Photos: Spero Kartanos.
BY SPERO KARTANOS
The rains in February came and went, and in between the howling windy days we have had some dead calm days, and the fishing has been very good. Hopefully this month it will be great to see more of the lovely glassed-out days that fisherman love.
On the fish front, whiting will be as good as ever in the Small Boat Channel and the Rous Channel, especially on the Maroon Bank side, Amity Banks and Maroon Hole – the bonus is the tiger squid will be everywhere in the same areas, so a jig floating off the back of the boat is a good idea. The only problem at the Amity Banks are the horrible sea toads – last year they were smashing the squid jigs (especially anything with red on them) so hopefully this year they will have moved on.
The school mackerel should be spread throughout the bay, so a diving board and a spoon out from the last leads between Manly and King and Green Islands, Hope Banks, past the Naval Bank to the Peel Basin and over to the Rous, should pick you up a few schoolies.
I am finding the spoons with a yellow or gold reflectors work the best, but I’d also recommend trying the Smith jigs in white and chrome, and Kimberly spoons on rainy and cloudy days will work pretty well. I’m still hoping like crazy that the spotty mackerel make an appearance this month.
March also marks the arrival of mack tuna/bonito, and normally they’re in their thousands throughout the bay, so a small chrome slug (about 35 grams) and plenty of casts should get you one or two. Some days you can cast a thousand times for zero result, but hopefully there will be some spotty mackerel in the mix.
Crabbing and prawning is in full swing in March, so wherever there are 200 boats on top of each other is where the prawns will be. I was taken to Nudgee last year and it was fun to see that many boats with so many people casting and catching lots of prawns.
Till next month good fishing, and keep safe out on the water.
