A Coombabah creek experience

[Bretto77]

Myself and @Kat launched from Jabiru island a bit after 5pm, 28/12. We had fresh beach worms but still had to get some yabbies. So up the creek we went. 
We opted to fish near the yabby banks with some worms for an hour or so while the tide receded a bit further before pumping yabbies. No joy apart from one barely legal whiting and a couple of under size bream. 
We pulled in to the yabby banks and pumped some yabbies under head lamps and I also threw the net and collected a few live mullet. 
We headed off to our second spot and @kat quickly cast aspersions on us with a catfish. Not long after I managed to cast off the catfish spell and landed a solid whiting. Then things went quiet and after a moses perch or two we decided to move.
The third spot was very quiet also. I think I might have picked up a keeper bream before laying down to have a kip. It was after midnight and I had been awake since 3am. Kat carried the batten, retiring after me, she was up before me and even snapped a few shots of a beautiful sunrise. I re-surfaced when a drag screamed and she posed a "what's this" question. 
I was a bit surprised to see a juvenile cobia around 35cm. Though small, we should have taken a picture of her first ever cobia. It was released. Kat was excited about ticking off a new species. In my experience, cobia go really hard and she could be forgiven for possibly thinking that she had hooked an absolute horse of a whiting. 
There might have been a stingray or two in the spot after that and we moved. I forgot to mention the ever present stingray frustration from the night before. I'm learning to instantly erase such experiences from my mind.
Another spot yielded two more solid whiting, some under sized specimens and then the bream and stingray trash prompted a couple more moves before we settled on the last spot out the wind.
This is where the greatest gratification of the trip would be had.
We anchored and I picked up a solid whiting fairly quickly. Then it went quiet for a while.... apart from the jet ski folk and other pwc tweenies....
All of coombabah creek is zoned 6 knots for all vessels. What we experienced I can only describe as one of the greatest displays of ignorance, arrogance and general oxygen thievery I have ever seen first hand. It was predominantly, but not completely, very young folk. I am sure that all fisho's and yachties etc have had beef with pwc's and other boats at some time, but wow, didn't Coombabah really turn it on yesterday.
Despite the frustration we managed to boat some keeper bream and tarwhine. Kat also picked up another solid 36cm whiting. We had not long finished verbally wondering why we bothered with speed limits and maritime rules/ common courtesy, when that "fly on the wall" moment came to be.

Yet another two jet skis came roaring flat out around the corner towards us, when from behind them they were almost effortlessly zipped past by a ninja like figure on an almost all black jet ski brandishing the  "candy lights". 
I will savour the sight for a long time and I swear that even from up wind, I could smell the instant deflation of their spirits. It was Maritime Safety Queensland who rounded up a bunch of tools in double quick time and they literally got the "hat off" acknowledgement of gratitude from me as they came past us.
My day had been made. It was time to go home. The final keep tally was 7 whiting, 5 bream and 3 tarwhine. The tarwhine and the bream will be appreciated by my neighbour. 
Apologies for the single whiting on the board. Somewhere amidst it all, one of us landed another keeper and I should have checked the esky more thoroughly before photos and filleting. I am sure this would not have happened if @Kat had emerged from her day long slumber and taken on the filleting duties

[Angry51]

That was a pretty good report for someone whose  going

grey around the edges.

Better than going to work eh!

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Great report Brett, nice work to you and Kat on the fish. And good to hear that maritime got some speeders too.

Cheers Hamish 

[Bretto77]

23 minutes ago, Angry51 said:

That was a pretty good report for someone whose  going

grey around the edges.

Better than going to work eh!

Always much better than going to work. Hopefully there is reason to do some more reports before next year's grind back at work sets in.

[Bretto77]

Sorry guys in my slightly sleep deprived state I neglected to include the most important photo... Oops

[Neil Stratford]

Yes you get sick of seeing this over and over again . IMO this is hooning ,  Dangerous operation , speed noise etc etc .Were their vessels impounded ? .That’s a tight waterway with not too much room for error. 
Neil

 

[Bretto77]

2 minutes ago, Neil Stratford said:

Yes you get sick of seeing this over and over again . IMO this is hooning ,  Dangerous operation , speed noise etc etc .Were their vessels impounded ? .That’s a tight waterway with not too much room for error. 
Neil

 

You are absolutely correct. It is covered under the hooning act by QLD police. I was told that by a police officer when I rang about some fools in that creek once before. I don't know if vessels were impounded but at least one was towed past us. I tipped my hat to the occupants of that vessel too.

We spoke to one of the officers and he said they had been hit hard in the hip pocket. I suspect that legally he can't give much away.

[Another Wazza]

Good report Bretto, and good to see there actually is some law enforcement in regards to 6kt & go slow zones, I have seen blatant disregard for it and often wondered if anything ever gets done about it.

[Kat]

Just now, Another Wazza said:

Good report Bretto, and good to see there actually is some law enforcement in regards to 6kt & go slow zones, I have seen blatant disregard for it and often wondered if anything ever gets done about it.

I have been fishing the creek land and boat based for over two years and until yesterday never once seen any sign of enforcement - have been complaining about it for months - more and more jetskis screaming up and down, young lads and lasses doing bunny hops and god knows what else in their tinnies.  

When we spoke to one of the Maritime safety guys he said there would be more enforcement - here's hoping 

[ellicat]

Nice report Brett. I have a feeling we'll be missing your reports when you head back to the grind. Some quality fish from the creek.

A juvi cobia for Kat. Wow, would never have expected to see that.

[Bretto77]

12 minutes ago, ellicat said:

A juvi cobia for Kat. Wow, would never have expected to see that

It was a bit of a surprise. I have never caught one up there.  Though about 12 months ago, a mate of mine caught a slightly larger one off the Jabiru island rocks in the south branch of the Coomera river, which is not far away from where Kat got hers. I remember being surprised at his capture too. 

[ellicat]

I was surprised to get a 55cm one near Peel one day a couple of years ago when fishing with @Another Wazza. I guess they've gotta grow up somewhere.

[Kat]

It was fun and a bit of surprise to hook on the whiting gear with a light drag.  It was not long after first light on a Yabby.  Actually the creek often has surprise catches.

[Bretto77]

7 minutes ago, ellicat said:

I was surprised to get a 55cm one near Peel one day a couple of years ago when fishing with @Another Wazza. I guess they've gotta grow up somewhere.

I watched a video of a guy landing a mammoth cobia in the northern end of the bay. It apparently went 40kg.

I have only ever caught them around the reefs out of Cairns. Never weighed them but landed some that went 120 and 130cm. They made a good account for themselves on an 80lb handline

I know nothing about them down here.

[ellicat]

I know they hang around the inside of Moreton including the beacons where we were last week.

@Cobiaaddict might know some more info ?

[Bretto77]

17 minutes ago, ellicat said:

I know they hang around the inside of Moreton including the beacons where we were last week.

@Cobiaaddict might know some more info ?

Quite a shame then that they were not represented in our extensive haul...

[turdle]

3 hours ago, Bretto77 said:

brandishing the  "candy lights". 

I thought that you were doing to say that the candy man appeared, as that slimey character can access his candyshop mansion via saltwater creek. 

Glad the hoons got done. I was fishing here
https://maps.app.goo.gl/TLqS4CvA4XhupaPH6 recently and had to duck into the mangroves for cover as an inconsiderate old fart on a jetski with full face helmet and protective gear tore up the 3-4m wide creek as fast as he could go. He didn't even notice that I was there. Felt like gathering all the dead logs and branches and creating an obstacle to make his high speed exit from the creek a little more interesting, but decided against it.

[Bretto77]

25 minutes ago, turdle said:

I thought that you were doing to say that the candy man appeared, as that slimey character can access his candyshop mansion via saltwater creek. 

Glad the hoons got done. I was fishing here
https://maps.app.goo.gl/TLqS4CvA4XhupaPH6 recently and had to duck into the mangroves for cover as an inconsiderate old fart on a jetski with full face helmet and protective gear tore up the 3-4m wide creek as fast as he could go. He didn't even notice that I was there. Felt like gathering all the dead logs and branches and creating an obstacle to make his high speed exit from the creek a little more interesting, but decided against it.

Probably very wise of you not to have done that. Though these days you may have been able to claim that you identify as a beaver.  In my experience the vast majority of jet ski operators do very little for ensuring that they don't create a stereotype...

[turdle]

12 hours ago, Bretto77 said:

The vast majority of jet ski operators do very little for ensuring that they don't create a stereotype...

Yep, my cousin followed me to the pin on his jetski because he wasn't confident avoiding sand banks. I drove as if I was a jet ski and maintained 60+m from all anchored boats or the shoreline when required. He zipped past anchored boats with just 5-10m clearance. I stopped and told him the rules. His response was that fisherman and boats shouldn't block the channels. I told him I was fishing for the rest of the day and he could make his own way home.