queensland Another day in the bay

[GregOug]

Knowing that today would probably be a parking lot in the bay given it’s Australia Day, I decided to head over to Moreton yesterday and explore a new area we discovered right towards the end of the day on our last trip out.

The forecast was looking good and we set off from P.O.B while it was still dark and actually had to wait a while in the river until dawn before it was bright enough to see. The seas were no more than the predicted 0.3m and we were able to motor along at cruising revs all the way from the river to near Tangalooma. We checked out one possible mark but it looked dead and uninteresting so we headed straight to our mark from last trip and started sounding around. There seemed to be a bit of activity on the bottom so we dropped anchor in about 50’ and started fishing. The bites were on right from the start and we commenced pulling in some just undersized grassies, small squire and tuskies. 
 

A legal grassy hit the esky, then a tuskie and then we caught the inevitable grinner. We didn’t know we’d hooked him until Damon’s rod buckled over and he commenced fighting a serious sized fish only for it to get off after a brief tussle. He wound in to find the remains of a large grinner, cleanly bitten off half way down, and with huge tear marks out of the remainder. He’d obviously just taken Damon’s bait when something much larger had come along and taken him. We continued to catch plenty of grassies, tuskies and squire, most undersized when I caught another grinner. I hooked him on as a live bait and dropped him back down. Nothing touched him for a while and I was busy doing something else, preparing more bait or something, when my 6000 Thunnus absolutely screamed off! I set the drag a bit tighter but this fish was a freight train and it was obvious there was no stopping this guy. He eventually broke me off, probably on some jagged bottom a long way from the boat. I am going to need to respool that reel because there’s not much left on it. I have no idea what type of fish this was!

I got a new outfit out of the rod locker and started fishing again. Then Damon was on to a nice fighting fish which we eventually netted. It was a beautiful looking juvenile Red Emporer, which while nowhere near the 55cm minimum size, put up a bloody good fight. We measured him before throwing him back but can’t actually remember the exact size now. It was around 40cms though. Would love to catch a legal one. They would certainly take some bringing in.

The tide stopped running but the bites didn’t. They just kept coming. Eventually we started swinging on the anchor as the current started running back into the bay. That’s when the fishing got rather hectic! We started hooking, losing and sometimes catching some very nice (well, at least in my books) grassies between 35 and 39 cms, as well as a couple of tuskies thrown into the mix. We ended up running out of bait by just after ten and were very satisfied with our morning’s fishing anyway. 
 

As the weather was so nice, we decided to troll for a couple of hours in a nice leisurely circle through the Pearl Channel before calling it quits and heading back to the ramp  about lunch time. All in all, a great day out! 

 

 

[kmcrosby78]

That's a great haul @GregOug, well done!! New favourite fishing spot ......? Is it mostly rubbly bottom or some hard, solid structure also? Nice to see some nice fat grassies caught - I was just reading Spero's report on the Fishing Monthly site and he got some 50-55cm grassies at Green Island yesterday, so a few nice ones about. I was considering an overnighter last night but have had a bit of asthma and a cold (took a RAT test this morning which was negative) so unfortunately decided an overnighter wouldn't really do wonders for my recuperation - the joys of getting older and (more) sensible .... . Enjoy those fillets!!

[Old Scaley]

Tasty looking esky Greg.  Good to see you getting out and amongst them.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi Greg

Great work! That is a quality haul. It seems the grassies are biting in the bay right now. 

Also, nice work on the red emperor! A legal one would be awesome!

Cheers Hamish

[ellicat]

Looks like a top day out, Greg. Good on you. Some nice fish for dinner for a few nights !

[Angry51]

Looks like a good day out Greg.

Ya gotta have a win now and then, eh!

[benno573]

Who are you and what have you done with Greg???

[GregOug]

2 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

That's a great haul @GregOug, well done!! New favourite fishing spot ......? Is it mostly rubbly bottom or some hard, solid structure also? 

Favourite? It’s my ONLY fishing spot!

Nah, I have a couple now. it’s only taken me nearly two years to find them.

And there’s really not much showing on the bottom at all. 

[GregOug]

37 minutes ago, Angry51 said:

Looks like a good day out Greg.

Ya gotta have a win now and then, eh!

That’s my first one for quite a while.

[GregOug]

29 minutes ago, benno573 said:

Who are you and what have you done with Greg???

We also caught some good sized Wirra  but threw them back after only finding a reference to a 50cm size limit for cod on our phone! I now realise it’s 38cm and we could have kept all three. I have now printed out and laminated a two page size chart for use in future.

[benno573]

19 minutes ago, GregOug said:

We also caught some good sized Wirra  but threw them back after only finding a reference to a 50cm size limit for cod on our phone! I now realise it’s 38cm and we could have kept all three. I have now printed out and laminated a two page size chart for use in future.

There’s an app for it called Qld fishing 2.0. Let’s you upload a photo and it tells you what it is, legal size etc. not all cod are 38cm, some like Māori cod have a larger minimum size. The app is not perfect but works pretty well on common species. Assuming they were legal size cod not only could you have kept them they were valuable entries for team north you threw back… are you secretly working for the south?

[Old Scaley]

That app is pretty good. Hardest part is reading a phone screen in the sun. I assumed we couldn’t put undersize fish on the leaderboard or I would have snapped a pic of the little 40cm (approx) threadie, and approx 35cm estuary cod I caught on Friday. Nothing in the rules to say you can’t, so @AUS-BNE-FISHO, get that tiny threadie up! 

Not meaning to steal your topic, Greg. How are you cooking the grassies?

[GregOug]

1 hour ago, benno573 said: are you secretly working for the south?

@benno573 wash your mouth out!

[GregOug]

1 hour ago, Old Scaley said:

That app is pretty good. Hardest part is reading a phone screen in the sun. I assumed we couldn’t put undersize fish on the leaderboard or I would have snapped a pic of the little 40cm (approx) threadie, and approx 35cm estuary cod I caught on Friday. Nothing in the rules to say you can’t, so @AUS-BNE-FISHO, get that tiny threadie up! 

Not meaning to steal your topic, Greg. How are you cooking the grassies?

I downloaded that app ages ago when it was a topic on here but wasn’t very impressed with it. Might have to have another look. And I’m open to suggestions on cooking grassies. I consider you to be our resident grassie expert, so how do you cook them?

[benno573]

Fillet, crumb and deep fry…

[Old Scaley]

Or steamed. Or basted with lemon butter and pan fried. Delicious no matter how you cook them.

[benno573]

Agree with @Old Scaley - haven’t ever been disappointed with grassy. Far superior to snapper IMO. 

[ellicat]

The fish you lost on the grinner has me intrigued. I guess we'll never know for sure but from what you described it doesn't sound like a mack (that are supposedly partial to a grinner) who are pretty clean biters. Maybe a shark ? Was it torn in half or bitten through, do you think ?

[GregOug]

1 hour ago, ellicat said:

The fish you lost on the grinner has me intrigued. I guess we'll never know for sure but from what you described it doesn't sound like a mack (that are supposedly partial to a grinner) who are pretty clean biters. Maybe a shark ? Was it torn in half or bitten through, do you think ?

The tail was cleanly bitten off and above that was shredded with big tears/ pieces missing, head still intact.

[ellicat]

Well, I'm going to call it for just another one of Earth's critters that despise grinners.

[Drop Bear]

Cracking trip mate well done! Some delicious meals for you over the next few days. 

I wonder what the big one was... 

Those little reds are so pretty. Shame they need to be so large to take but I am sure it is for the best. 

It's really great seeing you get a good esky full mate.

 

[GregOug]

3 hours ago, ellicat said:

The fish you lost on the grinner has me intrigued. I guess we'll never know for sure but from what you described it doesn't sound like a mack (that are supposedly partial to a grinner) who are pretty clean biters. Maybe a shark ? Was it torn in half or bitten through, do you think ?

It was funny. A clean bite of a quarter of the tail, big bites marks/ tears above that then the head intact. But we never saw what the huge did because he ended up busting me off on the bottom.

[Junky]

Your photo shopping is getting better @GregOug. 

Actually looks legit.... 

 

Hang on....

 

Well done mate. 

[kmcrosby78]

Hard to know without being there to witness what the fight of the fish was like. The first one could be a cod, jewie, wobbegong/catshark, possibly a shovelnose (I can't recall what their mouths are like), shark. 

Second one, who knows, could be a spaniard, longtail tuna, jewie, shark, possibly a big trevally. The joys of fishing .

[benno573]

Kingy, cobia… so many options. Best bit is because you didn’t see it it can be anything you want it to be…

[GregOug]

4 hours ago, Junky said:

Your photo shopping is getting better @GregOug. 

Actually looks legit.... 

 

Hang on....

 

Well done mate. 

You must be a Southsider. If I do need to photoshop I’ll just get advice from any of you guys.

[GregOug]

3 hours ago, GregOug said:

You must be a Southsider. If I do need to photoshop I’ll just get advice from any of you guys.

Mind you, if anyone hears of a nice house, preferably on the waterfront or a canal near Wynnum/Manly please let me know. I could be tempted to the dark side. It worked for Darth. Oh that’s right, it didn’t, did it.

[Junky]

6 hours ago, GregOug said:

Mind you, if anyone hears of a nice house, preferably on the waterfront or a canal near Wynnum/Manly please let me know. I could be tempted to the dark side. It worked for Darth. Oh that’s right, it didn’t, did it.

Hahaha. 

 

Yes we've all seen Darth Vader become the good guy eventually. 

 

[jon]

Well done Greg sounds like a great day out

[Cobiaaddict]

@GregOug  Good little spot you got there Greg

[GregOug]

6 hours ago, Cobiaaddict said:

@GregOug  Good little spot you got there Greg

Not as good as yours but okay. 

[kmcrosby78]

9 hours ago, GregOug said:

Not as good as yours but okay. 

Same spot ….. Josh just fishes it better ……

[GregOug]

3 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Same spot ….. Josh just fishes it better ……

So now I need to work on my technique.

[Cobiaaddict]

On 28/01/2022 at 9:56 PM, GregOug said:

Not as good as yours but okay. 

You would be surprised  

[Cobiaaddict]

On 29/01/2022 at 11:20 AM, GregOug said:

So now I need to work on my technique.

Technique and time on the water Greg, super important