Cairns fishing: The best Far North catches of the week
Strong weather conditions in the Far North threaten fishing plans around the region as we roundup the biggest catches of the week. See the photos.
Cairns
Don't miss out on the headlines from Cairns. Followed categories will be added to My News.
LAST Friday and Saturday saw the wind moderate slightly allowing the bigger boats to fish the reef. The break was short lived with strong wind warning conditions over 25 knots returning on Sunday.
Bottom fishing the inshore reefs off Cairns and Port Douglas produced plenty of quality coral trout on the mid depth bommies holding bait.
Several nice Spanish mackerel were also caught on the same bommies while bottom fishing with floated pilchards and sauries along with live fusiliers producing some nice fish.
The deep water rubble in the open paddocks between the reefs also fished well with large mouth nannygai, red emperor, spangled emperor and golden trevally consistent catches.
Plenty of Spanish mackerel have also been caught trolling the reef edges of Pixie, Oyster and Sudbury Reefs with rigged garfish and lures like Strada Pros.
The Cairns Bluewater Billfish Tournament was finally held last weekend out of Yorkey’s Knob Boating Club with 11 boats competing over three days fishing.
Fishing was tough and the crews had to work hard trolling the bait schools off Oyster Reef and Fitzroy Island.
Unfortunately, fishing was cancelled on Sunday due to a strong wind warning advice. Champion Male Angler was taken out by Ross Fenn (Southern Comfort), Champion Female Angler Terri Morgan (The Edge), Champion Team under 7.5m The Edge, Champion Team over 7.5m Non-Pro Southern Comfort (3 tags), Champion Team over 7.5m Pro Miss Nic (2 tags). Friday’s Shoot-Out completion was taken out by Southern Comfort which also was Overall Champion Boat.
The Cairns Inlet has fished very tough with only small fingermark, mosses perch, trevally and queenfish being caught. Jigging soft plastic vibes has produced a few barramundi and threadfin salmon in the Barron River along with flathead around the mouth sandbar gutters on live baits and cast soft plastics.
Hinchinbrook Channel has fished best to the south with several barramundi and mangrove jacks caught on small diving minnows like the Jackal Squirrels. The rivers are starting to clean up but are still influenced by freshwater chasing the bait out of the systems. Fishing will improve dramatically over the coming days and should see queenfish and trevally back smashing lures like poppers, stick baits and walk the dog surface lures.
Bluewater fishermen will be excited with winds dropping to around 10 knots on Friday and into Saturday and will see plenty of small boats fishing the reef. The usual suspect species of coral trout, nannygai and Spanish mackerel will be heavily targeted and with building tides fishing should be red hot.
Spanish and school mackerel will also be targeted around the southern islands like Dunk and the Family Group on floated pilchards and high speed metal jigs. Small black marlin will again be targeted by the light tackle anglers trolling lures and rigged baits.
The small afternoon low tides will expose structure that should hold both barramundi and mangrove jacks in the estuaries including the Cairns Inlet, Mourilyan Harbour and Hinchinbrook Channel.
The Tinaroo Barra Bash will kick off this Friday over the full moon and will see hundreds on anglers on the dam chasing a monster barra and share of the huge prize pool. Any interested fishermen can enter online including purchasing a fishing permit which is required in Qld stocked impoundments.
More Coverage
Originally published as Cairns fishing: The best Far North catches of the week
Emergency services called to spate of Far North incidents
Emergency services have been called to spate of incidents in the past 24-hours including a ute into a hotel on the Tablelands, a car into the ocean and multiple road crashes on Saturday morning.
MP welcomes council ‘finally stepping up’ on CBD crime
A Cairns MP has welcomed the council’s spending of millions on inner-CBD safety measures, saying the council was finally “stepping up to their responsibility in relation to inner-city security”.