General News
14 October, 2026
Reef fishing has been great
CORAL trout, red emperor and nannygai in abundance, but note the closedowns.
Freshwater
FRESHWATER fishing has been great over the last week.
With the water levels dropping and warming up, sooty grunter have been out in numbers.
The cleaner waters mean it is a great time to do some sight casting – the sooties that are up in the shallows can be a bit flightier, so I’d recommend a smaller plastic on a lightweight jig head and almost drifting the lure in front of them.
Plenty of jungle perch are around also in the deeper pools, top water has been the go for these guys as its march fly season and the jungle perch are up on the surface hunting them.
On the topic of march flies, if you’re thinking of going up the freshwater systems be prepared for the swarms of the insects.
Unfortunately, there aren’t any repellents that stop them, although I have found Bushman’s Repellent will slow them down a bit.
The best thing you can do is wear long sleeve shirts, long pants and socks.
Some of the best fishing is had during the march fly season so it’s definitely worth covering up and having a crack.
Estuary
THERE have been some fantastic reports of mangrove jacks, with many reports of people cracking a dozen or more in a single session.
Now is some of the best times for mangrove jacks as the water temperatures increase, so has the jack activity.
The Daiwa Bait Junkie 4in prawn is the star of the show at the moment with this lure contributing to majority of the catches.
Skip casting these prawns on a weedless hook deep into the snags is the go-to technique for these fish.
Bait fishing is also a great option. Mullet is by far the best bait for them, filet or live.
There has also been plenty barra around, they are still being found schooled up on deeper snags. Slow rolling larger prawns is still the best way to get them to bite.
Plenty of fingermark and grunter are still being caught in the Hinchinbrook area, mostly on squid as bait.
The dead low night-time period is your best bet, as you’ll get a small but great bite period over this time.
Offshore
FINALLY, we are lucky enough to have a decent run of nice weather.
Plenty of people have been heading out to the Reef over the past week.
As, you can image, there’s been heaps of amazing catches, plenty of coral trout up in the shallows, a good number of red emperors have been caught and lots of nice eating size nannygai are around also.
Just remember the reef fin closer started on 8 October and continues through to the 12th. During this time, you cannot keep or fish for any reef fish species as this is their spawning period.
Spanish mackerel closure is also happening at the moment and started on 8 October until the 29th. This closure only applies to Spanish mackerel, so all your other mackerel species are still fair game.
While writing this the good weather is going to continue but make sure you check the forecast before heading out.
– Ryan Sanger, Tackle World Tully
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