Mixed Bag On The Goldie

[Daryl McPhee]

I wanted to get out and check out a new spot way, way, way up the Nerang. Any further up and I probably would be in bass country. I was interested to know if there were any whiting up there at the moment, but also expected some grunter and plenty of bream. 

I dug some bloodworms and headed up there. I spent a couple of hours there which was enough to get a bit of a feel for the place. First fish was a legal grunter and the next cast I was busted off by a really good fish. A half dozen legal bream and a couple of undersized grunter rounded out the session. Alas no whiting so in hindsight I was clearly too far up river for them on this occasion, but I am always happy to spend some time prospecting. 

With plenty of worms left over I had a break and also grabbed a couple of dodgy pillies from the freezer for a fish at Runaway Bay. Second cast with a pilchard fillet at dusk on light line and a small set of gangs and a solid little chopper eventuated that was heavily roed. The tailor was destined to be marinated and smoked in Earl Grey tea leaves. 

The whiting weren’t thick, but they were there and the best fish ended up being 37 cm and I ended up with a feed. A few more bream and a lone tarwhine and I had five species and a decent couple of feeds. 

Always remember that you don't need to own a boat to consistently catch a feed of fish in south-east Queensland. 

 

 

[Preso1]

Nice one mate. Always good to feel out a little bit of new country. 

[Daryl McPhee]

It is mate. The more locations you can suss out and spend some time understanding, the more fishing options overall that you have. 

[Preso1]

Sometimes I am guilty of doing the same old thing. I guess when fishing opportunities are few and far between it is just easier than searching new ground. 

 Not nearly as rewarding though. 

[Daryl McPhee]

Yes Preso, 

It is a balancing act between personally exploring some new ground or sticking to the tried and tested. I generally put a fair bit of effort and thought into finding new locations and then suss them out before I actually take a rod there. I tend to try and find locations that have a variety of microhabitats and ones that most people avoid. 

Daryl 

[kmcrosby78]

Always inspiring and informative to read your reports Daryl, keep them coming. I've had a couple of short land-based sessions in the last few weeks and it's good for the soul and reminds me how much I love fishing whether in a boat or not.

Oh and I've never used a pillie fillet before - what size gangs if you don't mind my asking? That's a very decent tailor!

[Daryl McPhee]

Thanks mate. 

I used to use pillie fillets a lot around Sandgate and they were always a good option for a mixed bag of tailor, flathead and good quality bream. Mostly these days I use blue baits for that purpose, but I found three escaped pillies in the back of the freezer so that's what I used. They were fresh in 2008, but they had seen better days..... 

I put them on 3 x 1/0s. You can't cast them any great distance but the tailor are only in a couple of feet of water. There have been plenty of them in the Broadwater this year and that one was far from the largest.