queensland Northern Bay Trip March 3rd

[Cobiaaddict]

Hi all.

Headed out from scarborough at a very gentleman like time of 10am for a go on a early season bay snapper and maybe get my mate from tassie his first bay sweetlip or snapper . We had a lightning run @58kph across the bay to our 1st spot to see about 5 boats bang on the area i intended on fishin. All good.so i moved away from the other boata and sounded around and found a good show whilts waiting for the tide to change before we started fishing. With the NE wind going to kick in around the the tide change i knew the other boats would leave once it filled in. The boats moved on about 12.30 whilst we put a 45cm cod 2 x 40cm grassy sweetlip and a 42cm moses pearch on board.  Around 1.30pm  i saw a ship coming up through the spit fire and realised i had an old mark in the shipping channel that produces good fish after a ship passes the ledge .Putting a old theory to the test we got ourselves in behind the container ship about 100m up current from the ledge and sent out 2 baits and i was lit up on my 15lb mono overhead which i normally dont do in this spot as the fish run hard for the ledge and i have been done over many times on 40lb tackle. Well this time the fish ran east and i managed to turn him after a few heart in mouth last effort lunges before my Decky slid the net under a solid bay snapper going 6kg exactly. Whilst i was sorting out a new rig my decky Ben dropped his bait down and was slammed hard and 15lb was ripping of the tr200g overhead and my 1st thought was another snapper. Not this time tho. After a bit of coaching Ben had his  1st cracking bay  Grassy sweetlip goin 61cm and about 4kg. With the ENE wind building and tide running out hard now the bay was starting to get messy amd plently of filletts to feed us. So we decided to secured everything and I pointed the Surtees in the direction of the scarborough boat harbour and made our way for the ramp with a happy deckie and plenty of smiles and stories to tell.

cheers

Josh <><

[Ben_849]

Great read & pics

well done

[kmcrosby78]

Great report and results for a daytime trip on a weekend Josh, well done!!  Can you remind me what length Surtees you have? I'd imagine they'd be similar to the Extreme's?  Was one for sale in Gladstone but seems to have now sold - too slow/indecisive as usual .....

[Cobiaaddict]

Thanks mate . Time of day; Crowds or weekends dont bother me as much as they used too.. its just good when plans or old theorys work out. 

Boart is a Surtees 575 profisher

The extremes are a lovely finished boat and i did look at them before doing a surtees  .Extremes come with a few extra creature comforts and both ride very similar. Correct me if i am wrong but i did here of a few recalls going on with the extremes where some part of the build did meet the current aus standard. Id definetly check that out . But do correct me of im wrong mate as it was heard on the grapevine. 

[ellicat]

Ripper Bay report !

All smiles especially with that grassy.

[tugger]

They are a couple of good fish for the box i used to fish abbott point wharf in nth qld after the ships and tugs had berthed or departed it stirs the bottom and turns on the predators. There are some good snapper coming from the bay lately it is great to see.

[Drop Bear]

Well done mate. Quality fish, I bet they eat/ate well.  Sounds like you have the place mapped out! Great pics too.

Thanks for the report. 

[Cobiaaddict]

14 hours ago, tugger said:

They are a couple of good fish for the box i used to fish abbott point wharf in nth qld after the ships and tugs had berthed or departed it stirs the bottom and turns on the predators. There are some good snapper coming from the bay lately it is great to see.

Thanks @tugger esky looked quite healthy at the end of the day,   I used the same tactic on the barge hole the old Combie Trader used to parked in at Moreton Island years ago when targeting BIG blue tooth tuskfish.  Pulled many from that hole in excess of 9-10kg with in in 5 minutes of the barge leaving using soldier crabs with 8/0 hook locktite glued to the back & 60lb tackle it was great fun . 

[Cobiaaddict]

2 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

Well done mate. Quality fish, I bet they eat/ate well.  Sounds like you have the place mapped out! Great pics too.

Thanks for the report. 

Thanks Drop Bear, the fish did eat well mate, ,  , I wouldn't say I have it mapped out well, I stick to the basics by using fresh bait ,light line and simple rigs,   I still have plenty fishless trip ,  Its just I don't report on them  .  Hopefully we are in for a cracking snapper season and everybody can get hooked up on these brutes in shallow water.

 

[tugger]

12 hours ago, Cobiaaddict said:

Thanks @tugger esky looked quite healthy at the end of the day,   I used the same tactic on the barge hole the old Combie Trader used to parked in at Moreton Island years ago when targeting BIG blue tooth tuskfish.  Pulled many from that hole in excess of 9-10kg with in in 5 minutes of the barge leaving using soldier crabs with 8/0 hook locktite glued to the back & 60lb tackle it was great fun . 

Same for a lot of big sea's offshore the 1st couple of days after a big blow work well on the reef 

[kmcrosby78]

13 hours ago, Cobiaaddict said:

using soldier crabs with 8/0 hook locktite glued to the back & 60lb tackle it was great fun . 

Soldier crabs or sand crabs? If soldier crabs I'm assuming a fair few of them? That's one fish species I'd like to learn to catch in the bay in years to come.

[Cobiaaddict]

18 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Soldier crabs or sand crabs? If soldier crabs I'm assuming a fair few of them? That's one fish species I'd like to learn to catch in the bay in years to come.

Hey mate

Definitely soldier crabs and  only 1 soldier per hook and a big glass jar 

I find sandies hard to keep alive for long periods of time so i dont bother with them any more .

  The toughest part is catching the soldiers . 

When i get a spare chance i am happy to pm you a few tips and theories  to get ya started. 

 

 

[Cobiaaddict]

20 hours ago, tugger said:

Same for a lot of big sea's offshore the 1st couple of days after a big blow work well on the reef 

That is so true. Love fishing after a bit of foul weather  especially in the shallows off shore. 

[kmcrosby78]

There you go, learn something new every day.  I'd really appreciate that when you get a chance Josh, no hurry, thanks for your generous offer.