Cairns Fishing Report | October 2nd

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Tackle World Cairns Weekly Fishing Report.

Each week, the Tackle World Cairns Fishing Report brings you the latest local insights across Far North Queensland. From the reefs off Cairns and Port Douglas to estuaries like the Daintree, Russell, Johnstone and Hinchinbrook, we cover what’s biting, where to go, and what gear is working. Whether you’re chasing coral trout, nannygai, or mackerel offshore, or barra, jacks and queenfish inshore, the Tackle World Cairns team has your FNQ fishing forecast sorted.

Reef Fishing

The reefs delivered in spades this week with coral trout on the chew across inshore and mid-reef systems. Pre-spawn fish were feeding heavily, keeping crews busy on pilchards and strip baits. Large-mouth nannygai, red emperor, spangled emperor, cobia and trevally came from the deeper rubble patches, with some fish tipping impressive sizes. Red-throat emperors were amongst reef captures to the south along with a mixed bag of top eating reef species.

Pelagic action was outstanding with Spanish mackerel in big schools, giving up fast bag limits on floated baits and trolled gar and lures. Offshore, the heavy tackle season saw black marlin tagged and released, while yellow-fin tuna, wahoo, big Spanish mackerel and dogtooth tuna rounded out the pelagic excitement.

Islands & Headlands

The inshore islands and rocky headlands produced excellent action, with queenfish and GTs smashing topwater lures, creating some spectacular surface strikes. Fingermark have been taken on live baits and soft plastics around the wharf structures along the Cassowary Coast, off the headlands and around the islands.

Land-based anglers fishing wharves and rock walls at Cooktown reported barra, trevally and mackerel captures, particularly on live herring and pike. This week the bigger tides have seen some nice grunter come off the beach foreshores on freshly caught prawns.

Rivers & Estuaries

The rivers and creeks fished well as the water cleared after the rain. Barramundi responded to both lures and live baits, especially around snags, drains and creek mouths. Mangrove jacks were in full swing, hammering lures worked tight to structure and under the shaded mangroves. The coastal creeks of the Cassowary Coast and Hinchinbrook Channel have fished best.

Anglers fishing Lakefield National Park in the north have reported excellent catches of barramundi casting both hard bodies and soft plastics in the freshwater holes and saltwater sections of the park. Crocodiles have been prevalent with extreme caution needed when fishing this location. Fingermarks were another highlight, caught from estuary deep holes and coastal structures. Flatheads were consistent around sandy river mouth gutters for the bait fishermen. As the tides have built this week mud crabs have been moving again with decent numbers reported from most of FNQ’s estuaries.

Freshwater

Freshwater anglers enjoyed hot action with sooty grunter smashing topwater lures in the upper freshwater reaches. Jungle perch and tarpon were also active, particularly in the shaded pools. Several quality barra and jacks have also been caught in the fresh.

Impoundment barra at Tinaroo were taken on soft plastics and hardbodies rolled around the points and bays with the pre-dawn early sessions most productive as the bait rises.

Weekend Outlook

The great run of calm conditions this week will come to an end after Friday with the weekend forecast of SE winds around the 15 to 20 knots. Offshore reef fishing will be restricted to the bigger boats and will have no trouble chasing coral trout and Spanish mackerel behind the sheltered reefs like Sudbury and Arlington, while the game boats will chase pelagic action with yellowfin tuna, wahoo and black marlin still in play.

Estuary fishing will see barra and jacks the main targets on the favourable tides and moon phase. Live baiting and lure casting should be productive in most of the river systems and estuaries including Mourilyan Harbour and Hinchinbrook Channel which offer sheltered options out of the wind. The big tides will be ideal to chase a grunter on the estuary flats for the bait fishermen along with a feed of mud crabs. While the freshwater will keep producing sooties, jungle perch and barra. Tinaroo Dam will see hot big barra action as we lead up to the full moon over the weekend.

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.