We have had the driest summer in recent memory.

Baitfish are thick and the sharks aren’t here like they were last year, so the mackerel fishing should be mind blowing. 

But with the wind churning the water up, screwing with the temperature and making it darn uncomfortable, the game of the pelagic fishing is very hard.

That’s not to say they aren’t there, it’s just that less people are able or willing to get to them.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that conditions improve through March into the cooler months.

Probably the most reliable fish this month would be big flathead down around the mouth and then searching for bream on surface lures up river.

With all the schools of herring moving through the river at present it’s no wonder some really big flathead have been caught.

Upstream, the surface bream bit is still going strong but jeez they are a long way upstream. Devil’s Elbow and Tewinga are the places I have found them hanging in decent numbers – nothing huge but great fun on light gear with surface lures.

Oh and if you are bored and want something exciting, lots of smaller sharks are in the river hunting mullet so get out and have some fun on them.

New research shows there are two genetically different snapper stocks off the Australian east coast, where it was previously believed all snapper were part of a single stock.

Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) scientist, Dr Jess Morgan, said this was the first project to use fine-scale sampling and highly variable genetic markers to measure the number of genetically distinct snapper stocks that occur off eastern Australia.

Snapper is an important recreational and commercial fishing species in many parts of Australia. Off the east coast a range of different methods are used to catch snapper including line fishing, trapping and trawling.

For more information about the project visit www.frdc.com.au