Fishing tips: How to catch fish in Moreton Bay in May

There is a great mix of fishing opportunities this time of year and fingers crossed for some good weather windows. The inshore waters will still have some effects from the prolonged wet weather we had during early Autumn, but this is not a bad thing. Unless we get some more heavy rain, the water will start to clear up this month.

Estuary and land based

This is a good time of the year to be targeting tailor inshore and land based along the foreshore. Fish will be caught from places like Redcliffe and Woody Point jetties, but I prefer the foreshore anywhere from Scarborough to Shorncliffe on the larger high tides at night as it tends to consistently produce better sized fish.

Tailor will get more prevalent as the weather continues to cool off, but the early part of the season often sees the bigger fish caught locally. My preferred bait and rig are a small pilchard on a set of 3 x 3/0 ganged hooks. Sinker size will vary from unweighted up to about a four-ball sinker depending on where you are fishing and the conditions. Remember the legal size for tailor in Queensland is 35cm.

Dusky flathead have settled back into their inshore feeding areas after their summer spawning period closer to surf bars and you will find them in the Pine and Caboolture Rivers, Hays Inlet and along the foreshores. Hays Inlet and the fishing platform have consistently produced fish on live herring. You should expect an occasional flounder and bar tailed flathead mixed in with the dusky flathead. For those targeting flathead with lures, you are likely to pick up a trevally as well.

Land based fishing for yellowfin bream can be a great way to get the kids hooked on fishing. Yellowfin bream will be widespread throughout the lower reaches of the estuarine and inshore areas as this is the month the species starts to commence their autumn/winter spawning migration. Around the mouth of the Pine River and the fishing platforms on the Ted Smout Memorial Bridge will be a favoured location to target them, but they can found along most of the foreshore around high tide. Fishing at night with flesh baits such as fresh mullet strips will account for most of the better fish caught.

School mackerel have been caught land based at Woody Point and Shorncliffe Jetties and one lucky young fisherman nailed 1m+ cobia on a live bait at Shorncliffe Pier last month. More and more cobia are being caught in the western side of Moreton Bay and May is often the month that they are around in greater numbers.

Inshore reefs

Expect squire and a few grass sweetlip on the reefs for those that fish light and focus on dawn, dusk and at night. Mixed in with squire will be tailor and the occasional school mackerel if you are floating around pilchards. There will still be a few quality barred grunter around following the rains.

Beach fishing

Although the beaches got quite the working over during the last month or so, the late autumn conditions will start to see some good formations form. It can be a great month for fishing the surf beach at Moreton Island, particularly for swallowtail dart but bream and tarwhine will also be caught. Swallowtail dart can be prolific during the day and look for some deeper gutters with plenty of white water over them. The stretch of beach around the “gun emplacements” south to Long Point on Moreton Island is always a favoured stretch of beach for them, but they can turn up anywhere depending on the beach formations. Yabbies are the number one bait, although eugaries, beach worms or peeled prawns will produce some fish as well. Tides will depend on beach conditions, but the last part of the run-out and the early part of the run-in are good times to focus on.

A few tailor will be around the northern beaches of Moreton Island at dawn and dusk and into the early evening.

Crabbing and prawning

This is not a great month for mud crabbing and, if you are after a feed of crabs, it is best to target blue swimmer crabs. Both Bramble and Deception Bays yield good quality blue swimmer crabs this time of year. Remember to make sure your pots are properly marked.

For the cast netters, the banana prawns have been widespread after the rains and that should continue this month. Look for the concentrations of boats and that will where they will be. Bramble Bay and Deception Bay offshore of the mouth of the Caboolture River will be typical locations for them.

Offshore

There should be some good weather windows for offshore fishing this month. Snapper, pearl perch, teraglin and Venus tusk fish will be the main species caught. Very good catches of snapper including some really big fish were caught in both shallow and deep grounds last month and that should continue.

Spanish mackerel and cobia have been turning up offshore in good numbers although where varies from day to day. The recreational bag for Spanish mackerel is one fish per person, or two per boat with two or more people on board. The minimum size limit is 75cm. Cobia are a great species to catch, real powerhouses. They are unusual in that unlike most “bony fishes”, they lack a swim bladder and they must keep moving to maintain buoyancy.  

Daryl McPhee is an associate professor of environmental science at Bond University.