Youngsters hook a winner with contest

It is fabulous when young children get into fishing, but it is even better when they help each other and coordinate an event for other children and adults to enjoy.

That is just what Will Roche and a few youngsters in town did over the weekend when they organised a mangrove jack competition that involved catching and releasing fish after taking a photo of the fish on a brag mat.

Mangrove jack are a hardy fish and we always recommend using barbless hooks for ease of release and the health of the fish.

Children could be seen in the marina, up the creeks and in all sorts of secret spots on Saturday and Sunday, chasing the mangrove jacks, with brag mats in hand and cameras ready to fire.

Big tides and murky hot water made fishing a little challenging this week for anglers and divers.

The good news is it should clear up in the next week, and we expect the fish to be hungry.

The changes in this week have been quite dramatic, with one crew heading out and finding clean water in 30m-40m with plenty of mackerel and even billfish whacking mackerel lures because they were so hungry.

A few days later, the waters were green and seemed not to hold any fish at all.

The water temperatures have been in the high 20Cs and, in some areas of the gulf, above 30C.

Maarit Mossman headed out in search of billfish on the weekend and managed to see a free-jumping billfish, as well as catch her first wahoo.

The boat crew had only the one small black marlin up for the few hours they were out, which managed to strike the lure, but not to stay connected. There have been more little black marlin showing up in recent weeks, just in time for the upcoming events of the Australian International Billfish Tournament and GAMEX.

The bigger blacks and blues are still out there and we hope to have some swordfish reports for you next week.

Many people have been getting into the reef fishing, and some into deep dropping while the weather has been good, especially over the long weekend.

Corey Wellington caught an eight-bar cod on his first drop in close to 300m and was pleased with the result, entering it into the monthly fishing competition.

Not everyone gets a fish on the first drop and sometimes it can be very frustrating to work out tides, drift and current to position the boat right.

Another entrant in the fishing competition is eight-year-old Angus Fogarty with a 6.7kg blue-bone caught west-side using crab bait.

All entrants can be viewed in-store and anyone can enter to win a $50 voucher.