The September Fishing Report, Week One 2005, Noosa, Queensland, Australia, brought to you by Castlemaine Perkins.

OFFSHORE: Although the week got off to a bit of a shaky start, last week's moderate to fresh (20 to 25 knot) South Easterlies were on the wane by Tuesday afternoon and only a memory by Wednesday. From then on, light to moderate variable Northerlies were pretty much the dominant wind pattern until Sunday when slightly fresher winds roughed up the waters a tad. All in all it was a good week offshore with six fishable days and some quality catches reported. Squire, Snapper, Parrot Fish and Pearl Perch were common to most of the visited reefs. In addition, for those prepared to travel, the Barwon Banks produced Rosy Jobfish, Cobia, Yellowtail Kingfish, Samson Fish, Hussar and Maori Cod. A little closer in, Chardon's Reef yielded Sweetlip, Maori Cod and Moses Perch as did North Reef but with the added bonus of Cobia, Teraglin Jewfish, Bonito, Yellowtail Kingfish and, as you can see by the photo on the right, Northern Bluefin Tuna. Young gun Rumon Schnepf boated this very nice 10.2kg 'Longtail' while out there today on a 3/4 day Cougar One charter.
Snapper

Rumon had just hooked a small Yakka and was hit half way up, losing 150m of line to the fish's first run. He was kitted out with a Gary Howard custom rod and an Alvey 825C reel loaded with 30lb Pioneer Flexline. Snapper, of course, were again in good numbers on North Reef and the 4.2kg specimen that Kerstin Voight (above left) boated yesterday morning is a good example. Kerstin, from Frankfurt in Germany, tempted this excellent table fish using a Pilchard bait as her draw card. She was on a 3/4 day Cougar Too charter at the time. She too was armed with a Gary Howard/Alvey combo.

ONSHORE: The coastal surf beaches were good for a swim, a surf or a fish this week and the North Shore was as good a place as any to wet a line. The beach gutters around Teewah township produced Tailor and Whiting while opposite the 2nd Cutting it was mostly Dart. On the East side, North Sunshine Beach yielded Dart, Bream and Whiting and Coolum Beach was the spot for Chopper Tailor and Dart.

In the river, Flathead and Bream were the bread and butter species this week with best results coming from down at the river mouth, up around Tewantin and along the Gympie Terrace stretch, which is where six year old Angus Cramond (above left) nailed the 1.3kg 'Lizard' he's pictured with. Angus had just cast a soft plastic into the water on Thursday when this hungry fish monstered it before he even had a chance to 'jig' it. He was armed with a telescopic rod and a threadline reel loaded with 6lb line. And James Clarke (above right) from Peregian Beach was drifting a Squid bait on a No.6 hook in the lower estuary when this 625gm Bream took a fancy to it. James was kitted out with a Shimano threadline combo loaded with 3kg line. Apart from that, Flathead were responding to trolled C-Lures 'Jack Snacks' and drifted Whitebaits at Lake Cooroibah while Tailor and Trevally were chasing metal slug lures in the Woods Bays around dusk. On the fresh water scene, the Borumba Dam Bass (to 46cm) were chasing beetlespins and Jackals in the Yabba and Kingham Arms.

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