General News
13 May, 2026
Freshwater still the best bet
CREEKS and rivers proving ideal for fishos followed by estuaries and offshore
Freshwater
FRESHWATER fishing continues to fish well with lots of large sooty grunter being caught, mostly on small paddle tail soft plastics with a spinner attached.
Lures such as the Akame tackle Guppy 85 and the Arma flats doctor have been the main stand outs.
Coming into winter you will find the topwater fishing will slow up and subsurface lures will be your best bet. This also goes for jungle perch which are still being caught in good numbers in the upper reaches of the creek systems.
Estuary
RECENTLY there was the Euramo pub boar and barra bash competition, which was a great success.
Although the barra bite was a bit tough, some massive barra were caught.
The standout method was the mud cod on a float. The cooler weather made luring tough and live bait was the best bet to get the big barras to bite.
As the weather continues to get cooler, the flathead get thicker in numbers around our river mouths.
There have been some great reports of good numbers of big flathead being caught.
Flatheads are a great option when the weather isn’t ideal or the barra fishing is tough. They are great fun on light tackle and are fantastic for the dinner table.
Just be sure to release the larger flatheads as they are full of roe and ready to breed this time of year.
The mangrove jack were fired up over the weekend with reports of fisherman getting 30 or more in a session with some big ones among them.
Skipping soft plastic paddle tails deep into the mangroves was the key to success, paddle tails such as the Arma Skip Doctor 130 and the Irukandji sicario 4inch were the killers over the weekend.
Offshore
OUR bad weather streak continues making it hard for fisherman to head out to the Reef.
We have had a few small weather breaks and a few ventured around the islands and had some good success.
The mackerel have showed up with plenty of school mackerel and Spanish around.
Trolling dead baits have seen the most action. I’d recommend the Reaper rig. It’s easy to use and super effective and the wog head rigged on a gar has been working well also.
– Ryan Sanger, Tackle World Tully
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