queensland Mackerel- Moreton Bay

[Towknee]

Hi,

planning to take my son out fishing on Friday. He really wants to catch a mackerel. I haven’t had a good go at chasing them in Moreton Bay yet. So if anyone has some advice or recent reports of getting a few would appreciate it.

- I generally like to get out really early in the morning. Is it important for Mackerel in the bay? Or is anytime ok?

Thanks

 

[The Mad Hughesy]

Focus on the beacons mate. you can spend all day chasing them but i find just anchoring near a beacon and throwing slugs and floating pillies all day does the trick. There are a few good tutorials on youtube for Moreotn Bay mackerel. below is a good simple tutorial

 

[The Mad Hughesy]

FYI the measured mile are the blue circles below. but you can hit every beacon from the from of the brisbane river all the way to moreton. if you can sound out bait around the beacons, youre in with a good chance of finding macks

 

[GregN70]

I'm heading down south to chase mackerel too soon. But more towards Gold Coast & NSW as the Macks don't seem to come up the coast anywhere near Yeppoon. So i have to go chase them down there.

[GregOug]

We used to catch tons of mackerel in Hervey Bay. Not sure what it’s like these days but I imagine they are still there. That’s a lot closer to Yeppoon than NSW.

[Towknee]

Thanks for the advice.

Will head out in the morning & see what we can find. Any difference on the measured mile vs heading further north in the bay? 

[benno573]

6 hours ago, Towknee said:

Thanks for the advice.

Will head out in the morning & see what we can find. Any difference on the measured mile vs heading further north in the bay? 

hey mate

a lot of people go the measured mile because it is close and often produces.  the best catches i have found are if you can find a beacon with bait and no other boats - this usually means going further out and further north but it is not always necessary.   boat traffic will kill a bite really quickly, especially if a lot of people are trolling the area.  my personal favourite in closer was the m8 beacon but usually went further north in the channel between moreton and bribie.

 

i usually drifted past a marker and checked for bait (and if there way anything hanging around the bait) and then anchored up about 40m upcurrent of the beacon and set pilchards or livies back towards the beacon.  i usually set one just under the surface, one on or close to the bottom and one about mid water.  just use a different sinker size for each.  avoid wire traces, i used to make a set of 4 gang hooks and only put the bait on the bottom 3 of them - very rarely lost a fish using this method and still got plenty of bites.  usually 30lb fluro leader and 15-20lb main line will suffice.  pilchard cube burley definitely helps if the bites are slow. 

 

Another option is to use slugs - certainly effective but can result in a lot of bite offs which gets expensive and annoying.  not to mention this is a much more active method of fishing and i usually got over it after a few beacons and took the easier way out.  try and land your slug as close as possible to the base of the pylon and crank like all hell.  you literally cannot wind too fast for a mackeral.  if you don't get a bite best to drop back down and repeat until you drift well away from the marker.  20g-40g slugs are the go, best if you can see the bait to match the hatch of course.  I like halco twisties as they have a bit more action and flash but they all will work, just make sure they have a decent treble on them.  I tend to avoid using plastics - they are super effective at getting the bites but you lose more than you land and again can become an expensive and frustrating day out.  Often the mackeral will snip your plastic on the drop and you won't even feel it happen.

 

bycatch - if there's bait around you will get tuna, bonito etc on any of the above methods.  if using livies you will get the occasional hook up on a kingie or cobia, sharks can be annoying at times though.

 

Other spots to try are in the shipping channel along bribie and around bray rock / the blinker off caloundra.  Plenty around on the shoals and reefs off currimundi as well at the moment.  Also out on any of the shallow reefs and coffee rock around cape moreton, if you find bait the fish won't be far.

 

good luck!

[Towknee]

Thanks for the recommendations.

Caught two legal schoolies & on the way home caught a 50cm dusky flathead under the hornibrook bridge.

Great morning in the boat with the young bloke!