General News
16 April, 2026
Coral trout aplenty on Reef
WITH the rain slowing up, the creeks have dropped to a more normal level, making more areas fishable and the jungle perch and sooty grunter are fired up.
There has been lots of reports of the main rivers fishing extremely well, not only in numbers, but also size. After big rain big jungle perch tend to push their way out of the smaller streams and the upper reaches and into the main rivers.
If you’re wanting to chase jungle perch and sootys now would be a great time to fish the main mid sections of our river systems.
From our reports, the topwater bite has seemed to have slowed up, possibly due to the colder mornings we have been having, for this reason I’d recommend a small paddle tail such as the Arma Flats Doctor 85mm preferably in a natural colour such as “blood oil”.
Estuary
THE estuaries continue to produce some great fish, the rivers have finally cleared up and we are starting to see some great numbers of mangrove jacks. Skipping soft plastics like the Zman prawn elites and the Arma skip doctor along the mangrove lined banks have been doing the damage.
The barramundi has proven to be a bit more difficult to come across but those who have put in the effort and time have managed a few good fish.
We have had a very mixed report on the lures they are taking now, from paddle tails, soft plastic prawns and hard body divers although the main stand out lures seems to be the Irukandji Mega prawn DTF and the sicario DTF.
There have also been a good amount of finger mark and grunters being caught at night with the smaller tides we have had. Live bait is your best bet such as mullet or, even better, live squid.
Over Easter many people were crabbing our rivers systems, but unfortunately we have also had a lot of reports of pots being stolen and checked.
If you’re thinking of going crabbing, I’d recommend not leaving them overnight or hang around your crab pots for the day. Unfortunately, it’s the few that ruin it for the most.
Despite this there has been some great catches of crabs, with many getting a few for an Easter feed.
Cane drains
THE cane drain has slowed up as the water levels drop and it has begun to come harder to find the barramundi, but those using mud cod as live bait continue to catch although not in the numbers they were few weeks prior.
The go-to set-up for live baiting barra on mud cod is 80-to-100-pound handline, a large float and a 7/0 to 10/0 wide gape Eagle Claw Kahle hook.
Offshore
WE were lucky enough to get a few weather windows lately. For those who headed out, they had great success with plenty of coral trout and mixed reef fish being caught up in the shallower waters.
Isolated bommies seemed to fish best. The most successful strategy was bommie hopping, where you jump from bommie to bommie along the reef face, getting a couple of trout each rock.
This technique seemed to get the most numbers, although this is a lot easier with a spot lock electric motor as there is a lot of moving spots.
Tight lines, be safe and good luck.
– Ryan Sanger, Tackle World Tully
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