queensland yeppoon trip 27/06-8/07 [mackerel!]

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi all

This report is a little late, but better late than never. Three Tuesday's ago, I hopped on a plane up to Rockhampton. I then got the bus to Yeppoon, near my Grandma's house. The plan was to fish Double Heads, a rocky headland near the Rosslyn Bay Harbour, as well as a couple sessions in the Causeway and the Harbour. Target species were going to be mackerel off the rocks and flatties in the Causeway. It wasn't the greatest trip in terms of fishing but was still nice to escape the city and stay up there for a while.

First Day:

I got the earliest bus I could to the Causeway, and aimed to fish in the lake for some flatties. There was no run through, so I wasn't sure how the fishing was going to be. I started off with a 3.2inch Baitjunkie minnow and after only one small hit after about an hour, I switched to a smaller grub. This too didn't bring me any luck, so I switched to a lipless crankbait that I was retrieving relatively quickly across the bottom. Sure enough, I hooked up to a flatty (legal, but not by much), that spat the hooks as I was about to get it on the bank. After that ordeal, there were no more bites, so I headed off to Double Heads. It was my first time ever going out there, and after following someone along the track so I knew the way I was good to go. This is what I arrived to – 

Good conditions

Annoyingly, after a few casts with Halco Twisties of varying sizes, the first fish I landed was a grinner. It must have been a bit of a quiet day because I didn't see anyone else catch anything for the next three hours or so that I was there, and even though I gave it a good shot I couldn't manage anything more myself. I called it quits knowing where the spot was now, hoping I'd be a bit luckier the next day. 

Grinner

That arvo, I decided to give it a crack at the harbor with some livies. I recently bought a new 9 foot drawstring castnet, mainly for Yeppoon, and I've got to say it worked quite well, catching me plenty of herring and also various other fish. After I got a couple herring however, I sent some down as cubes and some out as livies. It wasn't long before I caught a couple small cod and bream, and then the livie rod had a good bite. I set the hooks but sadly after a couple good headshakes lost whatever was on. I continued to fish until about 4:30PM - didn't catch anything worth mentioning. 

Second Day:

The next morning, I was back at the Causeway flicking more lures around. I started out with a soft plastic, but after a relatively uneventful series of casts, I switched lures again. A little while later and I was surprised by a small cod coming out of the water from under a rock and attacking my lure. It was only in about ten centimetres of water, but still was cool to watch. A couple more lure changes later saw me leaving with no fish - back to Double Heads. This time, things were looking a bit more promising. I had gotten the right type of lure (Flasha spoon lure from the servo) and was flicking that around on my light rod. Additionally, some other fishos had already caught a couple of legal school mackerel, one of which I saw get pulled in. I had my first cast in anticipation, but to my disappointment, I didn't catch anything except a couple grinners for the day, nor did anyone else. After this, I decided things must be better early in the morning, so a plan was hatched to come back to the spot for a sunrise session the next day. 

That arvo, I also gave it another crack in the harbour, but it was much the same as the day before. I got bait no worries (also a large turtle in my cast net, wish I got a photo of that before I let it go), but small cod and bream were all I caught. The livie rod had a couple of hits but it ended up just being small fish as my bait rarely got taken whole anyways. 

Unlucky

Third Day:

I woke up early and walked the couple of kilometres to the spot and arrived shortly after sunrise. A couple of other anglers had also made their way out, and we were all eager to try out luck on the fish. 

 

Sunrise

That is what greeted us, but for the actual sunrise period the bite was pretty quiet. It wasn't until the sun was up everyone was plagued with grinners, which would eagerly take a spoon on a fast retrieve. The fishing was still quiet though, so I figured I might be going for a fair while before I actually caught something. This was the case, except I didn't catch anything other than grinners for the whole day, and I called it quits at midday. One fella did catch an undersize mackie, so I guess they were around, just not for me. Bugger. I gave the harbour a miss that arvo.

Fourth Day:

The next day was much the same, and although I was there before the sun came up and was the first person to get a line in all I could catch were grinners. I tried all different sorts of retrieves, from quite a slow pace to a fast burn, as well as letting the lure sink or retrieving as soon as it hit the surface. It is worth noting one guy dropped a legal sized schooly as he was about to land it and another guy caught two legal ones, both on a slightly larger lure. He also hooked a tuna which spooled him. I did land my first ever wolf herring though, which was some redemption, as well as a small trevally on a jig. I gave the arvo session a miss again that day – but prepped for another morning session in envy of the others catches.

First wolf herring

Fifth Day:

Once again, an early start saw me at the spot by sunrise. The sky was pretty red, and being a Sunday I was expecting the ledge to get pretty crowded. I had it to myself at first, and things were looking promising.

Sunrise

Sure enough, after landing a couple of grinners, I hooked up to something that was pulling a bit more string. After a quick tussle, I was pleased to land my first mack off the rocks, an undersize schooly. It was promptly released after a photo, in hope a larger model would cruise by.

Mackerel

Shortly after that, I had another hit that didn’t feel like a grinner. I was happy to see a nice queeny on the end of my line, and although it was only small it was still a new species for me on the lure.

Queenfish

After that, I continued flicking my lure around until about lunchtime, but having no more luck except wolf herring and grinners made it tricky to stay any longer. I was glad to have caught my first mackerel, especially with the poor weather that was forecast to come the next day. I even cast netted a couple of herring and floated them out, but this didn't bring me any joy. 

Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Day

The next four days were all pretty uneventful, with some rough weather moving in for days six and seven making the rocks quite unpleasant to fish at/borderline unfishable. I was still out for sunrise both mornings, but with high winds and some rather large waves, I was struggling to keep sensitivity with my lines and ended up not catching anything at all.

Rough

On the sixth day, I went to the Causeway for an arvo session and did manage to land a couple of flatties and a small cod, one flatty would have been legal (soft plastics).

Pics

The seventh day I spent about 8 hours at the harbour after briefly going to Double Heads, having cast netted a truckload of herring I was optimistic a predator may come through, though apart from one bust off on the pylons and a fair few legal size bream and small fish on unweighted whole herring, it was a quiet day.

The eighth day I tried the harbour for the last time of the trip, but after catching nothing I went out to Double Heads to fish the arvo. The conditions were superb, and I was surprised to see only one other angler out there. He’d caught plenty of good fish off the rocks, and we had fun pulling in about 6 wolf herring each and losing plenty too. The highlight of that session would have been me hooking up to someone else’s line, which still had a big fish attached to the end. It was most likely one of the resident groupers, and it was a bit of fun until it broke me off.

Wolf herring

The ninth day was another quiet day, but I did try Double Heads in the morning. I think I only got one or two wolf herring but plenty of grinners, and unfortunately no big fish. There wasn’t really anyone else out on the rocks though, so it was nice to have the place to myself.

More wolf herring

Last Day:

Unfortunately, before I knew it, it was the last day of my trip. I decided to have a sleep in for the morning though, but give it a good crack in the arvo at Double Heads. I arrived shortly after 2:00PM with the goal of hooking up to a few wolf herring, and maybe a mackerel too. I had also topped up the braid on my Stradic 3000, so on my first cast my Flasha flew out into the strike zone.

It wasn’t until the second cast I got hit though, and it was a big hit. About half way through my retrieve, I felt the great feeling of my rod loading up, followed by the fish screaming away into the depths of the ocean. Very surprised to have hooked up to what I assume was a decent size longtail tuna, I crouched down and watched the line on my reel fly away. My drag was screaming, and after about 50 metres of line was taken I made the fatal mistake of tightening my drag. Sure enough, another ten metres of line peeled away from my spool before disaster struck, and the hooks pulled. I was pretty devastated to say the least, but after checking my line and leader I flung my lure out yet again. A couple of grinners later and the sound of line screaming off my reel could be heard again, although unluckily this one did not hook up as well and it came off the line after about five seconds. I assume that was because the take was on the drop and the fish was able to shake my hook out with the extra slack line.

It was only around 3:00PM now, so I had high hopes for the rest of the arvo. A few other people came and left, but all I could manage was one lone wolf herring as well as my second mackerel of the trip, even smaller than the first.

Mack

Eventually around four o clock, another angler using quiet heavily weighted dead bait hooked up and was spooled. I’m unsure whether that was a tuna or maybe shark/ray of some sort, but it was big whatever it was as he had heavy gear. Fortunately for him, fifteen minutes later he was on again on a smaller combo, to another good fighter. 20 minutes after the hookup, a 115cm whitespot shovelnose had been landed on the rocks, which he kept for dinner. I had a few more casts after this but eventually decided to have my last cast for the trip, which did not result in anything. Bugger.

So, as I left the rocks for the last time, and got the plane home the next day, I still think it was a pretty great trip overall. I’ve found a spot that works for big fish on live bait and lure, caught a couple and know what to do for next time, and also spent a lot of money at the servo on Flashas. In hindsight, I probably should’ve done every session at Double Heads, but oh well, there’s always next time.

Overall Success Rate: 70% - no big fish but still a fun trip

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed.

Cheers Hamish

[jimee]

That was enjoyable to read. Thank you, and glad you had a good time.

[charlie.hans.fishing]

Nice report Hamish hope it was a good way to spend your holidays. Nice read!

[Old Scaley]

Great report, @AUS-BNE-FISHO. You are getting closer to nailing that spot.

[Bretto77]

I reckon that you are on the cusp of cracking that place wide open Hamish. Nice report. Did you see your family while you were there???

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

3 hours ago, jimee said:

That was enjoyable to read. Thank you, and glad you had a good time.

Thanks Jimee. 

3 hours ago, TheCharliefisho said:

Nice report Hamish hope it was a good way to spend your holidays. Nice read!

Thanks Charlie. 

1 hour ago, Old Scaley said:

Great report, @AUS-BNE-FISHO. You are getting closer to nailing that spot.

Cheers Steve, hopefully I'll get some more fish next time. 

37 minutes ago, Bretto77 said:

I reckon that you are on the cusp of cracking that place wide open Hamish. Nice report. Did you see your family while you were there???

Thanks Brett. I saw my grandma and one of my aunties and uncles but I went up alone. 

[Angry51]

You filled up every day of your holidays Hamish, you're definitely  a rolling stone. I was thinking the same as Brett, you wouldn't have had time to talk to grandma much you were away fishing every day.

Good report, enjoyed reading, thanks.

[Thorbjorn Hale]

Great report hamish, it wouldve been really cool to land a longie off the rocks, i think its better to lose one and know you can catch them than to not hook anything at all.

[mzaakir]

Hopefully next time you get something big, was very enjoyable to read. Ive noticed if there's lots of waves, cast a stickbait or popper into the whitewash thats around the 100mm to 120mm mark, 80mm would be the smallest i go and slowly work it for about 15-20 feet, then reel it in. Alternatively using 60-80g slow pitch jigs have caught me so many fish off the rock, nomad gypsea jigs is my preferred jig. I like longer rods on the rocks as well and tend to use a 5k minimum. Daiwa saltists are good since they resist the saltwater very well. I use a daiwa demonblood 932 pe 2/4 on a 6k saltist and ive found it nice, works for me. Hope you enjoyed your trips, your hard work will pay off eventually mate.

[Rebel]

Great report.

Super photos.

Well done.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

1 hour ago, Angry51 said:

You filled up every day of your holidays Hamish, you're definitely  a rolling stone. I was thinking the same as Brett, you wouldn't have had time to talk to grandma much you were away fishing every day.

Good report, enjoyed reading, thanks.

Thanks Angry. 

1 hour ago, Thorbjorn Hale said:

Great report hamish, it wouldve been really cool to land a longie off the rocks, i think its better to lose one and know you can catch them than to not hook anything at all.

Thanks Thorbjorn, it was still good to hook up. 

1 hour ago, mzaakir said:

Hopefully next time you get something big, was very enjoyable to read. Ive noticed if there's lots of waves, cast a stickbait or popper into the whitewash thats around the 100mm to 120mm mark, 80mm would be the smallest i go and slowly work it for about 15-20 feet, then reel it in. Alternatively using 60-80g slow pitch jigs have caught me so many fish off the rock, nomad gypsea jigs is my preferred jig. I like longer rods on the rocks as well and tend to use a 5k minimum. Daiwa saltists are good since they resist the saltwater very well. I use a daiwa demonblood 932 pe 2/4 on a 6k saltist and ive found it nice, works for me. Hope you enjoyed your trips, your hard work will pay off eventually mate.

Cheers mzaakir, thanks for the tips. I tried some small jigs (20g) but only caught grinners, so will try some larger lures next time. 

50 minutes ago, Rebel said:

Great report.

Super photos.

Well done.

Thanks Rebel. 

[mangajack]

Thanks for the report Hamish.

I think we used to hit Double Heads for macs in October....lure of choice back then was Pegrons.

Seems to be schoolies there most of the year, spots in several short periods and spaniards could be anytime but not common.

[ellicat]

You sure gave it a good whirl. Bummer about the tuna, Hamish.

I wonder if the herring would be any good for strip baits ??

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

11 hours ago, mangajack said:

Thanks for the report Hamish.

I think we used to hit Double Heads for macs in October....lure of choice back then was Pegrons.

Seems to be schoolies there most of the year, spots in several short periods and spaniards could be anytime but not common.

No worries mangajack. I think the best period for fishing is the end of August-around then because the water is normally quite clean, which means the baitfish are in close with the bigger fish. 

9 hours ago, ellicat said:

You sure gave it a good whirl. Bummer about the tuna, Hamish.

I wonder if the herring would be any good for strip baits ??

Thanks Brian. I saw a couple people using them as deadbaits but they only hooked up to bream/wobbygong/shovelnose/grouper. I think floating live herring is the best way to fish there with baits. I was told the wolf herring are a good bait for trolling for Spanish mackerel.