fishing the leads in cairns

[martib]

hey all you fnq boys i was thinking of heading out to the leads on monday as ive never fished them i was hoping someone could give me some tips/advise on how to fish them.
any advice would be great.

cheers marty

[martib]

any cairns lads got any tips??????????????

[Moffy]

Hi Marty,

Depends on what you're chasing. This time of year there "should" be some decent doggie macks around - either live baiting/drifting a pilchard or trolling. I've found that they can be hit and miss and particularly sometimes will only take a certain lure - whether that's the one that's running at the right depth or not i've yet to work out. The humble spoon can work well if nothing else is working .

You might find you need to drop back to mono leaders if you are drifting pillies to get the bites.

I typically head out to about the 4th last lead or so and start trolling through to the end leads - you will find that they are often in patches and can then concentrate there.

Take some bait jigs as there is usually plenty of big sards out the end lead - but don't expect to get them back up every time - have had sessions where big queenies (or others pelagics) will nail them every time before you can get them to the top. Also a big grouper at the end lead.

Have had some decent days jigging soft plastics around the pylons too - but can be hard work.

Have seen tuna around within reach as well - but most boats tend to race over and scare them off (and if they don't the charter boats heading out probably will) - so good luck chasing them (but they are there at times).......

You will occasionally find some big pelagics out there - have had metre long queenies, big GTs, cobia and spanish macks around at times, along with plenty of sharks. But the doggie macks are the main thing to expect at this time of year. I typically start with a few troll runs and then if no dice - try a drift with a berley trail with pillies out at different depths (or livies if you have them)

I find its a good morning's fishing to break the boredom when the weather isn't too crash hot as you can comfortably fish it up to about 15kn SEly (i have a 3.9m tinny) as you are generally well protected there - it won't be flat - but at trolling speed or drifting its not too bad - just make sure you time your trips to come back in on an outgoing tide - so the wind is with the tide - the SEly pumps straight out the leads in close and the waves will stand up on a big run in (i like mornings with a 9:00-10:00 high - gives you a decent few hours and then don't have to wait too long to head back in if nothings doing.

If its calm enough there's also other options once you are out the end lead (depends on your boat and how far you want to travel).

Moffy.