The January Fishing Report, Week Four 2004, Noosa, Queensland, Australia, brought to you by Daiwa.

OFFSHORE: With the exception of Tuesday's 20 knot South Easterly and its associated 2m seas and swell, it was a pretty good week for the blue water brigade, with light to moderate variable winds (Northerlies and Southerlies) and a rolling 1m swell a feature of most days. Mornings were best, as usual, with the North Easterly sea breezes cranking up a notch on most afternoons. Laguna Bay was very much on fire with Mackerel Tuna hammering the bait schools from close in at the bar to way North of Jew Shoal where the odd Cobia, Spotted Mackerel and Spanish Mackerel were on the prowl. Northern Bluefin Tuna, Spotted Mackerel and Cobia were active just out from from Alexandria Bay and inner Sunshine Reef while on Sunshine proper the catch was Spanish Mackerel, Sweetlip, Maori Cod, Mowong, Pearl Perch and Parrot Fish.
Snapper

Squire, Snapper, Parrot Fish, Moses Perch and Pearl Perch were common to most of the outer reefs. In addition, North Reef produced Scarlet Sea Perch, Red Emperor, Mowong, Spanish Mackerel, Sweetlip, Spotted Mackerel, School Mackerel, Cobia, Estuary Cod, Maori Cod and Amberjack. Chardon's Reef turned out to be not a bad option for those who made the effort, yielding Sweetlip, Maori Cod, Cobia, Spotted Mackerel and, as you can see by the photo above left, this week's top weight Snapper. Local angler Adrian Batisto weighed this 7.5kg 'Knobby' in at Davo's after a session out on Chardon's yesterday morning. Armed with a Shimano TLD25 combo loaded with 15kg line and 100lb trace, Adrian tempted this thumper with a live Yakka on a 6/0 hook. And Brisbane angler Dominic 'Mushy' Ametrano (above right) matched Adrian's feat on Friday, only he did it in two installments. 'Mushy', a very regular Noosa Blue Water Charters customer, was on a full day Cougar Too charter when, in quick succession, he boated the 3kg and 3.5kg Snapper he's posing with. He was armed with a Wilson Live Fibre rod and a Shimano TLD20 reel loaded with 25lb line.

ONSHORE: There weren't a lot of reports from the coastal surf beaches this week and with the 'Weed' still making a bit of a nuisance of itself on the North Shore it was all down to the East coast beaches. The standouts there (if you could

call them that) were Castaways Beach, which yielded Whiting and Bream and Marcus Beach which produced Dart, Whiting and Bream. In the river, Whiting were probably the highest profile bread and butter species this week with the hot spots being down at the mouth (along with Bream and Chopper Tailor), Weyba Creek (which also produced Bream, Flathead and the odd Trevally) and the Gympie Terrace stretch. Trevally were another species worth pursuing, with good results coming on live Prawns at night around the first ski run at Tewantin (together with Bream), the Sheraton Bridge (where Mangrove Jacks were quite active) and, as per the photo on the right, Munna Bridge. Young James White christened the new Jarvis Walker spin combo his dad bought for him at Davo's on Tuesday by casting a few live Prawns around the bridge pylons an hour or so later. In a two hour session James landed a keeper Flathead, one Bream and the 800gm Trevally he's pictured with. Considering he had little or no experience at fishing it was an excellent effort. Apart from that, most of the Mangrove Jack action happened at night up at Jew Hole just below the mouth of Lake Cooroibah and around John's Landing (between the lakes) with live fish baits getting most of the attention. On the freshwater scene, the Lake MacDonald Bass were chasing beetlespins and spinner baits around the lily pads and weed edges and trolled C-Lures 'Borers' in the 'Bubble Trail'. At Borumba Dam, most of the action came from the Kingham Arm where Bass and Saratoga responded well to gold spinnerbaits.

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