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Cairns Fishing Report | 27th February

With a few afternoon storms around over the weekend, it did not stop anglers heading out and making the most of the flat conditions on the water, with more great catches from the rivers and the reef.

Reef Fishing

With some great conditions out on the reef over the weekend, it allowed many anglers to get out wide and try their luck bottom fishing, with some nice catches of largemouth nannygai and from the deep some solid flame snapper.

Dropping fresh squid in 300m of water, Bretto pulled a nice flame snapper.

Emily had a great trip to the reef, making most of the flat conditions and landing these solid largemouth nannygai.

Game Fishing

While out bottom dropping off the shelf, it pays to keep an eye out for birds working the surface, as often mackerel and other game fish such as dolphinfish can be quite a good surprise while chasing fish out wide, as a few anglers found out this week picking up a few dolphinfish on trolled Halco lures.

Ben Gregory found some bait being worked on the surface out off the shelf and managed to troll up a nice dolphinfish.

Rivers, Estuaries and Beaches

Fishing the rivers this week, dodging the showers and getting up the smaller creeks around the Cairns region, many anglers had some great catches come on board using live baits and lures, fishing the edges of the mangroves in the Trinity Inlet, with some great catches of barramundi, mangrove jacks, fingermark and threadfin salmon.

Local angler to Cairns Frank Aquilina had a good run in the Trinity Inlet landing a nice barramundi caught on a soft plastic prawn.

A big thumbs up for happy fishos aboard Gone Fishing Charters landing some quality fingermark using live baits in the Trinity Inlet.

Another nice fingermark aboard Gone Fishing Charters with live baits.

Weekend Outlook

With some afternoon showers forecast for the weekend, it could see anglers make the most of the flat morning conditions and good tides to head out on the water for some hot sessions. Chasing mangrove jacks and barramundi early mornings has been most productive, fishing the mangroves and overhangs with lures as well as live baits. Fishing the flats and beaches with freshly caught bait or live bait should see some more fingermark and possible salmon moving around. While heading offshore could be a little bit bumpy in the afternoon, most mornings are forecast between 5 to 10 knots, making a quick run out to put a few fish in the esky.

Another solid jack for Frank on the paddle tail soft plastic.

Hitting the Northern Beaches just before sunrise paid off for local angler Brayden landing a solid threadfin salmon just as the sun came up.

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.