queensland A Couple Of Early Morning Sessions

[Gangemstyle]

Been a while since I've fished the shallow reefs at Wellington Pt. Managed to fit in two very early morning sessions this week, and I'm glad I got up when the alarm went off. Is it my imagination or is sunrise getting earlier and earlier?

The sweetlip were on the chew on the first outing. Hooked 7 decent fish and landed 3. They don't muck around when they take the bait, nearly lost both rods on simultaneous strikes. And grassies are such dirty fighters over shallow reefy ground. Twice I managed to turn their heads and still they managed to dive and brick me right under the boat.

Here's the result of the session: 3 surprisingly fat sweetlip 31-34cm - and the obligatory bream.

Tried a different spot this morning and the first cast resulted in this fella in about 30 seconds. I must have put the bait right on top of it.

It then went quiet. The sweetlip were certainly not as aggressive today. I picked up another one of similar size some time later. As there wasn't much happening, out came the 6lb whiting outfit for whiptail and butter bream to replenish the bait supplies. While I was tidying up ready to pull stumps, the little rod bends over and the sienna 1000 starts screaming. Hmm, this is bad. The 8lb leader is probably a little *too* sporting for whatever was on the end of the line. Incredulously the line remained intact despite run after run after run. Eventually it popped up alongside the boat. Ah, this is why it didn't brick me

Measuring 36cm, it wasn't going to break any record but it sure was great fun on 6lb. I find snapper run harder and longer than sweetlips but they rarely bust off. This is the 5th snapper in excess of 35cm (largest was 40cm) that I've landed on the 6lb 1-3kg whiting rod. Sooner or later that rod is going to break lol.

Another satisfying morning. I'm surprised to see only a handful of boats on the reefs at Wellington Pt. Everybody seems to speed off towards Moreton Island or North Straddy. There's certainly some decent fish to be caught. Don't expect monsters, although an old guy I chatted to at the ramp said he picked up a 47cm sweetlip the other week. Hang on, what was that I said about monsters?

Cheers!

[Madmic]

Nice catch! Certainly was worth the effort. Looks like you had a great day 

[timtam_]

Well done!!!! During the week will always yield better results. What was your fresh bait?

[Gangemstyle]

Thanks! Yep, it is quite quiet out there during the week. When I fish on weekends, I go for garfish and avoid all the popular spots.

I usually use garfish but butter bream will do fine. Do you find that sweetlip are gluttons? They seem to eat anything. We had one for dinner, it was good. Sometimes, particularly around Raby Bay, they smell and taste weedy.

[Luvit]

Best time of the day seeing the sun rise. Good size fish and great sport fish on light line.

Couldn't comment on the weedy taste for that area, don't fish there.

 

Nice report.

[Gangemstyle]

Luvit, I haven't fished Raby Bay for years Apart from weed smoking fish (which also includes squire/snapper), it is sometimes infested with giant metal cutting toadfish things.

The sunrise was beautiful alright. I should try it more often, if I can.

[Gangemstyle]

Madmic, can't complain

 

[Luvit]

Look forward to more reports. 

[The Mad Hughesy]

chunky as! must be hitting the xmas pudding early this year

[kmcrosby78]

Couple of good sessions there mate, well done. I'm planning on trying exactly that quite a few times over the school holiday period, both in my tinny and also my yak. Out of interest were you on the water pre-dawn for either of these and if so was the bite better before the sun rose? I'll have to work out how early to get up when the time comes ......

[Gangemstyle]

Christophagus, I reckon! The gut cavity of every fish was lined with fat. So who's been dumping Christmas puddings in the bay??

[Gangemstyle]

Kmcrosby78, thanks. They were definitely better than expected. I was on the water before the sun peeked over the islands. Not that it makes much difference, I don't think. I got these two on a bright calm Sun arvo a few months ago. Again hardly any boats fishing the shallow reefs, despite at least fifty trailers at the car park.

I think it's more important that the places you fish are nice and quiet. No offence to tinny owners out there, in my own experience anyway, I have rarely caught decent fish when fishing in vicinity of tinnies clanking away on shallow reefs during daylight hours. My catch rate seems to have improved heaps since swapping the Allycraft (Yes I too was a tinny owner in a previous life ) for a plastic boat.

Good luck, hope you get a few. Let me know if you're heading out, might see you on the water.

Cheers

[samsteele115]

what a great session! Well done. Good number of sweetlip too

[benno573]

Fresh flesh baits are the go for grassys. If you pick up a pike they are one of my favorites to use followed closely by whiptails.

 

couple of good sessions there for sure. Early morning I'd recommend putting a floating pillie or gar out on a slightly heavier rig (or a floating whole whiptail/pike fillet), you often get school or spotted macks in there and snapper and bigger grassys will happily take them near the surface as well. 

[Gangemstyle]

Hi Benno, thanks for the tips! Interesting that you should mention macks. I haven't seen any spotted macks hanging around the reefs at Wello Pt but I've had a couple of surprise run-ins with school macks this year during the cooler months. I notice the water temp in Jul and Aug was still 18-20 degrees. Only landed two, bitten off too many times to count - my fault for not carrying the right rigs.

The pike you get here is a great all rounder, compared to the stinky long fin pike we used to hate catching in southern NSW. Skinned and filleted, the bigger ones actually make pretty good fish and chips.

I haven't caught many snapper (not even baby ones that usually swarm in plague numbers) at Wello, it's mainly grassies, bream, moses perch and tuskfish. As somebody pointed out, light is best but at the expense of losing the odd big one that comes along.

[ellicat]

On 11/30/2016 at 4:36 PM, Gangemstyle said:

Is it my imagination or is sunrise getting earlier and earlier?

Still around 9.30 at my place

 

A good weeks fishing. Haven't been to Wello for years. Used to be plagued with undersized squire. Never saw a grassy. Seems things are different for you.