queensland Peregian Beach

[Daryl McPhee]

I spent time up at Peregian Beach over Christmas. It is not an area that I have fished before, but with some good weather the surf beckoned. The dart proved thick and easy to spot in the water, with plenty of the larger fish out wider. Servo prawns produced plenty of action, no need for any fancy bait or flash lure. Max caught plenty of fish on both days, mostly legal fish with the largest about 40 cm. This was his first surf fishing effort and it produced overall about 50 legal fish over the couple of short sessions. We only kept a couple to eat fresh.  

 

 

 

[Angus]

My earliest memories fishing are on peregian beach... the smell of cane kreels and dart. One of those childhood imprints. 

My family were the first house in peregian and many still live there!

Great haul.

Angus

[Drop Bear]

21 hours ago, Daryl McPhee said:

his was his first surf fishing effort and it produced overall about 50 legal fish over the couple of short sessions.

Cracking mate well done. Especially on servo prawns! It so awesome to see kids getting into fishing. Looks like this one has a good teacher

 

[John]

9 hours ago, Angus said:

My earliest memories fishing are on peregian beach... the smell of cane kreels and dart. One of those childhood imprints. 

My family were the first house in peregian and many still live there!

Great haul.

Angus

i showed Jack where your grandad's house was over the break when we headed up to noosa. pretty cool photo I remember someone showed me of a square clearing in the trees for the housing development and only one house built, which was for the real estate agent. 

[Drop Bear]

19 hours ago, Angus said:

the smell of cane kreels and dart

an acquired taste but a good one.

[Daryl McPhee]

Back in the day I did my PhD on dart and tagged over 4,500. I'd like to think that I can still find the odd one or two in good conditions when I need to. Great story Angus. The servo prawns had a good covering of freezer burn and looked like they may have been caught in 2008, which was a fine vintage for the humble servo prawn. 

[JohnTheFisherman]

On 1/10/2018 at 5:52 PM, Daryl McPhee said:

Back in the day I did my PhD on dart and tagged over 4,500. I'd like to think that I can still find the odd one or two in good conditions when I need to. Great story Angus. The servo prawns had a good covering of freezer burn and looked like they may have been caught in 2008, which was a fine vintage for the humble servo prawn. 

What did you find out  about them with your PHD? Are they a sustainable species? They never used to be a massively targetted eating species but now it seems a lot of people actually keep them. Curious if they breed/grow quick?

[Drop Bear]

16 hours ago, JohnTheFisherman said:

Curious if they breed/grow quick?

Yep same

[Daryl McPhee]

Dart have been a key target species for AFCA clubs in south-east Queensland since the late 80s at least. The spawning season is protracted and centred around the summer months (Oct to Apr). Fish most likely spawn more than once during the spawning size and their ovaries are asymmetrical. They are fast growing and on average reach 36 to 37 cm in three years and this is the size at first maturity. They are opportunistic feeders and eat small baitfish, small pippies on the northern beaches of Moreton Island, and terrestrial insects when the wind turns to the west. They do not migrate but larger fish can range large distances with a number of tag recoveries occurring over  200 km from release site. 

[Drop Bear]

20 hours ago, Daryl McPhee said:

Dart have been a key target species for AFCA clubs in south-east Queensland since the late 80s at least. The spawning season is protracted and centred around the summer months (Oct to Apr). Fish most likely spawn more than once during the spawning size and their ovaries are asymmetrical. They are fast growing and on average reach 36 to 37 cm in three years and this is the size at first maturity. They are opportunistic feeders and eat small baitfish, small pippies on the northern beaches of Moreton Island, and terrestrial insects when the wind turns to the west. They do not migrate but larger fish can range large distances with a number of tag recoveries occurring over  200 km from release site. 

Great info thanks for that!