From the reef to the rivers, Cairns has seen some glamour weather that hung around for multiple days at the beginning of the week, seeing everything from coral trout and red emperor to barra and jacks plus all the goodies in between. Glass-out conditions saw the majority of the keen anglers send it out to the Great Barrier Reef for the first time in a few months, making the most of the pearler conditions.
Billfish numbers have further increased for the light tackle season, with the first competition held in Townsville kicking off and already halfway through the three days of fishing as this report comes online. More anglers took the opportunity to chase marlin with the nice weather earlier in the week, and the reef has had some heavy traffic with the anglers bottom bashing in search of the delicious reef fish. Spanish mackerel and giant trevally have been smashing topwater lures, keeping the sport fishing anglers entertained, while anglers looking to stock up their freezers have found mackerel easily on the troll. Doggies and wahoo have been on the bite off the banks, seeing way more fish hooked than caught, but some persistent and knowledgeable anglers have wrangled them from the reef and sharks, securing their prized catch. Barramundi on the local esplanade and pier have been boofing topwater lures and crunching large swimbaits, where over by the hospital flats soaking live baits has seen large grunter and barra on the bite. Further from town, the Gulf and PCB saw some giant saltwater barra caught, with some anglers' personal records broken.
This week's best pic would have to be this huge mack from Jack, thing's a monster!
Bottom Bashing
Glass-out days have seen many people calling in sick to work with the '5 knot fever' commonly spreading around town. A great excuse, with everyone making the most of the opportunity the weather has presented us at the beginning of the week. Boat ramps have been overflowing with the amount of traffic coming through, as this is the first weather window to open up since back in May.
Bottom bashing around the bommies has seen numerous coral trout taking the bait. Fresh Chris Bolton Sards and herring have been some dynamite bait, with a nice silver flash attracting fish to come and enquire on the sink. Rubble patches and isolated rocks have seen thick schools of large-mouth nannygai with a few decent red emperor in the mix as well to keep the excitement high. Reports of some large reef mangrove jacks have been coming in, with multiple boats finding patches of these giant sea-run jacks while dropping down on their trout and nanny marks. The opportunity was presented to punch out wide and hit the shelf, where anglers dropping their electric reels down have seen some absolutely delicious table fish coming over the gunwales. Flame-tail snapper, goldband snapper and green jobfish have been the common species coming in, with way less sharks taxing fish out in the deeper water plus the speedy electric reels beating the sharks.
Ella with a delicious goldband snapper caught in some absolutely beautiful conditions.
A very nice red emperor caught by Brittany, beating the pesky sharks to the surface.
Brit with a unique little red-throat emperor, once again in some pearler weather.
Noel with a perfect eating-sized coral trout, hooked perfectly in the corner of the jaw.
Hamish with a cracker red emperor, this fella would have pulled some drag!
Alwin with an Iron Jaw caught jigging.
Sports and Flats Fishing
Flicking the flats has seen a huge range of species captured over the weather window, from trout and giant trevally on topwater and cobia sight-cast off the flats and even sight-cast off some manta rays swimming through. That's such a rare and unique way to catch these things that many anglers will never get to experience. Spanish mackerel have been smashing topwater lures off the deeper reef edges with heavy current and plenty of bait, with some mackerel even doing their huge aerobatic jumps, sending it metres into the air as they smash the lures. Further to the banks, large dogtooth tuna have been sizzling the drags and stealing more jigs from the underprepared fishermen, where those who are in the know have been pulling these brutes from the depths and away from the sharks, securing their prized catches. Out wide and in the deep blue water, wahoo have been captured trolling high-speed lures around the banks and pinnacles, where inshore mackerel have been caught with the classic wog head rigged with fresh gar. Some mackerel were caught as close in as the Leads poles, drifting fresh garfish past the structure. They have also been caught on the inshore wrecks using metal lures and ripping them up from the depths, enticing the bite.
Russ and Graham managed to get a nice double-up on some Spanish mackerel from the Leads.
Staff member Mitch with a nice mack out the back of Double Island.
Brodie with an oceanic queenfish, perfect size to rig up for a giant black marlin.
Jack and Alwin holding up this giant Spanish.
The boys again with a nice double-up on some wahoo from the deep blue.
Jack with a quality wahoo in some perfect conditions, allowing them to get out wide.
Seth scored this huge trout whilst on the troll, how sick is that!
Dexter caught this nice cobia, sight-casting it off the reef flats on some real light tackle.
Game Fishing
The marlin count has increased over the weather window early in the week, with more juvenile black marlin captured plus the occasional sailfish swinging through the spreads. A spread of small skirts has been the go-to method over the week, with a larger teaser run closer to the boat. The more commotion the better in some circumstances, with some boats running daisy chains and spreader bars with a separate size and colour skirt off the back to stand out more from the supposed school of fish they replicate. With the concept of the back fish being the weaker one in the school, a predatory fish will likely try to take the individual, being easy pickings for it to pluck off the pack.
The Townsville Billfish Shootout has kicked off, with the fishing starting on Thursday 13th and finishing up on Saturday the 15th. We will soon get to see the results of how the competition has panned out for the game boats competing.
Freshwater
Venturing through the freshwater river systems across Cairns and surrounding regions, anglers have found themselves a variety of species. Sooty grunter have been hungry out west in the Mitchell and Walsh Rivers, where some football-sized models are taking a liking to topwater poppers and frogs. In the rivers closer to town, jungle perch have been eating natural profile lures, from small divers replicating rainbowfish to topwater frogs getting the nibble as well. A nice freshwater barra has come through for one very lucky angler whilst chasing sooty grunter in the local rivers, being a nice prized bycatch that doesn't come by too often.
Tinaroo saw the enthusiastic and avid barra anglers headed up the hill over the new moon phase in search of the giant barra the dam holds. Numbers of fish have been travelling over the points across the dam, seeing fish caught on a range of techniques such as live baits and shallow-diving hard-body lures pitched over the points, or trolling around the points and bays. During the feeding times and bite windows through the night, barra have been heard boofing schools of bony bream on the surface, where some anglers have been lucky enough to send a cast through the commotion and find the hungry barra as it's feeding.
Marc found this nice barra whilst chasing sooties. He had a solid fight with this thing on light leader and got wrapped up in the rocks, but he still managed to get it in.
Another shot of Marc's barra on the surface.
Local Estuaries and Beaches
Off the Esplanade, the calm nights saw many anglers heading down and having a flick from the shore, with barramundi being the main target for many anglers. The local pier here and Palm Cove both also saw a lot of foot traffic early in the week, with many people making the most of the glamour weather and wetting a line whilst the sun sets. Lucky anglers have managed to score themselves some nice fingermark and grunter from the piers while soaking some baits, where some anglers flicking lures along the esplanade and rocky headlands have managed to find themselves some hungry barra on soft-plastic prawns and even surface lures. In front of the hospital, live baits have convinced some larger model grunter to eat, with the occasional barra swimming through as well. Mangrove jacks, small GTs and queenfish have been keeping the inlet alive for anglers pitching lures through the mangroves.
Staff member Atti caught this solid barra on the surface off the local pier.
Gronkus with a nice blue salmon caught from the beaches.
The Gulf of Carpentaria and Princess Charlotte Bay
A few extra clicks from town, Karumba has been more of a hot spot over the week, with more tourists making the most of the bitumen road right through to town. Barramundi have been crunching lures across the flats on the larger tides, seeing some decent models coming in. Out to their reef fishing, shallow-water red emperor, coral trout and nannygai have all been accessible, as well as mackerel being an easy capture.
Over to the Bay, anglers have been getting stuck into the inshore wonky holes, finding solid-sized nannygai from the flowing holes. And the good old saltwater barramundi once again breaking anglers' personal records, with some cracking-sized fish from the estuary systems through the bay.
Riley with a cracker barra hitting the 114cm mark on the mat, 114 reasons to be stoked mate!
Week Ahead Outlook
With the Billfish Shootout still running in Townsville as this report goes live, we won't have updates on the competition just yet. But there will certainly be some marlin and sailfish caught, and it'll be exciting to see the numbers coming in as the days go by. A windy week is on the horizon, unfortunately making us all wait for the glamour weather to come back again, but it will likely see most of us hitting the coastline and estuaries once again. At least we had a taste of some amazing weather for once, and hopefully we aren't waiting too long before the next 5 knot fever comes back for us to catch again.
Need gear, bait or just a bit of local advice?
Swing by Cairns Tackle World at 172 Aumuller Street, Bungalow to chat with your local independent fishing experts.