As we delve into the winter program with cooler days and wind at times, the fishing opportunity doesn't ease up in the tropics. Adaptation is the key to a good day's fishing. 

On the outer reef we've found there’s not a lot that isn’t biting well at the moment. Coral trout without a doubt are your go to fish when there’s a bit of wind about. They are quite plentiful at the moment up in the shallow waters of 20-25m deep where the adjacent reefs offer a fair amount of protection from the wind. On calmer days you'll nail these delights into 35m of water as well and slightly bigger. 

At various times and when the slightly lighter winds coincided with a low tide we've ventured a bit deeper and were able to source some cracking large mouth nannygai to 7kg. There's also a steady supply of small mouth nannygai around 45cm which can become suicidal when in the mood. Banking solid numbers of small mouth can be problematic in a positive way so watch your bag limits. Any calm days ahead will see the nannygai duo become a real feature of our fishing on the reef.  There's plenty of other species popping up at times on the reef including tea-leaf trevally, golden trevally, long nose emperor, cod and sweetlip, so there's a lot variety to be enjoyed on any given day. 

Our light tackle trolling efforts proved to be super effective of late as we found where the spanish mackerel are starting to school up. Utilising only a couple of deep diving lures, more often than not they’d result in a double hook up. There hasn't been the need to run a bigger spread of lures as the fish we've found to be very concentrated. Sizes of the mackerel varied ranging from 7kg up to 12kg. A double hook up on the deck certainly lights up any deck and is quite exciting for anyone. If you are going to run a bigger spread of say 4 presentations, the outside riggers have to be rigged garfish to entice a different type of bite. Besides the spanish mackerel, and in very similar areas the longtail or northern bluefin tuna have been running amok. Running the same set up we nailed quite a few of these hard fighting fish up to 12kg. They are quite distinctive at the moment creating a serious commotion on the surface and will really go to town for a lot longer in the same spot than say to a mack tuna school which can be skittish and disappear before you know it. The longtail are also brilliant to take home to eat, so our light tackle days are working like a treat and will continue to do so as the winter continues.

Our best inshore river system for results has been by the Daintree River by far. Once the skies turned grey and the winds started really blowing, the landscape of our inshore systems changed quickly. Water clarity and temperature dropped off and a change of tactics was in order. With the right approach with an experienced angler/ guide you'll be able to account for fingermark to 55cm using live sardines. Similar baits and surface lures have also enticed a few good queenfish to 90cm in the main part of the channel and deeper bends in the waterway system. The big change of late has been fishing across the flats whereby a good old mix of pilchard and fresh squid have produced returned some very tidy results. Big grunter or javelin fish to 60cm have turned up with more regularity offering some great angling moments and golden / river Gt’s have made up the difference. If you are new to the area a fillet of fresh javelin fish will put a new tasty perspective on your taste buds. Lighter gear is used in this situation and it’s quite exciting to see a good sized fish rip it up in a couple of feet of water.

Sunny days will produce better overall moving forward and you'll need to work a bit harder in windy, overcast conditions as a general rule during the heart of winter. Slight neap to middle range tides are also a good friend to have in your favour at this time of year.