The January Fishing Report, Week Two 2009, Noosa, Queensland, Australia, brought to you by Daiwa.

As at Monday January 12, 2009

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OFFSHORE: With last week's moderate to strong (20 to 30 knot) south easterlies and a 2m-3m swell continuing to lash the coast there weren't too many opportunities for the offshore brigade to wet a line. The desperates and die-hards weren't to be denied, though, and when the winds eased later in the week a surprising number of boats tested the closer reefs.
The Noosa Bar crossing on Sunday.

It was pretty lumpy out there, of course, although the main problem was the river mouth bar where the odd rogue set of boomers was observed coming close to cleaning up the occasional boat. It would be nice to report that those who made the effort under some fairly trying conditions were at least well rewarded but unfortunately the pickings were pretty slim.
North Reef was a disappointment, producing rather ordinary catches of squire, sweetlip, moses perch, parrot fish and the odd small cobia. Sunshine Reef turned out to be the best option with spotted mackerel and Spanish mackerel (to 5kg) coming on the bite in good numbers towards the end of the week. Trolled, squid skirted pilchards got best results there.
There was also one report of tuna on the bite in the shelter of Laguna Bay but no mention of species, number or size.

ONSHORE: The coastal surf beaches were a total wash out this week with many holiday campers on the North Shore pulling up stumps as the strong winds, king tides and large swell combined to make conditions less than desirable.
Mangrove Jack

The estuary system at least provided a bit of shelter for those who were determined to wet a line with many fishable spots being in the lee of the blustery south easterlies. The river mouth was a good option for bream and flathead (going for

frogmouth pilchards) while the Frying Pan was a productive spot for whiting (to 39cm), with clear 45mm River2Sea Bubble Poppers getting good results.
Bream were also on the bite around the back of Noosa Sound, in Weyba Creek (where chopper tailor were responding well to whole large pilchards) and in the Woods Bays along with giant herring and, as per the photo on the right, the odd mangrove jack.
Troy Reed was fishing 'The Bays' with live prawns before daylight on Wednesday morning when he hooked and landed the 1.5kg 'Jack' he's pictured with. The Jacks were also active around Munna Point (as were trevally on surface poppers) and in the stretch above the Tewantin ferry crossing. Aden Plant (top photo) boated three of these feisty fish (to 2.25kg) in that area on Saturday night using live poddy mullet as his draw card. He was using a Penn Power Stick, a Shimano Sienna reel, 20lb line and 40lb trace.
Apart from that, estuary cod, bream, moses perch and school jewfish were on the bite at the mouth of Lake Cooroibah.

On the freshwater scene, saratoga were in good numbers at Borumba Dam as local fly fisherman Gordon Smith (above) discovered on Friday morning. Gordon was flicking a Muddler Minnow sinking fly on a floating line near the banks up around the top end and during a four hour session caught and released five of these great sports fish in the 70cm range.

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