BY SPERO KARTANOS
Photos: Spero Kartanos.
What a March we had, with nearly a year’s worth of rain in a few weeks, and the flooding and devastation were terrible. It’s sad to see people suffering through no fault of their own, and the rubbish, pontoons, boats and all sorts of items floating out in the bay were unbelievable!
By April, the water visibility in the bay should have cleared, hopefully enough for the schoolies to come a little closer. Try the eastern side of Green Island and in between Green and the Hyubers, but the best bet should be on the south-eastern side of the Hope Banks, especially with the cleaner water at high tide.
The whiting will have gone further into the Rous Channel to Maroon Gutter, Amity Banks, and along the southern side of the Rous, but be careful you don’t end up in the green zone – it’s easy to do as the whiting are in the shallower water and fisheries will be going past, so keep an eye on your charts.
Squid (hopefully) will be better as the water gets cleaner but will be very skittish unless the water is crystal clear, which means you’ll have to work hard to get them. Red and NKN Yamashita and Daiwa orange Emerald squid jigs should do the job best in the 3.5 sizes.
Mt Cotton reach will be worth a go in April with nice size squire, so let’s hope the weather is good and the fishing is better.
It has been a year since the Hope Banks beacon has been operating on the BOM site, and we have accurate winds to plan our days by. I am very grateful to Dr Andrew Johnson, CEO of BOM, for making this happen – it’s been fantastic for us to use the bay and get accurate readings of the wind in the middle of the bay.
