Fishing Townsville area

[Haggis01]

G'day all, I've just moved to Townsville and was wanting to know any good spots to fish. I don't have a boat so I'm a little land locked. Places such as the Haughton River etc. would be a start. pictures and ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks Haggis01:-/

[Scott nthQld]

You don't have to travel far some some top landbased fishing spots in Townsville.

The marina breakwalls behind the casino are a great start and very easy to get to. You can get barra, jacks, fingermark, tarpon, grunter, cod and if you walk roight out to the end, there have been mackeral caught of there as well, and thats to name just a few species. The strand rockpool is another hotspot that fires for me occassionally for the same and more species listed above.

then there the various creeks along Rowes bay, and off the rocks at Pallerenda.

These are a just a few spots that are easy to get to, and yeild good fish quite regularly and all very close together, with Pallerenda being the furthest away so you'll be dreading the 15-30min drive depending on where your based from.

Not only are they good spots, but there downstrean from the ross river national park boat ramp, the weirs; Aplins (salt/fresh) Gleesons (fresh) and Black's (fresh), rooneys Bridge on Railway Avenue, Bowen Road bridge are all known to fire really well.

not to mention places on the haughton, Bohle, and the northern Beaches that often get overlooked, but produce very well at times.

[Fisher4life]

Mate at this time of the year, your best bet would be live baiting or fishing with the SP's or Hard body lures around the weirs on the ross river. Aplins is always a good shot for a barra or jack, Aplins is the last weir separating the salt and fresh.

Black weir is fishing well at the moment in the fresh water for barra also using popular barra lures and SP's. Black weir is down next to the weir primary school on ross river road near the willows shopping centre.

The rock break walls out near the casino are also very popular for livebaiting with the locals.

Good luck

Josh

[the lobster]

Scott's pretty much covered the best spots but I think I can add a few more. The key around here is to get live bait. So learn how to throw a cast net if you don't know already, any of the tackle stores will show you how. The Lakes in Currajong is a great place to get live bait. You see guys casting for bait all the time in the canal along Woolcock St.

There are a few boat ramps on the Ross River around South Townsville and Railway Estate and fishing from these can be decent at times. The most popular is the main ramp known as the National Park ramp. There's a fair bit of room there.

Also the Northern end of Pallarenda can fish well at times, up near the rocks.

There are quite a few places to fish near the Bohle River boat ramp at Bushland Beach. If you find it on Google Earth (19°11'58.28"S, 146°42'0.23"E) you can see the tracks to the creeks near the boat ramp. Can be decent but is pretty heavily fished at times.

They get some good sized whiting among other things off the northern beaches (Bushland, Saunders, Toolakea etc), you can pump yabbies up there too.

There are some spots at Blacksoil down near AIMS but I haven't fished there personally. Do a search on here for blacksoil.

I have caught school mackerel of the end of the breakwater at the right time of year, and that's probably my favourite land based spot. Live bait is the best like mullet or herring, but I've caught them on whole dead pillies floated about 1.5m below the surface. If there's bait chopping up the surface you know the macks are around. You have to go to the end of the second wall (the North Western wall) for best results. It can be hard work getting out there, especially if it's hot because you have to rock hop the 700m or so to the end. But I've found it's worth the hike.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I've never fished Magnetic Island but I'd say there are some decent spots over there.

Check out Bad Bubby's website, it's gold:
http://www.freewebs.com/badbubby/townsville.htm

matt