OFFSHORE: Although the offshore week got off to a bit of a bumpy start, conditions improved quite nicely as the week progressed. Even the worst days were still fishable if you were prepared to put up with a 2 metre swell and 15 to 20 knot variable northerlies.
A number of keen boaties did just that, of course, but unfortunately the fish activity was very slow.
By the weekend the weather was finally good enough for wider excursions with the Barwon Banks producing modest catches of squire, pearl perch, gold spot wrasse, parrot fish, hussar and moses perch.
There was also the odd marlin catch and release out that way.
The photo at the top of the page, from a full day Cougar One charter, was taken last week but came in too late for the report, so here it is now. Benny Tan was the angler and the marlin was estimated to be around 50kg. Benny was kitted out with a Shakespeare Ugly Stik and a Penn 850SS reel loaded with 25lb line. The fish, which had four tags in it, went for a floated pilchard and took 25 minutes to bring to the side of the boat for a quick pic and a successful release.
Closer in, North Reef yielded a few squire, moses perch and estuary cod while at Sunshine Reef the catch was mackerel tuna, longtail tuna, Spanish mackerel and, as you can see by the photo above, the odd yellowfin tuna. Brisbane angler Jon Heales was out there on Saturday when his trolled Laser Pro hard body lure was taken by this 4.25kg specimen.
There was quite a bit of bird and baitfish activity in Laguna Bay with mackerel tuna on the boil around Granite Bay, Jew Shoal, the shark nets and over on Little Hall's Reef where a few school mackerel were also on the bite.

ONSHORE: The coastal surf beaches were worth a look this week with the North Shore leading the way. The rocks at Teewah produced chopper tailor, quality bream and some good sweetlip while the waters between there and the camp grounds yielded the odd 'Greenback'. Apart from that, quality whiting were on the bite in the surf gutters just before the camp grounds and up near the top end. On the east side, tailor (to 2.5kg) were active at south Peregian Beach at dusk.

In the estuary, quality bream were responding well to live worms at the river mouth and lures around the Noosa Waters lock entrance. Whiting were in good numbers along the Gympie Terrace stretch with the better fish coming from the waters near the boat ramp. Flathead were taken mostly in the deeper stretches on trolled lures and soft plastics while mangrove jacks were chasing live baits and prawn lures in Weyba Creek, around the Munna Point Bridge and in the Woods Bays.
Trevally and school jewfish were also active in the Woods Bays as you can see by the accompanying photos. Brisbane lad Toby Back (top of section) had a ball there last Sunday boating a mangrove jack on a Gladiator Prawn lure and catching and releasing half a dozen 'Soapies' using pink soft plastic Grass Minnow lures. He was armed with a Sik Stick Pro rod and a Daiwa Tierra reel loaded with 6lb braid and 8lb leader. And in the 'Bays' on Saturday afternoon, local lad Jayson Homan (above right) used a 3" Atomic 'Guzzler' soft plastic to attract the 65cm diamond trevally he's pictured with. He was using a Shimano 1kg-3kg T-Curve rod and a Shimano Stradic 1000 reel loaded with 10lb line.