queensland Mud Isl 1/6 and 2/6

[benno573]

To add my two cents worth from the weekend...

Launched around 10am on Saturday, headed to Mud for an overnighter with Sparksie on board. Hoping for a feed of snapper and sandcrabs as I had a few orders to fill for family on the sandcrab front. Dropped the pots in and anchored up. The fishing was very slow initially, with only a couple of bream and diver whiting making it into the esky. After about an hour decided to do the first run through the pots to see if they were in roughly the right place. Got 4 nice crabs, tweaked the positions a little and went back to fishing. Still pretty quiet, tried a few different techniques, spots, whatever but the fish just weren’t biting. So we checked the pots again, got about 7 this time, including some absolute monsters. Then anchored up for the last half of the run in.

Sparksie was in the honey hole and squid strips seemed to be the go to bait. The first two at about 36 and 38 went into the box pretty quickly, followed, randomly, by a large flounder. The next fish peeled a bit of line and was putting up a real tussle. After about 5 min, Sparksie had his new PB of 54cm on the boat. Things went a bit quiet after that so we did another run through the pots and re-anchored the boat, very little run in the tide as it was nearing the top of the tide. I was all very quiet, I added a 45cm to the box and not a lot else. So we made the call to go and check the pots. I said I’ll do a bit of cleaning up and alike on the boat first, and Sparksie was keeping an eye on the rods. I heard that magic noise and whipped my head around to see my rod bent over hard, line peeling off the reel and a slightly panicked expression on Sparksie face. Sparksie offered me the rod but as he had hooked it is was his fish to fight. This was much bigger than the last fish. A few good runs of around 50m or so, big headshakes and dives for the bottom. Sparksie patiently played the fish out, and not long after I slid the net under a 62cm specimen, a definite upgrade to his PB again and a really good effort on 8lb gear.

Not sure what happened after that, the crabs kept coming, Sparksie added another two snaps to my bag for me while i cooked some dinner and that was about all she wrote for Saturday. Anchored up near the island in glassy conditions for a bit of shut eye. Fished around a bit the next morning, I got a few on plastics around sunrise but couldn’t find a big one. When the NW kicked up a bit, we looked into the esky and decided that we had more than enough for our needs so headed home. Total for the trip was 44 sand crabs, 1 coral crab, 1 hairy backed swimming crab, 7 snapper, 2 bream, 2 diver whiting, 2 rock whiting and a flounder. Great trip all round.

Cheers,

Benno

Conditions shot

The catch

Apparently, fishing with no shirt on was the way to attract them... Not sure what he was trying to attract... :sick:

[attachment=64515]photo.JPG[/attachment]

(and I swear it's not a rum can in the background... :whistle: )

[mick2me]

Hey mate nice haul there, looks like the families orders were fulfilled... nice one.

[netmaker]

that's a bit more than 2 cents worth! good result.

[tugger]

Red sky at night fishermans delight

Awesome report and catch Benno snapper and crabs it doesn't get much better

oh and rum cans

[rathabfishin2]

Nice work! I am still trying to crack the mud code but will give it a go later this week and maybe do an overnighter solo Thursday night. After reading this report I may just have to bring some pots with me!

[Torium50]

Great report. Great feed there mate. You were busy...

[kmcrosby78]

Fantastic report and haul their Benno. Very impressive haul of crabs mate. Without giving away where you get them - do you catch them in the same general area (just slightly different depths) most of the year or do you have to move around a fair bit when the water is colder?

Enjoy eating that lot - would set you back a bit if you had to buy it!!

[benno573]

Fantastic report and haul their Benno. Very impressive haul of crabs mate. Without giving away where you get them - do you catch them in the same general area (just slightly different depths) most of the year or do you have to move around a fair bit when the water is colder?

Enjoy eating that lot - would set you back a bit if you had to buy it!!

Mate, to be honest, that's by far the best haul of crabs I've ever pulled from the bay. I have crabbed around mud a fair bit, some trips I just can't find them at all. This trip I found a good patch and just worked it. They all came from an area approx 150m x 100m. Great that it is close to where I fish too - can keep an eye out for the share farmers... Generally depth doesn't matter a whole lot, those came from 15-28ft of water which doesn't really narrow it down I know... But I have to have some secrets! Having said that i have caught crabs on all but the north west side of mud generally in that depth range. Bait was mullet cut into chunks topped up with sand grinner and more mullet throughout the day. In 5 pots went through 7 mullet and about 5 grinners. Good pots have definitely improved the catch rate - check out crab n gear.

Not sure if this is helpful or not but in my sleep deprived state it'll have to do!

[ellicat]

Are you sure it was a hairy-back swimming crab and not Sparksie :silly: Get a shirt on Glenn

Well done on the eventual haul, boys.