October is generally renowned for being one of the windier months of the year; however this year is definitely an exception, with most days lately bringing light winds and calm seas.

After last week’s mayhem with the baitfish schools arriving in force, this week has been a little bit quieter, although there has still been some exceptional catches being taken around the place.

Big mackerel tuna and queenfish have been busting up on the baitfish schools along the west side beaches early in the morning. It’s been a matter of being in the right spot at the right time, when the fish bust up close enough to shore for the lucky angler to fire a cast amongst the school with a small metal lure. The mack tuna have been averaging about 6kg and when you hook them off the beach put up an awesome fight, sometimes taking as much as 200m of line with their first run. The queenfish have been of good size too, with most being around the 4-5kg mark.

The gulf is holding big schools of bait, that is provided all the tuna, sailfish, mackerel and sharks haven’t eaten it all yet. It is quite a sight to see a full feeding frenzy happening with a big mass of bait starting at the size of tennis court being eaten away to virtually nothing by the feeding pelagics, but that’s exactly what’s been happening in the gulf over the past fortnight. The sailfish have arrived in good numbers and some of the longtail tuna being caught have exceeded 15kg.

Tantabiddi water has been crystal blue and with the water temperature warming up, this summer looks like it’s going to be a great season for all manners of game fish. Already there has been good numbers of marlin and sailfish being seen as well as plenty of wahoo and some big dolphin fish.

Bottom fishing around the Muiron islands has been good too. Red emperor, spangled emperor and rankin cod have been the main catch with depths of between 40-60m of water being most productive.