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A late change in commitments left me with a Saturday afternoon and evening as free as it can get at the moment. A late night text on Friday to to Ellicat and some quick plans saw us slipping the good ship Ellicatch into the waters of the ‘pin about 3pm. the moon phase was wrong, the tides weren’t great, it was blowing about 15kn but what the hell, as scomo says - you have to step up and have a go, to get a go. After a short trip from the ramp (high tide short cuts are the bomb), we dropped anchors on the first spot. First bait and @ellicat was on the board with a solid 33cm model. Great start. Unfortunately, we certainly had peaked early at this spot - something Ellicat suggested he has suffered from for some time. A quick move about 400m and we soon added a couple more nice whiting to the box. this theme continued throughout the afternoon - a few fish, a move, a few fish, a move. Only real change was it got dark and we turned the football on. It was never frenetic but fairly consistent action. We ended up with 8 whiting, 7 of them 30+, best going 36cm. Not great quantity but quality for sure. Great news is the wee one is a big fan of fish - whiting seems to be a particular favorite. Ellicat kindly donated his share of the catch to me so we have bubba lunches for days! thanks for the trip out at very short notice mate, appreciate it. p.s only 7 pictured, one filleted early and ended up here (note fish mostly gone, veges not so much. Definitely my child. )

@shaun1800 and I headed out at gentleman's hours from a very busy Port of Brisbane ramp this morning. Conditions were great and better than forecast. We arrived at spot x and deployed our lines, with Shaun opening the account with an unders squire. This was the theme for the day with grassies, squire, bream, tuskies and a fantail leatherjacket. In amongst them were two decent hookups and one capture. Shaun, who was playing on 4lb line, locked horns with what we thought was going to be a snapper or mack. He played it like a champ and patiently brought it to the boat after some very good runs. I slipped the net under what turned out to be one of those clean silvery bay catfish. Disappointed, Shaun declined the offer of a photo, feeling a little deflated after the promising start. About 15 minutes prior to this my 15lb setup got absolutely smashed. It reefed me before I could tighten the drag right up. I'm suspecting it was a good snap and was disappointed to wind in a roughed up leader. So, tonight I'm heading back for the high tide to have another go with heavier gear. Who knows, I might be able to get my hook back.

Well the time is nearly up for the Bear to get on a plane and fly to an exotic fishing destination. The Plan is to head to Townsville and jump on a big boat and steam out over the water for ages and catch some fish. Here are some sticks that I have to take. I bought 2 rods for the trip and had 3 already. They will be holding onto these reels. So that means; Tyranos 20 with 80lb braid on a 5.6 foot Ugly Stick Saragosa 25k with 60lb braid on a 9 foot Penn Ocean Assassin HPE 6-10 Sustain 5000FG with 20lb Braid on a 7 foot Crazee Taco Stick Pe 8 Stradic CL 4+ with 15 lb Braid on a 7 foot 8 - 16 lb Nordic Stage Favourite Saragosa SW 8000 with 40 lb braid on a Rovex Sabiki and as a spare reel. So I have a lot of options covered. I hope to; Send BIG plastics down to the staghorn coral for xos trout Throw xx large stick baits and poppers over the shallows for monster GTs, xxos Trout, and xxos emperors (various) Drop very large live baits to the bottom for Doggies, xxxos trout and Red Emperors Float out large live baits for Spanish Mackerel Flick medium plastics and jigs for Mackerel (Spanish, Shark, Spotted) , Whaoo, Cobia and Tuna (Toooona thanks @aussie123) Flick light plastics and micro jigs for little reef fish for a bit of fun and some live baits. Catch live baits on the Sabikis. That should keep me busy for the week haha. I will probably do a stack of normal bait fishing as well for xxos large mouth nannies - see profile pic from previous trip. I hope to post up photos of an embarrassingly excited drop bear (and his mates) holding extremely large and colourful fish with stunning blue water in the background. My only disappointment is I won't get the chance to try out the sea sickness tablets as we are expecting 10 knots all week!!!! This must be payment from the weather gods for a extremely ****** 2020 that included chronic pain in my foot, prostate cancer and all the other hoohaar that we have all had to put up with. I have packed my teddy bear (and teddy to sleep in) and hope to see you all next week.

Evening all, I had a couple of hours free before work this arvo so I tried my luck at catching dinner land based. I got a tailor early on but it seemed that there wasn't many of those around. I also got a small trev about 35cm which I decided to let go. I was immediately rewarded by the fishing gods next cast when my samaki slash 55 gets pack attacked by some solid GTs across the surface. This kept me interested for the next hour or so trying to find them again. Dozens and dozens of casts went by. I usually only fish this landbased spot for 15 mins before moving on as it seems to be a case of fish either being there or not. However having seen the chunky geets cruising around definitely kept me interested for longer this time. Eventually my lure got smacked (60g chrome this time) and immediately knew it was one of the proper ones I'd seen before. I tightened up as much as was safe on my 30lb set up but was still going to require a bit of luck and skill to angle the fish away from the rocky bommies that jut out everywhere. Well, I got lucky and with a bit of rock hopping I steered the fish onto a ledge. Pretty stoked on the light gear to get the job done! Man they are an incredibly powerful fish. 70cm and a few delicious meals to come. Thanks Mr Trevally! Very grateful. Good feeling after so many donut sessions recently yes I have pants on

Hi all Here is the report from yesterday's session with Kat (@Kat), Greg (@GregOug), and myself (as well as Greg's sons). It was very fun overall, a great cruise through the bay, and we caught lots of fish (even though most were a tad too small). It was good to meet/meet up with more AFO-ers, and I think we all had a great day out. Greg, and Kat, sorry if I've missed anything. Like I have said before, I will never be an elephant, therefore my memory isn't the best. Lol. Loading up at the ramp After meeting at Viccy Point Boat Ramp at a bit past 7:30AM, we launched. Kat and I sat in the front of the boat and Greg and co. sat in the back. The boat was extremely fast, bouncing over the tiny chop. At the first spot, I baited up with a live yabby (Kat had very handily brought a heap so I decided to use one). I had my line in first, and within a minute or so I got a hit. Kat baited up with yabby as well, and despite getting the odd nibble, everyone on the boat failed to get one at the first spot We would've drifted/moved a little bit around there, but we didn't move to far. The sounder was showing some fish here as well, so it is a bit of a shame we didn't get any. We then motored along the bay to a rocky edge of the island, and if I recall correctly we were in 8-12M of water. I dropped my live yabby down, as did Kat, and Greg's sons were fishing with squid. I got a pretty good hit straight away which I failed to hook up on, and then Kat was on. This thing showed no sign of stopping, and in fact almost spooled her on the first run. We were chasing the fish, hoping for a real biggun to surface. Then it stopped, and it was a dead weight, and then more and more running! It seemed like a very good fish, that's for sure. Unfortunately it got the better of us and busted Kat off. After re-thinking, we thought it was most likely a big ray due to the fight and how it kept stopping and starting, and due to the very long runs. A few more nibbles were had at this spot, but it proved fishless even after X amount of drifts in different depths and quite a few more nibbles. We decided to move on to Potts Point (which Kat recommended - it was very lucky as she knows the area/has seen many boats fishing there so could tell us some spots!). We anchored up, and there was a some decent ground on the sounder. We decided to deploy the berley as well, which was some blocks of pilchard oil. It didn't take long for Kat to get a good bite, which unfortunately decided it didn't want to stay on her hook. Soon after, she got another fair bite. Both these fish seemed quite good, and it is a shame that they were not landed. We sure thought that they could be legal fish. Greg's son Alex (Greg my bad if I got names wrong/mixed up) was the first one to hook a fish though. After a short fight, up came a solid 32cm squire. It was measured, but it was also chucked back when we found out it was undersize . I was the next to get a fish, with a record breaking stonking 23cm Tarwhine. It did fight OK for it's size, but that was the main let down about the fish. Kat was consistently getting some small squire as well, all of which seemed to be good fun on her new Nasci.. In fact, she certainly got the most fish of the day as we lost count of them all! Greg and I rigged up a floater, which we hoped a mackerel would chew on (or anything sizeable and tasty), which was basically an unweighted pilly on a set of four gang hooks - no success on that one at that spot. A little Tarwhine One of Kat's squire When this spot stopped firing, we went to a drop off Greg had marked on his sounder. We anchored up here once again, and we were all doing pretty well (on the small squire at least). I was the first one to catch a fish here, in fact I dropped my squid bit down and I was pretty much on straight away to a 30cm or so squire. Kat got a decent one too, but then they started to get smaller (for both of us up the front anyways). Leaving a spot One of my squire (I think I only got two or three) It was a while before Greg's sons started pulling them in, but they seemed to be getting slightly larger fish. We kept repositioning the anchor, to get on some better ground, but each time we moved it seemed as though the small ones wanted to follow us . Towards the end of the session (after a LOT of small squire), Tom hooked up to what seemed like a better fish. It was fighting quite well, and when we first saw it we thought it was a sea toad. On closer examination, we realised it was something else entirely! We didn't know at the time what is was. A trevally? Nope, not the right shape. A baby Samsonfish? Hmm, that doesn't look right. A baby AJ? Something like that! (It could also be a Black Banded Amberjack, which @benno573 said... And looks like he is right). Another squire The possibly AJ of sorts Shortly after this fish (and a couple more small squire), we set off back to the ramp. It was low tide, and boy, was it bad. Most of the time we were in 2M< water, and just about as we were going to get back to the ramp we got stuck. Tom (Greg's son) and Kat had to get out and push us through the water, so Kudos to them! Certainly a warning about that ramp, as I reckon if the tide was any lower you practically wouldn't be able to get out to water! Thanks for reading the report everyone, I hope you enjoyed. Thanks for the good day out Greg and Kat, it was great fun Here are the stats of the trip as well - Statistics of trip - Tide: 3:25AM, .4M, Low, 9:00AM, 2.1M, High, 3:15PM, .5M, Low Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent, so not too much run Weather: A few patches of rain here and there, but otherwise a light gust for the whole day (sunny too) Bait caught: Kat caught live yabbies the arvo before, but otherwise there was no bait caught Bait used: Live yabbies, squid, pillies, scad Tackle Used: I was using a Diawa Shinobi, 10lb braid, 20lb fluorocarbon leader, Venotat rod (6"6'), Kat was using a Shimano Nasci 2500 with 10lb braid (I don't know what rod), Greg had a 12000 baitrunner out on an Abu Garcia rod (I think) with mono, but I don't know the rest because I didn't check. Time fished: 8:00AM (or so) until about 3:00PM Overall Success Rate: 70% - A great day out with some fish landed! Cheers Hamish

Hi all Today I set out for a fishing trip with Brian, Kat, and Steve (ellicat, Kat, and Old Scaley). We met at the Port of Brisbane boat ramp at approximately 5:45AM (I got there right on the dot and everyone else was there a bit before me), and I boarded Steve's 4.35M tinny, and Kat hopped in Brian's boat. After loading up the gear, we were getting ready to set off. Robbie (Drop Bear) came down early as well just to have a chat, so it was good to meet him as well. Hopefully next time it will be fishing @Drop Bear . There was a big dead ray at the ramp right on the top which is a bit of a shame. Obviously someone couldn't even be bothered to throw it back if they were just going to kill it! A lovely sunrise shot (thanks Kat) After we said goodbye to Robbie (and my dad Dave) we set off to go to Mud Island. I believe we were on the East side... We got to the mark and found a good drop off which Kat and Brian anchored up on and Steve and I spot locked on (With the electric!). I dropped my line down with a bit of prawn and got pickered straight away, and not longer after Brian was on a little pinky. Steve and I kept getting pickered by the small ones, and we pulled one or two up eventually (I lie, Steve did, I was still on the donut at that point, Lol). It seemed we were sitting on a school of little buggers. Soon after this, Kat hooked up on what seemed like a better fish. It was putting up an OK fight which we could see from the other boat, and it was a fair size squire. It was measured, and low and behold the first keeper of the day was landed! Woohoo. Good job Kat! She had caught a couple before, a small grassy empereor and pickers too. A solid squire landed by Kat Shortly after that one was landed, Steve decided to rig up with a plastic. He had the rod with a half-pilly out the back, on the bottom. Just as he was about to cast, the rod buckles! After a screaming run in the rod holder, he picked it up and set the hooks. The fight had began! He started pumping and winding, then the fish would run off, then more winding, then more runs. Eventually it calmed down and the fish decided to surface. Once we got it up, we saw a big snapper. Probably 60cm+. Then heartbreak struck. It shook the hook out about 2M from the boat, and from the net which I was holding. "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!"... Heartbreak. There goes the biggun! It sure would've been a good way to start the day We had been getting snipped off by something that had teeth as well. Brian had been snipped off once, Steve twice, and myself once as well. We thought they could very well be big sea toads... That was until Steve landed a stripey, chucked a fillet out, and nearly caught a mackerel on it! Like the other fish, it had gotten off close to the boat. We were thinking the boat had a bad case of the 'Dropsies", where it made us drop all of the good fish boat side. We were still at the first spot, but by this time we were changing to fish for mackerel seeing as though the snapper had seemingly gone off the bite. Brian and Kat had them floated out, and Steve had one under a float (a pilly, that is). Kat was on next, and it was most likely a mackerel, as it had the tell tale screaming runs as a sign. Her finger actually got cut it took off that fast! Youch! It was running all around the boat, back and forth, but eventually it busted her off on something. After a hit on our line (mine actually - it was just one big hit and it took everything) Brian hooked up. It didn't seem to big from where I was at first, but then it took a BIG, FAST run. After hearing it go, Steve and I were eagerly spectating. It started going around the boat, and we were hoping it would be landed. After some more big runs, Kat finally slipping the net under it. "It's massive!", Is what we heard next!.. And it sure was at 73cm! A nice big, early season mackerel! Jaw shot (P.S. Brian, didn't I recall you saying Ellicatch was going to be a smoke free boat?) After that big mackerel (and a round of applause/cheering), Steve and I kept fishing in the general area. I had a good run on the mackerel line, and Steve had another hit as well, but the bite had seemingly gone pretty quiet in that spot. I tried with a weighted bait (like what we were getting pickered on) but we decided to move spots to a different area. Steve motored along and eventually we were at the next spot. We had hopes for a good cod or good tuskfish, and in fact the second I dropped I got a good hit. Soon enough though, Steve got a rat squire, and luckily i got off the donut! It was past nine now, so I was pretty glad. Even though it was a tony one, I decided to get a quick piccy anyways. Another couple rat squire... Very pretty fish with the blue dots though After a few more picker attacks and a couple missed hits, we decided that wasting baits on the tiny squire was not working at all, so it might be better to move into the Port area. Steve was kind enough to let me drive for a bit, so I took the wheel (well, the throttle), and went very slowly over the chop, trying to keep a straight line. I'm not sure if I did a very good job though, because I didn't go to fast or far... Me with a popper driving the tinny After I gave the control back to Steve, we motored off to the POB. We started off about 50 metres away from a big cargo ship, and decided to go for a drift. We were in about 16-17M of water, and we were hoping for a possible salmon. I had two size four ball sinkers on to get me to the bottom, and Steve had about a size four sinker. For the first half hour or so (I'd say) we were drifting with the wind against the tide. I had a prawn out on the bottom. Brian and Kat were soon to arrive as well, and they anchored up first up. Due to our very slow drift, I was not covering that much ground. After doing a little more drifting, I felt a hit, and then I was on. It felt like a pretty good fish, and while it wasn't taking any big runs, it had lots of weight. At one point mid fight, it took a tincy bit of line. I was pulling him up now, but just as he was about to surface he went straight back down. I got him up and then we saw it. A massive flatty! You beauty! Shortly after this Steve landed it for me. Here is a pic of the fish - My new PB flathead at 62cm. Thanks for getting me onto it Steve (I think I annoyed you today because I thanked you so much after it ) After we chucked that one into the esky, we kept fishing. We finished up fishing here shortly after - Steve's soft vibe was getting no love at all and my prawn bait seemed to be untouched the whole time for the next drift. We crossed sides and went over towards Clara's Rocks, and we were starting off a drift near there and around the Boat Passage. I still kept my heavier rod out as we were now fishing for snapper. We did one drift past the passage and apart from a bunch of small picker attacks on both mine and Steve's line until about 12:30PM. Brian and Kat were on the other side of the river, over near the sunken wall (I think). They weren't getting any unfortunately, so they went back out to anchor up while Steve and I fished the wall. Apart from getting a couple picks, I was not successful. Steve got a small 23cm breambo though, which did fight decently. We were hoping for a cod or at least another keeper here, but we couldn't gather anything. Soon it was time to get back to the ramp, so we motored back. I held the boat while Steve went to get the car and then the boat was ready to get towed away, the gear was out, and we were nearly off. I made sure we got a nice group photo first though, so we could post it up After that, we said our goodbyes and I set home with Steve (I was getting picked up from his house). My flathead came home to mine in the esky, and some of it is now sitting in my tummy (the other part in the freezer). It sure tasted good. Big thanks to Brian and Kat for coming along with us. It was good to meet up again And big thanks to Steve as well for the great day out on the water.... Like I said as we were leaving though, it was a darn shame about that snapper! I hope you all enjoyed the report, and sorry it took a bit longer than usual to write And my bad if I've forgotten anything from today everyone! Stay safe everyone! (P.S. Here's the stats). Statistics of trip - Tide: Low, 3:50AM, .4M, 9:45AM, 2.1M, High, 4:00PM, .5M, Low (That is Brisbane Bar times) Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous and lots of run! Fish caught: Heaps of rat squire for everyone, I think Brian got two mackerel (one just under and the 73cm), I got the flathead, Steve lost the big snapper because it got the hook out of it's mouth in some fishy miracle, and I think that is it Bait caught: Stripey x 1, surprisingly no grinners (sorry I've probably jinxed it for next time everyone) Bait used: Squid, prawns, the humble pilly, stripey fillets Tackle used: 16lb leaders, size 4/o circle, suicide hooks for me (a 5/o's for me and Steve as well), size 2-4 ball sinkers, swivels.. I don't know any of the other gear others were using but I had a Diawa Shinobi 2500 and A Penn 650 - 12lb and 30lb braid - Rogue Firepoint boat rod and Venomat rod. Air Pressure: 1025 Humidity: 56% Temperature: 250C Water Temp: (According to the sounder at the first spot) It was 20.430C Location: Around Mud Island and Port of Brisbane Overall Success Rate: 75% - Would've been higher if we got the snap! Cheers Hamish Woohoo! Someone got unlucky with this catfish

After a long while in dormancy for me, a new member Jake contacted me requesting a few pointers around bowen, thanks to this Forum. I know many have helped me in the past and plenty of friendships have formed thanks to it. I threw the invite out to Jake to see if he wanted to come for a look at my local hunting grounds. The wind was far from ideal but we ventured out. A short session thanks to the weather didnt go to plan with no GTs coming on board for Jake but did manage to boat a fish myself and hopefully give Jake some confidence to hang around and persist.

I reckon it's been 8 sessions and 3 weeks since catching a fish. Sometimes it's easy sometimes it's hard! Makes the good times seem more memorable and exciting. I can't believe 3 weeks ago I was so sick of catching tailor every cast that I took the hooks off a popper to watch them attack it and now not a single bite for weeks. Today I planned to go kayaking but the swell wasn't very nice, so went landbased instead. Got a lone trevally for lunch (delicious) and that was it. Tomorrow

Had another go landbased this morning in some fishy looking waters. Nothing for the first half a dozen casts or more; which called for change of technique. Instead of the cast and fast retrieval of the lure which usually works well, I hopped the metal lure off the bottom with a slow wind and twitch of the rod... BOOM hooked up to a decent Trev shy of the metre mark. I saw it thrash on the surface as it shook it's head before flicking me the bird with it's tail and wrapping me around a rock. Not nice, but sometimes happens. Next 4 casts was a hookup each cast... same slow retrieval. Landed a nice 53cm tailor and bigeye trev (I think). Tomorrows camping trip protein sorted. It goes to show we can never have fishing figured out no matter how often we fish a spot or how much success we have. Keep trying new things until something works.

I went out trolling again this arvo, same spot as yesterday. I went out and found another lure much the same as the one I lost yesterday. Only got one today but definitely happy with it. I let her go too to live another day.

Went up to 1770 with my son Brock on Thursday afternoon and stayed the night before leaving the ramp at 1st light Friday morning. We headed for the bunker group with plans to stay out for 3 days on the outer reef after a average run up we were fishing our 1st marks by 8am. I strugled with bait only landing the odd tuskie while my son tangled with coral trout for the 1st 2 hours i tried alot of different rigs and baits but Brock kept hooking up on plastics. I soon switched to plastics on the shads tuff prawn and we were both hitting trout along with a huge variety of fish. We landed spangeled emperor, moarie cod, red throat emperor, coral trout, srtipies, honeycomb cod, hussar, tea leaf trevally, bludger trevally and long nose emperor. We found more ground as we went and the wind dropped right out to nothing through the middle of the day. The red emeperor were proving to be elusive so we didn't waste to much time hunting them Friday chosing to keep looking for trout. It started to blow late in the arvo so we went shallow behind the reef and found plenty of red throat emeperor biting. These fish put up an amazing fight never giving up all the way to the boat and i would have to say pound for pound 1 of the strogest fighting fish on the reef. We got RTE up to 53cm and started to really get some colour to the box. After sunset friday it was time anchor up and settle in for the night cook some dinner and get a good sleep. Saturday morning the wind was still atleast 12 knots but i was keen to target the reds early morning. The 1st mark was quiet but the next move we found fish on the sounder and new ground nearby on the drift. It was this new ground where the reds were hanging and i got a little legal red emperor going 59cm on the ruler. Brock hooked up but lost a better red halfway up just spitting the hook then the bite shut down so after another 30 minutes we moved south looking for more trout etc. We were finding new ground and pulling fish as we went and by 11 am the bite shut right down. We decided to go for a snorkle in the lagoon at fitzroy reef, we had the lagoon to ourselves and anchored up in front of the biggest coral bommie. It took us an hour to snorkel around it, so much colour in the reef here and the fish life was amazing even seeing coral trout lurking in the holes in the reef. After the snorkle we had a fresh water shower then some lunch before heading out again to the lee side of the reef to find more fish. The fish were thick and in an hour we got another 7 fish to finish off our bag limit on the coral reef fin fish. The tuff prawns did outfish the bait by far and all the trout and most of the red throat fell for the prawn. Then pointing the boat for home the throttle went down and 90 minutes later crossed the bar back in the creek at 1770 a day early. I stayed another night in town and drove home on Sunday morning , just in time as we had run out of fish at home so this should keep us in qaulity fish for a little while.

The forecast was superb. 10 knots max that on the 55 foot boat is nothing at all. We flew into Townsville and had few frothy ones at the Seaview Hotel before sleeping on the boat for the night. Well sleeping is a word... I got unlucky and grabbed the front bunk room. It is tiny and hard to get into and contained a walrus snorer. So not much sleep but at least I was up and ready when the motors kicked into life for the 4am leave. Lures were put out the back in the dark with skirted and bibbed in a spread of 3. The boat does about 9 knots so only the short billed diving lures would stay in the water. Grey dawn soon became a pink glow and the sun popped up as we passed the last of the ships waiting to dock. A few frothy chops later the drags screamed and we pulled in a couple of good sized Mac Tuna. I cut up one half for a sashimi breakfast and the rest went to hard baits. We steamed for about 3 hours and landed at the first spot where we dropped 100lb paternosters in 45m of water. The Nannies were waiting for us and we pulled in about 12. I got the best at 84cm but Rob got a cracking Red. They went off the chew and we moved to the next spot. That was pretty much us for the day. They men in grey suits were thick everywhere. We moved about 6 times and didn't bring in another whole fish. I know I had on some thumping Reds and pulled in 2 heads that proved this. We moved to the anchorage and caught a great Spanish and Wahoo on the lures. Even the decky wanted a photo with the hoo. As we approached the anchorage the Shark Mackerel were thick. Everyone on the boat had a go at bringing them in. Day 2 started out pretty much the same. Shark Shark Shark... This was getting crazy frustrating. The skipper moved a few times but we didn't do very well at all. The skipper said to relax as we were to travel for over an hour to try and escape the sharks. We went to a mark called "Loads of F%$#$%g huge fish" that sounded nice. We pulled up and were straight on! Big Large mouth nannies and I finally got a Red. Not a big one but it made the eski. (one of my mates took a photo... so I will post it later) We pulled lots of good fish off this spot. Mostly Large Mouth Nannies but a few Small Mouth Nannies too. Then the sharks moved in. They came up to the boat. there were about 12 of them circling and looking for dinner. Such big machines. It was hard to identify them, besides I am not very good at it yet but hope to get better. The skipper tied some mono to the tail of a large Shark Mackerel and threw it over. They came in closer and they were formidable to see. One of them effortlessly and with no fuss turned to the Mackerel and before the skipper had time to pull it out of the way engulfed the whole thing. The skipper was keeping the fish away from the sharks hoping to entice them closer but the way this brute closed the gap on the big bait was eerily cool and ominously fast. No swimming here... We went into a shallower spot, about 25m, for the night. A few trout were caught but we waited for the sun to dip. Pretty much on que the fishing started to heat up. RT Emps, Pink Cheaked Emps lots of tea leaf and bluger trevallies hit the decks. I was busted off so many times. I was using Hussar heads and big chunks of Mac Tuna and Shark Mackerel for baits on my Tyrnos 20 on a short ugly stick with 80lb line. Leader was 100lb mono tied with a FG and made into a paternoster with single hook and #8 snapper lead. Then all hell broke loose. thumping head shakes buckled the rod. I had been catching big fish for 2 days (well hooking them and loosing to sharks mostly) so knew to get a few desperate winds in to get it off the bottom, but in the shallower water the fish takes on another dimension, running sideways and the short rod made it hard to stop the line from touching the boat. I had the drag set to STOP so lost very little line but the head shakes thumped down hard, testing the already torched back and arms. After a few mins I started getting line back and soon the fish made it to the surface. The skipper yelled REEF JACK and sprinted for the gaff. He hit is perfectly in the head and it was on board. Such an epic fish. My first big Jack and one I am very happy with. This photo was taken the next day, you can see it's eyes are cloudy, it had spent the night in the ice slurry. I have more photos on other people's cameras that I hope to get back soon including one on a brag mat. Yep POIDH.... coming haha. The fish went off the chew and we settled into some serious drinking. I got up early and floated out a pilly and fished the bottom with only one run but no success. this was our last day now. We had 5 hours of steaming and flights booked for about 5.30pm. We went to the same spot that had produced the fish the day before without the sharks and picked up another 20 good fish including, Nannies, one smaller Red Emp, trevs and some Frying Pan Snapper. There was only one more stop on the list and we hit it and caught a few more fish but nothing remarkable. We had a very nice looking eski for the day already. The steam home saw a Mac Tuna on the troll on a Skirted Lure and a few beers. Over all it was a great trip. I took about 20kg of fillets home including the big dog that has mostly been eaten. I spent a bit of time cutting out its jaw and have it on an ants nest in a besser block with another on top so the dog and crows wont get it. We all caught good fish but man I was sore. The number of fish that got eaten by sharks was crazy. It is so exhausting to try and hold up a rod at full drag when a shark is tearing off... But worth it haha. I will do it again. Here are a few more photos. We were on Sir Reel from Northern Conquest. https://www.nccharters.com.au/

Report to come. Here is a little teaser. Trip was great, weather perfect. The tax man took WAY TOO MANY of the best fish sadly but we got a few past them. Including this nice little Mangrove Jack.

Headed out with @Old Scaley at some ridiculous hour this morning that required us to have the nav lights on. The idea was to beat the traffic to Harries. We semi-succeeded and were able to land on one of the gazetted marks. I was first on with an unders squire on pillie. That was it for my date at Harries, however Steve managed to get a few little fellas in before getting a whiptail which was quickly dispatched for strip baits. I think he then caught a legal Grassie on it before the rest got pickered. He said he wanted to catch a grinner, hence the title. Fortunately he did get one and turned it into this beauty - That was it for Harries. We then went to Green but someone was already on the best mark. We decided to give Wello a go. Arrived with plenty showing on the sounder. Steve couldn't get away from the breambos. Things were a little quieter on my side, only landing an unders tuskie, a couple of sweetlip (one was close to the esky) and some bream. Nothing on the squid jig or plastics today. The fresh grinner proved to be the best bait. Thanks for the day Steve

@dhess Head out on Friday around the cape. We hit the FAD but BigCat charters was sitting on top of it and we only managed one hit on a slug. Started float lining and also had a paternoster down do see what was around. Managed a lot of pannie Snapper without any size, undersized pearlies and a good Samson which gave a good account for itself and my biggest. We head out deeper and this is where the fun started. We still had the just over snapper which we returned hoping for a couple Of bigger units to round out the bag and it was not long. Firstly I should mention when we arrived at the Mark there was another boat drifting it. Rather than just drop in on them or drive away we slowly motored up to them asked if it was ok to join them and work in with their drifts. All good from them and we started drifting. Dom was first on with a good fish landing a mid 60s snapper. We fished here a bit longer but no quality so moved onto a nearby mark. This is where the day got interesting. I dropped down the paternoster and as soon as it hit the bottom, whack, whack and I fell on my arse still holding onto the rod. It was an unusual fight but very solid. I get it up and see colour and I have a mid 60s snapper and a 70 yellow tail kingfish. That explains a lot. Dom is then onto a massive fish which he man handles at first but the fish quickly man handles Dom and bricks him. Probably a big YTK. Home through the rough bay at dusk and quick trip home and I filleted the Samson and YTK for some sashimi that night. So dam good. Hard to pick a favourite. Well worth the effort of preparing sashimi. My favourite way of eating fish. IMG_1396.MOV

Legends I planned a solo yak trip for this morning and had a wello time. i awoke at 3am for the 40min drive to my favourite spot Wellington Point. The plan was to be on the water by 430am and ready to drop just before sunrise. I arrived at the ramp in the pitch of darkness with only a couple trailers in the car park. The wind was a little fresh and the water a bit lumpy but nonetheless I ventured out. 5mins into my paddle I took on a wave and was drenched! Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea anywho I trudged on as it wasn’t that bad and I filled my zero harm guidelines. Life best on white light on head lamp on and flashing red light on. I arrived at the drop off and made it to the 6-7m mark and dropped my baits. One floating the other a dropper. Straight away the dropper was getting hit....and I missed it! Quickly baited my fresh squid from mr bait and again got hit this time...I’m on! Pulled in my first ever grassy just shy of 30. dropped again and wamo! On again this time a pinky just under 30. I thought here we go this is the day I’m going to land my first legal snapper! oh how wrong I was. I spent the next 5 hours Soaking baits with little success just a tiny pinky a few bites and of course the obligatory grinner! oh well great morning spent on the water the wind died down and so too did the waves by sunrise so a safe and enjoyable trip. mr snapper if your out their mark my words.....I will catch you when I least expect it. Leo

I am not sure I can make it now... but I am not disappointed haha. I got some great blood results back from some cancer surgery I had a few months ago and am throwing a F%$# cancer party. Sorry to let you down. Kat I would love to have you along another time.

Hi all Today I decided that after my basketball game I would go down to the local park and try my luck. I rigged up my rods and reels (my normal salmon reel is in for a service so I was using my Jarvis Walker Sovereign which is better anyway because wet weather isn't to good for reels and it is just a cheapy). By about 3:30PM, I was out of the house towing the cart through the park, and I had lines in and first throw of the cast net at approximately quarter to four. If you're wondering also, we won our basketball game 22-14. Yay! As I walked down, I noticed a water dragon basking in the mud which looked nice. This is the second one I have seen in two days so they must be on the move at the moment - Can you spot him? There he is! After that lizard, I got cast netting. My first couple throws were pretty good with the trusty ten footer, but alas, no bait was caught (except a decently big glassy). The lines were baited with herring from the last yakking trip, and I was sure hoping that keeping them in good nick would pay off. The herring we not touched, and the poddy mullet which was deployed on the salmon line had the same fate (untouched). I gave the lines bait checks in between cast netting, but as the tide was rising more I realised I would need to change something to get bait and fish. Before I started cast netting, the line that I was casting got stuck on my glove. Bye bye, Mr. Mullet! I started throwing the net in between two mangrove plants on a mud flat area I sussed out on the last low tide. The deeper water around the jetty never works on a high but it looks like I've found somewhere the does. The first cast I got a good sized bait prawn, then a glassy and small prawn, then another prawn - how good! It wasn't long before I got the first hit of the day - it was on two glassies and seemed to be OK. The rod buckled but unfortunately since I was netting i did not make it to the rod in time. When I pulled it in the baits were still intact and the line was slimed up, which is typical catfish. Lucky I didn't hook it... After some time I switched the bait on the line in structure to a live prawn to try and attract something since the dead herring wasn't going good at all. I caught a couple more prawns while waiting, but then decided to let the mud bank settle so more bait would come back. As I was walking, just about to sit down, the rod with the live prawn screamed off. I picked it up, set the drag tight, and the battle was on. The fish was going for some good runs, and I thought it was going to do some nice aerobatics at one point. I saw the shape of it's tail and immediately knew what it was. It dived back down though, and as I tried to keep it from going into any snags, someone walked by. This was a very good thing, as it meant I could grab my net! I was holding the spool to avoid letting the fish in the pylons, as most of the runs beforehand had been clean towards the surface. I quickly bent down though, scooped up the fish, and low and behold I landed my 7th Threadfin Salmon. Yewww. Pickin' him up Classic Thready Shot Mug Shot I was stoked to land that salmon, and I would've gotten a brag mat photo but a big dog came down and I did not want the fish to get mauled or anything like that. It measured about 51.5CM, and after a good swimming it kicked off with a big splash. Unfortunately it had swallowed the 4/o suicide hook straight down it's gob, so i had to cut the line. I was so stoked after the release and capture I even gave the salmon a kiss on it's way back. It was about 5:00PM now, and it was nearly time to head home. The rest of the session was uneventful. I tried a bit more netting but the bait seemed to be off now, and I departed for home with a successful day under my belt (and Domino's pizza awaiting me). I got home, told the big story to everyone at dinner, and after almost 30 sessions, caught another threadfin salmon!! I have a theory about salmon fishing on rainy days as well, and it is that when it is raining, threadies in shallow water will start actively feeding more. The silver fish look very good, and I sure hope to catch some more of them eventually. Thanks for reading the report now, I hope you enjoyed. Sorry for any errors in the report. Here are the stats of that trip - Stats of Trip - Tide: Low, 10:36AM, .6M, High, 5:30PM, 2M Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous, 60% moon, so some run Fish caught: Threadfin Salmon x 1 Bait caught: Prawns and Glassy Bait used: Prawns, mullet, herring, glassy Tackle used: 12lb, 14lb, 30lb braid mainlines, 20lb, 30lb fluorocarbon leaders, 80lb mono trace, size 4/o circle and suicide hooks, size 5000 Jarvis Walker Sovereign, Size 2500 Shimano Nasci, Size 2500 Diawa Shinobi, 8' Ugly Stik rod, 6'6" Abu Garcia Venotat rod, 2M Rogue Firepoint boar rod, size 2 ball and bean sinkers. Humidity: 93% - if it was Summer it would've been a good day for shark Weather: Rainy, cloudy, showers Rain: 37.6mm Air Pressure: 1012.9 Overall Success Rate: 95% Cheers Hamish

Have done a couple of trips recently and only finding time now to share the quick stories and a few pics. Trip 1 It was my best mates little's brothers birthday and he's on the cusp of being a dad so we used that as an excuse to get out for a sneaky fish. A launch at 1pm at Manly harbour in 10 knot winds was pretty uneventful, but getting around the rock wall, my memories were reconfirmed - 10knots in my tinny sucks A careful run across to Lota Creek to fish the falling tide and then pump some yabbies when the banks were exposed was our plan. I really do enjoy teaching and showing people better fishing techniques and skills and then seeing it turn into catches. Lota creek can be hit and miss but man it can have a wild mix of fish in there.

Headed up to Hervey Bay over the weekend for my 30th. Planned on fishing the pier but the wind wasn’t playing the game. Luckily, the charter we had booked come through with the goods. Chased schools of tuna in the morning and hooked a couple of good sized mack tuna. Saw plenty of long tail but couldn’t hook one. Trolled around Rooney point for a while as a few small Marlin had been seen lately but we couldn’t find any. We jigged on a school of big trevally but could not get them past the sharks once hooked. The trip home was very rough as it ws blowing 20knots northerly…very uncomfy trip home from roonies! All in all a good day out, cant wait to go there again!

With very little to report from my previous outings, other then a few undersized flathead, squire, grassies, and some oversized grinners, today was looking pretty much the same until a nice little schoolie took a swipe at a lightly weighted pilchard with a 5 0 suicide hook, and a half hitch around the tail that was intended for either a squire or a grassy, the poor bugger foul hooked himself, and my rod holder was quick to spring into action securing him in place until I could tend to it. He went 66cm, you can see the blood where the hook only just pinned him, not long after that, the other rod (that was intended for a mackerel) went off, it had a floating pillie on 4 0 gangs, but this time I got snipped, go figure huh?, The action was short lived though, and the breeze began picking up a little bit earlier then predicted, so I just cruised back to the ramp happy to have 1 fish in the box for dinner.

A couple of spare days and good weather lined up so I packed up the yak with camping gear and paddled to peel island for an overnighter; a trip I've had in mind for a while. After loading the tent, bedding and a plethora of the usual camping utensils I had room left for approximately 2 potatoes (and of course I had enough space for a coffee grinder and filter setup). The plan was to catch a fish for dinner or go hungry. Upon arrival and setting up camp I had a much needed nap, followed by a sleepy trudge across the flats with a fishing rod in hand. Second cast in I got a nice flathead for dinner. That was a bit easy for a change A chilled afternoon and early nights sleep was had, and a beautiful glassed out paddle home this morning at dawn. No more fish to report

Yummmmmmmmm

I was entertaining the idea of having a little fish around Macleay tomorrow, still undecided as yet, I am however rather keen to try out my new Stradic To the untrained eye it might just look like any other hand reel, but this one is jammed packed with cutting edge new technology

Hi All I had a welcome surprise pm from @deegee12g(Don) last week, introducing himself and asking if I would like a deckie spot on his boat, with the intention of fishing the GC Broadwater. Apparently he had been quietly reading some posts and realised how keen I was and available weekdays. I would call it obsessed, addicted, sometimes insane - thinking about fish and fishing all the time. Anyway needless to say I took him up on the offer and the weather was looking good for yesterday, Thursday. I wanted to collect some yabbies the avo before but the tide was too high before dark. So I left my bed at 4am on Thursday and headed to the local yabbie beds at 4.30am. The tide was sti a little high so it was hard yakka and I arrived at the agreed boat ramp just in time to wash all the mud off me and change my muddy clothes before meeting Don at 6am. We launched the boat at about 6.30 am and Don said he was bringing some heavier rigs than my 10 lb braid and leader. His plan was to target some Tuskfish. Shortly before heading off Don handed me a rod/reel setup ( what do I call it?). Anyway he handed it to me and asked me how it felt. It felt good so I said so. Don then said it's now yours!!!! Well that made my day (particularly as the rod my brother gave me to handle bigger fish is to be returned - his wife was not consulted apparently ). We headed out and did some drifting, me with the yabbies and Don with his live worms (night wrigglers I think he said - from his worm farm). We were immediately pulling up unders, whiting, bream, tarwhine, and that little pretty whiptail. Don wasn't really looking at it when I asked him what it was - he was on the other side of the boat busy releasing an under of some sort. Anyway Don suggested we move on as everything was small and we didn't want to waist our bait on unders. We moved around to a few different areas but not much was showing on the sounder and the tide current was getting pretty quick so drifting wasn't going to be too successful as it was too fast. We were getting lots of pickers. Don thought we should change tactics and try some squid jigging. Sounded good to me this was one of our plans anyway. I had packed the only squid jig I own called Nemo. We put my jig on another of Don's rods. We found the deepest water we could and while Don kept an eye on us drifting fast and tied on his jig I had my jig in the water, drifting and jigging up and down slowly and gently. Don said to me that if I had a squid I would just feel like a dead weight dragging on my line, as if I had caught a heavy piece of weed. After about 10 min I felt just that but it was really quite heavy. I carefully kept a bit of pressure on and began slowly reeling in and then all if a sudden there was no weight. We wondered if it was a snag of some sort. Anyway we continued to drift. By this point Don was jigging too. After another minute or so I felt a weight on my line again. I kept pressure on and slowly gently wound it. Finally I could see a squid surface. Pretty sure I let out a little whoo hoo then he started squirting black ink. Don got the net under him and just as he did he dropped off the jig. We tried starting again and drifting back but no luck and by this time there were ominous black clouds to the North. The wind had picked up and the current was too strong to drift. We headed back to where we might have less current and more luck. By the time we were back and baiting up again the rain started, thunder and lightening and we couldn't see two feet in front of us. Don had a long drive back home and he was soaked through so we crawled back to where we thought the boat ramp was and called it a day! Don put the heater on in his ute while we covered the boat. Squid was great fried in some butter with salt. Being addicted I also went land fishing after Don drove home - had to use the yabbies! Got unders flounder and tarwhine and one keeper bream. Saved the squid head and offcuts for bait in freezer. Thanks Don your a legend. Cheers Kat

Hi all recently returned from an epic week long camping trip on Fraser Island. Headed up there last Saturday with Damo (forgot his user name) his dad and a few of his mates. With the wind forecast to be blowing from the east/southeast all week the call was made to setup camp on the very northern side of Fraser providing great protection from the wind. was pretty bloody tough waking up to this every morning for seven days straight!! We were pretty blessed on the fishing front we lost count of just how many tailor we caught not to mention plenty of whiting too. our days were spent driving the northern beach sight casing to schools of fish. With the majority of fish nailed on poppers. I havnt done a great deal of tailor fishing or beach fishing in general so had planned on taking mostly slugs. Luckily I listened to Damo who told me to pack surface lures. So I dug up this old faithful who hadn’t made an appearance since nailing black and spot tail bass in png with @Do$tylz and @Angusfish after fish were caught on poppers and was great to see so many visual strikes. Especially when you see a lone fish leave the Saftey of the school and scoot four or five metres from the pack to smash our offerings. Also caught fish on slugs hardbodies and the humble pilly but the popper was the most effective. Between catching bulk fish sinking bulk beers and daily feeds of fresh fish and bbq could not have asked for a better trip. High lites for me were getting my pb tailor at 58cm on surface. Seeing heaps of turtles resting and walking up the beach. And trying queenfish sushimi. Any ways I’ll let the pics tell the story from here enjoy!

Hi Everyone I must say that having lived in Auckland almost all of my life so far and being a reasonably recent immigrant to Australia I am quite astounded by the generosity and spirit of you Aussies! I am having the most fantastic day I felt I must share it! Had a great day fishing using live bait with a net I was given by an Aussie Bloke. This was only possible because I had been hooked up intiially with like half price fishing gear by another Aussie bloke who knew a tackle shop owner who is also an Aussie. You get the point.... Anyway got given four great fishing books, a tackle box with various tackle and a scaler. More tackle hooks, lures, soft and hard variety of jigheads, sinkers, swivels. Two squid jigs, a reel. This was all before today. Today my brother was listening to my stories about being busted off and gave me another rod, reel heavier braid and leader and then just as an aside threw in a cast net. My dad is posting me a Penn reel from NZ. And this afternoon I was offered two deckie spots! Thank you to everyone!

Thought I'd take a mate out for a fish tonight was not organised just a snap decision. First 10 mins i got a shovel nose then Luke hooked up and fought this thing for just under 20 mins turned out to be a big ray . An hour had passed and no more bites so we tried a spot that was sposed to hold good squire and only managed a dirty old sea toad . After having a bit of a laugh at ourselves we decided to pull the pin go home and plan and prepare for a morning trip.

Dropped in to Mo tackle in Coffs yesterday thought I'd by a couple soft plastics they had way to much to choose from as usual. About 10 minutes into my weekly shop I realised I had the company credit card on me I got a bit excited it was kind of like giving George Pell a back stage pass to a wiggles concert. $360 later I left with some pretty cool plastics moral of the story is don't take your company credit card into the biggest tackle shop in Australia.

Took Yewgary out off Wello this morning to try and kill a fish or two and baptise the boat in blood. Was a bit of a late start but the weather made up for it! A few slow drifts across broken reef saw the first fish for the boat, a small but legal estuary cod I got on a plastic prawn. After that my neighbour got a purple tusky on a dirty servo prawn and his daughters Kmart kombo. 2 fish in 2 mins then a whole lot of nothing! One winter whiting to finish off a successful first Bay trip. Here’s to the next few

It was a privilege to be there today and I am grateful I could say goodbye. That was the first time I have seen an open casket. There were heaps of people there and we had to spill outside. So many were in fishing shirts. I think he would have loved it. Many of us (including me) owe him a debt of gratitude for the fishing wisdom he imparted. I don't mind saying he out fished me. It was great to see so many AFO members there, all dressed in fishing shirts. Vale Lance. Collins. RIP brother.

Fiiiine

Today I went to some Sunday markets because my parents wanted to go . Anyway I managed to find a market stall with some fishing gear there . There were some cheap junky rod’s leaned against a table and next to that table was a box of fishing reels all the reels in there were cheap abu Garcia Jarvis walker okuma etc Reels I spotted a shimano 2500 reel and quickly picked it up and gave it a spin and it felt fine it was a shimano alivio 2500FB which is like if a shimano cazna and a hyperloop had a baby I seen the price tag $15 . And it was the best value reel in the box it just needed a bit of a clean out . Anyway I bought it and the person selling it .gave it to me for $14 anyway not long after that I found a much bigger market stall full of fishing gear there was heaps of gear there rods reels lures hooks etc I seen heaps of people walking around with rods at that market because the guy there had a rod rack full of rod’s but they were just fibreglass baitfishing rods not thin graphite or anything like that . There wasn’t any reels that looked good either there was a few lures that were good prices though .i found a small packet of some old school squidgie lures in silver fox but there wasn’t any price tag I asked the person who owned the stall how much they were he picked them up looked at them and just gave em to me for free. I was pretty happy and thanked him very much lmao . Anyway when we got back I cleaned the drag stack and spool as it was full of dirt and sand after that I cleaned the handle that also was full of dirt and sand . I then opened the reel and sprayed the gearbox with RP7 spray to wash the old grease out after I got all the old grease out I dryed all the gears and added some grease and put it back together and it was good . But i decided to give it a bit of a twist . I managed to fix my cazna drag the other night it wasn’t perfect but it was now ok I swapped spools and now the alivio spool is on my cazna I also swapped handles the alivio handle is on my cazna both reels felt instantly a little better . I reopened the cazna one last time to try and fix the gearyness or atleast help it as it would be too geary to use for fishing anyway. I found out why it was so geary somehow there was some liquid mixed with grease probably oil or something I sprayed the cazna gearbox with RP7 and greased it just like the alivio and put it back together and is so much better now infact it isn’t really that geary anymore just vibrates a little bit and is now smooth . shimano alivio $14 reel I bought from the market Shimano cazna after fixing the gearyness and adding some parts from the alivio that I like

Bundaberg fishing session . yesterday I went down to Burnett river in Bundaberg for a fish . I found this spot under a bridge that had a walkway under it and i fished off there . I got there rigged up a 2.5 inch baitjunkie in whitebait on a 1/8 jig head size 1 hook and started throwing casts I got a few bites no hooks up just small fish then after a few more cast I hooked a small pike for some reason the pike go crazy for the baitjunkie plastics so if anyone is in need to catch heaps of pike buy some baitjunkie 2.5 minnowz because every time I’ve used them I’ve caught pike the first time I used them I hooked about 7-12 lost count . Anyway on my 8 or 9th cast I hooked something big that was right near me probably 5 metres away I thought I was snagged but then I felt some headshakes and my drag was going nuts anyway the fish surfaced quite quickly before going back down and i seen a massive flathead i also seen it had swallowed my lure right down deep . Luckily it wasn’t far from the shore and my dad got the net and landed the flathead .I measured the flathead and it managed to beat my PB flathead by 2cm 57cm I was going to release it but my dad dropped the fish on the rocks once and it was also bleeding a bit because of the deep hooking so I decided to keep it and humanity kill it i and also because my parents wanted to keep it . I wouldn’t keep a flathead over 56cm but because it was slightly damaged and only 1cm over I thought it wouldn’t hurt . Will probably fillet the flathead later . After that I had a another cast and also hooked something big but pulled the hooks fairly quick on whatever it was and then after that I hooked a baby Moses perch conditons i didn’t plan the fishing session it was just a quick afternoon flick and I don’t really know what the conditions were . but I think it was around low tide it was sunny and windy from around 3 or 4:00 pm . I will probably look up the conditions later gear . reel shimano stradic FL 1000 . Rod atomic arrowz bream surface rod 2pc 3-8lb mainline 6lb j braid x8 and 6lb sunline FC rock leader TT lures headlocks 1/8th in size 1 hook daiwa baitjunkie 2.5 inch minnowz in whitebait with a tiny bit of s factor oh and the photos

Well done, Hamish. I can’t believe you were still awake at that late hour to write this report! You have perfected the art of fishing magazine writing - taking a day that produced only a few fish and turning it into a ripping yarn. I can’t believe I lost that snapper. It was a real beauty and I thought it was done and dusted. Maybe it was hooked in the cheek? Anyway, still fun. Thanks for your company Hamish, Kat and Brian. It was a fun day.

The company would have to liquidate if that was me.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-29/bom-declares-la-nina-wet-conditions-likely-for-eastern-australia/12617528 Well hopefully not too much devistation but on the plus side should make for a good prawn season!!!

A mate gave me some shrimp, so I took the neighbour up to Baroon yesterday.On a rare day we arrived to no fog, we could see where to go right away. Pushed off from the ramp and their was fish under us before I had the front lecy down, same as last time here. We baitfished a few then trolled through them for a few more. Headed off to next spot where we stayed for quite awhile getting double hookups, some small and some larger. We then went for a tour around the dam picking up a few on the troll,before finishing up at the last spot for a few more on bait. Bruce was having a good day with the biggest bass at 49cm. I then picked up a nice 50cm, but didnt want to spoil his day so I spread the tail and called it for a 49cm and a draw. 74 bass all up and a nice cool day. Dino

Ok been a busy day but here’s how it played out. I met Brian at pob at 430pm luckily he was early because He thought we said 5 as any good decky would vouch for its expected you gather intel on fishing spots (Especially when your last few attempts have been unsuccessful) and that’s exactly what I did. Armed with this new information we headed to the wall. Full of excitement and anticipation we set up for the first drop. Right tide right spot and three hours later all we had to show was a couple of sharks caught by yours truly and a massive catfish and cat shark caught by Brian. It was nearing 9 and my excitement turned to despair as I discussed the fact that actually we are terrible fishermen who who are as cursed as this boat! And then..... Wooshka ! Leo’s on! Good first run then just dead is wait as it ran towards the boat. At this stage I called shark and then as the beast surfaced I squealed with astonishment.....Brian! SNAPPER! Oh my god oh my god o can’t believe it! Brian whipped out the net and after a few nervous moments it was netted! 47cm (I actually think Brian’s ruler is wrong and it was 48) high fives were scaring the rest of the fish as I first pumped dropped to my knees and thanked the beautiful girl laying in front of me. this has been a long term goal of mine since I joined this forum and I am so glad to have achieved! Now for an upgrade! brian your a bloody legend so blessed that you allow me to decky for you and can’t thank you enough. I got another soon after at about 30cm then it went quiet as we decided to call it a night. u think Brian might have a new spot x but we might call it spot L.

I used to drag my family of wife and two kids under 15 around the southern bay in a 4.2m runabout, similar to what you are looking at. We'd also drop into places like Horseshoe Bay to stretch the legs and let the kids have a run around etc. We enjoyed the runabout style with windscreen and comfortable seats for the adults. Kids don't really care about their seats and backs at that age, although I did get a cushion for the rear seat. That boat had a 35 and then a 40 horsepower 2 stroke motor and was more than adequate up to around 12 knots. After that you'd have to slow the trip down a bit or preferably not go out far. The more south you go the better the protection by the islands from the winds. I agree with going the larger boat theory. 3.5 to 4 will see you outgrow it quickly. Even though I had a 4.2 I always thought something a bit bigger would have been better. The truth is a bigger boat would have been better. The 4.2 was definitely the minimum for what we did. I now have a 4.7 with a 60hp 4 stroke and it opens up a bit of the northern bay, so on a good weather day I can get to Moreton pretty comfortably and enjoy places like Tangalooma. Something more for you to consider. As they are phasing out 2 strokes in the short term (very soon I believe) I'll assume you will be getting a four stroke. That is a good thing as your range is far better. I'm averaging a bit under 7 litres per hour (about 5.3 km/l) with the 4 and was getting about 2km to the litre with the 2 strokes. So in summary I suggest - - Get a tinnie at least 4.2m. (The tinnie will also be more forgiving of hull damage at the ramp and on sandbars etc while you're getting used to boating) subject to the size of and age of kids and how many there are; - Get a 4 stroke; - Get a runabout style; and - Get as big as you can afford/tow.

For those that are interested in chasing jacks this summer you might find interesting this Youtube clip I came across - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obdaclVmjJA

Got an invite to head out with @GregOug, son Tom and @Kat on Saturday. The plan was to leave at gentleman's hours and suss out some marks Greg had been working on. So a bit of an explore and hope day. The first couple of marks showed a small amount of structure but no fish holding so we moved on and around finding a lot of the spots were no secret, with boats already chancing their luck. The bay was glassed out and at one of the vacant spots we tried, a solitary dolphin paid us a visit. Kat and Tom both got some footage of it taking Greg's food offerings. Interestingly it bumped away a frozen squid and a frozen pillie but was happy to eat the defrosted ones. I thought afterwards the dolphin was probably expecting us to feed it fish that we'd caught, so it either had misplaced confidence in us or there were fish around to be caught. Hopefully @GregOug or @Kat can post their footage/pics. We discovered some new ground towards the north of Moreton that looked promising but the weather turned on a five cent piece and the bay chopped up accordingly. We then trolled for a while without luck before the whitecaps appeared to our north so we decided to head for home. We stopped along the way at some nice looking bottom and had a quick drift and lost some bait but no hookups. We crossed the Brisbane bar and it was as curly as I've seen it. We were surprised to see a small tinny heading out with two onboard. With the weather forecast to worsen it makes you wonder what it was that saw them taking such a risk. It was my first outing with Greg on his boat. What a weapon it is. All those ponies at the ready make for an exhilarating ride. Plenty of room for the 4 of us. We had a good day and shared a lot of laughs and story telling to make up for the lack of fish. A top day on the water. Thanks for the invite and company.

Today I went to Bli bli fishing park I got there around 9:30 and booked me a 3 hour session in . I then went back to the car to grab my gear because let’s be honest the fishing rental gear at Bli bli is horrifying to look at ..half spooled plastic reels and plastic tip fibre glass rods give me chills just looking at them especially when Im used to budget-midrange gear .anyway the guy there gave me some basic advice and some pellets I tried a few spots near the entrance the wind was howling but TBH I didn’t really care anyway after awhile I seen my line fly through the water and a massive bow wave near the surface of water I go to set the hook and nothing happens the fish just spat the hook out .after that I moved around for a bit until a found the BIG BOY’S POND I seen a few busts up in the middle of the pond but it’s to far out so I don’t bother fishing there anyway towards the end of the big boys pond it goes into a smaller pond I see about 4-6 giant Barra around 50-80cm sun baking anyway me being a genius pulls out my lightest setup 1.5-3.5kg rod 1000 size reel 6lb braid and 6lb FC leader and cast a pellet out not long after one of these big Barra is feeling hungry and spots his brunch the big Barra goes over to the pellet and doesn’t see anything besides the pellet because I have stupid 6lb FC leader it decides it’s legit and swims off with the pellet in its mouth and little does this Barra know there is a silly bream fishermen on the end of line anyway long story short I set the hook Barra goes crazy and goes for a massive run and does massive headshakes after a awhile I bring it in a tad closer and then my line snaps . i move around a little more nothing really around any more I seen this guy throwing some pellets and a family catch’s a Barra or 2 near the Berley I then quickly find a spot that looks good and throw a few pellets out and of course about 6 Barra come up and smash the bait I then quickly cast out with setup 2 .daiwa legalis 2500S daiwa aird x 2-4kg rod 8lb braid and very thick 6lb mono 0.27mm .nothing happens no bites nothing I then realise Barramundi have brains and common sense and most of them only eat floating baits because all the baits with hooks sink anyway I get some bread from my bag because I bought some backup bait just in case I ran out of bait I used the some little bread crust pieces as floats it worked like crap but somehow made the baited pellets float anyway not long after I throw the handful of pellets again and sure enough the Barra went nuts I then cast out with set up 2 again and not long after a Barra takes it after a decent fight I managed to landed my first Barra and shortly after that I hooked a much bigger one the fight lasted around 6 minutes before snapping the line after that I had to go. some tips for people going There bring floats and size 8 mustad fine worm hooks . A graphite rod around 3-5kg A 2500 reel with 10lb braid and 10lb leader would be more ideal for the Barra there i also seen a Barra chase the biggest mullet I’ve ever seen in my life to while I was there overall I would give it 7/10 for my first time fishing there if I go back I would probably give it a 10/10 because once you figure out how to make the baited pellet’s float you will get heaps .there is heaps of Barra there

Some very threatening weather yesterday at NPD with Neil but we were a bigger threat to the fish with 3 yellas. 2 tandans and 65 bass on the counter. All on live shrimp and all released.It was very windy after about 8 am but thankfully no rain except on the way home. Neil did very well to bring an good size eel boatside on 6lb line. Lots of floats opposite the entrance of the boat ramp I can only assume they are shrimp traps as hardly any redclaw entered in the catch cards. The tide has gone out on the ramp and it is possible to walk over the other side. Apparently the surface has been damaged so we will have to continue to use the new extension on the side whilst it is easy to launch from it is not so good retrieving in the wind unless you have a walkway on your trailer so you can get the bow on the rear roller of your trailer. Needs another couple of truck loads of rock so that you can walk behind the trailer . Cheers Ray

Hey gang, Just a quick report. I went out yesterday in the bumpy salty stuff with a few family members for whiting fish. We caught about 6 in the Rouse near the Small Ships Channel but it was slow. We then did the bumpy, long and slow trip to the sandhills. We found them straight away and caught 35 before it was time to head home. Double hook ups were the norm. Baits were Squid and Worms. Squid seemed better (and a lot cheaper) I shouted myself a new scaling bag. Wow what a cracker! I only left it out there for about 1 min and they were as clean as can be. Anyhow they are out there around the edges of the Blue Hole. Go get 'em.

Thankyou! I joined AFO 8 years ago as a beginner and asked many questions and started learning a lot (as you're doing too!). Spent lots of time not catching and still do, and sometimes it's bloody hard work. Might sound silly but I'm a bit sore from yesterday with over 100 max effort casts to get the lure in the right spot followed by a high speed retrieve; non stop for 2 hours and running all over the rocks. Quality fish can be tough. I guess the secret is simply 'hard work'

Easily justifiable these days, you were just doing your best to stimulate the economy, what more can you do really

Put the legs through another morning of torture yesterday. As always the walk in was very pleasant, no wind,temp down and no rain, better than being stuck in bed whinging about a sore back. Now I can whinge about sore knees and hips to the wife, she pretends to listen Anyway the fishing was great again,it was Lukes turn to catch a yella which made him very happy, my footprints were still on the ground from catching a yella last week in the same place.Talking about foot prints, the bank in some places was like quick sand, I had a fish on and tride to skim it over the weeds and as I tried to turn I lost balance and had to throw the rod and do a star dive, lucky it was a soft landing and only lost a bit of skin off my new knee. I got roasted when I got home and told to wake up to myself and act my age.So might have to look for shorter walks. Anyway as I was saying the fishing was great again we managed 60 bass all on spinnerbaits. Dino

Been a while but we finally cracked the ton again at NPD yesterday.The schools were scattered on dropoffs along the old river bed. We would find a show on the sounder and drop live shrimp. The fish were moving around and would bite in short bursts and after we would pull around 20 fish they would move on. Glad to see that fad 2 is now consistently holding both yellas and bass. Will have to start looking at some of the other ones in future. Final ally was 100 bass and 3 yellas. Few clues re locations in photos. Cheers Ray