queensland Sunny Coast Spanish Mack Mission 2022.

[GregN70]

My goal is to catch a Spanish Mackerel, I’ve been chasing these for years with no luck, especially out of Yeppoon in Central Qld of late where they appear to be extinct there.

So the plan is this: I have 2 weeks off in January/February and Im planning a trip down to Mooloolaba Sunny Coast area. From my research that time and place seem to be my best chance of running into one of these oceanic speedsters.

I’m taking my 581 Mclay Crossover Cuddy Cab, 140hp Suzuki and plan to pester the local tackle shops for info on where and when while there. Will mainly troll, lures, and rigged swimming dead baits. But will mix it up depending on conditions etc.

I am taking the following offshore type rods,

1.       PE3-4 Demon Blood OH Rod, with a Saltiga 30HA Star Drag running 50lb braid (250m)

2.       PE4-5 Demon Blood OH Rod Saltiga 35 Lever Drag with 60lb Braid. (330m)

The overheads will run a top-shot of 50 0r 60lb nylon/flurocarbon for a bit of shock absorption, perhaps 20m or so.

Also taking a Nomad Blue Water 7” spin stick, PE 2.5-4 with a Certate SW 10000-H and 47lb braid (300m) for throwing small stick baits and flasher lures etc.

 Is there anything im missing, or recommend I need for this mission?

[ellicat]

I'd have a rod setup to jig for livies and some floats to hang the livies or dead baits under.

[ellicat]

Also, I remember @tugger saying that they love little live trevelly.

[Andrew_P]

Forget about lures. Slow troll dead/ live baits around the outer gneerings/blinker area. Just look for all the other boats doing the same. 
plenty of info on rigs, techniques and best baits out there. Google “bump trolling” that’s what they call it in florida cos they bump it in and out of gear to keep it slow. Best of luck

[GregN70]

4 hours ago, Andrew_P said:

Forget about lures. Slow troll dead/ live baits around the outer gneerings/blinker area. Just look for all the other boats doing the same. 
plenty of info on rigs, techniques and best baits out there. Google “bump trolling” that’s what they call it in florida cos they bump it in and out of gear to keep it slow. Best of luck

Yep, thanks. I've become quite good at rigging baits and can get them to swill really well, up around yeppoon where I have been trying for the last couple years, I've used Tailor/Bonito/Ribbonfish/Yellowtail Pike. Make up a rig with front hook, stinger at rear, chin weight, sometimes a skirt or an islander style trolling head, etc. So i'll start there.

The inner gneerings are so close, I thought you'd have to get out to the barwon banks to do any good. That's great if the fish are that close. Here at Yeppoon the closest Mackerel area is 31km East from the Marina, but the better mackerel areas are 50-60km from the ramp.

 

[kmcrosby78]

Good luck @GregN70 - I suspect we might all hear your screams of delight if you nail one ...

[Tuna are fish]

this is just an idea, but you could go up to Airlie beach. you will have to go out far, but me and dad caught a few there when we use to live there.

 

 

[GregN70]

4 minutes ago, Tuna are fish said:

this is just an idea, but you could go up to Airlie beach. you will have to go out far, but me and dad caught a few there when we use to live there.

 

 

Thanks, might be worth looking into. 

[benno573]

I’d agree with the comments about bait rather than lures for best chance of a result. They can show up anywhere out from sunny coast, often right on close too. Often a floating pillie will do the damage.

[davostephens]

Mate if you come to cairns i,l get you one in a morning.  cpl mile out.  cost ya a carton.

Also look these up.. TrollTrue heads. usa yank thing. about 10$ each. Made of lead painted. Hell easy to rig dead bait. First time i used it i got 2 decent 10 kg spanish in half hr. Used on a baby barracuda and a gar. Was very impressed. Slow trolled 1-2 knots with elec motor . Apparently you can troll em the usual 8 knots. my other mac that morning was on a live School mac.

[Neil Stratford]

Leave the lures and braid on the tackle shop shelves.

Troll big fresh dead baits like Watsons , Australian Bonito , or Frigates.on 50lb nylon dead slow.

I’d be thinking twice about your line capacity too,  I’d strongly recommend 500m of 50lb nylon.

There’s a few real mackerel that haunt that area with usually lots of big sharks that will take your fish very quickly.

Any time after Xmas day till end of April is good.

SE wind around high tide is dinner time.

Troll with your rods set horizontally , low down , at water level .

Check your baits haven’t been snipped in half  regularly.

regards

BeastMaster

[GregN70]

Thanks for the tips.

I also find this kind of funny too. My Ex Father-In Law, lives at Evans Head NSW, and he showed me his Mackerel gear. It consists of large handlines filled with rope, a short length of thick multi strand wire and a 8" metal spoon with one big hook. He always seems to catch a few good Macks every year down there despite not having the right baits, not using nylon, not even using a rod and not even owning a sounder, just using land marks.  Perhaps im over thinking all of this, and basic and simple is better?

[Ryannnnnnnn]

'Solo Angler' on youtube has some great content around targeting spanish macks on the sunshine coast - also his podcast with Greg Vinyl is also very much worth a listen on the drive down https://doclures.com/noosa-spanish-mackerel-david-leonard/ 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hey Greg

Best of luck. If you need any bait tips, Sammy Hitzke does a lot of mackerel trolling and is regularly successful.

Cheers Hamish

[davostephens]

12 hours ago, GregN70 said:

Thanks for the tips.

I also find this kind of funny too. My Ex Father-In Law, lives at Evans Head NSW, and he showed me his Mackerel gear. It consists of large handlines filled with rope, a short length of thick multi strand wire and a 8" metal spoon with one big hook. He always seems to catch a few good Macks every year down there despite not having the right baits, not using nylon, not even using a rod and not even owning a sounder, just using land marks.  Perhaps im over thinking all of this, and basic and simple is better?

yep.. they realy arent that hard to catch

[GregN70]

18 minutes ago, davostephens said:

yep.. they realy arent that hard to catch

Only if you are unlucky. And fishing is 97% luck 

[GregN70]

Well I had my Holiday down the Sunshine Coast area, but sadly the weather gods were unkind, so I only got outside once and it was still very rough so fishing was almost impossible. Thanks mostly Ex Cyclone Seth. Anyway, my dreams of catching a Spanish mackerel will have to wait another year until I can get back down the sunshine coast again..

Cheers

[ellicat]

That's a bugger. The weather has restricted a lot of us from getting out there.

Maybe you could do a weekender sometime.

[GregN70]

18 hours ago, ellicat said:

That's a bugger. The weather has restricted a lot of us from getting out there.

Maybe you could do a weekender sometime.

Maybe a long weekend. But it’s 6hrs drive from Yeppoon to Mooloolaba so it takes a decent effort to do the round trip.

[kmcrosby78]

1 hour ago, GregN70 said:

Maybe a long weekend. But it’s 6hrs watch way from Yeppoon to Mooloolaba so it takes a decent effort to do the round trip 

They are definitely in your area, I'd do what you can up there to crack the code. Talk to staff at tackle shops, people at boat ramps, check for Facebook groups, etc. My brother lives in Gracemere and just bought a new boat (he previously had two but sold them both) and has been straight back into them after a hiatus. He has a spot somewhere not too far (not totally sure on distance) from the mouth of the Fitzroy that is a large rock/pinnacle that seems to consistently hold them when in season.

[kmcrosby78]

On 20/09/2021 at 10:11 PM, davostephens said:

yep.. they realy arent that hard to catch

When I was growing up we used to go out fishing with an old family friend of ours out Seaforth/Ball Bay way (near Mackay) and he trolled using a similar set up that you have described @GregN70. Instead of rope, from recollection it was more a heavy chord (thicker than VB chord), then about 150-200lb mono, down to probably a 4 inch metal spoon, with a large barrel sinker on the chord section (above a swivel) to keep it under the surface. He caught plenty of spotties, plenty of ribbonfish (wolf herring) that he sold to a fishing pro further north) and occasionally spaniards, although sadly we never witnessed this. We could however see the large cuts in the bimini struts from where he'd tied or looped the chord around so he troll solo. He said when they hit it sounded like a shotgun going off and jolted the boat!!!!  

I also caught my first ever coral trout (and still easily my PB ....... ) using the same set up with him, around 3.5kg so I was stoked, was probably about 13 at the time . This was caught around a rocky reef that became exposed at low tide.

[GregN70]

13 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

They are definitely in your area, I'd do what you can up there to crack the code. Talk to staff at tackle shops, people at boat ramps, check for Facebook groups, etc. My brother lives in Gracemere and just bought a new boat (he previously had two but sold them both) and has been straight back into them after a hiatus. He has a spot somewhere not too far (not totally sure on distance) from the mouth of the Fitzroy that is a large rock/pinnacle that seems to consistently hold them when in season.

Would have to be 30-40km from the mouth of the Fitzroy as that entire area is currently almost freshwater at the moment & has been since November 

[kmcrosby78]

On 22/01/2022 at 10:06 AM, GregN70 said:

Would have to be 30-40km from the mouth of the Fitzroy as that entire area is currently almost freshwater at the moment & has been since November 

Just had my brother confirm it's about 60km out. I didn't realise it was that far. 

[GregN70]

27 minutes ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Just had my brother confirm it's about 60km out. I didn't realise it was that far. 

Everything is that far up here.  The furthest i've been on a day trip was to try some deeper shoals ESE of Douglas, which was about 123km east from the boat ramp at Yeppoon, so a 250km round tip. Yet still only got 4 small fish. Trout, Red Throat x 2 & a Maori Cod.

[GregOug]

On 19/9/21 at 9:43 PM, davostephens said:

Mate if you come to cairns i,l get you one in a morning.  cpl mile out.  cost ya a carton.

Also look these up.. TrollTrue heads. usa yank thing. about 10$ each. Made of lead painted. Hell easy to rig dead bait. First time i used it i got 2 decent 10 kg spanish in half hr. Used on a baby barracuda and a gar. Was very impressed. Slow trolled 1-2 knots with elec motor . Apparently you can troll em the usual 8 knots. my other mac that morning was on a live School mac.

Hi Davo. Just saw this thread. I ordered some of these online from the manufacturer in the USA a few months ago but they ended up refunding my money because they don’t ship to Australia. Do you remember how you got a hold of yours?

cheers

Greg

[Neil Stratford]

Greg , if you want to catch a Spanish Mackerel   , this IMO is what you need to use.(see photo below.)

They just can’t resist these baits and the bigger the Bonito the faster they absolutely will go off. There’s no luck involved , the skill  is in catching the bait , the bait rigging ,how the boat is driven and then bullying the fish ito the boat before it becomes the prey. 

As mentioned in this spiel , Yes I’ve fished out from Seaforth - specifically in the Smith Group  , this area goes off for Spanish and is a place that every mackerel fisherman should visit . You live approximately  half way between Brisbane and Mackay . I know where I’d be looking  and it isn’t Mooloolaba.

Yes bummer for you , The mackerel on the mat were caught off Mooloolaba two days before Xmas 2021 - all on Bonito , pity you got crappy weather, good chance you would have got one as they were there in pretty good numbers .

Good luck getting your first Spanish.

Neil

[ellicat]

How far back do you like to troll your bonito, @Neil Stratford ?

[Neil Stratford]

I set the boat speed  going forward at about 3 knots , drop the baits in one at a time and count back about 40 sec in free spool gently thumbing the spool to keep the line tight  , once lines are set , I then slow down as slow as the boat goes.

[GregN70]

On 31/01/2022 at 9:12 AM, Neil Stratford said:

Greg , if you want to catch a Spanish Mackerel   , this IMO is what you need to use.(see photo below.)

They just can’t resist these baits and the bigger the Bonito the faster they absolutely will go off. There’s no luck involved , the skill  is in catching the bait , the bait rigging ,how the boat is driven and then bullying the fish ito the boat before it becomes the prey. 

As mentioned in this spiel , Yes I’ve fished out from Seaforth - specifically in the Smith Group  , this area goes off for Spanish and is a place that every mackerel fisherman should visit . You live approximately  half way between Brisbane and Mackay . I know where I’d be looking  and it isn’t Mooloolaba.

Yes bummer for you , The mackerel on the mat were caught off Mooloolaba two days before Xmas 2021 - all on Bonito , pity you got crappy weather, good chance you would have got one as they were there in pretty good numbers .

Good luck getting your first Spanish.

Neil

 

 

Thanks Neil, the Smiths look pretty good on Navionics, Qld Globe & Bathmaps.

As for Bait, around this Yeppoon area where i Normally fish, I have spot where I catch Watsons Bonito pretty easy and in the past I get a few at the start of my trip, keep them alive and troll them live, with a nose bridle and stinger hook in the tail. Sometimes up near the surface, and often off a downrigger too, depending what the sounder is telling me. But it would seem they don't like live Bonito, I might have to do a few bait runs and put some in the freezer and rig them as dead troll baits.

Cheers

[Drop Bear]

On 31/01/2022 at 12:15 PM, Neil Stratford said:

I set the boat speed  going forward at about 3 knots , drop the baits in one at a time and count back about 40 sec in free spool gently thumbing the spool to keep the line tight  , once lines are set , I then slow down as slow as the boat goes.

Neil you are so generous with your information. Thanks so much legend.