St Helens fishing map
Fishing spots
1. Troll for trevally and queenfish.
2. Grunter, golden snapper (fingermark), golden trevally and threadfin salmon.
3. Prawns and baitfish in this area.
4. Grunter, flathead, salmon, barramundi, whiting along mangrove edges and channel edges.
5. Barramundi, salmon, grunter on channel edges, whiting over flats.
6. Barramundi in holes on outside bends, mud crabs throughout.
7. golden snapper, barramundi, mangrove jacks , cod on deep bends throughout.
8. Good creek for mud crabs, grunter, barramundi, mangrove jacks .
9. whiting and flathead on the flats.
10. whiting, salmon and flathead along beach at high tide, with chance of golden trevally. Grunter and bream around rocks at end of beach.
11. Holes on bends have most species.
12. Good trolling along deep bank for barramundi, mangrove jacks , cod. Grunter on livebait.
13. Good trolling and bait fishing along deep bank.
14. Deep hole along bend has most species.
15. Flats edges fish well on big tides for flathead, salmon, golden trevally.
16. Troll deep bank, livebait deep bend for barramundi, cod, mangrove jacks – mud crabs throughout.
17. whiting, flathead, grunter, barramundi along flats edges on rising tide.
18. mangrove jacks along mangrove edge.
19. Good fishing on mangroves on large rising tide, mixed species.
20. Livebait deep areas for mixed species.
21. Fish channel edge.
Boat ramps
A. St Helens, mid-upper tide.
B. Murray Creek boat ramp on Little Bogga Rd. Turn off the Bruce Highway at the Mt Pelion turn-off.
St Helens holiday community is adjacent to a large expanse of drying estuary and mangrove-lined tidal creeks.
This region encompasses a large zone that was closed to commercial netting in 2015.
Boaters can fish several productive creeks, along with endless flats, channels, mangrove edges and nearby islands.
Rocky shorelines can be productive, with big barramundi caught in calm warm weather.
Landbased fishing from the community beach near the picnic area produces mainly bread and butter species on bigger tides, with the chance of large threadfin salmon, queenfish or golden trevally showing up.
Fishing usually fires up after a big summer wet season, with average fishing in dry years.
Anecdotal reports suggest fishing has markedly improved since the net closure.
The area is however challenging to fish.
The estuaries, creeks and coastal waters are shallow and subject to huge tides, leaving extensive drying flats at low tide.
Launching and navigating is easier and safer towards high tide.
Many boaters launch at high tide, fish the low and incoming tide, and return to the ramp on the high.
During larger tides it becomes rough when wind and tide are opposed, especially around points.
The water clears during the smaller neap tides. A good time to fish with lures is just after the dead neaps as the tidal cycle begins to pick up, while the water is still clear.
During bigger tides some creeks are suited to tidal lock-in fishing using a dinghy or yak, leaving the boat and walking the holes and casting along the edges where the sand is firm enough to do so.
The tide can come in fast so don’t walk too far from the boat.
The tidal flats have mostly flathead, whiting, threadfin and blue salmon, barramundi, golden trevally and bream.
In the creeks, work the drains on a falling tide, and the mangrove and channel edges on a rising tide.
Barramundi are best in warm weather, keeping in mind the Queensland annual closed season.
Cod, sweetlip, tuskfish and coral trout are within range of a 4m tinnie in good weather, with shallow reefs around the islands producing fish.
Mackerel, queenfish and trevally are caught on the inshore reefs by trolling and casting.
Golden trevally are often prevalent on inshore reefs and sometimes off the beaches, and permit are occasionally caught.
Mud crabs are found throughout the estuaries, with numbers varying from year to year.
During big tides crab pots should be well secured or they will wash away, or at the least the floats will go under.
Nonetheless, big tides can produce crabs, with the action on the early push in.
Prawn runs are usually good in summer, especially during wet summers, and yabbies (nippers) can be collected for bait on many flats.
Collecting yabbies is worth the effort for big whiting, with quality fish taken at night.
There are sealed boat ramps at Murray Creek and Victor Creek.
St Helens tides
St Helens coastline on Beachsafe
QLD fishing regulations
QLD marine parks
Return to QLD fishing map
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