queensland Bay Bashing (in A Very Speedy Boat)

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi all

Here is the report from yesterday's session with Kat (@Kat), Greg (@GregOug), and myself (as well as Greg's sons). It was very fun overall, a great cruise through the bay, and we caught lots of fish (even though most were a tad too small). It was good to meet/meet up with more AFO-ers, and I think we all had a great day out.  Greg, and Kat, sorry if I've missed anything. Like I have said before, I will never be an elephant, therefore my memory isn't the best. Lol. 

Loading up at the ramp

After meeting at Viccy Point Boat Ramp at a bit past 7:30AM, we launched. Kat and I sat in the front of the boat and Greg and co. sat in the back. The boat was extremely fast, bouncing over the tiny chop.  At the first spot, I baited up with a live yabby (Kat had very handily brought a heap so I decided to use one). I had my line in first, and within a minute or so I got a hit. Kat baited up with yabby as well, and despite getting the odd nibble, everyone on the boat failed to get one at the first spot  

We would've drifted/moved a little bit around there, but we didn't move to far. The sounder was showing some fish here as well, so it is a bit of a shame we didn't get any. We then motored along the bay to a rocky edge of the island, and if I recall correctly we were in 8-12M of water. I dropped my live yabby down, as did Kat, and Greg's sons were fishing with squid. I got a pretty good hit straight away which I failed to hook up on, and then Kat was on. This thing showed no sign of stopping, and in fact almost spooled her on the first run. We were chasing the fish, hoping for a real biggun to surface. Then it stopped, and it was a dead weight, and then more and more running! It seemed like a very good fish, that's for sure. Unfortunately it got the better of us and busted Kat off. After re-thinking, we thought it was most likely a big ray due to the fight and how it kept stopping and starting, and due to the very long runs. 

A few more nibbles were had at this spot, but it proved fishless even after X amount of drifts in different depths and quite a few more nibbles. We decided to move on to Potts Point (which Kat recommended - it was very lucky as she knows the area/has seen many boats fishing there so could tell us some spots!). We anchored up, and there was a some decent ground on the sounder. We decided to deploy the berley as well, which was some blocks of pilchard oil. It didn't take long for Kat to get a good bite, which unfortunately decided it didn't want to stay on her hook. Soon after, she got another fair bite. Both these fish seemed quite good, and it is a shame that they were not landed. We sure thought that they could be legal fish. 

Greg's son Alex (Greg my bad if I got names wrong/mixed up) was the first one to hook a fish though. After a short fight, up came a solid 32cm squire. It was measured, but it was also chucked back when we found out it was undersize . I was the next to get a fish, with a record breaking stonking 23cm Tarwhine. It did fight OK for it's size, but that was the main let down about the fish. Kat was consistently getting some small squire as well, all of which seemed to be good fun on her new Nasci.. In fact, she certainly got the most fish of the day as we lost count of them all! Greg and I rigged up a floater, which we hoped a mackerel would chew on (or anything sizeable and tasty), which was basically an unweighted pilly on a set of four gang hooks - no success on that one at that spot. 

A little Tarwhine

One of Kat's squire

When this spot stopped firing, we went to a drop off Greg had marked on his sounder. We anchored up here once again, and we were all doing pretty well (on the small squire at least). I was the first one to catch a fish here, in fact I dropped my squid bit down and I was pretty much on straight away to a 30cm or so squire. Kat got a decent one too, but then they started to get smaller (for both of us up the front anyways). 

Leaving a spot

One of my squire (I think I only got two or three)

It was a while before Greg's sons started pulling them in, but they seemed to be getting slightly larger fish. We kept repositioning the anchor, to get on some better ground, but each time we moved it seemed as though the small ones wanted to follow us . Towards the end of the session (after a LOT of small squire), Tom hooked up to what seemed like a better fish. It was fighting quite well, and when we first saw it we thought it was a sea toad. On closer examination, we realised it was something else entirely! We didn't know at the time what is was. A trevally? Nope, not the right shape. A baby Samsonfish? Hmm, that doesn't look right. A baby AJ? Something like that! (It could also be a Black Banded Amberjack, which @benno573 said... And looks like he is right). 

Another squire

The possibly AJ of sorts

Shortly after this fish (and a couple more small squire), we set off back to the ramp. It was low tide, and boy, was it bad. Most of the time we were in 2M< water, and just about as we were going to get back to the ramp we got stuck. Tom (Greg's son) and Kat had to get out and push us through the water, so Kudos to them!  Certainly a warning about that ramp, as I reckon if the tide was any lower you practically wouldn't be able to get out to water! 

Thanks for reading the report everyone, I hope you enjoyed. Thanks for the good day out Greg and Kat, it was great fun  Here are the stats of the trip as well - 

Statistics of trip - 

Tide: 3:25AM, .4M, Low, 9:00AM, 2.1M, High, 3:15PM, .5M, Low

Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent, so not too much run

Weather: A few patches of rain here and there, but otherwise a light gust for the whole day (sunny too)

Bait caught: Kat caught live yabbies the arvo before, but otherwise there was no bait caught

Bait used: Live yabbies, squid, pillies, scad

Tackle Used: I was using a Diawa Shinobi, 10lb braid, 20lb fluorocarbon leader, Venotat rod (6"6'), Kat was using a Shimano Nasci 2500 with 10lb braid (I don't know what rod), Greg had a 12000 baitrunner out on an Abu Garcia rod (I think) with mono, but I don't know the rest because I didn't check. 

Time fished: 8:00AM (or so) until about 3:00PM

Overall Success Rate: 70% - A great day out with some fish landed! 

Cheers Hamish

[kmcrosby78]

Sounds like a fun day out was had by all. Interesting capture there with the blackbanded amberjack - I've never heard of them before. Just looked them up and they grow to almost 6 foot!!!

[GregOug]

Thanks for the great report Hamish.

[ellicat]

Good report as always, Hamish.

Good onya for getting everyone out there, Greg.

Shame the legals were hard to get.

Was the structure easy to land on down MacLeay way ?

[samsteele115]

Great report Hamish, and a wonderful little taste of the bay! Been kayaking for snapper yet? 

Ripper looking boat mate far out! @GregOug

Hope you had a good time @Kat! Awesome to get some fish too

[Junky]

Great read Hamish. 

Def an AJ.  

 

 

You're a legend Greg. 

[GregOug]

7 hours ago, ellicat said:

Good report as always, Hamish.

Good onya for getting everyone out there, Greg.

Shame the legals were hard to get.

Was the structure easy to land on down MacLeay way ?

It was fairly easy to find but anchoring on it once you had found it was another matter. Same old problem. The boat never seems to end up just over it. Or even near it apparently. Lol

[GregOug]

3 hours ago, samsteele115 said:

Great report Hamish, and a wonderful little taste of the bay! Been kayaking for snapper yet? 

Ripper looking boat mate far out! @GregOug

Hope you had a good time @Kat! Awesome to get some fish too

Thanks mate. Now we just need to get some legal ones.

[GregOug]

Well done Hamish.

There’s one thing I think you should add to your reports. I’ve noticed that you don’t have an actual ‘Fish Caught’ heading in the summation. It would probably be worth adding so you can quickly refer to back to relevant ones rather than having to wade through hundreds of them a few years down the track looking for info on fishing trips involving squire or reef sharks, for example. 

cheers 

Greg

[GregOug]

32 minutes ago, Junky said:

Great read Hamish. 

Def an AJ.  

 

 

You're a legend Greg. 

Thanks mate.

[Kat]

8 hours ago, samsteele115 said:

Great report Hamish, and a wonderful little taste of the bay! Been kayaking for snapper yet? 

Ripper looking boat mate far out! @GregOug

Hope you had a good time @Kat! Awesome to get some fish too

Hi @samsteele115 I had a great time!  The whole day was both fun and "interesting" - I have been reading about stepping on Rays when wading and when we had to push the boat I have to admit I was a little bit nervous.  Got some hookups that felt really big (compared to what I am used to on land anyway).  Hamish failed to mention (probably being polite) that I probably lost them because my drag was too loose.  Lesson learned - Greg checked the drag, showed me how tight it should be and next time I will be ready!

It has been awesome meeting everyone - a great bunch of blokes.  

Cheers Kat

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

On 01/10/2020 at 9:12 PM, kmcrosby78 said:

Sounds like a fun day out was had by all. Interesting capture there with the blackbanded amberjack - I've never heard of them before. Just looked them up and they grow to almost 6 foot!!!

Hey KM

Thanks for that - I had never heard of one either... In fact, I only thought there was one species of AJ!

I reckon it would be pretty hard to land if it was six foot... Maybe impossible  

On 02/10/2020 at 3:10 AM, ellicat said:

Good report as always, Hamish.

Good onya for getting everyone out there, Greg.

Shame the legals were hard to get.

Was the structure easy to land on down MacLeay way ?

Hey Brian

Glad you enjoyed . If the squire/pinkies were a bit bigger we sure would've caught some keepers. 

Like Greg said, we found some good shows but it was hard to get right on top of it.

On 02/10/2020 at 6:46 AM, samsteele115 said:

Great report Hamish, and a wonderful little taste of the bay! Been kayaking for snapper yet? 

Ripper looking boat mate far out! @GregOug

Hope you had a good time @Kat! Awesome to get some fish too

Hi Sam

Thanks, yep, it was nice being in the bay. I haven't got around to going out in the yak in the bay yet - need to find a good time for my dad and I. 

23 hours ago, Junky said:

Great read Hamish. 

Def an AJ.  

 

 

You're a legend Greg. 

Thanks Junky, and Greg is definitely a legend! 

22 hours ago, GregOug said:

Well done Hamish.

There’s one thing I think you should add to your reports. I’ve noticed that you don’t have an actual ‘Fish Caught’ heading in the summation. It would probably be worth adding so you can quickly refer to back to relevant ones rather than having to wade through hundreds of them a few years down the track looking for info on fishing trips involving squire or reef sharks, for example. 

cheers 

Greg

Morning Greg

That's a great idea. Thanks. It will sure be good to not need to read every different report or try and remember what I caught in every different report! 

Cheers Hamish  

[Drop Bear]

Great stuff gang. Glad you had a good day out on the water. 

[Ob20]

Those were some pretty good catches

Wow and AJ

great job!

keep fishing 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

8 hours ago, Ob20 said:

Those were some pretty good catches

Wow and AJ

great job!

keep fishing 

Hey Ob20

Thanks for that, unfortunately no keepers!

Cheers Hamish