queensland Offshore With Tugger

[Old Scaley]

Sunday afternoon I got a call from @tugger. Weather was looking magic for Monday. Let’s head offshore and see what is doing. As usual I was so excited about going fishing, and knowing I needed to be up at 2.45am, that I hardly slept a wink. Got to Mark’s place at 4am to find him in the car waiting so we threw in my gear and off we went. We needed some pillies so off to his usual servo only to find it closed. After a bit of a hunt we found some really cr@ppy overpriced pillies at the 7Eleven. Loaded up with ice and off to the Raby Bay ramp to be on the water by 4.30am.

Conditions were good crossing the Bay, and I think Mark could do that trip blindfolded. He is a great skipper and always points out places of interest along the way. Timing was perfect and we arrived at the bar right on first light. The bar was super smooth and we quickly headed to the livie grounds where bait was abundant and we soon had a heap of slimies and yakkas. 

Off we went to one of Mark’s favourite honey holes. The call was made by the skipper to not anchor and do some drift baiting with pillies. First drop and both rods loaded up with quality fish. Mark soon had his 61cm snapper onboard. I was fishing with 16lb leader and the fish on my line was big. Unfortunately the leader snapped at the hook and I lost my first trophy fish for the day. Here is Mark’s first snapper. 

We repeated the drift for a while, picking up some just under snaps and 3 in the 40s. I had upgraded my leader to 30lb, but still got owned a couple of times. The sun was getting higher and the bite had slowed so we motored out wider to fish in 60 metres of water. There were a few other boats in the area but the fishing was very quiet. We had lots of these flopping around and waving to us.

We kept trying out wide for a while, then headed back to the first spot. We had tried the livies down deep for no real action, so Mark decided to stick one out on a balloon. It did get one touch but no hook up. Meanwhile I was getting pickered (thanks yet again Hamish) on pillies so decided to fish lighter. Turned out to be a good move and we soon had some good Moses perch over the side, some in the low to mid 40s. Somewhere in there Mark picked up a 50cm bonito for the competition leaderboard.

By now it was lunchtime so we had a bite to eat and called it quits. Back across a nice flat bar and a quick trip back to ramp. All the fish were filleted and on ice by 3pm.  Yet another fantastic day on the water. Thanks again for the invite, Mark. Here is the take home catch.

[Drop Bear]

Nice work. Team south represent. 

Those Moses perch look very delicious.  I have missed them the last few times I have been out. Well done. 

@tugger is a bloody good fisher. Always seems to know how to come home with a delicious esky

 

[jon]

There’s some real quality Moses out there at the moment, we’ll done guys

[aussie123]

Nice feed of fish there, especially those Moses.

Cracking looking weather out there too.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hey Old Scaley and tugger

Woohoo! That's a great session there. Shame you lost the fish on 16lb Old Scaley, but there'll always be ones that get away  

Good job on the tuna, snaps, and moses perch. They are a very interesting fish by the looks and they get a lot bigger offshore than in the rivers  

Cheers Hamish

[Drop Bear]

41 minutes ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Hey Old Scaley and tugger

Woohoo! That's a great session there. Shame you lost the fish on 16lb Old Scaley, but there'll always be ones that get away  

Good job on the tuna, snaps, and moses perch. They are a very interesting fish by the looks and they get a lot bigger offshore than in the rivers  

Cheers Hamish

Moses are a great fish. Delicious and easy to fillet. They get pretty big out where tugger and scaley were. 

[ellicat]

Good to see you getting a good feed. I bet Mrs Scaley was impressed.

[Drop Bear]

21 minutes ago, ellicat said:

Good to see you getting a good feed. I bet Mrs Scaley was impressed.

Is she Scaley too? 

[Old Scaley]

11 minutes ago, Drop Bear said:

Is she Scaley too? 

Haha. Not as Scaley as me, but then few are. Yes, she is always impressed when I come home with fresh seafood and rolls her eyes at me if I come home empty handed. Let’s just say she has perfected the eye roll over the past 40 years.

[Drop Bear]

1 hour ago, Old Scaley said:

Haha. Not as Scaley as me, but then few are. Yes, she is always impressed when I come home with fresh seafood and rolls her eyes at me if I come home empty handed. Let’s just say she has perfected the eye roll over the past 40 years.

you are a lucky man. I hope I get to 40 years with Mrs Bear. 

[kmcrosby78]

Tasty looking catch there fellas, well done. Assuming you anchored the second time?

[tugger]

 Thanks for the company Steve it was a top day on the big pond, we should have stayed at the 1st spot in hindsight. That light rod did well on the moses perch it was buckeled over a fair bit looked like fun on the light string.

The one thing i found interesting was the sea was alive with bait fish every where we went they were breaking the surface from inshore all the way out to 70m and back again. 

[Drop Bear]

14 hours ago, tugger said:

 Thanks for the company Steve it was a top day on the big pond, we should have stayed at the 1st spot in hindsight. That light rod did well on the moses perch it was buckeled over a fair bit looked like fun on the light string.

The one thing i found interesting was the sea was alive with bait fish every where we went they were breaking the surface from inshore all the way out to 70m and back again. 

Do you reckon it will be a good year for Marlin and Spanish then?

Did you notice what the water temp was? 

[tugger]

1 hour ago, Drop Bear said:

Do you reckon it will be a good year for Marlin and Spanish then?

Did you notice what the water temp was? 

22.5 degrees and yes it should be a good year for pelagics with the el nino likely this year.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

On 02/09/2020 at 1:39 PM, tugger said:

22.5 degrees and yes it should be a good year for pelagics with the el nino likely this year.

The El Nino event is what I was just learning about in Geography class, tugger. 

I'm guessing the hot air coming over is good for pelagics. I know they seem to go better in Summer so hopefully if it's extra hot they're extra big!

Cheers Hamish

[Drop Bear]

On 02/09/2020 at 1:39 PM, tugger said:

22.5 degrees and yes it should be a good year for pelagics with the el nino likely this year.

Oh ripper its getting up early! Come on Spanish!!

[tugger]

23 hours ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

The El Nino event is what I was just learning about in Geography class, tugger. 

I'm guessing the hot air coming over is good for pelagics. I know they seem to go better in Summer so hopefully if it's extra hot they're extra big!

Cheers Hamish

Hamish its more to do with the warm water currents that move from one side of the Pacific Ocean to the other so in the years we have more rain there is more warm water pushing up to our coastline. Hence good pelagic seasons follow warm water along our coastline and more oceanic baitfish. I was getting plenty of yakkas and slimie mackerel on this trip and it's been a few years since they were in numbers like that on my bait grounds. All pointing to a good pelagic season fingers crossed.

[Drop Bear]

10 hours ago, tugger said:

Hamish its more to do with the warm water currents that move from one side of the Pacific Ocean to the other so in the years we have more rain there is more warm water pushing up to our coastline. Hence good pelagic seasons follow warm water along our coastline and more oceanic baitfish. I was getting plenty of yakkas and slimie mackerel on this trip and it's been a few years since they were in numbers like that on my bait grounds. All pointing to a good pelagic season fingers crossed.

great to hear the bait are back. 

[GregOug]

On 02/09/2020 at 1:39 PM, tugger said:

22.5 degrees and yes it should be a good year for pelagics with the el nino likely this year.

It’s actually around 70% chance of La Niña now, not El Niño.