to 8kg. Mark North (above) was out there on Friday jigging 7" blue Peppercorn Jerk Shad's when he hooked and boated the 6.5kg specimen he's pictured with. Closer in, Sunshine Reef was the spot for snapper to 4.5kg and cobia to 11kg.

ONSHORE: On the coastal surf beaches, quality whiting were biting along the North Shore stretch while good tailor and juvenile school mackerel were hitting on cast soft plastics and metal slug lures around the middle groyne on Main Beach.
Over on the east side; north Sunshine Beach produced some nice whiting, as did Sunrise and north Peregian beaches but with the added bonus there of dart and, at Peregian, tarwhine. Castaways Beach was the spot for dart and bream.

The river wasn't exactly on fire but it still produced a few of the bread and butter species for those who were looking for a feed. Flathead in the 50cm to 60cm range were active along the Gympie Terrace stretch as were quality bream (at night) along the jetty stretch there and in Noosa Waters. There was still a fair bit of bait school activity at Munna Point and in the Woods Bays where trevally (and the odd mangrove jack) were responding to prawn baits. Apart from that, there were plenty of whiting on the bite off the beaches at Munna Point with the odd 40cm fish and thumper flathead amongst them.
On the freshwater scene, Will Sims (above) fished the Yabba Creek area below the Borumba Dam spillway earlier in the week and caught and released bass (on Jitterbug surface lures) and the Mary River cod he's posing with. Will tempted this handsome specimen with a silent Jackall lure. He was armed with a Team Daiwa combo loaded with 10lb PE braid.