BILL AND HIS BROTHER FISHING AS BOYS The motivation to write the River to Reef series comes from the same reasons he was bought up with, the love of fishing and seeing others enjoy the experience also. As Ken Brown writes in the forward of the latest Moreton Bay & Brisbane edition, “He is one of those rare anglers who has learnt a lot, but doesn’t act like he’s something special because of it and gladly shares his knowledge with anyone who bothers to ask … it’s blokes like him who keep the information flowing … rather than be on a pedestal crowing, who will help new anglers and kids get started.”
Bill’s experience is first-hand. He grew fishing the very waters he now freely shares about in his books. Combined with contributions from members of his extensive network, ensures each River to Reef edition is a true local guide by local knowledge and a “fair dinkum good guide to start fishing in these areas”.
Bill is now based on the Sunshine Coast with his wife Jocelyn and their young boy Fraser and, as always, gets out fishing every chance he gets.
More on the River to Reef Series
Brisbane and Moreton Bay – An Introduction
When the general populous of Brisvegas decide to go fishing for the weekend they don’t have to travel far to find some of the best fishing on the east coast of Australia.
Moreton Bay is bounded by Moreton Island, North and South Stradbroke Island. The bays limits encompass the northern areas of Bribie Island (including Pumicestone Passage) across to Moreton Island and down toward Jumpinpin in the south. The Stradbroke Islands, particularly South Stradbroke shelter a large semi-estuarine area dotted with mangrove islands, bays, inlets and creeks called Jumpinpin. The focus of this book is on the accessible fishing grounds from Wellington Point south of Brisbane toward Donnybrook in the Pumicestone Passage north of Brisbane.
The massively fertile grounds of Moreton Bay offer a plethora of fishing opportunities. During the cold winter months the bay delivers bream and winter whiting around the estuaries and shallows, tailor from the beaches and tasty snapper and squire around the bay reefs and offshore waters. As warm summer currents penetrate the bay pelagic species such as spotty And Spanish mackerel move into the bay and the game fisherman begin to target marlin and sailfish off the islands.
The Pumicestone Passage’s 30 kilometres of winding and shallow passageways offer an excellent environment for the bread and butter species of bream whiting and flathead. Mangrove jack are also pursued in the creeks shooting off from the main passage, Coochin Creek is a good option. As the passage opens up to the bay there are good opportunities to expand the target species on offer. Jew can be caught around the bridge, and squire and grass sweetlip are targeted in the deeper sections of the lower passage, and around features such as Cook’s Rocks.
The rocky reefs around Castlereagh Point at Scarborough are renowned for big bream, squire, and grass sweetlip. Much of the foreshore around the Redcliffe Peninsula is excellent for whiting from the beaches, such as Margate and Sutton, but the rock outcrops also provide good opportunities for a feed of bream also. The Pine River also remains quite productive, from Dholes Rocks for bream to the old Hornibrook Highway. The old bridge fishes best at night for bream, whiting, flathead and the odd mulloway. The Brisbane River is an excellent bream fishery and has been also known for good catches of squire around the mouth. Mulloway are also taken around the prominent bridges at night. The Gateway has produced many a good mulloway. In terms of choice, Brisbane and Moreton Bay offers everything the keen angler could want.
The offshore reefs can be hard to access. The reefs that extend from the tip of Cape Moreton (Flinders Reef and Hutchinson Shoal) south toward the Tempest reefs are a fair drive across the exposed northern bay. The reefs accessed via the South Passage Bar on the southern end of Moreton Island and North Stradbroke are also protected by the temperament of the bar itself. The South Passage Bar can be very dangerous as it has a myriad of channels and banks that are treacherous when there is big swell about. Local knowledge is essential. However, the accessibility of the reefs ensures there is always a good feed on offer when conditions permit.
Don’t forget the islands themselves. The beach fishing on both Moreton and Straddie is exceptional. Tailor, whiting, jew, dart and flathead are all available here. If the surf is not to your forte, fish the western beaches or the southern tip of the Island around Reeders Point. The inside calmer waters are particularly good for chasing flathead, notably the shallow tidal bays and timbered areas that provide feature and cover. The timbered foreshores are favourite bream haunts in winter. Chopper tailor, whiting and dart can also be caught on the western beaches around protruding sand spits such as Comboyuro Point and spots like Tailor Bight. Most anglers travel to Moreton for tailor in winter and whiting in the summer on the eastern beach. The eastern beaches here form some of the best gutters for surf.
Deep holes for jew and tailor, to top low tide gutters for whiting and dart. Bait is plentiful with heaps of pipi banks and beach worms on offer.
Even if you don’t have a 4WD or a boat to explore the offshore islands and reefs the greater Brisbane foreshore offers plenty of fishing. The land based angler can choose amongst the many jetties, rock walls and small beaches to target bread and butter species such as whiting, bream and flathead. The Redcliffe peninsula (and areas south such as Shorncliffe and Sandgate) is one of those places that can give the land-based angler a good day out. From sandy beaches like Suttons down towards Woody Point, the rock wall at Sandgate, the Hornibrook Highway platform crossing the Pine River and Hayes Inlet, and well known jetties such as the Redcliffe, Woody Point and Shorncliffe Jetty, they all provide an excellent day out.
As a kid I used to troll Scarborough Reef with my grandfather for thumper tailor, drift the local inshore reefs for snapper, head down to Nudgee Beach on a regular basis for some whiting and bream. It doesn’t matter what you are after or what your limits are, Brisbane has some great areas to wet a line.
Sunshine Coast – An Introduction
Fishermen who visit the coast have the opportunity to tangle with freshwater bass through to big game black marlin and everything in between.
The freshwater impoundments in the hinterland ranges are stocked with feisty Australian bass (Macquaria novemaculeata), golden perch or yellow-belly (Macquaria ambigua) and one of the best freshwater sport fishing targets, the southern saratoga (Scleropages leichardti). The upper reaches of the coastal river systems (Maroochy, Mooloolah and Noosa Rivers) also offer great wild bass opportunities. Throw the chance of a mangrove jack (Lutjanus argentimaculatus) in to the mix, and drifting the upper reaches of our magnificent rivers can deliver a great day of angling.
The Sunshine Coast is blessed with a number of major rivers that flow from the hinterland ranges right through to our magnificent coastline and each river offers a different fishing experience to anglers. The Mooloolah River is a relatively small meandering river and is our major commercial port because of its protected entrance. It offers excellent bream and whiting fishing in its middle reaches, and is renowned for bream on lures around the many pontoons, pylons and other structure found along the lower reaches. The best thing about the Mooloolah River is it offers one of the safest entry points to our plentiful offshore reefs.
The Maroochy River is a bigger river system but is much shallower, particularly the lower reaches. However, the deep holes that dot the river generally offer exceptional fishing. The most famous of which is the cod hole just south of the Maroochy River Bridge. This river provides the perfect playground for dusky flathead (Platycephalus fuscus) and sand whiting (Sillago ciliata) in the shallows, and mulloway (Argyrosomus hololepidotus) in the deep holes and around the mouth. The Maroochy is also renowned for the abundance of mangrove jack in its tributaries and rock bars, as well as great land based fishing from both the northern and southern shores of the river mouth. Good catches of golden, silver and giant (GT) trevally and tailor (Pomatomus saltatrix) are a regular occurrence.
The Noosa River is a completely different animal. It is fed by a sequential lake system surrounded by a national park. It is a very popular holiday spot and is the home of the rich and famous. The river offers great estuary fishing and is renowned for its healthy populations of trevally (Caranx spp). The freshwater upper reaches offer mangrove jack and good populations of bass. From time to time, barramundi (Lates calcarifer) are also caught in the Noosa River.
All these rivers lead us to the reefs that lie off the coastline. The Sunshine Coast has a reef system that runs from north of Noosa to Caloundra, extending in to Moreton Bay, and running as far east as the Barwon Bank which lies inside the continental shelf. In general, these reefs produce abundant catches of snapper (Pagrus auratus) in the winter and spanish, spotty and school mackerel (Scomberomorus spp.) in the summer months. Other species commonly caught regularly include pearl perch (Glaucosoma scapulare), spangled emperor (Lethrinus nebulosus), grass sweetlip (Lethrinus fletus), cobia (Rachycentron canadus) and parrot/tuskfish (Choerodon venustus). Catching a feed on the coast is always on the cards when fishing our reefs - as long as you know how!
The stretches of beach between Noosa and Caloundra are fantastic fishing platforms with plenty of gutter formations and offshore reefs to feed them. During the winter month’s tailor are plentiful and there are runs of yellow-fin bream (Acanthopagrus australis). Mulloway or jew, the pinnacle of the beach fishing, can also caught along our beaches. The summer month’s on our beaches offer a range of fishing opportunities including summer whiting, dart (Trachinotus velox) and dusky flathead. The beaches north of the Noosa River, Teewah and Rainbow, are renowned for regular catches of tailor, whiting and dart although you need a 4WD to access these areas.
Anyway, that’s enough of an introduction to the coast. If you’ve at least mastered the basics of fishing, then this book will be a handy guide to help you zero in on the fishing activities that suit you and put you in the right place to make the fishing trip on the sunshine coast a success.