The January Fishing Report, Week Three 2001, Noosa, Queensland, Australia, brought to you by Daiwa.

OFFSHORE: Well it wasn't a bad week for sunbathing or even a little surfing but for the offshore brigade, especially those after a feed of reef fish, conditions out wide were best described as pretty ordinary, dominated chiefly by moderate to fresh South Easterlies. With a resultant swell which ranged from 1m to 2.5m as the wind strength fluctuated, the inner reefs and certainly the relative shelter of Laguna Bay were seen as the most attractive propositions for the majority of boaties, and of course the pelagics were the main attraction. North Reef and Chardon's Reef appeared to be the furthest anyone was prepared to travel with Squire, Moses Perch and Parrot Fish making up the bulk of the reef fish catch although from all reports it was pretty hard work just getting enough for a feed.
Spanish Mackerel

Spanish Mackerel and Striped Tuna were on the bite periodically in Laguna Bay and at Sunshine Reef (which also had the bonus of Pearl Perch and Yellowfin Tuna) although those fish that responded to trolled lures or whole fish baits did so away from the boils. Tuesday, when the South Easterlies dropped briefly below the 15 knot mark, turned out to be one of the better days for the Spaniards in 'The Bay' with local angler Vince D'Abaco, above left, boating his 4kg+ specimen at Little Hall's Reef around 8am. Vince tempted this fish with a trolled, Jinkai 'Big Jerk' skirted, 3x2 Garfish on 3x7/0 ganged hooks. He was armed with a 10kg custom rod and a Penn 850SS spin reel loaded with 40lb braid and 80lb Black Magic trace. And later in the afternoon, Luke Rushton (above right) was on a Cougar One charter when his trolled whole Yakka bait attracted the attention of an 8kg Spaniard as they passed Jew Shoal on the way to Chardon's Reef. Luke, from Bargo in New South Wales, was kitted out with a Silstar Crystal Tip rod and a Shimano TLD20 reel loaded with 20lb line.

ONSHORE: The North Shore continued to provide what could be optimistically called the 'better opportunities' for surf Flathead and Mangrove Jack

anglers with quality Dart coming from the waters around the Third Cutting during the day and Chopper Tailor at night just up from the river mouth and from the odd surf gutter in the stretch North of Teewah. In the river, Bream, Flathead and Whiting were taken from the Tewantin ferry down to the river mouth (which also saw a few Chopper Tailor on the bite at dawn and dusk). The area around Harbourtown at Tewantin produced Trevally and Mangrove Jacks, as did the Munna Point stretch, Weyba Creek and the back of the Sound with the added bonus of the odd Chopper Tailor. On the freshwater scene, the Lake MacDonald Bass were going for extra deep diving lures such as the 'Hot-Lips Express' and C-Lures 'Borer' while at Borumba Dam spinnerbaits got most of the Saratoga action. Jake Garlick, near right, did well to boat this 1.525kg Flathead while drifting the 2nd ski run at Tewantin as his Wilson SureCatch spin combo was only loaded with 3kg line straight to a Frogmouth Pilchard on a No.4 longshank hook. We assume Jake lip hooked this 'Lizard' as its saw-like teeth would have otherwise made very short work of his light line. There wasn't a huge amount of Mangrove Jack action in the system this week but Brett Bambling, above right, got a piece of it when this 1.89kg specimen jumped on his Mullet gut bait in Weyba Creek on Friday night. He was armed with a Shakespeare Ugly Stik and a Penn threadline reel loaded with 6kg line and trace.