queensland cleveland 26/4

[badboygibbo]

Me and my mate headed out into the bay in our little tinnie and anchored up on the bank next to the main straddie barge channel. We got some berley in the water which proved to be one of the key factors to catching fish out there. I had a 6-10 kg heavier set up with a big chunk of squid on one of my rods and my smaller 2-4 kg pfleuger trion with 8lb braid waas set with a size 1 hook and smaller strips of squid.

It started off slow but as the berley got working, the baitfish showed up and the bites started. Tom (mate) started us off with a 30cm -ish snapper that was chucked back and then i caught a nice 27cm bream.

After this, tom managed a 36cm tailor on squid which put on a good display, jumping a few times and then his rod started going crazy and i could notice that his line was very high in the water column as the fish was taking a LOT of line from his spool. After a fairly long battle on light gear including a lot of line tangles, we got first glimpse of his fish and to our suprise it was a shark. After letting it tire itself out around the boat, we got it into the boat and it turned out to be a small bronze whaler. It measured 80cm to tip of tale an we were both happy with his catch, especially because he was using 12lb leader, a size one hook and a little bit of squid. After this, we got a few more smallish snapper, whiting, bream untill it was my turn and my reel started screaming, the fight was alot shorter this time but more intense when the fish firstly took a massive run into the channel, right at the straddie ferry and then running back to me under the boat, around the motor and anchor until i got him in the net. It was more or less the same fish, a smallish bronzy but this one was a little bit shorter also on light mono leader and strip of squid.

We made a move to a different spot after this and caught countless just under snapper and a few other species. We had lunch and moved back to our first spot when the tide was a bit lower. The action here was non - stop for about 2 hours with about 20 - 30 snapper caught, almost all were about 30 - 35 cm with one at 36. Loads of bream with one more keeper coming at 30cm, a shovelnose, and some more smaller fish.

So all up we went home with 2 bream, 1 snapper, 1 bronzie, the shovellie and the tailor along with 3 keeper sandies from a couple of pots out on the edge of the channels.

So i would like to know, what should i do to get past the smaller snapper and try for a couple of bigger ones? different baits? fish in the deeper water?

Thanks for reading

Paul

[Keechie]

awesome work, any photo's?

[Cowfish13]

Sounds like a fun trip out.

Those bronzie's may not be Bronzies though. The last 2 times we've been out (one near where you were, and one near Mud) we've caught heaps of small School Sharks (well atleast, I think they are :S I think we've got some pics which we could upload later to ID it) These have mostly been taken on squid, in quick succession. They've also constantly been swallowing the hook (not down to their stomach, but enough that they are biting on the line), yet even with around 6-8kg mono,we havn't been bitten off once :dry:

I'll get a pic of one up later to see if they're the same. I'm not too good at ID'ing sharks, so I might be wrong as well

Plenty of Sharks in the bay atm anyway

[badboygibbo]

This post seemed to go missing on my comp so i didnt reply ... erm we did take some pics on my mates camera but i havent got them and probably will never get them:lol:

I am not sure if it was a bronze whaler or not, I was just going with what my mate said they were as he's caught them before so it could have been a school shark. We both were quick to strike with the sharks and hooked them on the lips outside the mouth but i am guessing we almost hooked one before, that chewed through the leader.

Paul