All rivers and creeks, as well as the western side of the Bay, have suffered from runoff from heavy rains.
This has lowered the salinity level and muddied waters which have forced many of the target species out towards bar entrances looking for more saline clean water. The Logan and Albert rivers are a mudslide and nothing you would want to put on the dinner plate is being caught there.
There has been a run of bream, flathead and smaller mulloway from inside the Pin Bar back to the eastern tip of Short Island. The last few hours of the run-in tide has been the most productive.
The Broadwater is one location that is well worth fishing because a lot of whiting have been forced out of canals and creeks throughout the Gold Coast. Fish the deeper faster-flowing areas and often yabbies will produce just as many whiting as bloodworms in dirty water.
We did have what was shaping up to be a good run of prawns, however, they have been hard to find this week.
There have been good numbers of mud crabs on the move, making it worthwhile putting pots in. The trick to finding the muddies and the fish is to look for cleaner water pushing into estuary systems on the run-in tide. For the next week that will be close to bar entrances, however, as conditions settle we should see that cleaner water move further inshore.
Mulloway has been in the faster-flowing water around bar entrances and will come on the bite as the tide slows for the turn.
Anglers working the cleaner current lines, especially around Mud Island and on the ledges down the western side of Moreton Island have had excellent catches of grass sweetlip and snapper.
Offshore, deeper reefs out to 100 metres have been the most productive with amberjack and kingfish dominating catches.
Most freshwater rivers have also suffered from heavy rainfall and are difficult to fish because of fast-flowing, dirty water and many impoundments are closed due to rising water levels.
Redclaw catches are set to improve in all south-east Queensland impoundments.
