The far north has turned it on over the past week! Warmer waters continue to fire up barramundi from Tinaroo and local saltwater systems, and some anglers went the distance to the Cape and found quality saratoga amongst the barra and sooties. The trade winds have started to ease (Finally!) and there were plenty who utilised the low winds to send it wide, finding plenty of trout, nannygai, emperors and pelagics. With another potential weather window next weekend for offshore species and continued warmer weather for barramundi, October is looking like a month to remember.
Alice certainly had a day out. That's a tank of an emperor.
Blackout Sportfishing: Is there a better table fish than large-mouth nannygai? What a fish!
Reef
While the wind was prime to send it wide and target the many species that call the Great Barrier Reef home, anglers were caught out by a 5-day finfish closure, alongside a Spanish mackerel closure until the 29th of October. Fortunately, the wind stayed low enough on either side of the closure, and there were some incredible fish caught. Blackout Sportfishing Charters put multiple clients onto fish of a lifetime, catching coral trout, nannygai, emperors and pelagics.
Blackout Sportfishing: had a day with multiple coral trout.
Blackout Sportfishing: longnose emperor.
There was still plenty of tidal run in the mornings and afternoons (closer to the new moon) to fire up pelagics around reef edges and deeper pressure edges. As Spanish mackerel are closed, the focus shifts to trevally, queenfish and tuna species. While there weren't any photos sent in of tuna, one angler mentioned catching multiple, fast retrieving a metal. Another reported that he'd trolled the majority of the day and didn't catch any. Though fishing can be hit or miss, when targeting tuna, it's important to remember they have razor-sharp eyesight, and if they are feeding on tiny baitfish, they will completely ignore oversized lures. Matching the hatch is essential to trigger a bite. There was success targeting trevally and queenfish on various retrieves: straight fast retrieve, sweeping and pausing, and jigging. Metals, stickbaits (floating and sinking) and poppers all managed to nail some quality fish!
Blackout Sportfishing: giant trevally.
Blackout Sportfishing: golden trevally.
Atti landing a solid golden trevally.
Cracking queenfish getting around of late, both offshore and inshore.
Anglers used bait (pilchards and large California squid), along with a range of lures for bottom-dwelling species. Trout were found most abundantly around the large bombies on the reef flats. Sinking down a pilchard on a 9/0 under a big ball sinker certainly gets the job done.
Blackout Sportfishing and another stunning common coral trout.
Alice caught a mixed bag of high-quality table fish: Robinson's sea bream, coral trout and how about the size of that emperor! Calvin purchased a spear gun from us, which he took out and nailed multiple crayfish! Others also reported getting a solid feed of crayfish after having minimal luck getting fish past sharks on rod and reel.
Calvin Paladini, caught off Mourilyan.
In what seems to be quite a regular occurrence these days, sharks were also overly abundant. Almost all anglers who got out to the reef reported in-store that many fish were lost to the taxman.
Alice and a Robinson's sea bream, the colours on this one are next level!
Blackout Sportfishing: Is there a better table fish than large-mouth nannygai? What a fish!
Alice found the strawberry patch, pulling up this stunning common trout.
Cape York
Exploring away from the major population centres paid off for those willing to go past the usual honey holes. Cairns Tackle World worker and avid fisherman Brayden, along with Slade, ventured and found them! Brayden slow-rolled a Nomad Dozer Minnow, while Slade utilised a small hard body, both landing sizeable barra and saratoga.
Brayden, barra on a trip up north.
Slade, Cape York barramundi.
Brayden and a SOLID saratoga.
Slade, Cape York saratoga.
Clay and his dad Lance from Tackle World also sent it north to the Cape and found barramundi in large numbers. They used prawns, paddle-tails, smaller hardbodies and surface lures, and got a bite on everything, also finding saratoga in between.
Clay and a clean Cape York barra.
Clay and a Cape York saratoga.
It certainly paid off to travel north, away from the major population centres! With less pressure, fish are happier fish. Further north the sheer number of fish is incredible, and they can be caught in a number of ways. Whether it's on a boat using LiveScope to catch the big barries, throwing out a live or dead bait, or casting an assortment of lures, there are some incredible spots to see and fish up north.
Estuary and Tinaroo
Cairns and surrounding systems along with Tinaroo dam continue to warm up with the barra only getting hungrier. As closed season nears, they are feeding harder, and anglers are keen to fit in as many barra as possible before the season comes to an end. A range of techniques have been working to trigger the bite, from slow rolling large paddle tails (190mm TT Enforcer, Irukandji 7'' Sicario), glide baits (10'' ChopBlock) and prawns (Irukandji Mega Prawn, Daiwa Bait Junkie), to hard bodies both surface and subsurface. You certainly don't need LiveScope to catch the larger saltwater barra. Land-based anglers have had success throwing larger lures on a slow roll.
Kynan from OuttatheBlueFNQ and Tackle World Cairns with a solid barra (Irukandji 7'' Sicario)
Nathan Seymour and a solid beach barramundi, slow rolling a 6.5'' Irukandji Prawn.
When using soft plastics, it can be beneficial to use a stinger hook attached to the main jig head to increase the hook-up rate, especially as more of those bigger fish are moving around. Generally, slow rolling for barramundi will trigger that bite, but if you find the fish and something isn't working, change it up! Different lure sizes, types (hard or soft plastic), retrieval speeds, etc. They are feeding more but the barra can certainly still be fussy.
Brayden landed a proper barra locally, using the Berkley ChopBlock.
Adam caught this cracking 109cm barra around Cairns.
Dixon extracting a solid local saltwater barramundi.
At Tinaroo, the early bird gets the worm. Anglers who have managed to get there in the very early morning while it's dark, and fish through first light until the sun is up, have managed to find some large barramundi both land-based and onboard a vessel.
Lance cracking the metre at Tinaroo.
Clay finding some quality fish! Tinaroo producing yet another metre barra.
The Week Ahead
The wet season is just around the corner. All barramundi anglers will soon shift their complete focus to freshwater dams as the saltwater season closes. Until then, the weather will continue to heat up, and more windows to fish the reef are on the cards, with next weekend a chance of very low winds and a building full moon that will pair nicely to target demersal and pelagic fish. Spanish mackerel are still not to be targeted or kept until the 29th of October. Rain and storms are a chance over the weekend for Cairns and especially around Tinaroo, which could fire those barra up even more! Overall, great conditions to come for anglers chasing all local species. Visit your local Tackle World for the best advice and products to catch that trophy fish. Get keen and get out there!
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.