September Fishing Report 2026
Phill’s first ever Pemit!
September in the Cape;
September is probably my personal favourite month up here in Cape York. We’re coming out of the winter groove, the days are finally getting hot, water temperatures spike and the fish metabolism starts to fire up. It feels like there is life everywhere.
We had some unseasonal wind for just over a week which made conditions challenging for a little while, but outside of that it has been a cracking month.
Permit, the star of the show
We essentially put 90% of our time and effort into chasing the endemic T. anak permit, in arguably one of the best places in the world to do it.
Numbers of fish explode as they start moving into larger schools, and for the most part they are hungry. It’s not just the big schools either. We see them in almost every situation you could imagine. Singles, pairs, small groups, moving fast on the surface, daisy chaining, feeding hard over mussel beds throughout a tide, moving midwater or simply rolling around together with nowhere in particular to be.
No two days are the same, and that is what keeps us on our toes.
A lot of permit have been caught this month, with plenty of clients also ticking off their first. Congratulations to everyone who got it done!
The highlight of the month would have to be Scotty guiding Danny to his first ever permit, a massive 83cm fork length fish. You won’t find them much bigger than that. What a way to break your cherry!
83cm fork Anak is a very large fish, especially for your first ever!
Bastards, Tuskies and Milkfish
Blue Bastards and Tuskfish have been a great backup option when permit shots are few and far between, or when clients want to change things up. Both have still been around in exceptional numbers.
Milkfish have also been showing up in good numbers and are always a great option when you want to bend a rod. We’ve put a lot of time into figuring these fish out over the last few years, and it’s certainly starting to pay off.
Offshore
The offshore fishing has also finally started to fire, with multiple bait balls popping up daily just outside the flats.
It’s been great to see, as things never really kicked off this year at the time they normally would. Better late than never!
The Rivers
The rivers are heating up fast, with Barramundi, Threadfin Salmon and Mangrove Jack starting to come out of their winter slump.
A lot of clients have been more than happy to convert a few numbers and mix things up between the flats and the estuaries, and it has been great to see the rivers starting to come alive again.
October
October is a special month up here. It marks the start of our doldrum period, with sunny, calm mornings and blistering heat. I’ve been looking forward to sweating it out for some time now!
Barramundi season closes on 7 October, so our estuary focus will shift towards sight fishing for Salmon, Jacks, Fingermark and whatever else we can find.
But as always, our predominant focus will still be on permit.
Cheers, The Flux Team
