queensland Reconnaissance Mission

[ellicat]

If the weather forecast holds for this coming Wednesday, I am going to spend the day sounding around Moreton Bay in varying depths from Mud Island down to Coochiemudlo Island and all the islands in between as well as some other general areas.

If anyone has any tips for me I'd love to hear them. It's a big area, I know. Would you recommend narrowing the search area ?

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hey ellicat

Good luck!  Hopefully you find some marks that become your 'Spot X', and they produce!

The only tip I could give is to fish each different spot you find more than once on different tide, moon, weather cycles, etc.

I'll be interested to see how you go. Do you plan to take a rod as well?

Cheers Hamish

[Another Wazza]

That’s a whole heap of area to look over, does your sounder have side scan?

[ellicat]

1 hour ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Do you plan to take a rod as well?

Thinking of going without rods so I won't be tempted by distractions. I'll probably buckle and take one though. haha

[ellicat]

1 hour ago, Another Wazza said:

That’s a whole heap of area to look over, does your sounder have side scan?

No side scan. It has down scan but I haven't figured out what difference it is to normal scan apart from being a different colour.

[Old Scaley]

Weather does look great for Wednesday. I will get out somewhere, but will be fully fishing and leaving the exploration to you, Brian. Will give you a call sometime through the day to compare notes.

[ellicat]

It will be painful if you're catching.

[Old Scaley]

8 minutes ago, ellicat said:

It will be painful if you're catching.

Well, I am tipping a pain free day for you.

[Another Wazza]

Not taking a rod or 2, would be sacrilege!

[Old Scaley]

10 minutes ago, Another Wazza said:

Not taking a rod or 2, would be sacrilege!

Exactly. Imagine being out there sounding around and all of a sudden there are schools of tailor, Tuna or mackerel busting up all around the boat. Or you you sound up a big bait ball with lots of arches under it. And no rod in the boat.........

[Another Wazza]

Old Scaley, you have just described what nightmares are made of

[ellicat]

OK. I'll take two rods and some plastics, but that's it. It will have to be a good show though.

[aussie123]

I think I would be picking out an area to go to for the day and sound it out fully and mark anything interesting that you see on the sounder.

After sounding the area out, go back and have a fish on all the marks that you find.

Sound out one area at a time otherwise you just miss finding to much ground around you.

[kmcrosby78]

3 hours ago, aussie123 said:

I think I would be picking out an area to go to for the day and sound it out fully and mark anything interesting that you see on the sounder.

After sounding the area out, go back and have a fish on all the marks that you find.

Sound out one area at a time otherwise you just miss finding to much ground around you.

What Lance said   Hope you find some fruitful spots mate.

[Junky]

I started on a similar mission a few years back. I lost interest. It's pretty big out there and I didn't have the down time. 

What I noticed a lot was I had marks from previous outings on basically nothing.

I put it down to the ground moving around. What could have been small bumps or drop offs were now just sounding as flat ground. 

I wish plotter/sounders had the tech to add a screenshot of the sounder at the time when you hit mark. Least then you could go back and look at what you dropped a mark on. It would make deleting marks easier too. 

 

 

For me....

Get the transducer setup correctly was priority. 

My sounder works well at 40kph.

While not as detailed as it is when I'm moving slow, it still picks up enough to be able to go in for a second look. 

Marking off the sounder screen is a good thing too. Takes away that distance travelled in reaction time when travelling at speed. 

That's how I've found 90% of my marks tbh. 

 

Good luck. Hope it works out for you. 

 

 

 

 

[ellicat]

Thanks @Junky.

Yes, I went to a mark the other day and it was flat as a tack. I figured it must have been one I put in on the fly and was therefore a bit off. I don't have a touch screen so that doesn't help. Fortunately my sounder does read well at top speed, but the delay in creating the mark is a problem. I intend to do a bit of slow speed marking on the day.

Also I think I will just pick a smaller area and concentrate on that to start with, as @aussie123 suggested. Looks like the wind will be blowing up a bit according to Meteye so may not have the full day in any case.

[Junky]

6 minutes ago, ellicat said:

Thanks @Junky.

Yes, I went to a mark the other day and it was flat as a tack. I figured it must have been one I put in on the fly and was therefore a bit off. I don't have a touch screen so that doesn't help. Fortunately my sounder does read well at top speed, but the delay in creating the mark is a problem. I intend to do a bit of slow speed marking on the day.

Also I think I will just pick a smaller area and concentrate on that to start with, as @aussie123 suggested. Looks like the wind will be blowing up a bit according to Meteye so may not have the full day in any case.

 

What unit are you running? 

Most new units will allow you to drag a set of crosshairs across the sounder screen and put the mark right on top of the bump. 

That takes out the reaction time delay. 

[ellicat]

Just a pretty basic Lowrance Hook Reveal 5.

[Junky]

I recon it will do it. 

Just have the unit on sounder only. 

Press the directional arrows and see if the cross hairs come up on the screen. If so you should be able to move the crosshairs over a piece of history on the sounder and hit mark. 

 

When on combo screens you'd have to highlight the sounder side otherwise it will active the crosshairs on the GPS side. 

[ellicat]

I'll give it a whirl as that would be an excellent solution. Thanks for the tip.

[Old Scaley]

Does look a bit windy on Wednesday @ellicat.  I’m going to check again tomorrow but may go Thursday instead.

[ellicat]

Yeah, I'm thinking the same.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

On 06/09/2020 at 4:57 PM, ellicat said:

OK. I'll take two rods and some plastics, but that's it. It will have to be a good show though.

 

On 06/09/2020 at 3:59 PM, Old Scaley said:

Weather does look great for Wednesday. I will get out somewhere, but will be fully fishing and leaving the exploration to you, Brian. Will give you a call sometime through the day to compare notes.

Good luck you two! Let's hope both your missions are successful. 

Cheers Hamish

[Drop Bear]

20 hours ago, Old Scaley said:

Does look a bit windy on Wednesday @ellicat.  I’m going to check again tomorrow but may go Thursday instead.

Thursday looks mint!!!!

[ellicat]

1st day mission complete. Put in at Manly. Had a look at the NW corner of Green before circumnavigating Mud. Had to call it off early as I got a bit crook, but will head out for day 2 tomorrow.

Fail for the day: Packing the thermos, coffee, sugar and milk and forgetting to take a cup.

[Old Scaley]

24 minutes ago, ellicat said:

1st day mission complete. Put in at Manly. Had a look at the NW corner of Green before circumnavigating Mud. Had to call it off early as I got a bit crook, but will head out for day 2 tomorrow.

Fail for the day: Packing the thermos, coffee, sugar and milk and forgetting to take a cup.

How were conditions and did you learn anything? Are you feeling better now?

[ellicat]

Conditions were great. Not always glassed out, but pretty close.

Feeling a bit dodgy still, but a sleep will see that improve I'm sure.

What time are you heading out tomorrow ? I'm thinking of an early start and be back at the ramp about lunchtime before the afternoon breeze picks up..

[Old Scaley]

3 minutes ago, ellicat said:

Conditions were great. Not always glassed out, but pretty close.

Feeling a bit dodgy still, but a sleep will see that improve I'm sure.

What time are you heading out tomorrow ? I'm thinking of an early start and be back at the ramp about lunchtime before the afternoon breeze picks up..

Not too early. Probably launch around 8 and come back in when the breeze starts lifting or the rain looks close.

[ellicat]

Okay. I'll let you know how I'm going as I've decided to have a fish at one or two of the new marks before exploring again.

[kmcrosby78]

On 07/09/2020 at 9:41 AM, ellicat said:

I'll give it a whirl as that would be an excellent solution. Thanks for the tip.

Me too - good tip @Junky  

[kmcrosby78]

4 hours ago, ellicat said:

Okay. I'll let you know how I'm going as I've decided to have a fish at one or two of the new marks before exploring again.

 

4 hours ago, Old Scaley said:

Not too early. Probably launch around 8 and come back in when the breeze starts lifting or the rain looks close.

That's it, I have had it with you too and have dobbed you in to the moderators for your continuous showing off and publicly airing your gratuitous mid-week fishing sojourns while the rest of us are working. It is time you thought of us all and communicated your ramblings via PM's .......!!!!!!!  (P.S. As fellow Southsiders, I wish you luck in securing us a cod or threadie ....... ).

[ellicat]

On 07/09/2020 at 9:40 AM, Junky said:

I recon it will do it. 

Just have the unit on sounder only. 

Press the directional arrows and see if the cross hairs come up on the screen. If so you should be able to move the crosshairs over a piece of history on the sounder and hit mark. 

 

When on combo screens you'd have to highlight the sounder side otherwise it will active the crosshairs on the GPS side. 

Yep, it does it. Life is so much simpler now. Thanks again.

[Drop Bear]

11 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

 

That's it, I have had it with you too and have dobbed you in to the moderators for your continuous showing off and publicly airing your gratuitous mid-week fishing sojourns while the rest of us are working. It is time you thought of us all and communicated your ramblings via PM's .......!!!!!!!  (P.S. As fellow Southsiders, I wish you luck in securing us a cod or threadie ....... ).

Cheer up mate. One day you will be retired. haha. Till then you can be young and fit. 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

19 hours ago, ellicat said:

1st day mission complete. Put in at Manly. Had a look at the NW corner of Green before circumnavigating Mud. Had to call it off early as I got a bit crook, but will head out for day 2 tomorrow.

Fail for the day: Packing the thermos, coffee, sugar and milk and forgetting to take a cup.

Hey Brian

Sounds like you were relatively successful. Hope the marks will produce.

Cheers Hamish

[Drop Bear]

Good thing you got out yesterday mate. Its looking pretty grim today. 

[ellicat]

It was a bit blowy. Headed out to Mud from Port of Brisbane ramp about 8 o'clock. Plan was to have a quick go at yesterday's marks and then go explore Harry's.

Wind was getting up so checked with Willy and noticed there was a strong wind warning for "the middle of the day". With this in mind I decided to head back into the river at 10.30 where I checked the poo shute and thought about having a cast for some bream for the comp as I've got some high 30's there before, but I couldn't bring myself to put my new anchor rope into that swill.

Motored up to the pipeline where I noticed that number 97 has been painted red. Sounded out to the drop off where there were some threadies showing but when I anchored, the boat hung 90 degrees from what I thought would happen as it was wind against tide and neither were winning. Tried for a while for no love except I got snipped off (suspect some small choppers are in), so tied on some wire and therefore didn't get another bite. Moved to the sunken wall for a couple of bream bites and then headed in with mission unaccomplished.

 

Edit: I left out the bit about meeting up with Steve on the water and at the ramp because I didn't want to upset working Kelvin.

Oops

[Drop Bear]

10 minutes ago, ellicat said:

It was a bit blowy. Headed out to Mud from Port of Brisbane ramp about 8 o'clock. Plan was to have a quick go at yesterday's marks and then go explore Harry's.

Wind was getting up so checked with Willy and noticed there was a strong wind warning for "the middle of the day". With this in mind I decided to head back into the river at 10.30 where I checked the poo shute and thought about having a cast for some bream for the comp as I've got some high 30's there before, but I couldn't bring myself to put my new anchor rope into that swill.

Motored up to the pipeline where I noticed that number 97 has been painted red. Sounded out to the drop off where there were some threadies showing but when I anchored, the boat hung 90 degrees from what I thought would happen as it was wind against tide and neither were winning. Tried for a while for no love except I got snipped off (suspect some small choppers are in), so tied on some wire and therefore didn't get another bite. Moved to the sunken wall for a couple of bream bites and then headed in with mission unaccomplished.

 

Edit: I left out the bit about meeting up with Steve on the water and at the ramp because I didn't want to upset working Kelvin.

Oops

Fun. Poor KM... 

[kmcrosby78]

6 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

Cheer up mate. One day you will be retired. haha. Till then you can be young and fit. 

Problem is I think I'm stuck halfway in between being young and fit and, well, ummmm like Steve and (particularly ...) Brian ....... 

[GregOug]

4 minutes ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Problem is I think I'm stuck halfway in between being young and fit and, well, ummmm like Steve and (particularly ...) Brian ....... 

And me! Don’t forget me!

[Old Scaley]

Good to see you out on the water @ellicat. My plan today was to hit the front wall, fishing hard against the wall with unweighted mullet flesh under a float to try to get back on the leaderboard for bream. And to fish out the other side for a possible fluke big snapper. Half the plan worked (sorry Brian, I think I just pipped you). Lots of bream between 25 and 30 but only 2 over 30. The snapper lines were getting constantly hit by either tailor or small macs, and I got sick of having to tie new terminal tackle so moved into the river to fish the rising tide. Unfortunately my new minn kota decided to shred a shear pin so was out of action for the rest of the morning. Had a chat with Brian then went in search of a river snap, but all I got was more snip offs. Tried trolling a small slice because they were hitting the moving bait, but no luck. By now I had the sh#ts about the electric and the constant snip offs so called it a day.