queensland Challenging Moreton Bay

[Poddymullet]

What a cracking day yesterday on the bay! 

Planned to use the light southerly winds and long period swell to hit the coffee rocks again with my 2 boys, but as I was going to be out all day decided to drop the youngest from the roster as he packs it in after a couple of hours. 

So hit Scarbs just before 7 (wasn't too bad at the ramp considering) and then headed north east. Was scratching my head as the wind was up a bit more than forecast creating a less than desirable ride. 

Did a quick check of the M4 but there was no bait so kept on moving as I had plenty of frozen yakka from the last trip. 

Freeman passage was breaking on either side but got through without too much trouble but always pay to hang off and check when you are in the middle of the tide change around there. 

Got to a couple of marks from before and dropped the motor guide. Plenty of fish on the sounder.

Fished for a couple of hours moving around to not much luck. 

One small parrot was landed but the rest was whiptails and rubbish. Had a couple of good hits but nothing would stick. 

Decided this time round to not use the paternoster and go ball sinker to hook. Reckon I should have changed and maybe my luck would have improved. 

Son had a ball as he caught the parrot fish and also an occy that casually bit a hole in the bottom of the net and slinked away on the bottom of the boat! 

Wind had dropped off and was torn between going to the artificial but son was starting to feel a bit green so headed back via the M4 again to replenish the bait stocks. 

Coming back was awesome and really did match the forecast with it almost glass like. 

After 2 trips to the coffee rocks I am thinking I might spend a bit more time focusing on closer to home.  

I know I can hit the cockle banks and get a fee of whiting with a high chance of probability. Scarb / North Reef is really hard due to the boat traffic and small fishing window of early morning / early evening. 

Beacon bashing is almost over...and kind of get a bit bored sitting around a beacon with plenty of over boats. 

So what to do ... guess I should start using the Scout's pro's and focus on the southern bay islands and also The Pine. 

Even though I had a great day on the bay ... definitely feel a bit deflated with not a lot of fish for the efforts. 

[Luvit]

It is a tough gig and why frequently I go further north. Tuna save the day for me many a time, just good fun.

If you want to fish the northern part of the bay I can help you out.

[Towknee]

Hi Poddymullet, the weather made it a cracking day on the water, a feed of fish would help top the day off.

I’m hopeful of finding a feed of fish in the bay, but it is all new for me, so may take a while. 

Planning to head out on Friday, if the weather isn’t great. Will poke around my old fishing grounds in the passage. Stoked to finally have a boat again! 

How consistent do people find curtain artificial reef? 

[Luvit]

What boat did you get?

[Poddymullet]

55 minutes ago, Luvit said:

It is a tough gig and why frequently I go further north. Tuna save the day for me many a time, just good fun.

If you want to fish the northern part of the bay I can help you out.

Thanks mate will take you up on that offer. I feel like a 1st world complainer ... it's great don't get me wrong but definitely feel the ROI equation going round and round my head. 

 

[Poddymullet]

53 minutes ago, Towknee said:

Hi Poddymullet, the weather made it a cracking day on the water, a feed of fish would help top the day off.

I’m hopeful of finding a feed of fish in the bay, but it is all new for me, so may take a while. 

Planning to head out on Friday, if the weather isn’t great. Will poke around my old fishing grounds in the passage. Stoked to finally have a boat again! 

How consistent do people find curtain artificial reef? 

Boat = great! have yet to hit the passage myself as of yet. Hear good stories and the crabbing I believe is pretty awesome too. 

I have hit Curtain a couple of times for not a lot ... I think you really need to fish it at top and bottom of the tide as the current just rips through and it's almost impossible to drift due to all the boat traffic...not to mention the tackle magnet of the wrecks themselves. 

[Towknee]

24 minutes ago, Luvit said:

What boat did you get?

A second hand 4.8m Stessco Outsider with a 60hp 4 stroke. So far happy with the set up, wanted a tiller or side steer so I can watch everyone on the boat when motoring. Ended up with a tiller steer.  With two young boys, definitely need to keep an eye on them  

[Luvit]

Nice, good size to get the kids out and enjoy catching bread and butter species.

[Poddymullet]

@Luvit did you end up around Tangalooma? 

[Luvit]

Yes we went to Tangalooma and the kids had a quick snorkel before we broke out the prawns and chicken for lunch.

When travelling we saw tuna feeding at Bribie island on the way to Tangalooma and then from Bulwa point back to Bribie. They were not very aggressive at but James landed one. I was sharked on one and hooked another and pulled the hooks which is unusual on the plastics single hook and a few other hits. The bait they were feeding on was extra small and why I think we weren't getting as many hits. Some photos in the othe post Tomorrow Fishing.

[Drop Bear]

1 hour ago, Towknee said:

A second hand 4.8m Stessco Outsider with a 60hp 4 stroke. So far happy with the set up, wanted a tiller or side steer so I can watch everyone on the boat when motoring. Ended up with a tiller steer.  With two young boys, definitely need to keep an eye on them  

Sounds like a great boat mate. Hard to find second hand boats that big well done. 

[Drop Bear]

35 minutes ago, Luvit said:

Yes we went to Tangalooma and the kids had a quick snorkel before we broke out the prawns and chicken for lunch.

When travelling we saw tuna feeding at Bribie island on the way to Tangalooma and then from Bulwa point back to Bribie. They were not very aggressive at but James landed one. I was sharked on one and hooked another and pulled the hooks which is unusual on the plastics single hook and a few other hits. The bait they were feeding on was extra small and why I think we weren't getting as many hits. Some photos in the othe post Tomorrow Fishing.

Nice mate. There were a few tuna feeding out off Straddie this morning. Not interested in the soft plastics I threw at them. The 3 we caught trolling were Macs. 

[Poddymullet]

1 hour ago, Luvit said:

Yes we went to Tangalooma and the kids had a quick snorkel before we broke out the prawns and chicken for lunch.

When travelling we saw tuna feeding at Bribie island on the way to Tangalooma and then from Bulwa point back to Bribie. They were not very aggressive at but James landed one. I was sharked on one and hooked another and pulled the hooks which is unusual on the plastics single hook and a few other hits. The bait they were feeding on was extra small and why I think we weren't getting as many hits. Some photos in the othe post Tomorrow Fishing.

I wanted to do the Tangalooma trip as well but we have 2 x 13 week old puppies so can't leave em at home too long alone  Was it much of a car park? Will PM you...I have to get my plastic action sorted and land some of these Toona before it's too late. 

[Luvit]

Yes there were lots of boats at the wrecks. The diving visibility was not that good, a lot of suspended sediment in the water and a lot of weed floating throughout the bay I noticed. At least you will always have a deckie when the pups are older.

 

I was going to say show me your puppies but, I didn't want to get a warning from the mods.

[Poddymullet]

Here you  hopefully the mods won't get too upset. Re sediment there was heaps floating around around...

 

[Luvit]

Thanks, I love dogs.

[Drop Bear]

1 hour ago, Luvit said:

I was going to say show me your puppies but, I didn't want to get a warning from the mods.

@ellicatwould have given you a 6 week ban for sure

 

[benno573]

hey mate,

 

fishing the bay successfully takes a lot of time to crack.  I think it took me 4-5 years of fishing the bay reasonably regularly before i caught my first legal sized snapper - it definitely got easier the more I tried and the more hours I put in.  I found good success inside around Mud and Peel islands particularly, and plenty of success just outside within 2-3nm of cape moreton as well.  I didn't really have the resources available then that are available now and was mostly guided by QFM/BnB mags and experimenting with different locations, baits and techniques.  For inside the bay, I never fished heavier than 20lb, mostly 12-15lb gear and fished with pilchards, fresh squid and peeled green prawns.  Rigs were usually a fairly basic running sinker onto a swivel and then a flurocarbon trace to about a 2/0 hook.  Occassionally if fishing deeper areas (+15m) I would use a paternoster.  Outside the bay I would generally stay around 20lb gear but have something heavier to set a livie/floater out if i was heading to those areas.  I would generally add mullet fillets to the bait and leave the prawns.  Depth and the structure under me would generally dictate the rig, be it a paternoster, float line or something else.

 

I also spent a lot of time when baits were set throwing plastics around with varying degrees of success, 5" jerk shads were my go-to, colours varied depending on the day.  1/4 - 1/2oz jigheads with about a 1/0 or 2/0 hook would cover you for most instances.

 

The biggest killer for bay fishing is awesome weather on a weekend.  To many boats buzzing around and the bite really slows down.  Fishing outside of the "ideal times" is the way to go, not saying go fishing in 20kn or anything stupid but target dawn/dusk sessions, mid week if you can etc. Try and be on the water when most people aren't and definitely try and find an area where no-one else is fishing, even if the structure/sounder doesn't look as good - you are more likely to catch something on "some" structure away from everyone else than you are to catch something on "lots" of structure where everyone else fishes - beacon bashing is a perfect example of this.

 

April, May and June are excellent months for fishing the bay, you get the leftover summer visitors like tuna and mackeral, as well as the bigger snapper start to move into the bay.  I am sure there are several people on here who are happy to come along for a day and show you a few spots/tips that will hopefully get you on the right path.

 

Cheers,

Benno

[Drop Bear]

1 hour ago, Luvit said:

Yes there were lots of boats at the wrecks. The diving visibility was not that good, a lot of suspended sediment in the water and a lot of weed floating throughout the bay I noticed. At least you will always have a deckie when the pups are older.

 

I was going to say show me your puppies but, I didn't want to get a warning from the mods.

I gotta get busy with the oysters and clean that up!!