rayke1938

SEQ water has a regular 1080 programme around quite a few of their dams and a lot of councils will give the baits free. Quite a rigorous process to use 1080 to prevent bycatch.

Well over a ton if you count the forkies.

Started off a very quiet day . After doing our pots we headed downstream and saw some good displays on the sounder in koala straight but could not entice them to take a shrimp. We sounded over different areas that we normally look at and still a donut until we arrived at the floats where we avoided a donut by catching 5 bass under 20cm and Stew landing 4 gar from under a float using chopped up shrimp as bait. We went exploring again and finally found fish on the sounder in between the islands but they turned out to be the dreaded forkies so we kept on moving to discover more forkies. When we got close to the large sailing club buoy Stew actually caught a bass which amazed everyone. We moved another 20 feet and we finally found a school where we had a couple quadruple hook ups to end up with a tally of 72 bass, 1 yella. 4 tandans ,4 gar and numerous forkies. The eagle had a good feed .

Cheers Ray

Mark and I went to the western arm this morning to feed the eagle with some barred grunter. Mission accomplished with bycatch of 48 bass and one yella. Finally starting to find some better sized bass. Best bass 46cm. Mark took a couple of plate sized bass home for a feed. 

Went on a degustation cruise catered by Mark and Tai on the Hinze this morning. Additional activities also included catching 43 bass and feeding the numerous barred grunter  whilst being stalked by the resident eagle.

You can stick your mutton ,For 3 years in Miles lived in a boarding house Friday night landlord picked up whole sheep from butcher and we ate mutton for next week, Tough and rank. Luckily they were micks and we had sardines with white sauce on fridays. Used to get paid fortnightly and splurge on a mixed grill ( Without the lamb cutlets) for 5 bob at the local greek cafe. I finally got chucked out when I came home one night full of good cheer and plonked a dead goanna on the table and said hers is some proper tucker. I STILL DO NOT EAT SHEEP.

Was not a bad day as forecast a lot worse.. The wind was reasonable and only one heavy shower that only lasted 15 minutes. As normal the barred grunter were prolific and the bass not so. We ended up with 2 tandans,2 yellas, and 24 bass. I thought that one of the yellas was going to pull Joy out of the boat. Joy outfished us all with two yellas and the biggest bass. Cannot complain as she pulled the shrimp traps whilst Rick and I sat back drinking coffee and giving advice.

Only 2 of us this morning. We were expecting a big queue at the gate at 5.30 and were surprised to be the only contenders. We found a couple of schools on the sounder in Koala straight but they turned out to be small silver trout so we headed to the island side of the floats where we hit paydirt boating 46 bass and numerous gar. Hai had a ball flicking small pieces of prawn and bread to the gar. With the glass out conditions they were easy to spot swimming in small schools just under the surface with the bigger ones going around 10 to 12 inches long. He ended up taking a good feed home.

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I was thoroughly spoilt today. Got driven by Neil in luxury to the Hinze western arm. Sat back in Neils boat and watched him do the shrimp traps.  My sole effort for the day was to wind in the bass so Neil could remove them from the hook and tag and release them. He did draw the line for dehooking the barred grunter which I had to do myself. Total around 30 bass to 42cm and one tandan. Barred grunter not counted. Chilled home grown pineapple was the lunch snack.

Whilst fishing today ( 12/2/23)I had a visit from the friendly rangers today who gave me an update on the person who overnighted in the caravan. They visited him to move him on but were unable to move him on ( DRUNK)so they arranged for the boys in blue ( Black nowdays) to visit him. Wonder how you get on when you are far from home and do your licence.

Went by myself to the western arm to feed the barred grunter. Trip was successful with 38 bass and one tandan as bycatch. 

Went to Baroon Pocket this morning with Rick, Joy and Andrew. 2 mongrells,1 tandan,15 bass and numerous 3 inch spangled perch. Good to catch up with Andrew. Really makes you feel old when your son retires.

Cheers Ray

Hard going this morning. One yella ,2 tilapia and 5 bass on the floats and 10 bass and one tandan between the islands. Did not measure any of the bass but biggest many have gone 33cm stretched. No toga recorded on the catch records but saw someone claimed a few silvers  and 8 bass.

Plenty of tandans at the western arm today with me being the tandan king with a total of 5 and another 4 for the others. Disproved the theory that you only catch them on the bottom they were mixed in with the bass at a depth of 10 to 15 feet fishing in 35 feet of water. We also managed 62 bass and one yella and lost a lot of shrimp to the barred grunter. The bass were very finicky and at times you did not know if it was a bass picking at the shrimp or a barred grunter.

Went to the western arm caravan park this morning. ( Bloody victorians and a Jeep driver to boot so probably could not expect anything else) Winge over plenty of small bass upstream no size to them. 62 bass between 25cm and 42 cm and one tandanus all on live shrimp. Barred grunter forced us to move at most locations we would get 6 or so bass and then the grunter moved in and although we could see bass on the sounder the grunter would attack the shrimp before the bass could get it.

Shrimp were a bit scarce in our pots but we managed 37 bass and 2 yellas before we ran out of bait. The barred grunter were thick in most spots and we were averaging 12 shrimp to the grunter per bass. The bass were scarce in most spots until we found a school where we caught 27 bass before running out of bait. Seeing that it was still early we decided to go shrimp trap hunting where we had deployed some pots 2 years ago only for the dam to raise and submerge where we had them tied on to trees. We were able to recover 12 pots in various state of repair to take home for Rick to see what he can do with them.