The January Fishing Report, Week Three 2003, Noosa, Queensland, Australia, brought to you by Daiwa.

OFFSHORE: Even though Laguna Bay was quite fishable all week, the strong South Easterlies and associated 2.5m swell made the outside reefs pretty much a no-go zone until Friday afternoon. From then on, however, light to moderate

variable Northerlies dominated the offshore scene bringing with them TGO conditions by Sunday morning. With the weekend getting the green light there was almost traffic jam conditions at the bar as anglers in all manner of craft headed offshore to find that Squire, Parrot Fish and Moses Perch were common to all of the visited reefs. In addition to that, for those with a yen to travel; Double Island Point produced Sweetlip, Pearl Perch, Maori Cod, Honeycomb Cod and Spotted Mackerel. A little closer, Chardon's Reef wasn't a bad spot for Mahi Mahi (Dolphin Fish), Teraglin Jewfish and Amberjack while at North Reef the bonus species were Scarlet Sea Perch, Pearl Perch, Maori Cod, Coral Trout and Spotted Mackerel. Sunshine Reef, of course, was still very much in favour (especially with the small boat brigade) and certainly didn't disappoint, yielding Coral Trout, Sweetlip, Spanish Mackerel and Maori Cod. Last but definitely not least, in Laguna Bay the Spotted and Spanish Mackerel kept anglers on the hop, although the 'Spaniards' were by far the most consistent, and as you can see by the photo above right, not bad quality. Fishing Noosa Webmaster Bill Watson nailed this 9kg specimen East of Jew Shoal this morning trolling a Squid skirted Pilchard behind his Perception fishing kayak. He was armed with a Wilson 6-8kg Live Fibre rod and a Shimano TSS4 threadline reel loaded with 10kg line and 40lb trace.

ONSHORE: The North Shore came alive this week with Dart, Whiting, Flathead and Chopper Tailor all on the bite in good Flathead and Bream

numbers from the river mouth to Double Island Point. On the East side, Whiting were well represented with Peregian Beach the top producer while Sunshine Rocks had the added bonus of Chopper Tailor. In the river, Whiting and Flathead were again on the most active list with the hot spots being the Frying Pan, the river mouth (along with Bream and, at night, Chopper Tailor in excellent numbers), the Woods Bays (which also had Trevally, Tarpon and the odd Bream on the bite), Weyba Creek and Lake Cooroibah. Andrew Milburn (above left), from Carlingford in Sydney, boated the 3.3kg Flathead he's pictured with on Saturday morning using a whole Pilchard on 3x4/0 ganged hooks. Andrew was drifting the Frying Pan in a Kingfisher Boat Hire skiff when he got his result. Of course, after a quick weigh in at Davo's he released this big 'Momma' back into the river. And just this morning, young Brisbane angler Lyndon Phipps (above right) used a live Winter Whiting to tempt the 650gm Bream he's posing with. Lyndon was fishing Lake Cooroibah, armed with a Shimano Taipan rod and an Abu 6500C4 reel. Apart from that, there were a few quality Bream at Harbourtown and Trevally chasing soft plastics around Munna Bridge at dawn.

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