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Today was meant to be some amazing GT fishing but unfortunately my 8 month old Yamaha 4stroke had other ideas and I was forced to take my mexican (NSW) visitors fishing landbased. We decided to chase some jacks with an arvo storm looming, and although it wasnt red hot I was happy to nail my PB by 9cm. I stalked up to my favorite snag and landed my lure right in the edge of the drop off and had a huge swirl on my Nories wakebait within seconds and a more commited stike just seconds later. After a long nerve racking tussle I managed to clear the jack of danger on my 2500 stradic with 8lb braid and 12lb leader to guide it into the net. Stoked to hit 63cm landbased! My dad managed a solid fish of about 40cm on a plastic also which was a pb. Overall a good result considering the lack of boat. Hopefully be back on the water tomorrow!

Saturday was to be a family day on the water with a little bit of lunch thrown in. Julie and the kids were going to meet me at Spinnaker Sound around 10am. I solo launched at 5.30am and could not get a park at the ramp with it being so busy. It was a calm morning with the wind forecast to rise after lunch. Sunrise gives you special feeling. As I headed out there were a few birds at the bottom end of Bribie and I could see good shows of bait. Rather than heading to a spot 20km away I thought I would give it a try and save some fuel. For the next few hours as most boat past me by and some stayed the tell tail bust ups of Long tail tuna were everywhere. Although there were plenty there they were very spooky and hard to get close to. That's Moreton Bay tuna fishing though, with the typical boats coming in at high speed and putting the tuna down. This was not getting anyone any fish so I moved off and marked schools of bait everywhere I could. Once I had plenty of marks to choose from I then positioned the boat so I would drift over a number of them and be away from all the other boats. I didn't have @Poddymullet phone number so I messaged him on AFO but, it seems he doesn't like catching tuna (He didn't get the message till that night) A lot of patience was needed as schools of tuna demolished the bait just out of casting range. There were some isolated splashes as I drifted with the current, I was deep jigging a soft plastic when it was hit at speed and I played a nice LT to the boat and after many circles out of net range the hook let go for some reason and it won its freedom. The adrenaline was rising and shortly after a small bust up in casting range presented an opportunity. The cast landed right in the middle of the foam resulting in an instant hook up. While playing the fish in I was thinking I hope they stick around till the family arrive. This one I got to the net safely and it went a little over 80cm and a nice solid fish. It's most satisfying when you put a plan in action and it comes together. I hooked another one and pulled the hooks. As the morning marched on the aggression of the feeding tuna slowed and it was then time to pick the up the family. We loaded lunch and drinks and headed out with the kids pretty excited to hear there were tuna about. Like before the tuna were still hard to approach without them going down but with the kids on the front of the boat at the ready to cast we managed to get a cast here and there. Luke was the first to land one which we released, to no avail because a shark was hot on it tail and exhaustion of the fight the shark caught up to for a bite to eat. James then picked one up that was sharked under the boat. Julie and I had a double hook up and this was to be Julie's first ever Longtail however the shark was still hungry. I managed to get mine in because Luke's gaff shot was good as the Tuan swam by. We kept a couple for dinner and some bait. James with some by catch. A great morning out and after lunch the wind picked up as predicted and we headed home. As hard as it may, I can not find where this doughnut shop is the @kmcrosby78 keeps going to

The bloke I sit next to at work is a mad keen spearo from the Gold Coast and just bought an old Haines V16 4.8m a few months ago. He set himself the goal to catch a marlin out of it and had 3 successful trips before Xmas, even landing a nice black solo. So hearing the bait was still thick and reports of marlin being caught we decided to go see if we could get one. Conditions were a bit ordinary on the way out following the left overs of a storm cell, but we got out and it settled down nicely. We were soon joined by 20 or so other boats (some similar size to ours but no Timmy the Turtle skiffs today) with different ideas about etiquette and found the bait right on the spot. Top to bottom slimies in 80m. We jigged some baits and put them in our unplumbed live bait tanks (2 buckets and an old esky) and started our drifts on 8 and 10kg gear. The current was raging and even though the bait school was huge we drifted through it very quickly. Putting back up to the spot we saw a fish going crazy in front of a 50 footer and wondered who had hooked it. No boat around the fish had the tell tale signs of panic involved with a hook up so it must have been a free jumper. Good signs! After almost being swamped by a courteous neighbour (think he was still learning how to drive his 8m beast) we moved and set our drift. Shortly after my mate had a run, eased the drag up and set the hook on a fish before the line went slack. He must’ve had a nick in his mainline as he only got back about 10m of it. 1-1-0. Spewing! Boats around us started hooking up and our hopes were high for another shot. To increase our chances we found a patch to our selves and dropped our livies down. The skipper had another run and eased the drag up slowly as a nice fish jumped towards the boat. I put my drag up to clear my line out of his way but there was more pressure than just the sinker. I hadn’t felt the bite (very out of touch!) but I also had a fish on and it started moving north steadily. A double hookup on nice blacks! 3-3-? Chaos! His fish was heading to NZ and mine to PNG so he offered to break his off to give me the best chance of landing one of the two. By this time I had lost half a spool of 8kg and he had managed to get his moving towards the boat. Mine started jumping a good 500m from the boat in an awesome aerial display and spat the hook. Ok so now we could focus on landing his fish. I took the wheel and we went about getting some of his line back and had the fish on the surface within 10m of the boat after another 5mins. It was far bigger than we both thought (50kg?) I had only seen small blacks of about 20-25kg up close and this looked easily twice the size. He tried to coax the fish towards the boat but it didn’t like it and jumped away before going deep in protest. This was how the battle went for the next hour or so with attempts to plane the fish up, change direction on him and annoying him with the sound of engine getting him near the boat but not allowing us to reach the leader. About an hour and a half in my mate felt the line was scuffed badly (he had removed about 50m after the first break). We worked out that the tip roller on his rod wasn’t spinning and the line was chafing on the sides of the roller. No good! After 2 hours and 5 or so sightings near the boat he handed the rod over to me. We couldn’t up the drag due to the chafed line so I tried to short stroke it back to the boat with my fresh arms. Any line I gained he took back (stubborn fish!) before he turned as I pumped and the pressure on the line was too much. 3-3-0. Spewing! I was pretty disappointed to lose his fish after so long but we had to try something to end the stalemate and the chafed line wasnt helping. The northerly had come up so it was time to head in. We were both pretty excited to have had our chances but hopefully next time we can land one.

With a brief break in the torrential rain decided to head down to Narrabeen Lagoon for a couple of hours. Our daughter kindly dropped me off there on the school run http:// As I had done well at Pelican Bridge previously,decided to try there again. Set up a running leger with a small oval weight and a short 6lb fluorocarbon trace. As there seemed to be a lot of pickers there opted for a small hook for starters,a no 8. You can catch a big fish on a small hook but you cannot catch a small fish on a big hook Using squid for bait cast towards the middle and let the bait trundle down in the current. Within seconds had hooked up into what seemed like a good. sized fish on my light gear. It was a decent bream. A quick photo on my phone and back it went. http:// In the next hour I managed to catch 4 more bream,one being as big as the first,the other 3 being much smaller. It was virtually a bite a cast and I was still missing a lot of them. Next up it was a small tailor. http:// Oh well it made a change from the bream Just before I was due to pack in caught a decent sized whiting which made a pleasant change. http:// A most enjoyable little session with all fish carefully returned to fight another day. Lets see what the weekend brings,need to get the grandsons out fishing again. They do enjoy it. Here are a couple of images from our last ozzie trip. Joshua giving advice here to younger brother Theo. http:// Joshua here with a bream. Have taught them the importance of putting fish back and conservation http:// John

The good news is I have booked my flights to Perth for the another Kimberly adventure. The bad news is I have to wait till end of July before it rolls around. Be there for 3-4 weeks and it will be fantastic like last time.

I knew I had to be home early, as I had to go out for lunch. So I didnt wander to far from the ramp, insead I just had some flats fishing for bass, I was casting willie nillie ( anywhere ) in a large area that was only 6to 8ft in any direction.This was helped along with small clumps of weed here and there and this was what the bass was hiding in. They were not monsters by any means but managed 22 before she who must be obeyed rang and said dont forget we are going out for lunch. Dino

Armed myself with 2 necksocks, pulled one over my head and down to my eyes and the other from my neck up to top of nose, then added my sunglasses. I thought it my scare the fish away, but no they were still keen to see me. Managed 33 bass, one yella and one toga 67cm.Soon as the temp got a bit high I was outer there. Dino

Headed up to 1770 on Wednesday got into the caravan park about 530pm set up a few chairs and had a brew. Got up early and was at the servo in town at 5am to get our ice then launched the boat and headed out the weather was mint all day and in 2 hours we were dropping our 1st baits. The fishing was good as we were quickly putting quality red throat and trout in the box. My best trout went 63cm and was fat as mud. Lots of under size red emperor were caught up to 54cm must have got 20 or more without 1 legal size. We anchored up behind the reef just after dark and settled in for the night. The next day was slow but slowly put some more fish in the box like tuskies and more rte. The boat was playing up with the motor not charging the batteries so we called it and headed home around lunch. We had got close to our bag limit so not a big loss for the trip and have dropped the boat in today to get fixed. Here is our final tally

As an aside and by way of demonstration of the nature of our pursuits and not derailing Tugger report. On the weekend Luv-it and I and our other boatmates were up at 1770 there were 2 incidents in the 1 day with the same boat. No names no pack drills but the vessel ran aground on the finger spit on the port side of the fitzroy entry markers. (most of us know the chart markers are not accurate and he may have been following those) The vessel became lodged and despite several attempts to rope him off he would not budge. As the tide floated him off he entered the lagoon. He anchored up and presumably further assessed damage. Our boat mates were anchored nearby. We were up behind Sykes. It is assumed he then commenced preparing dinner. All of a sudden there was a bright orange flash, a delayed boom and the occupant was then seen throwing a flaming BBQ into the lagoon. On Monday he was at the ramp when our boat mates turned up. He was OK as was his vessel despite a bit of reef rash. So it just goes to show no matter how prepared or skilled you may be the sea takes what it wants when it wants it - by accident or design, and catastrophe is the sum of small errors enacted enroute. I am by no means implying any errors on Tugger' vessel or battery incident just highlighting why I take the step I do and by the looks of it Luv-it does too. Cheers

Another day of laughs and fish with two Michaels as deckies. Started the day checking redclaw pots before trying to find some fish. The redclaw are now starting to get some size with plenty of small ones coming on so they will not taper off over winter. No fish were found until we reached the floats where both Michaels had a double hook up with a bass and yella successfully boated. The fish were of good quality in high 30s and low 40s but a little slow. so we went searching again with little found until we located some good sized bass in the new area. before having a last shot on the floats on the way back to the ramp . The bass were cooperative once again but we decided we had had enough. Checked a few of the redclaw pots on the way back and a few of them had between 8 and 12 redclaw in them so the two Michaels ended up with a feed of fish and redclaw to take home. Glass out conditions all day with the breeze maybe getting up to 3 mph a couple of times 20 bass 4 yellas 9 forkies that were converted to redclaw bait on the way back to the ramp as the pots that I put forkies in as bait on Wednesday had twice the number of redclaw as the ones with just dog biscuits.I was bit worried that the dead forkies would stink but all that was left were a few bones. Cheers Ray

Give them all a ‘B’ most will be happy and a couple will be disappointed but, then you will have time to go fishing

Sorry Steve, I've been busy ...... might get out next weekend though ......... Great report @Andrew_P. Unlucky not to leader him but a fight and experience you'll both remember for a long time nonetheless. Can you give us marlin/gamefish rookies a rough idea of how far out this was? Something I'd like to have a crack at with my boys in a few years time

Cheers boys,a yellowfin leatherjacket it is then https://australianmuseum.net.au/learn/animals/fishes/yellowfin-leatherjacket-meuschenia-trachylepis/ John

On my way for a sleep over the island to get a early start tomorrow hope the fish play the game will try for some squid once I sit the boat

DH 1.mp4 TSM Marlin jump 2.mp4

Caught this leatherjacket in Narrabeen Lagoon yesterday and was wondering what type it was ? Have caught chinaman leatherjackets and fan bellied leatherjackets before but this species is new to me. Quite happy as it is my 47th ozzie species now John http://

Out on the gold coast 36s and at spot x which is around a 30km run from the seaway

Heres a few more pics from the dad and mates visit. Unfortunately not much boat time but a few pbs for them still.

These are my 2 previous leatherjacket captures. A chinaman leatherjacket http:// A fan bellied leatherjacket http:// John

Cracking fish, especially for land based. I would be keeping that location quiet (unless you want to just tell me haha)

Sounds like you have a full and fulfilling term in front of you. So I'll take one for the team and take my wife and one of the kids out on Saturday for a leisurely cruise around the bay and post a report on your behalf.

Another good one yesterday apart from getting wet feet due to my ******** decky leaving the bung out . I was too busy gassbagging at ramp to a couple of newbies in a hobie cat with a leccy on the back. Gave them a few shrimp to start with and saw that they caught a few fish when I came back in.. Did not notice it for around 15 minutes until I pulled the first pot when there was an inch of water over the floorboards. Took around 10 minutes for both bilge pumps to clear it. I had used a couple of forkies as redclaw bait last trip and they worked well so will keep any in future instead of just donging them on the head.Did a bit of exploring around the no1 fad and picked up 3 bass there. They were not schooling on the fads but just cruising around around them.Nothing at first at a couple of normal spots but found a school of mixed fish from 20cm to 40 odd in 35 feet of water towards the far marker. Nothing doing at the far marker but the chippys ( Birds) that had their nests burrowed into the bank were not happy as their nests were submerged.Plenty of bass on the floats on the way back to the ramp despite there being nothing there earlier. Owen was at the ramp just launching his new rig to try out his twin stern motor set up so I culled my redclaw and gave him all the smalls. 46 bass ( Around 16 under) and one yella. Decky is still suffering from toungelashing as I write this. Cheers Ray

I was half asleep casting 3/8 spinnerbait right up the back of alleys looking for yellas when it attacked, scared the life outer me.

Hopefully he had time to take his steaks off before ghosting his burner in the drink

Thanks to Robbie offering to lend me his compressor I have finally got to the end of the Antifoul removal. Here are some before and after shots of the work done. Some photos will be double ups from within the post but, seeing how far it has come is quite satisfying. Original boat before my modifications and after.

Just a heads up if you currently have health with one of the big funds have a look at their rates . I have just changed to Qld Country health fund who are Townsville based and have saved $1000 per year with exactly the same cover that I previously had with HCF who are also a not for profit fund. Qld Country do not subscribe to any of the comparison sites so do not pay a joining commission or trailing commissions and have lower management fees. Apparently HCF are owned by Mancheter Unity and pay management fees to Manchester Unity. Do a bit of research I am certain that you could save by looking around yourself instead of paying commission to the parasite comparison sites who tend to direct you to whoever gives them the biggest kick back. Cheers Ray

what odds do you think you would have got on tigers and eels top two after two rounds? not even @ellicat would have predicted that in his wildest dreams. although, come to think of it, i don't know that he worries about footy at all during his wildest dreams...

Pledge given Here’s hoping your prediction is spot on! By the way all I managed was this for my trouble on a Saturday - so no donuts for me with this schoolie

We have your pledge in writing now. With them being so flighty l was missing the Scout with the electric motor. Would have made a difference in getting close enough for the cast. About 5 years ago the LT ran from now through to July in numbers off Bribie Island. Hope the same happens this year. Should be plenty more opportunities to get some.

Round 2 Thursday March 21, 2019 Dragons 18 v 34 Rabbitohs Bunnies were expected to win this game... Bunnies did win the game. Friday March 22 Raiders 10 v 22 Storm The Storm kept on keeping on. Broncos 29 v 10 Cowboys Big effort by the younger Bronco pack, Tevita Pangai Junior’s effort was among the highlights of this match. How they back up against the Dragons and then Roosters in their next 2 games, will tell a lot. Saturday March 23, 2019 Sharks 20 v 6 Titans Sharks defence ensured them the 2 points. Titans had the benefit of more ‘ball in hand possession’ try scoring opportunities and a favourable 14-5 penalty count, and only converted these into 1 try. Knights 14 v 16 Panthers Panthers won... after round 2 neither of these teams are inspiring their fans to over excitement of finals glory. Sea Eagles 18 v 26 Roosters Manly fans should be happy with that score line.... against a Cronk and Friend less Roosters team that was at one stage down to one man on the bench. Sunday March 24, 2019 Bulldogs 16 v 36 Eels Dawwgs gaawwn Tigers 34 v 6 Warriors Tigerland is ecstatic, Top of the Ladder... 2019 Grand Final Glory in sight!

Toooona aplenty you beauty

Very tasty leatherjacket …. used to catch loads of these off the rock platform at the south end of Dudley beach , the best bait to catch them was fresh congi meat (that I took from a gutter that was exposed at low tide and accessible if the sea was under 2m. I think I was using size 8 longshanks to catch them and they were great fun. Back then I was chasing tailor and bream mostly . This was way back in the 80s before I discovered it was possible to catch snapper from the rocks .

@straddiebrad mate I think they are all down off the goldy at the moment on the marlin grounds! Top to bottom slimies in 80m! Report coming...

Yellowfin Leatherjacket?

Found this article by Camron Slessor about a sunfish that has been found washed ashore near the mouth of the Murray River in South Australia over the weekend, and one expert believes it is the Mola mola species. The gigantic fish is known for its sheer size and odd body shape, often distinguished by its flattened body and fins. A photo of the creature was posted on social media yesterday, with two fishermen standing over it on the sand. Linette Grzelak, who posted the image to Facebook, said the fish — which was already dead — was spotted by her partner while out fishing on Saturday. "A sunfish found by my partner along the Coorong a couple [of] nights ago … I thought it was fake," the post said. Sunfish can swim to the depths of the ocean. South Australian Museum fish collection manager Ralph Foster said this particular species was a rare find. "I've actually had a good look at it, we get three species here and this is actually the rarest one in South Australian waters," he said. "It's the oceanic sunfish, which in other parts of the world is common but here it's more unusual, it's the one known as Mola mola." He said this particular sunfish was on the smaller end of the scale in terms of size. He estimated it was about 1.8 metres long. Mr Foster said the sunfish got its name for its trait of basking in the sun, but they were also known to swim to the depths of the ocean. "In recent work people have been putting satellite tags and data loggerson them and found they will come to the surface and lay on their side on the surface, hence the name the sunfish," he said. "Once they are warm enough they will dive down several hundreds of metres and feed onjellyfish and things right at the depth and stay down there for quite a long time. "We know very little about them, it's only in the last few years that technology has allowed us to start learning about them." Sunfish are known to 'sink yachts'. Mr Foster said the sunfish was not commonly fished for and had been known to have damaged yachts. "They are not generally fished for except in parts of Asia," he said. "I think one female can lay something like three million eggs, so they are not particularly endangered." He said various marks on its tail and the shape of its head made him confident the latest find in South Australia was a Mola mola sunfish, but there was a lot more to be discovered about them. "We get to actually look at them so infrequently, so we never know quite which one we've got," he said. "Which is why these photographs online are so useful, because we get to actually look at it and decide which one it is. The find comes as a rare hoodwinker sunfish was recently found washed ashore in California earlier this year. The 2.1-metre fish was spotted at the Coal Oil Point Natural Reserve and initially left scientists baffled when they could not identify it. Marine scientist Marianne Nyegaard, from Murdoch University, identified the new species after analysing more than 150 samples of sunfish DNA.

Thought I’d share my latest video a 20-minute special on how to CATCH, CLEAN & COOK squid. Video can be seen here - https://youtu.be/8vGvxUImbRw On the weekend we launched from Altona and headed to shallow water around 4m deep and drifted around. Using a range of different squid jigs. ( 2.5g black and 3 gram UV white ) we catch our bag limit of squid. At which time we capture this footage and share some tips on targeting squid. We then take the squid home and show you how to clean and cook. I made this video after receiving messages from followers asking for advice on this exact topic. This video highlights that even kids can catch squid and prepare a great meal. Enjoy the video, I hope these tips help you and remember to sub the channel.

unlike @kmcrosby78 though, @Luvit's report will likely contain some sort of fish... Kimberley trip sounds awesome mate. good news about it being in july is you have ample time to prep everything and buy more stuff than you could possibly need etc.

It did try and bite me ellicat. Will be well happy not to catch another one ever again !!! http:// http:// The stingray I was able to pick up like this as its tail had been docked by a previous captor. http:// John

Did catch a pike eel once when we were staying up at Noosa. It really was a horrible thing. I was covered in slime by the time I got it unhooked. Also caught my first stingray there so that was 2 new species on that trip for me. John

Love seeing the Abbott point wharf brings back plenty of memories you have definitely tamed some big GTs keep the posts coming I love hearing about my old stomping grounds

Sorry for the lack or reports of late. Lack of internet and loads of work have gotten the better of me. As many of you know I have moved to Bowen about 8 months ago and have now finally got the hang of GT fishing the inshore areas. From having never caught a GT over 5kgs about 6 months ago my new gear and lure collection is finally showing its worth! Just going to post bulk pics from the past few months as I cant remember too much detail, too many beers between sessions maybe.... Plenty of sessions involving double digits and some of those solo too. Biggest so far ~30kg.

Cheers mate, bit of a pain solo balancing the phone all over the boat on self timer selfie cam so I dont bother with a fair few of my smaller fish but still manage a good pic here and there.

I guess that's why Yamahas have 2 charging circuits. In case the primary fails you can use the auxiliary if you have it installed and running. You would have to swap out the batteries - but that's easy enough to do. Solid redundancy in-place of reliance upon 1 a VSR to charge (not applicable in your case) and 2 a battery combination switch - which may also fail - but not in your case in this instance. Glad you made it home OK without issue. The sea test's us every trip and its only through these types of discussions others can become away of circumstances and potential remedies. Thanks for sharing your experience. My o/nite power down procedure is similar to Luv-its and I can also power down my nmea network individually additionally by item as they are all switched. I turn off the 2nd lowrance unit totally too. I start a new trail and set the alarm for anchor monitoring that way I know exactly which way I have gone if and when the anchor breaks free. Safety at sea is a major issue and if other readers learn of procedures or methodologies others use via discussion that they may have never come across and look into and adopt them then the forum has served it purpose fully. Better practices be it seamanship, navigation, weather reading, towing, fishing ability etc. Tugger if you don't mind could you pls share the mechanics findings on the cause of the charging failure when you become aware and have time. Cheers

Scary stuff, can't do much about that sort of stuff failing. When did you notice it was not working, when the battery was flat? or do you have a voltmeter showing on your sounder or dash showing it was not charging. Nothing to do with your situation because if the motor is not charging the system there is not much you can do but limp home. I run an battery isolator switch (like you) where I can have 1 or 2 batteries working independently or link them. When doing overnight trips, when we pull up I set the anchor alarm, disconnect the 3D power box and set the sounder/gps to stand by mode. This way I expect I have only the bare essentials running like the auto bilge pump on a float switch and the gps incase we break anchor. I will sometime even disconnect the fridge overnight if it only has drinks in it. Luke and I were discussing it last time and the fridge uses a lot of power so I'll take a battery pack and use that overnight to conserve power. I'm just glad the linking of the batteries got you home safely.

The reason we ran out of power and flattened both batteries is because the charging circuit from the motor failed. Linking both batteries together through the isolator switch is the only thing that got us back to the ramp as both batteries would not run the motor on their own.

300 litres under floor. Can carry 100 litres down one side of the walk around in 10x 10 litre jerry's. Could carry 200 litres extra if I needed. The good thing is they are easy to transport and don't take cabin or fishing deck room. Gives me a range of 500km.

Funny, true story - About a month ago I dreamt I got picked for Tigers first grade. When I woke up I had to have another sleep.

great report & enjoyed the photos

Thats the best when they hit like that, yellas pull like teenager on prom night !

I should really get my boat out there and get into it! Can someone call in sick for me ?