PB Upgrade 3 times at Mud

[Aquaholic]

I upgraded my boat back in 2009 from an old Mustang 4.3mtr runabout to a Yalta 555. Since the upgrade I have opten reflected back to the good ol days in the Mustang, and the great catches that I made during the time I owned her.

Because my options have opened up significantly, bringing offshore fishing into the mix has meant spending less time doing what I had become.... well.... to be honest, pretty good at catching Snapper on soft plastics in Moreton Bay, while other forms of fishing offshore have also brought home the bacon, but less frequently and very much weather dependent as I learned more. Lately my saturdays (only fish on Saturdays) have seldom lined up with perfect weather, and when old mate Rick has let me know his availability for a fish, it has seldom worked out for him. We have either had to cancel the trip, or go out anyway despite less than favourable conditions.

Let me explain a bit about Rick. His bad luck over the last few years has been incredible when it comes to fishing with me. I have not been able to put him on to big fish. He first came out with me and his brother in law, both newbies to soft plastics, preferring bait, that's OK, they fished with stonker ball sinkers and floater rigs while I cast all around them. 1st trip was 4 /0 to me. I still preferred plastics 3 or 4 years ago, these days I use whatever works, jigs, trolled lures, plastics.... anything that works! We have been bringing home "some" fish on Ricks outings with me, but nothing to take a lot of drag and give him that adrenalin rush that Rick was so desperate to have experienced. Lets face it, a bay PB snapper of 45cm is not going to reach headline news.

Sat 12th we planned a second trip out, Rick, myself, and Ricks friend Steve. This was our second attempt, 3 weeks ago it was a fizzer, caught a small feed of snapper before going offshore through south passage bar, Steve fed the fish his breakfast... twice.... before I called it and headed back inside for the poor buggar, puking was turning him off his love for fishing real fast. Steve was also a novice to soft plastics, and I was able to fine tune his skills a little, but I could tell he still was a doubter when I told him stories of big snapper being caught in the bay.

With mixed reports of nice snapper coming from Mud I decided to return to my methods of old which I used to do 9 out of every ten trips in the old Mustang runabout. Hit the water around 5, out to Mud, sun was up already, still cold with a sw blowing, but not too bad. Fishing was VERY slow, a nibble, a hook up for me actually was a surprise, nice snap at 53cm.. By now Rick was going off... Brian's got his mojo, oh man... I want a fish like that one.... when is it ever going to be my turn!!! All of a sudden both boys were re rigging their gear to exactly the same as I was using, 1/8th Walley 3/0 Gamakatsu 603 red hooks and small 3" gulp banana prawn shad. I told the boys I was trying to emulate a small baitfish.... which obviously worked. It didn't take long for that packet of gulps to dissapear with 3 of us using the same thing! We ran out of 3" gulps, time to try a Zman curly tail grub... another couple of hours passed, wind is starting to ease, looks Rick is falling asleep and I am trying to keep their spirits high by telling them " don't worry boys, it can be very quiet some times when you will suddenly be smashed by a russian sub, so keep trying" Not long after it did, bang, zzzzziiiiinggggg! Wow, this fish has got some speed! Rick kept his cool, turned the fish fair easily, his PB snapper of 60cm hits the deck. Finally! Rick has a PB snapper bigger than 45cm on a soft plastic!! High fives, and now Steve is acting up, more like a 7 year old school boy saying - give me a break, I have not caught anything except a small flounder about an hour before. So I set up another drift NW of Mud, and off he goes!! Oh no! Only 10 seconds and he was already on the backing of his spool. Rick is giggling like a girl " that's what happens when you use spiders web for line" on a miniature threadline otherwise suited to bass fishing which Steve loves doing... I started the boat, whacked it in reverse and he got enough line back to land a 60cm Estuary cod. Nice!

We settled into another drift, different location on Marks I pulled two 63cm snapper out of around 5 years ago.... Bang! Rick's line is screaming off!! Hang in there brother, don't touch your drag, even if you think you will be spooled right now was my advice given. Turn fish turn!! Some line started coming back, in comes a 68cm snapper. By now Rick is somewhere in the clouds, he can't believe this soft plastics fishing, this is awesome stuff. I said on my boat, it often goes in 3's so its your day today mate!! We returned the favour of decimating Ricks bag of soft plastics, quickly rigging exactly the same as what he had. Still 1/8th 3/0 jigheads and a sardine colour rubber I can't remember the brand, a new one by me, never seen them before, but hey, who cares! They work!

Rick kept trying for that 3rd fish I told him that he was lining up for and .... he got it! A bigger 70cm Snapper this time. Hows that? 3 upgrade PB's in one day. Priceless! Steve finished the day without a legal snapper, but a feed including a legal flathead, home by 3pm and one happy bunch of mates. Stevo's final works left a nice sentiment to the days fishing. " Never would have beleived you could catch fish if this quality using soft plastics in the bay" It's taken me about 4 years as the skipper to finally put Rick onto nice fish using plastics. From the doubting thomas you were when I first showed you mate, to now. Congratulations, well done!

Aquaholic

[tugger]

Some nice snaps looks like the new boat might has some mojo like the old one had in the bay

[Bill_V]

Awesome stuff, good to see a report from Mud Is. That was a good read, you guys must be stoked and I am stoked for ya.

[Doobsy]

Some very nice Bay snaps.

Great report. A day your mate will not soon forget I'm sure.

[TIM D]

Good work Brian, you have certainly put a few blokes onto their PB bay Snapper now :cheer:

Did Rick and Steve like your custom jigheads ?

cheers tim

[Aquaholic]

Good work Brian, you have certainly put a few blokes onto their PB bay Snapper now :cheer:

Did Rick and Steve like your custom jigheads ?

cheers tim

They did! They went for a darker colour that I only made two of for my own use. Buggar! This is the actual jighead that caught the 70cm fish, a little beaten up, but would still catch fish!!

Aquaholic

[kmcrosby78]

Nice session and a well written account of it mate - well done!!!! Am hoping to take my two best mates out to Mud for the first time this year (been a busy one!!) - hopefully on Sunday. Mind if I ask roughly what water depth you were fishing? I've only ever anchored at Mud so need to start doing some drifting and exploring.

[Hfisho77]

enjoyed that read mate! congrats on putting everyone onto some fish, definitely a memorable session

[Aquaholic]

Nice session and a well written account of it mate - well done!!!! Am hoping to take my two best mates out to Mud for the first time this year (been a busy one!!) - hopefully on Sunday. Mind if I ask roughly what water depth you were fishing? I've only ever anchored at Mud so need to start doing some drifting and exploring.

Thanks!

There are mainly 3 areas that hold snapper of this quality around Mud, there are no real secrets and its funny how we are so guarded about them, only to find out when you get there that you find it hard to drift through a zillion anchored boats. The areas are west Mud, the cardinal markers tell you where the drop offs are, look for anywhere from 5.5mtrs to 10 mtrs. The sounder will show you rough rubble ground here.

North west of Mud around the cardinal markers - this ground has an amazing variety from 5-8 mtrs south of the cardinal, but drops down to more than 10 mtrs north of that marker with occasional shallower ground.

East of Mud - known by some as the car park. I have caught fish here, but not that often because I hate crowds. If you can't avoid crowds on busy days, fish down current from the boys putting out burley trails at anchor

Good luck!

Aquaholic

[kmcrosby78]

Thanks for the advice mate. The first time I went there I stumbled on a little bit of structure about 40m from the NW cardinal and scored a couple of squire, then got a couple more when I took my mates there, since then have scored a few more and had 3 big runs from longies last year (didn't land any of them unfortunately!!). So apart from one time when I went and tried the NE cardinal in slightly deeper water, I've always gone back to this same spot to save 'wasting time' looking for a new spot/area.

But yeah, time to drift around these other areas and see what is around. Just picked up a little handheld GPS a few weeks back so will keep an eye on the sounder and look for structure while I drift.

Thanks again.