Wellington Point for newbies.

[rayke1938]

This is going to be a test of my typing skills as I am copying this from a 1970 Telegraph fishing guide . Do not think I will have to worry about copyright

Some of the best reef fishing inside Moreton bay is available within rowing distance from shore.

There is an abundance of reef at Wellington point and it stretches from King Island to right back to the channel leads in a north south direction.

In fact those boaties who choose to cut the corner into the channel back to the ramp when the tide is out find that the reef has extended further than they thought.

The best guide to productive fishing spots is the Huybers light beacon.This is a large structural beacon and easily visible from shore.

Using it as a pivot , an arc of 100 yards around the light pin points the area where most big fish are caught.

Snapper to 20lb are regularly caught here.

Naturally enough it would be expecting too much to catch fish of that size every trip but fish to 7 lb make up the bulk of the hauls.

It is often puzzling how certain spots fish better than others at certain times of the day and the Huybers is not an exception to this.

More often than not anglers will find the best hauls from it will be caught on a early morning trip, especially those coinciding with a high tide around 8am till 10am. The fish seem to come on the bite at first light and go off not long after the turn of the tide.

Of course snapper are not the only fish caught there.

In 2winter there is an exception as tailor and mackerel are caught in the night from the same arc.

Just to add to the confusion to help the fish anglers who stay on after mid morning will be rewarded with quality sweetlip.

There is not much that the Huybers does not offer the boating angler.It is one spot there it is possible to plan a trip with a better than average prospect of catching the targeted fish.

Bait is important . It must be fresh. Snapper in the area are very partial to whole w/a pillys on a 2 or 3 gang hook.

Hook size not as a critical a consideration.but is seems a common fault of anglers is to fish with hooks that are too large.Hooks between 2/0 and 4/0 are more than adequate.

If in doubt it pays to use a smaller size. Wire traces seem to be a thing of the past and should be only used for mackerel ant tailor.

Exact choice of location at the Huybers can be critical ,even though the area has been pinpointed to 100 yards.A deep channel runs between it and the south end of Green Island and most of the surface fish seem to travel through this course of water. So best results of surface fish will come from the north side of the beacon.

Although there is some run in the water best results will come with baits with minimal weight.

In fact most fish seem to favour unweighted baits which have been cast up tide and allowed to drift back to reefs edge.

So this is another factor to consider when choosing where to anchor.

Wind and tide on the day will determine whether you anchor out from the reef and hang towards it or anchor inside the beacon on top of the reef and fish away from it.

A tip worth noting for sweetlip is to move right on top of the reef at high tide as this is where the fish move to feed.

But be very wary as the reef shallows off very quickly and is not friendly with propellers.

Sweetlip have a favorite bait in squid either whole small squid or in strips.

Line strength need not be monstrous. Anything between 12 and 20 pound is adequate.

Whether to use rod or hand line is personal choice.

Similarly the choice of reel is up to you but is is hard to go past the alvey side cast for value and simplicity.

Anyone prepared to explore the reef around the corner from the Huybers and the edge right back to the ramp leads will be often rewarded with good fish.

Just to cap off what is a fine all round fishing spot the same area yields excellent hauls of sand crabs,yet 9 out of 10 anglers choose to speed past in search of fish much further afield.

That is all the article the rest is about Cleveland and its a bit outdated is it is pre raby bay.

When reading this it was written pre general use of fish finders and you were lucky to afford an AWA flasher depth sounder but a lot of it is still true for today and it also gives a bit of an insight of fishing nearly 40 years ago when my Dad often said the fishing isn't what it was when I was young. So nothing really changes does it?

Hope you enjoy and it helps you catch a biggun.

Cheers

Ray

[nabs]

Great read.

Im a fan of Wellington point, its such a short paddle in the kayak to some great fishing.

Ive also done alright fishing for bream in the shallow water over the reef.

Cheers

[tugger]

thanks heaps ray its local to me and i did'nt know about the beacon before but an old profisfer told me about the tailor and mackerel in this general area, thanks again i give it a try and post results soon i hope

[Angus]

Yeah Im a fan as well. Especially Kayak fishing.

The good thing is even without a sounder, you can get a very good idea of the drop off even visually.

Really looking forward to the swap meet and giving this spot another crack.

Angus

[dru]

great report. I'm yakking Wello tonight - might just give Huybers a chance.

[Davo_Dinkum]

that's some good handy info thanks ray.

give's a spot to all try.

time doesn't matter a spot is a spot unless the dredge or change the water way.

i think my dad's first sounder when i was a kid was a AWA sounder or something like that.it used paper roll,would draw a graph on it.

[straddiebrad]

is that light or beacon hard to find. brad

[rayke1938]

straddiebrad wrote:

is that light or beacon hard to find. brad

Stands out like the proverbial flashes red every 4 seconds.

Cheers

Ray