queensland Noosa offshore - North reef 16/12

[dhess]

After an extremely long time between offshore fishing sessions (mostly weather and work related) an opening finally came up.

After a longish tow up to Noosa usual deckie Karol and I met up with Dave (Daveylad at the Noosaville boat ramp at 3:45am. Putted out to the bar to be greeted by no wind and a flat bar. Easiest crossing ever. We headed straight out to North Reef and begun to sound productive areas from our last trip out that way. Sounded around a bit to find very little so we moved on until we found some half decent but hardly spectacular shows.

Finally set up a drift and soon had a couple of decent snaps come aboard after a few drifts. One just over 60cm and one close to 70cm. Its been a while since I have caught decent snapper. It had been a very quiet winter for me. The northwester blew up a bit and was beginning to get up over 10 knots but would die off again to nothing. Few more drifts and nothing. Sounded out some bait balls and jigged up a few livies. They were probably the biggest yakkas I have ever seen. They were hard to get hold of as the bait school was constantly on the move.

We did a long drift with livies out 2 down the bottom one up the top on wire. After about half an hour my livey got mutilated. Brought it up with a squashed head. Filetted it and sent it back down for a conversion to a nice tuskie. Few minutes later Daves livey goes off. A nice spaniard around the metre mark spits the hooks boatside much to our disgust. Next few drifts a few more grassies and a trag jew come on board. In the meantime we were entertained by two dolphins with a baby that took pillies from our hand.

Soon the call was made to have a troll as the wind was picking up. We headed out wider in the search of bluer water but all that we could find was murky green stuff. Two hours later we gave up and decided to head in.

On the way back we passed over the Jew Shoal to be greeted by some good looking shows. Dave suggested we have a drop and I called bullsh!t as I had never caught anything worth a damn in 20m deep water at midday. Straight away we are on and two legal grassies come on board. Soon after an undersized red emperor comes aboard. Tried redrifting but we must have spooked the fish as we struggled to lose a bait. By this time the wind was up to 15-20knots so it was time to come back in. Easy bar crossing but the Noosa River was darkest, murkiest brown I had ever seen.

All up a top day with great company as usual. Had a nice storm wash the boat down on the way home as well. It was also awesome to christen my new shimano talica reel which I am very impressed with. Super smooth, light and powerful.

Dave took a few pics so hopefully he will post them soon.

[rosstralia46]

awesome sounds like a great day will be great to to see the pics

[daveylad]

As Dhess said, great day I took a bit of time to get my fist with a nice Grassy Seetlip, the northelys were a bit of a pain and caused us to drift a little too fast but after weeks withlut a fish is was great to get out again. Coming back in we found a great spot some of the best bottom I've seen in the area definatley worth a 1st stop off point next time there were sure signs of macks in the area with birds smashing up min a few places but we wern't set up and just threw a few lines down and were quickly rewarded bit some more Grasssys. As dom said the dirty water was unbeliavble and this spot was just outside of that mark and I'd been told by a local to fish the edge of that mark where they meet. Thanks Dom for another great day.

[Eug]

good fish boys... get into the snaps while you still can

[ellicat]

Was this December or October ?

[dhess]

My mistake. Was pretty shagged when I was typing. Was meant to be 16/12/10. :blush:

[mick fillet]

nice day out dom. good to see the new reel has got the mojo. and yeah how awsome is it when ya get a free boat wash

[dhess]

nice day out dom. good to see the new reel has got the mojo. and yeah how awsome is it when ya get a free boat wash

I reckon it was the gay pride rainbow coloured braid that has the mojo and got the fish.:silly: Wasn't cheap but the Varivas JIgging Max braid is friggen awesome. It is stupidly thin for its strength and is really smoothe and just feels very nice.

[ryanyoung]

Great snap, and my girls loved seeing the pics of the dolphin.....nice report.

Cheers,

Ryan.

[dhess]

Thanks Ryan,

Shame we couldn't get any pics of the baby dolphin. That was really something.

[mick fillet]

totally off topic here

so there was a new born dolphin the other day at moreton with its mum obviously, it made the news head lines. on the news you might have seen it and marine park experts went on to say how the cow and calf wont have any form of socailising contact not even with the hand feeders at tangers the cow gets very protective and can show signs of agresion and will avoid all sorts of contact. what so ever :lol: :lol:

going by the pics you took dom i think these marine park experts need to go back to tech studies and do a refresher coarse on aparently what they know so much about.

i dont meal to get off topic this just come to my head when i seen ya pics nice pics btw

[tugger]

shame about the spanish getting away but there are some good snapper as the consilation prize, you should get another shot at the macks easy enough as i think this will be a great season

[daveylad]

couple of shots not tto clea but you can make out the baby next to the mother she was keeping it close to the boat but wouldnt allow it to come too close, she took pillies from Dhess's hand though

[daveylad]

[dhess]

Yeah total crock. She was taking pillies from my hand with her baby right next to her.

[daveylad]

Yeah total crock. She was taking pillies from my hand with her baby right next to her.

Dom's right he wouldnt tell a fishing story would he. Tuesday looks good

[mick fillet]

:lol: