Fisho's Weekly Fishing Report – 24th October 2025
by Fisho's Tackle World Hervey Bay 24 Oct 09:27 UTC
24 October 2025
Jacko snuck back up the island last week and found another willing baby black © Fisho's Tackle World Hervey Bay
Stormy weather on its way
Last week's wind strengths didn't live up to BOM's expectations, so hopefully you all made the most of the best of it and hit the water. Hot northerly winds have settled in for the time being and look like dominating our local scene for the next few days, spawning storms at some point as the next cool change draws nearer.
This morning kicked off with a light northerly < 10 knots, but a stiffer northerly to 20 knots will crash the party early this afternoon. Saturday looks like the pick of the weekend for anyone considering a trip out on the bay. Monitor the latest forecasts, as the boffins are confusing at present. Could be 10 knots either side of easterly or 10-15 from the north.
Sunday does not look good for boating activities on the bay. Northerlies to 25 knots are expected, which will be just a precursor for what is on the way Monday. Proper howling northerly winds to 30 knots, the likes of which we have rarely seen in recent years, are expected to batter our north-facing coastlines. Such a wind is bound to trigger storms in an otherwise dry atmosphere if the air temp peaks high enough. Expect thundery showers of some sort at the very least.
Tuesday looks wet - all day apparently. Winds will be a tad lighter at 15 knots from the north, but it will be a generally unpleasant day. Lighter showers riding onshore south-easterlies / easterlies of around 10 knots mid-week onwards will be more palatable perhaps. Quite an unstable week of less-than-ideal weather is ahead, so make the most of any opportunity to fish sheltered waters and keep a watchful eye on developing thunderstorms.
Tuesday's new moon is history now, so the moon is waxing again whilst daily tidal flow diminishes. Come the half-moon of the first quarter next Thursday, the fortnightly cycle will restart and our tides will be making once again. Given many folks won't get to wet the boat this weekend, there is possibly some comfort in the fact that they aren't missing the primo tides.
Big Grunter startle whiting Fishos on our beaches
It has been a mix of highs and lows for folks fishing our town beaches this week. Some struck gold when they tripped over sizeable grunter, whilst others were frustrated by an inundation of snot weed whilst trying to soak baits for whiting. That same weed that briefly impacted the Burrum system previously is a natural phenomenon for our area that breaks free and becomes a nuisance in northerly winds at this time of year.
Happy days for those lucky enough to discover the grunter, as quite a few large fish in the 60cm+ class were caught. In fact, a couple of fish in the 70cm+ class were caught too - the best being a stonker of 78cm. Great fish from a forgiving environment, right here in the middle of town. Some were certainly bonus bycatch when whiting fishing, whilst other grunter were actively targeted by folks that discovered the action others have been hiding recently.
Snot weed certainly makes any form of fishing challenging, so be prepared to move on or come back at a differing stage of the tide if the area you intend fishing is impacted. The whiting are here, in reasonable numbers, it is just that bit harder to catch them with weed gathering on your line and your bait (or lure). Our town beaches will cop a pounding this weekend onwards, so it will be interesting to see what moves in for a feed once things settle. Whiting, grunter and sharks seem likely, but other predators are also possible.
Urangan Pier has been affected by dirty water created by northerly winds, and won't improve much this weekend. All the same, a few decent broadies have been caught in recent days. Not as many as the last good run, but a better class of fish to 7 kilos. Schoolies have been quite random; making an appearance some days. The odd larger queenie has also graced the water beneath the pier creating extra excitement for hopefuls and onlookers.
Shallow fringing reefs fishing well
As alluded to last week, our shallow reef fishery spikes with the arrival of the mid-spring new moon. Trollers caught some of the best coral trout that our reefs will likely surrender this season, but they didn't catch all the big ones. Tales of bust-ups were quite common, suggesting trout the equal of fish to 60cm got the better of them (or lesser fish caught them off guard).
Trolling diving lures in a significant northerly swell was highly productive for those of us that could handle the conditions eons ago. The surging runs down the face of waves creating varying speeds from the trailing lures that triggered bites quite regularly. The neaps and the weather may make such an assault less appealing this week, yet there are bound to be a few keen trollers working our shallow reefs Saturday at least.
Grassy sweetlip have joined the trout in the shallows and are turning up at Gatakers Bay and around the bay islands. Shallow shoal country nearby is also a handy hangout for grassies and often offers an even better class of sweetlip. Fish dawn, dusk and into the evening for best results, particularly when the tides have less flow.
Too many sharks are plaguing our more popular deeper inshore reefs to enable you to settle in for a lengthy session. It is more of a quick drift and move on unless you get extra lucky. Estuary cod, coral trout, grassies, squire and blackall are the main reef fish varieties on offer, with the grassies leading the charge in the esky-filling stakes (sharks permitting).
Quality grunter are not just cruising our town beaches, as some excellent specimens are being caught from the fringes of a few select inshore reefs. Those gravelly outcrops in the western bay and the reefs scattered across the banks offer some of the best options for grunter hunters. That is, unless you head south and work the countless options within the upper Great Sandy Straits. It is time for some of those waters to really shine, and shine they will.
Bay pelagics gorge themselves on abundance of baitfish
The new moon tides saw significant migratory movement of a number of pelagic species in Hervey Bay waters. Mac tuna have been turning the surface to foam in seething schools seen feasting on the tiniest of baitfish. They were particularly thick from Moon Point to The Picnics most recently, whilst these schools in particular have been extra-frustrating to catch.
Fixated on a select size of baitfish, the mac tuna have been rejecting pretty much any offering that doesn't closely resemble their target tucker. Matching the hatch accurately is rarely more important than when it comes to tempting fussy tuna. Carry some of the more miniscule metal slugs to improve your chances, and be prepared to tie on a small jig head fitted with a tiny jerkshad if the metals fail to succeed. Otherwise, just drive away and try to catch fish from other tuna schools, as the size of their prey can vary from bait ball to bait ball.
School mackerel haven't been nearly as hard to catch. Indeed, in some waters, they have been hard to avoid! Bite-offs have been common as can be expected, so be a little wary about sending your more expensive lures into the fray. There have been stacks of schoolies up in Platypus Bay and plenty in the south-western bay too. The waters off Pt Vernon and off the Burrum across the Banks continue to give up some of the best mackerel, though don't be surprised to find them anywhere there is a source of reasonable-sized baitfish right now.
Add the chance of quality broadies close inshore and increasing numbers of spanish mackerel up the island and mackerel fans have plenty to keep them busy once the winds ease. By this time next month, we should be talking up the start of the dedicated spotted mackerel season, assuming the northerly winds let up in the meantime and they arrive on que.
XOS cobia continue to create havoc on boats fishing the northern bay. Numbers may not be what they were a month ago, but the size of some of the fish lingering up there is impressive. The north wind will give them and the reefies a bit of a reprieve for now, so look out fish come mid next week.
Marlin and sailfish hotly pursued up Rooneys way
Another week into the burgeoning Hervey Bay billfish season and we can happily report that a handful of fishos can add their name to the list of marlin captors. Admittedly, there were vastly more boats than marlin on the more popular waters between Wathumba and Rooneys Point, but at least a few crews were successful.
You can well imagine that with so many boats on the grounds, all trolling with the aid of teasers and well-proven lures out the back, that any billfish in the area have a plethora of interesting options they can get excited about. Ensuring that your set-up is finely-tuned and your crew is ready for action will ensure you better your chances when young stick-face rocks up in your spread.
Making sure you spend the prime times around tide changes and key moon positions on waters most likely to produce marlin is also paramount. That statement might seem a little too simplistic, until you realise how many fishos get bored from mundane trolling only to drive away from prime grounds before or during peak feeding periods.
Steering north of Rooneys has paid off handsomely for a couple of crews that found not only small black marlin, but some ultra-exciting sailfish too. Chances are there will be more of our ocean's fastest fish cruising the waters either side of Breaksea Spit for the immediate future, so stretch your legs a little and see if you can get amongst them. We might see more sails turn up in the bay proper, as happens some years, but your chances remain better north of Fraser Island.
Outside, it has been the domain of the larger boats due to weather constraints. Blue marlin continue to be caught along the continental shelf, along with bycatch such as yellowfin tuna. Another small dogtooth tuna was caught from Sandy Cape Shoal country last week, proving the recent catch by another crew wasn't a complete freak event.
Barra season closes at the end of October
Saltwater barra fishos need to pull the finger out and get amongst the salties before the 1st November. Targeting barra anywhere other than above designated stocked impoundment dam walls is prohibited over the months of November, December and January. This is to enable our barra to spawn and we need to respect these rules. An increasing number of fishos refuse to nowadays, we know - but there; it's been said, so now it's up to you, your pride and your conscience as to how you approach the closure.
The Mary system's barra are on the chew, as are the Burrum system's. Every little creek and backwater pond that has a population of barra is undoubtedly hearing the tell-tale boofs of feeding barra after dark too. This heat will create a degree of aggression amongst the barra that will see them biting on tides otherwise considered less than ideal, and the approaching stormy weather will only exaggerate that aggression. Get into them folks - now is most definitely the time!
Spend some time getting your lures or baits in tighter to the snags and amongst the rocks and you could be groaning under the strain of a solid mangrove jack too. Just like the barra, the jacks will be super-aggressive this week, so don't waste the opportunity to get amongst them. It just so happens that jacks respond particularly well over tides such as those set for this weekend, so what better way to experience the chaos of a stormy afternoon than getting up close and personal with the red terrors.
The four rivers of the Burrum system offer champagne mangrove jack fishing, and will do until flooding rains create challenges in the future. Fraser's western creeks are equally as productive too, and are to some extent, easier to work out for the uninitiated. Our mainland creeks host jacks in varying numbers as well, so there are many waters to explore. Take no chances with the sandflies and mozzies in either case, and ensure you have plenty of Bushmans or a Thermacell, as any alternative repellent will be left wanting (and you heading elsewhere).
We should be bragging about big numbers of sizeable threadfin salmon from the Mary system at this time, yet to date, the season has been slow to take off. Yes, there remain plenty of sambos scattered throughout the rivers, but the massive schools we so often get to fish have yet to materialise. The decent wet of 2024-2025 scattered fish and has seen threadies turning up in various other streams, but mass gatherings in the Mary will eventuate when they are ready.
In the meantime, you are just as good a chance of finding numbers of threadfin down the straits, where you will find plenty of other fish too. Barra, jacks, blue salmon and flathead will join queenfish, certain trevally and the bread 'n' butter species in many streams or up on the flats down that way. Grunter are a particularly good target species right now, and one readily fond of small soft plastic prawns and small vibes.
Mud crabbing is at its worst at this time, as the bucks have retreated to their holes in the backwaters. Get muddy and make your way in to them and you could enjoy a feed, as some do, otherwise, it is a waiting game as we await the wet season rains to flush them out again. Run some pots up the bay when the weather allows and you could supplement your diet of mud crab with a good feed of sandies. Word is they have started to pot well off the Burrum coast again.
Sharks crash the tailor party on Fraser Island
We would like to thank Andrew, a member of the Colts Men's Hockey Crew (and highly experienced local fisho), for his detailed report on the current fishing conditions surf-side on Fraser. Andrew's report was so well-detailed, I will rehash it here almost-ad verbatim to share his insights.
Andrew and crew were over there last Friday - Monday. They caught lots of small to medium-sized dart and good numbers of decent whiting at low tide, from Dilli Village all the way north to Orchid Beach. They found reasonable pippies both around Dilli and also above The Cathedrals.
Tailor numbers have dropped dramatically, with a wide variety of sizes from undersized tiddlers of 20cm to 60cm+ greenbacks. For the record, Andrew scored the biggest tailor for the crew's comp at 65cm, caught on a 20gm Flasha Spoon. The crew hooked some particularly good tailor at Indian Head on big stickbaits and big Twisties, but only managed to land 5 between them due to the sharks.
You can well imagine how spectacular the scene was from up high, as Andrew and crew watched on while multiple sharks smashed into hooked fish. Exciting as it may have been, it was a waste of quality fish and very expensive, so they had to give up and move on. They observed a couple of schools of medium-sized tailor and a small school of really big ones balled-up near the rocks, but they all had sharks shadowing them.
Andrew witnessed sharks being caught slide baiting and drone fishing. He also watched on as a dead barracuda was pushed out into the water and the sharks quickly devoured it. He also commented on a fisho that used a drone to "cast" a 190mm Halco Roosta Popper 300-400m out before retrieving it, claiming that it looked a lot more like a gym workout with a remote chance of a fish, than any form of conventional fishing. Thanks for your report, Andrew; very enlightening and thorough, as always.
Another gun surf fisho shared his observations from the same weekend, mentioning the fact there was a degree of weed in the surf gutters prior to the weekend due to northerly winds. The waters were clear and fished very well for bulk whiting and plenty of choppers. A bit of weed was returning from The Maheno south as he drove back down the beach after the weekend.
Lake Monduran fishing comp results
Last weekend saw the running of the Tackle World Bundaberg Lake Monduran family Fishing Classic. An enormous 700 entrants descended on the lake to pit their skills against each other and the lake's fish. The social side of the event was warmly received and everyone had a ball during proceedings as they kicked back and enjoyed the entertainment.
For those of you interested in the results, here they are: There were 136 barra caught, with the biggest being 118cm, caught by a junior. The best barra caught by a senior being not far behind at 117cm. There were 28 bass caught, many of which were 50cm+. 81 eel-tailed catfish were weighed-in, along with 193 fork-tailed catfish. 32 tilapia were also caught (which is a mere drop in the lake compared to how many of those mongrel fish are in there nowadays).
The authorities were there for the event; being Maritime Safety Qld, the Qld Water Police and officers from the Qld Dept of Fisheries. The boys and girls in blue were there more-so to educate the good folks competing in the comp than to hand out fines, which probably had something to do with the good all-round behaviour. Ramp rage was a given, as could be expected, as it was a lengthy wait at times just to get your boat ashore before going to find your vehicle for retrieval, let alone the time spent in a queue waiting to get back to the boat ramp.
Congratulations to the committee and active members of the Monduran Anglers Stocking Association (MASA) for conducting another successful family comp. Their hard-working members will be at the lake again this Saturday morning as they launch vessels filled with a compliment from a massive 400,000 barramundi fingerlings they will release that day. A significant boost to future barra stocks, and some insurance that the fishery will eventually recover should the dam spill and the big fish be lost in the future.
No doubt Mondy's barra are foremost on the minds of many keen fishos again this week. The weather looks both superb and yet potentially nasty. Severe storms seem almost likely, so have an escape plan for when the weather gets wild. The lake is dropping quite quickly, meaning fresh hazards are popping up all over the place. The fish will bite well day and night if you find unpressured fish. Sunset onwards and pre-dawn will be the prime times for popular locations where traffic makes them wary.