queensland Not Just Another Day in The Bay

[GregOug]

I recently bought two new G.Loomis rods and was keen to try them out so when today's forecast for Moreton Bay was for around 0.2 metre seas until after midday, Damon and I decided to head to our recently found spot over at Moreton to try them out. The river was calm as we headed out around dawn and things looked very promising. The calm seas continued until we got past the main shipping channel beacons but deteriorated very quickly after that. We were soon punching into a very nasty swell with cross chop and the wind was considerably stronger than the less than ten knots forecast. We decided to persevere but by the time we got to our spot the seas were probably at least a half metre of chop on top of a metre and a half swell, and very confused.

We anchored and sent some baits down with some fairly heavy lead as the run was nearly as bad as the last time we were there. The swell and chop was pretty bad and I missed a couple of decent bites but then managed to hook something that obviously had some size to it because I wasn’t gaining much line for a couple of minutes, and then it would fight for a few seconds and then just be a heavy weight in between fights. 

I started to suspect a cod at this stage, but when we finally got our first glimpse of it in the white-capping swells behind the boat my heart sank because I thought it looked like a huge sea toad. But Damon said he was sure it was a cod, and he proved to be correct when I got it to the back of the boat. It was a very nice cod. That nice, in fact, that we had considerable difficulty getting into a landing net that was way too small for it! Lol. But eventually Damon somehow manoeuvred it into the net with the tail sticking out, and brought it aboard. My very first fish on my new spinning rod, and what a great start to its fishing life!

I caught one keeper grassie after that, but we’d only been there about half an hour when I started feeling decidedly queasy. I was just about to mention this to Damon when he turned to me and exclaimed that he was feeling rather ill. The swell, chop and generally very confused sea was just too much and we quickly up anchored and started to head for home. We only made it a couple of hundred metres however before we decided it was going to be a very uncomfortable slog back to the ramp. I suggested we instead head down Moreton close in, in search of some better seas. By the time we reached the Sandhills it was considerably calmer and we headed towards Mud. By the time we were approaching Mud the seas had almost totally abated and it was much more like the predicted 0.2 metre seas than the maelstrom we had encountered at the top end of the bay. We were both feeling much better by this stage and decided to try a couple of spots on the northern side of Mud. But as usual, at least for me, Mud was reluctant to give up any of its mythical fish to us. As it was still before lunch time we decided to head to another spot we had caught a few squire at in the past. Surprisingly, this was when the day’s fishing really started. As soon as we dropped our baits down we started getting nice bites and a few decent runs. We bought a couple of grassies on board, then Damon caught a Moses Perch. It became a bit of a blur after that as we hooked fish, lost fish, boated fish, got bitten off, broken off and generally had a ball! The squire gradually got bigger. Damon boated a 38cm, followed soon after by a 43cm. Now, to us, that’s a decent squire! We high-fived each other and felt like we’d finally got the monkey off our back. Not to be out done, I soon had a good run and after a solid fight I boated a 50cm one. We kept getting big runs, often hooking up but either getting broken off on the bottom or bitten off. Whatever they were, they were biting through around 60 lb double leader just above the hook. 

Eventually I hooked something that was monstrous and peeled 30lb line on very heavy drag like it didn’t even know it was hooked. I fought this thing for at least fifteen minutes without ever sighting it, or even really getting it close to the boat. At this stage I remembered the giant turtle we had seen surfacing in the area a few times in the past hour or so, and it finally clicked that it was probably him I had hooked. He ended up breaking  me off on the bottom, and I can’t say I was totally sorry, as he had just about worn me out. The G.Loomis spinning rod had certainly got a decent workout on its first day of duty. I love it! It has a sensitive tip and heaps of grunt, with a range of 15 to 50lb! 

We decided to call it a day and headed off to the ramp, knowing we had a fair bit of work ahead, cleaning the boat and gear, and scaling and filleting fish. All in all, probably our best day in the bay so far.
 

 

 

[kmcrosby78]

Haven’t read yet, but congrats on a great day out Greg, awesome . Now get busy fishing it out in time for the next suburbs of origin comp …..

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi Greg

Great job! Looks like you have another good spot now.

Cheers Hamish

[Old Scaley]

Stop day out @GregOug. You certainly seem to be getting some Moreton Bay mojo lately.

[ellicat]

11 hours ago, GregOug said:

eventually Damon somehow manoeuvred into the net

Funny how one missing word can give me a laugh. He must be smaller than I thought. haha

Wow, some real mojo happening for the Green Machine and especially for the new Loomis. What was your choice of bait ?

I wish our day out on the water was as productive, but with sharks and one big cod that we couldn't make much ground on, we were only able to put two fish in the esky.

That's two good reports from Mud within the week. Might have to revisit myself.

[Angry51]

Well done Greg, few good feeds there.

I hope you put an X on the side of boat for next time.

[benno573]

cracker day out that mate, plenty of good feeds for the family too!

[GregOug]

11 hours ago, ellicat said:

Funny how one missing word can give me a laugh. He must be smaller than I thought. haha

Wow, some real mojo happening for the Green Machine and especially for the new Loomis. What was your choice of bait ?

I wish our day out on the water was as productive, but with sharks and one big cod that we couldn't make much ground on, we were only able to put two fish in the esky.

That's two good reports from Mud within the week. Might have to revisit myself.

We always take tons of bait but even so, usually have very little left at the end. We take squid, whole cuttlefish and pillies but the squid seems to be the best by far.