queensland The Pin Sunday 3/3

[benno573]

Hi all,

Hit the water about 9am yesterday with Matty (Viper83) on board, launched out of jacobs well. Pumped some yabbies on the way through and dropped the pots in at a spot where we have had some success on the muddies of late. Stopped off at a spot where we tried to catch some livies in the cast net with limited success, i managed to net a big mullet around 40cm which was bled and destined for a curry sometime this week. We then anchored up and threw some lines in. We had a reasonably constant supply of small bream to keep us amused, as well as a few rays, including one that nearly spooled me on 4lb. Matty was first on the board that counts with a nice whiting around 29cm, followed not long after by a bream about the same length. We then decided to do a run on the pots and that's when the mayhem began...

First pot we pulled had about 12 crabs in it, two of them looked like they might be worth measuring but seperating them from the others was a fun exercise. We worked out if we try and only tip one crab out at a time it's not too hard, unfortunately no-one told the crabs to wait their turn. Every pot was a similar story and by the end of the run we had 12 keepers in a very full esky! :woohoo: 4 crabs that were size were thrown back as they were hollow.

We rebaited the pots as we went and dropped them back down and went to anchor somewhere out of the wind which was gusting up to about 20kn by this stage. found a nice little drop off and threw the lines in. Again, small bream were in plague proportions but in amongst them i managed a whiting at 31cm, matty added another one at 25cm not long after. I got a small enquiry and then set the hooks on what i hoped was another whiting only to have the rod bend insanely and the drag start to scream. initial thought was another ray but the bite was different and i could feel a few headshakes here and there... i was not convinced on it being a ray so I backed the drag off a little and played the fight out. after about 5 minutes i saw the leader knot and the got a fleeting glimpse of my opponent before he peeled off another 20m of line which resulted in yells of 'get the bluddy net'!

another couple of minutes later and matty slid the net under a brown morwong of just on 5kg, a first for me. despite the size of the fish, the size 2 mustard bloodworm long shank held on and it just goes further to prove my theory of "everything eats yabbbies". Was a really good fight on 10lb gear. bled him out and into the esky he went.

The day was getting away a little and the wind was up to about 25kn so we pulled the anchor and went to collect the pots. not quite as many crabs as last run but there was another 4 keepers amongst them and another two of size thrown back due to being hollow.

ended up with 3 whiting, a bream, a mullet and a morwong on the fish front and 16 keeper muddies. Not a bad day out really...

[maxi]

healthy feed there mate ...

[rosstralia46]

Top session guys good feed there

[billp]

Good result. About the only thing the blubber lip will be good for is more crab pot bait. Terrible to eat, but a good sport fish when targeting bream and whiting.

[bootyinblue]

Great feed of crab, how was the colour of the water? I was going to head there today just so I had something to write a report about, but wind and rain at 4am helped my decision to stay under the covers.

[benno573]

water quality pretty poor and set to get worse looking at the rivers flowing into the area (logan, albert etc were all running very fresh). on the high tide close to the pin it was ok, changed very quickly on the outgoing. was quite surprised at the amount of fish caught.

have eaten brown morwong before. found it perfectly acceptable eating (yeah ok, it's not red emperor), like all of the family they need to be bled well and iced upon capture.

and thank you to the mod who inserted the pics... :kiss:

[Gregpen]

Well rewarded for your efforts guys, well done and thanks for posting a report that I enjoyed reading on a rather slow Monday morning.

[bootyinblue]

Yea I think the seawater flush on the incoming has a lot more to do as there is plenty of muddy fresh that needs to flow out.

[Angus]

have eaten brown morwong before. found it perfectly acceptable eating (yeah ok, it's not red emperor), like all of the family they need to be bled well and iced upon capture.

Agreed.

There are a few Morwong species you get land based at straddy on the rocks quite a bit.

If bled I think the stigma attached to them in pretty unfair. Taste like most shallow reef Moreton Bay species in my opinion...

Angus

[max pwr]

I've eaten morwong before and it tasted just as bad as the jack I cooked the week before......maybe if I was a better cook I would be more selective about the fish I keep but a morwong will go straight in the esky.

Impressive feed of crabs there fellas :woohoo: I'm thinking chilli and ginger stir fry! YUM!!

On a more serious note how the hell did you talk Viper into using bait?

[Shane69]

Nice work on the muddies mate.

Surely did better than us.

We could only find few legals on weekend out of 30 females.

I think males got flushed out the river :dry:

Shane

[ellicat]

That's a cracking morwong !! :woohoo:

Sounds like a good session but the mention of pumping yabbies had me gasping

[benno573]

I've eaten morwong before and it tasted just as bad as the jack I cooked the week before......maybe if I was a better cook I would be more selective about the fish I keep but a morwong will go straight in the esky.

Impressive feed of crabs there fellas :woohoo: I'm thinking chilli and ginger stir fry! YUM!!

On a more serious note how the hell did you talk Viper into using bait?

ha ha... when we are on his boat, no bait allowed. on my boat well anything goes really. last trip out he watched me hook and almost land (should have used a heavier leader :pinch: ) an 80cm+ flattie on a yabbie on whiting gear while he was flicking plastics/hard bodies in the same area... i think that convinced him that in some spots bait is the go. a whole lot less effort involved as well!

[benno573]

have eaten brown morwong before. found it perfectly acceptable eating (yeah ok, it's not red emperor), like all of the family they need to be bled well and iced upon capture.

Agreed.

There are a few Morwong species you get land based at straddy on the rocks quite a bit.

If bled I think the stigma attached to them in pretty unfair. Taste like most shallow reef Moreton Bay species in my opinion...

Angus

yeap, slateys are the same, as are the netted/gold-spot blubberlips you get off the headlands sometimes. nothing wrong with them at all, happy enough for people to keep thinking there is though, more for me to catch!

[benno573]

That's a cracking morwong !! :woohoo:

Sounds like a good session but the mention of pumping yabbies had me gasping

yeah yeah... you just pick them up like a good boy and let me do all the hard work... caught the morwong just near where i got busted up when i was out with you that night.

[Humptydo]

Cant it be a live bear??????

Yea I think the seawater flush on the incoming has a lot more to do as there is plenty of muddy fresh that needs to flow out.

BeAR gRILLS WOULD

[Glenn S]

Nice work lads! scuse the ignorance but what do you mean buy the muddies being hollow?

Cheers

Glenn.

[samsteele115]

Great feed fellas! :woohoo:

[benno573]

Nice work lads! scuse the ignorance but what do you mean buy the muddies being hollow?

Cheers

Glenn.

mate, all crustaceans' shells don't actually grow along with the animal. crabs, prawns, etc moult their shells and the grow a new one which the muscles (i.e. meat) then grow into. if you get a crab just before a moult they are full of meat, whereas just after a moult it takes them a little while to grow into the new shell. this means there is not a lot of meat in them and they are best returned to fill up. easy way the check is to (carefully) push the underside of the carapace just near the claw joint. if they are full this will be solid, however, if it depresses to the touch they are usually not long after a moult and are deemed empty or hollow. the shell will also be softer to touch and a lot cleaner looking on a recently moulted crab. we got one yesterday that was really soft and could barely move himself around the boat so he went back to fill up. a 15cm wide (i.e. legal) crab that is hollow has less meat in it that a 13cm crab that is full. muddies grow on average about 1.5-2cm across the shell per moult in good conditions.

if you have heard of or eaten soft shelled crab, they catch the crabs and put them into tanks until they moult, then harvest them immediately, meaning the new shell barely has time to form and is soft enough to eat.

[straddiebrad]

good feed of crabs there i cant wait to get out there and get a few,trying for the weekend if the weathers good,the mowongs a horse nice catch.brad

[Often Debaited]

awesome session even with the wind blowin hard....awesome morwong on light gear ... well done!

[kmcrosby78]

Great morwong and a great feed of crabs there guys - well done. I enjoy on the Morwong. My family has caught plenty of slateys at Hervey Bay and off Mackay/Yeppoon over the years and if bled are definitely worth eating - nothing wrong with them flavour wise and probably not quite as good texture wise as some other more desirable reef fish.

[Surfingant]

Bloody nice feed of muddies there.

[benno573]

I can happily report that morwong crumbed in a mixture of bread crumbs, some herbs, salt, lemon zest and parmesan cheese is dam good on the chew. The crab entree was pretty up there as well...