queensland Old Scaley And Drop Bear Go For A Fish

[Drop Bear]

so it is glassy out there. 

@Old Scaleyand me are going to make the most of it today. 

Heading to the Oyster Lease for some mapping stuff we need to do then offshore.

Wish us luck. 

[ellicat]

G'luck fellas

[tugger]

Let me know how the bait reef mark goes i hope the slimie mackerel are there for you 

[benno573]

@Old Scaley @Drop Bear - so where is the report??  how am i supposed to fish vicariously through you guys without it??

[Old Scaley]

Hey @benno573, so they have the internet on the Northside now? Or did you pinch a bit of the boss’s time to make that post? 

Anyway, just for you, here is a quick wrap up. We headed to the oyster lease on the low tide so we could do the things we needed to do. Fantastic weather, no breeze and lots of sunshine. The guy that owns the neighbouring lease arrived while we were there and gave us lots of information about the history of oyster farming in Moreton Bay, and gave us a tour of an old man made oyster reef that was totally destroyed in 1999 during a very wet winter. Fascinating stuff!

The plan was to cross the SPB once there was a bit of water from the run in. We stopped at Amity on the way over to look for live herring but only netted a few. @tugger had kindly set Robbie the marks for the live bait grounds, but we discovered that neither of us had packed bait jigs, so that was the end of that. Fortunately we had enough bait to keep an army of fishos going so we headed for the bar. Even though conditions were great, there was still enough swell and a bit of breeze against tide to make me a little nervous about my first crossing in an open tiller steer boat. But Captain Drop Bear handled it like a pro and we were soon zooming across the top of Straddie to the intended spot X.  

We anchored up in prime position and had the spot to ourselves, other than one other guy who was popping for Spaniards. He had a nice one in the esky but said that was the only fish he caught. Live baits were deployed under balloons and we waited anxiously for that first big run. We waited and we waited and we waited, but the live bait didn’t get a touch all day.  Meanwhile we were tossing all sorts of bait and pulling in a few just under snapper. Robbie caught a small Trevally that he turned into live bait, and it was still swimming happily when we decided to call it a day.

After a couple of hours with nothing in the ice box, the call was made to have a drift. The plan was to floatline, but the current was so slow that even with a small sinker the bait was hitting the bottom quickly.  We did grab a couple of decent snaps each on the drift, and lost a couple of good ones.  The sharks claimed a couple as well. Overall it was a quiet day for that spot, but we still managed a feed and had a brilliant day on the water.  We crossed the bar late in the arvo and got back to the ramp at sunset, so perfect timing.  I think we would have caught a lot more if the fish hadn’t been spooked by these big black things constantly slapping their tales all around us.

Thanks for the day, Robbie. It was magic.  Feel free to add your thoughts or any photos.

[Drop Bear]

On 09/07/2019 at 12:09 PM, tugger said:

Let me know how the bait reef mark goes i hope the slimie mackerel are there for you 

Thanks Old Scaley. It was a great day out. We took home 5.5 snapper all from 40cm to 55ish? I don't remember the biggest but they were all nice fish. 

I had snapper last night to watch the footy with... Don't mention the footy. 

Man there are some whales out there. Crazy numbers heading north. It is like a highway. At any given time you can see a dozen. 

The whale watching boat had an easy time of it. They were just lolling around as the whales breached and slapped tails and flippers all around them. 

Weather was mint. There was no current at all. The water temp was 22.5o_c

Thanks for a good day Old Scaley. 

[Drop Bear]