queensland Belated Report From Last Thursday Offshore

[Drop Bear]

I had a great little trip offshore on Thursday last week. 

The plan was to meet @tugger ans @straddiebrad at wello and follow them out. I have some friends from Germany here at the moment and they were meeting me at the Amity Jetty at 5.30am.

We had 15 knots from the south early. it made for a bumpy and wet crossing from Wello until we were tucked in behind Peal. I was following Tugger and at one point had to dodge a large glass boat that probably didn't see me. Lucky I saw it or it would have been the end of the Bear. I had a good jacket on so the splashy splash wasn't too bad and it wasn't too cold.

The trip up the rainbow was lovely. The moon, stars and growing grey dawn reflected beautifully in the almost glassed out Water. The Rainbow Channel is an absolute gem of a water way. Protected from anything with any Easterly the shallow sand banks and weed beds are pristine and beautiful. 

My guests were waiting in the dark and easily jumped on board and we put on life jackets for the South Passage. 

It was a southerly swell so the bar was easy but that annoying wind persisted and had swung to the East. Probably why the Rainbow was so nice. We bashed our way to Shag rock which afforded us some protection where we deployed 2 Halco Lazer Pro in Red/white to see if there were any Spanish around. I have had a good session on Spanish at Shag Rock in the past but they were not there today. We towed lures around for a while with not much luck but picked up a Tuna at Boat Rock

Tugger and Brad had pulled up.

They had visited the bait grounds and found the Yakkers. 

We stopped trawling and used the electric to hold us in place next to Boat Rock. This was ok but the spot lock was playing up but I made it work manually. The wind had dropped out now and the swell was being much more kind. 

Joanna caught a great Moses almost right away and I thought we were onto them.

But nothing much was home today. We caught a few of the red cod but even the Trevelly that can be prolific were not biting. 

Tugger and Brad got a few on the livies but they were struggling as well. 

The whales were everywhere and my German guests were probably more happy to see the whales and turtles than fish which was probably just as well. 

We decided to do a bit more trolling and Chris picked up another Tooona fish. 

This wasn't working so we did a bit of whale watching before Tugga sugested we head out to another reef he has marked up. The caught a few nice fish to put in the box but we struggled to loose a bait. I didn't really fish much on this trip as the Germans needed a bit of a hand from time to time. 

Time to head back. Conditions were much nicer especially with the wind behind us. It was more like 5-10 knots now. 

I dropped the guests back to Amity and cleaned the Moses for them.

They were so excited to be having fish for dinner that they had caught. They really had a great day. They sent me this photo. Looks delicious. Not much better than Moses.

I sped home in the glassy waters. I did a bit of an explore around the 6 knot zone north east of Peal. Beautiful sea grasses and starfish all around the abandoned oyster leases. It was good to see a few leases are still being used. 

So a really nice day but not many fish to talk about. 

Sorry for the delay in getting this one up  Its been a busy time with a conference in Ballina on Friday and Saturday for Fishers for Fish Habitat. I wish we had these in QLD. Oysters from Shucks bar Sunday. Oysters from @Old Scaley on Monday and GPS plotting for the oyster reefs Monday Afternoon...

Fangs

 

[Old Scaley]

Report was worth waiting for, @Drop Bear. Shame about the fish but I bet your visitors were more than happy with a day’s whale watching in good conditions.

[Drop Bear]

5 minutes ago, Old Scaley said:

Report was worth waiting for, @Drop Bear. Shame about the fish but I bet your visitors were more than happy with a day’s whale watching in good conditions.

Yes coming from Germany our winter is a tropical paradise. Why would you live anywhere else?

[straddiebrad]

yes was a good day not too many fish from us we got a few small pearlies snapper moses and 2 cods the only pic i got,and werent the whales out to play.

[Drop Bear]

37 minutes ago, straddiebrad said:

yes was a good day not too many fish from us we got a few small pearlies snapper moses and 2 cods the only pic i got,and werent the whales out to play.

That is some nice meals right there! 

[straddiebrad]

mark got both

 

[kmcrosby78]

5 hours ago, straddiebrad said:

mark got both

 

In that case go to @tugger's place for some nice meals then ........  

[Drop Bear]

14 hours ago, straddiebrad said:

mark got both

 

I thought I saw you catch a few?

 

[Drop Bear]

9 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

In that case go to @tugger's place for some nice meals then ........  

I bet they have already gone

 

[straddiebrad]

8 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

I bet they have already gone

 

sad to say they didnt make it through the night r.i.p

 

[Drop Bear]

1 hour ago, straddiebrad said:

sad to say they didnt make it through the night r.i.p

 

Not surprised. They are 2 of the best eating fish swimming. 

[straddiebrad]

10 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

I thought I saw you catch a few?

 

yer think i dragged one or 2 up was hard going out there though might get out sunday see what happends

[Drop Bear]

1 minute ago, straddiebrad said:

yer think i dragged one or 2 up was hard going out there though might get out sunday see what happends

Still early but Sunday Morning does look good.