Great Barrier Reef Early Dry Season: Trout, Trevally and Spanish Mackerel Firing Off Cairns

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your Great Barrier Reef fishing report. Up off Cairns and Port Douglas the reef’s had a light to moderate southeasterly blowing, 10–15 knots most of the day, enough chop to ruffle the edges but still very fishable inside the outer reef. Inshore waters have sat in the mid‑20s, nice green‑blue with about 10–15 metres of visibility on the clearer reefs. A few showers have pushed through with the trade winds, but plenty of sunny breaks. Sun popped up just after 6 a.m. local and is ducking away just before 6 p.m., giving a solid bite window around dawn and again late arvo when that light drops and the water calms off a touch. Tides on the reef today have been moderate neaps, not huge run but enough movement on the turns to fire things up. The top of the morning tide and the first of the run‑out have been the standouts, especially around pressure points, bommie edges and the mouths of deeper gutters. Fish activity’s been classic early‑dry‑season stuff. Skippers running the outer reef from Ribbon Reefs down toward Fitzroy are reporting good numbers of coral trout, spangled emperor and redthroat emperor off the pressure faces in 15–30 metres. A few solid nannygaoi and largemouth have come from the deeper rubble, plus the odd red emperor when the current eased. Spanish mackerel have been cruising the drop‑offs and bait balls, with sporadic surface bust‑ups when the bait pushes high. Inside the closer reefs and around the islands, schools of trevally and queenfish have been working the current lines, with smaller GTs harassing fusiliers on the points. Lure wise, it’s been hard to beat **5–7 inch soft plastics** in natural pilchard or pearl on 1–2 oz jigheads for trout and emperor, hopped down the ledges. **Metal jigs** in the 40–80 g range dropped into mid‑water have pinned plenty of trevally and the odd mack. Trolled **deep‑diving hardbodies** and **minnow‑style lures** in blue, green and mackerel patterns have been picking up Spaniards along reef edges at 5–7 knots. For surface mayhem on trevs and queenies, big stickbaits and poppers worked fast across bait schools have done damage. If you’re bait fishing, stick with the classics: **fresh pilchards, squid, and cut mullet** on paternoster or simple running rigs. Whole or butterflied garfish slow‑trolled along the face of the reef have tempted the better Spaniards. For reefies, a well‑presented strip bait or half pilly, kept just off the bottom, has outfished frozen stuff by a mile. Couple of hot spots to keep in mind: – **Outer reef off Cairns/Port Douglas**, especially the pressure edges of the mid‑shelf reefs where the current first hits the wall – prime for trout in the morning and Spaniards on the run. – **Around Fitzroy and Green Island reefs**, inside edges and channel mouths – good mixed bag of tuskfish, smaller trout, trevally and queenies, especially on the tide changes. That’s the word from the reef for now. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a report. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn