queensland Palm Beach Reef Marlin and Mackerel

[tugger]

Well the holiday is over for me down the coast but we had some top weather and awesome days fishing on the Palmy. From our camp at Tallebudgera creek caravan park it is only a couple of minutes to the ramp then a couple of minutes to the reef where we fish for pelagics like mackerel and cobia. This was my 47th xmas in a row down at caravan park so Talle is a special place for me this time of year catching up with friends and of coarse the mackerel run at summer time.

 

The mackies come on early this season and we got in to them leading up to xmas day with some awesome days like we had on xmas eve where I took out a couple of my friends kids from the park. I had my son Brock who is 16yrs old now along with other 2 boys who were 10 and 11yrs old this was their 1st time offshore with the weather perfect we headed out early jumping the bar before dawn and anchoring up on the reef by 4am.

 

The spottie mackerel come on early with the 1st strikes on pilchards starting at 430am we dropped some fish and boated a couple of spotties on this 1st run of fish with the young boys getting their 1st ever mackerel in to the boat. This run lasted about an hour then it went quiet for another hour then all hell broke loose with fish taking anything we threw out including our floating pilchards , live baits or when we were spinning with slugs. I was kept busy processing fish as they came in while my son Brock gaffed the spotties for the 2 young fellas that had a ball getting stuck in to the spotties, they were in awe of the speed of the spotties taking line off the reels and were exhausted at the end when we called it a day.

 

We came home with 17 spotties between the 4 of us and a friends boat got their bag of 10 spotties right next to us so we caught up back at the caravan park, we took some photos and cleaned the fish while having a few coldies. We split the fish up between the families that fished that day and had a huge bbq that night with most of the street that we camp in feeding 50 people that night and the young fellas told their stories to all at the bbq.

 

Here is the total catch between the 2 boats

 

 

There were a few more days on the mackies and amongst the spotties we got a few spanairds here is Brock with the 1st Spanish of the season

 

 

After boxing day the wind got up and blew for a week in to the new year but that gave me some much needed rest with no early starts and some time to enjoy the rest of the place so we snorkeled in the creek where it is crystal clear around the bridge on the in coming tide. The creek also has a good sized lake out the back enough room to water ski etc and the kids and I all get on the water ski as well as wake boards, knee boards and ski tube.

 

Early in the new year the weather come good again and we got out again on the Palm Beach Reef where we found it a bit slow for a couple of days then to my surprise we had a run of marlin on the reef with my boat hooking 3 over 2 days. We landed 1 of these little blacks that took a pilchard on light spin gear it was jumping around us and doing some powerfull runs which had us a bit worried with all the boats anchored around us on all sides. In the end it was beaten and after a photo we slipped him in the esky and we pilled plenty of ice and salt water on him to make a very cold brine and ran for home we filleted him up and ate him at another big bbq that night, we could not tell the difference between the marlin and the mackerel they were sensational.

 

 

3 more years till I crack 50 years straight at Tallebudgera over the xmas breaks I can't think of anywhere else I would go for xmas till next year

[Luvit]

Your family will remember those holidays for the rest of their lives. Your kids could carry in the tradition when they start families themselves.

Looks like a great spot with fishing grounds close by.

[straddiebrad]

nice mate i was just looking at the photo of the one brock got a while back dam he looks young back then and now his all grown up,great catches there,you doing a post up for the wave break trip?

[kmcrosby78]

Well done Mark, looks like a great holiday was had (as usual) with plenty of fish. Roughly what size were the spotties? Great work on the Marlin, good bonus!!! The stars haven't aligned for me to get down there yet (should have gone down there rather than trying to chase them in the bay and donutting .....) but might try to before the end of the season.

[tugger]

7 hours ago, straddiebrad said:

nice mate i was just looking at the photo of the one brock got a while back dam he looks young back then and now his all grown up,great catches there,you doing a post up for the wave break trip?

Brock was 10 yr old then 6 years ago now Brad he grew up quick alright hitting 6'2 by 14 yr old must be all the fish we feed our kids

[tugger]

1 hour ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Well done Mark, looks like a great holiday was had (as usual) with plenty of fish. Roughly what size were the spotties? Great work on the Marlin, good bonus!!! The stars haven't aligned for me to get down there yet (should have gone down there rather than trying to chase them in the bay and donutting .....) but might try to before the end of the season.

The spotties were all the same size at 800mm long Kelvin they are getting hit and miss now on the palmy they were there for a solid week or more before xmas

[Angus]

Yum! In the fillets! Cracking fun right there!

[jon]

Awesome work there tugger. Looks like a great holiday 

[tugger]

On ‎1‎/‎22‎/‎2016 at 1:10 PM, Luvit said:

Your family will remember those holidays for the rest of their lives. Your kids could carry in the tradition when they start families themselves.

Looks like a great spot with fishing grounds close by.

That's what I did my parents took me every xmas there now I have my family down there at xmas with my son Brock hooked on fishing it's a good bet he will carry on the tradition when he gets older already he is going out with his mate when I am not there and cleaning up on the mackerel when next to no other boat is getting fish a chip off the old block

[tugger]

The best gig was taking those young lads out they had the best time and now I will have willing deckies there from now on