jon

Alternate titles considered for this topic:
'Paravane trolling - no longer boring ......'
'One rod, 4 people, 2 and a half hours of mayhem' ........... 🤪
Took my boys and my dad out this arvo (left ramp about 1:30pm) with the hopes of coming across some tuna working the surface and hopefully some mackerel in with them. Went past Spero Kartanos who does great reports on the Fishing Monthly website and our local paper out here in Wynnum and he called us over for a chat - was glad we did as he's always helpful with advice and my boys hadn't met him yet. He let us know the mackerel were on the chew over near the Hope Banks, which was evident as there were quite a few boats in the area.
So, over we went, paravane deployed (one to begin with, before my dad asked why we aren't putting a second out ....). I stuck with one for a few minutes before deciding with four of us on the boat we should be able to manage it. Problem was, I was letting my boys do lots of the boat driving and they sometimes turn a bit too sharply (often as they're distracted looking at the tuna schools pop up ........) and, you guessed it, we got an almighty tangle. It was about 2:30pm when we sorted it and went back to one line in the water. As we went past a tuna school I threw my soft plastic set up in but it wasn't heavy enough (1/6th jighead - I need to stock up on some bigger/heavier ones). Then tried throwing it behind the boat and free spooling until we were past a school, then winding through them, to no avail. So plastics rod was put back in the holder and our/my focus turned to hopefully getting some action on the paravane/spoon set up. Then, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, a solid fish goes on a couple of good runs and before too long (5 minutes or so) a reasonable mack tuna is netted, with my boys going off as it's the first tuna they've seen landed (I would have preferred a longtail but beggars can't be choosers ......). 
Not too long after several schools were popping up in close proximity to each other and the next 2 and a half hours was a blur of fish on, fish landed, lure/paravane back in, bleed fish, wipe hands and prepare for the next strike. Sometimes there wasn't time for this, I think three times the next fish struck before I could put the rod back in the corner rod holder. Good times!!
My boys had some more quality practice driving the boat, changing the speed, etc and did a great job overall. About halfway through the mayhem my boys wanted to have a go at winding them in and despite me being dubious about their ability to do so (biggish rod/reel, paravane creates decent drag and we keep driving forwards to help keep the fish hooked) they managed to do so (George needed some help from me to hold the rod up and towards the end of the fight I helped handling the line towards him). Glad they could though, made it even more special for them. 
We left them biting about 5pm as the esky was getting full and wanted to get back to the ramp before dark but could have easily stayed for longer and caught more - our last fish was another nice spotty that George wound in so a nice way to finish. 
Back at the ramp we chatted to two young boys on the pontoon that were waiting for their dad to reverse the trailer and they ended up on my boat checking the fish out. My boys decided they wanted to give them a school mackerel so we did 🙂.
By far the best session I've had with the boys in fact one of if not the best session I've ever had (including on charter boats) and very glad my dad was along for the ride. Irony is that my three brothers and I often recall our most memorable session as kids which was in dad's boat near Mackay where we nailed the spotties. History repeats 🙂.
Finally tally 16 schoolies (including the one we gave away), 7 spotties and the mac tuna. We had no undersized mackerel (one we caught was right on legal - 50cm - so we threw it back), didn't drop any when swinging them into the boat - only netted the tuna - and only dropped 3 or 4 fish in total, due to the boys inexperience maintaining either speed or correct direction when driving the boat once we were hooked up or because George struggled to keep momentum with the reel. Overall, gotta be happy with that ..... 🙂.
I was going to go again tomorrow but think I'll be busy enough filleting and we have plenty of fish that will last a while. My parents are taking some up to two of my brothers tomorrow plus my cousin and an uncle, both sets of grandparents will get some plus my sister in law and my neighbours so they won't go to waste 🙂.
I can't guarantee they'll be on tomorrow but you'd think they would be, there's plenty of bait (small whitebait I think) out there so if you are free, I know what I'd be doing 🙂. Thanks for reading.

Hit up the new Caloundra mark from the other week with @benno573 again today. Target was the delicious Grass Emperor.
Predawn start saw us deploying baits at first light. Cuttlefish for starters. A couple of missed hits before Benno was onto a good one, going 53.5cm at sunrise.

Pretty fish

 
A couple more fish at this spot before it went quiet, so we had a sound around for some fresh ground. Pretty quiet as the tide was slack, although we picked up a 60 odd schoolie on the pillie under a float.
A couple of spot changes and a few more fish over the side after the current picked up. A new PB for me, going 47cm.

The tuna were busting up around us for the whole morning, teasing Benno as they wouldn't take his slug. We saw the bait they were chasing and swapped down to a 10g slug. Still no cigar.
The floating pillie went off again, but after a bit of a weird fight turned into a suspected shark. Earlier Benno had captured a wobbygong, a turtle and a catshark as well. A few unders squire and grassies and a tiny cod, along with a couple of lancers nearly completed the morning.
Benno had an unweighted pillie floating out there and a good fish hit it - another good grassie around the high forties. At  this point we called it, before the wind was due to get up. Just after we started motoring back to the ramp, Benno spotted a tuna school not busting up. He quickly grabbed the rod and threw out the 10g slug. We watched as about 5 little mack tuna competed for it. Finally a hookup and a 30cm specimen made it into the boat for bait at a later date.
Back on land at 11.30am, we agreed it was an excellent way to spend a Sunday morning.  We split the catch and headed home.
A decent looking esky, with 7 grassies of quality size around, or bigger, than 40cm, a good schoolie and the mack tuna.

 
Thanks for the session Benno. (And thanks for winding in a couple of fish for me.)

Hi again all,
With kids footy season and life in general about to disrupt my fishing ambitions, I threw my gear in the car, abandoned the family and work and arrived at Inskip to walk on to the 1st barge of the day for Friday. Arriving at the magical Fraser island to passing showers and bit of wind here and there I dragged my gear on foot a few clicks up the south western side to campgrounds, set up camp, then got into the fishing. Set out live herring and threw some halco slugs around I was soon onto the fish! Plenty of action over 2 days, numerous small pelagics and surprisingly a tally of 5 estuary cod near 50cm mark was amongst the highlights of the trip. Only really fishing the tide changes I had a few hours downtime so did some hikes inland in between for fun. Over 3 days my Garmin told me I clocked nearly 55km with only dingoes, dolphins and turtles to keep me company. No tuna (again) but gives me a reason to go back! 

Legendary!!

Got a call from a long time mate who i haven't seen for awhile, who only fishes with fly rod gear and catches all sorts on fly in the bay including snapper, jacks, jew, threadies and even a metre long barra!. Anyway the plan was to chase jewies on fly the other night in the southern bay. After being introduced to using fly gear with Uncle Tony catching Rainbow Trout awhile ago, i was keen to both catch up with him and also to maybe improve my fly casting abilities. To be honest i would have just been happy to be a passenger in his boat to watch and witness his skills. 
But being the mate he is, when we got to spot x, he proceeded to position his boat nicely with the minny and then handed me one of his fly rods and gave me instructions on when and where to cast the fly. He's the sort of fella who gets just as much of a thrill and satisfaction letting the deckie catch while he enjoys watching their excitement. 
It wasn't long before we could hear and see the jew busting the bait near and on the surface under the moonlight. 
It really is exciting to sight cast a fly to where the action is, slowly retrieve it and then watch a jew inhale the fly on the surface!  The visual anticipation is addictive for sure.
Once hooked i was advised to give them nothing, no line at all if possible, otherwise they would swim straight back into the structure and it would be game over. Well that would be easier said than done on a 25kg model - that i'd like to see lol. Definately different for me from being used to bait fishing and letting the drag scream.
Not monsters but all up we caught three jew and two big tailor, all released and i had a ball !. 
 
 

Went out for a quick fish this morning in the hope of snaring some fresh Croc Steaks for a family BBQ . Could only find a few measly  mackerel steaks . Bummer ! 
Might have to review my technique and choice of bait I think.
Regards and Lol 
Neil

First legal Jew is definitely a milestone Brian congratulations. The port of brissy is where I finally cracked my first jewy also. It’s a great spot for those that put in the work!!

I did hook one on a plastic at Harry's with @Another Wazza one day, but it reefed me on the structure. So good to get one in.

First legal Jew is definitely a milestone Brian congratulations. The port of brissy is where I finally cracked my first jewy also. It’s a great spot for those that put in the work!!

First legal Jew is definitely a milestone Brian congratulations. The port of brissy is where I finally cracked my first jewy also. It’s a great spot for those that put in the work!!

First legal Jew is definitely a milestone Brian congratulations. The port of brissy is where I finally cracked my first jewy also. It’s a great spot for those that put in the work!!

First legal Jew is definitely a milestone Brian congratulations. The port of brissy is where I finally cracked my first jewy also. It’s a great spot for those that put in the work!!

First legal Jew is definitely a milestone Brian congratulations. The port of brissy is where I finally cracked my first jewy also. It’s a great spot for those that put in the work!!

First legal Jew is definitely a milestone Brian congratulations. The port of brissy is where I finally cracked my first jewy also. It’s a great spot for those that put in the work!!

A plan was hatched with @Old Scaley, @AUS-BNE-FISHO and myself to head to the Port today to chase threadies and jew. I've been watching plenty of Youtube videos of people throwing plastics and vibes at the wharves with some good success. So I rigged up 3 rods, with a soft plastic on one, a Flick Prawn on another and a FishTrap soft vibe on the third.
We met at the busy Port ramp at 6.15 and launched. Steve and Hamish threw the castnet for some livies and then deployed their crab pots. Meanwhile I had sounded down the wharves to about 2/3 of the way to the end. Couldn't find any fish but stopped at a place where there was a show of bait and some were skipping out of the water. A likely spot I thought and plenty of boats for company...maybe they knew something.
I threw all 3 rods (at different times 😜 ) for 3 hours and 10 minutes. Not a bump. Nothing. With fitness levels low I decided to drift and dead-stick the plastic and prawn. Occasionally bait jumped, so I threw the vibe into the school and held on.
Nothing.
Steve and Hamish returned from the rock wall and did a drift as well, without any luck. Eventually I had had enough so went up to Clara Rock to drift downstream with some cuttlefish head out on one rod and again dead-sticking the prawn on the other. I landed a 40cm spikey jew (aka cattie) to get me off the donut...just. Towards the end of the first drift I was sitting back having a bite to eat when I had two good hits on the cuttlefish rod, with no hookup. I ran the drift again and had a small enquiry but nothing to show for it.
The third drift was just about over when the cuttlefish rod had some interest. I stood ready beside it in the rod holder. Then it loaded up. I was on and it felt like a decent fish giving a fair bit of grief early, then allowing me to get some line back then a bit more aggression. Finally, I saw colour as it was trying to tie me up on the motor. A flash of silver. Yes !! A jew. I held the rod one handed while the fish flapped about and I setup the landing net with the other (Steve, you would have been impressed haha).
This was my first legal jew. Years ago I used to head out most Friday nights with old mate Jayson, the late @chubbstar, chasing them and threadies with no luck. So this was a long time coming.
I slipped the net under it and hoicked it into the boat. Not a huge one, going 80cm on the measure. I accidentally slit its throat and released it to the esky. Many people have told me they are good eating so this one is destined for the plate. I'm praying there are no worms, @Allnighter. 😬🤢



 
I did two more drifts but had no action. Steve and Hamish had been drifting as well. They went to get their pots and some crabs, I believe. I called it a day, well pleased.
I didn't see any other boats get any action along the wharves nor at the Cruise Terminal.

Yes Jon , I m based in Brisbane.

Nice work benno

Nice work benno

Nice work mate was that around brissy?

Got over my Dose of Covid prior to Xmas , then got some flu thing just after Xmas Finally felt well enough on the weekend to do a decent fishing trip .  Left home at 4am this morning ,fished the bottom first up on the rising tide  and got 6 nice Grassy Sweetlip and an assortment of other  colourful ooglies , then on top of the tide put out a couple of troll baits   and got 3 nice Spanish then headed in . Unfortunately  when I photographed the biggest Spanish for the summer comp I didn’t notice the Green ID tag slipped under the fish , so could only enter the two small fish . Major Bummer! As it was probably a 25kg fish. Bit of wind early but it glassed out to a beautiful day. 

With the original plan of escaping Christmas day formalities and going fishing earning a big fat "Access Denied", the scramble was on  was on to include fishing amidst other commitments.
 Myself and @Kat launched from horizon shores and headed to Macleay island for Christmas on  Friday morning around the high tide. We needed high tide access to drop off all the unimportant things at her mother's place, (clothes Christmas ham, presents and other groceries), that were inhibiting the potential of Kat's boat.
 A few short greetings later we were free and Kat popped on her "Verminator" hat. 
 The account for the day opened with Kat hooking a solid fish within minutes of anchoring at our first spot. My spirits sank and bad "ju ju" tried to engulf my being at precisely the moment a fork tailed catfish around 55cm appeared by the boat. 
 Many hours and stingrays by kat later and after many non committal taps, I managed to land a decent whiting (36cm). Something, finally. 
 I was hoping that more than one whiting would be open to a dinner invite, but a number of under sized bream and a Kat sharking was all that followed.
 A quick pit stop to maintain hydration and the stroll back down the hill to the Macleay ferry terminal had me feeling much lighter than when I went up despite carrying supplies down. Kat landed a (36cm) bream in the ten minutes I was gone.
 It was almost high tide again and time to get back to where we would be leaving the boat on the beach at a friend's place.  We decided to try one last time for some whiting very close to where the boat would be tied up.  Two stingrays later and it was time for bed. One whiting and one bream would not  provide a feed for everyone, so I vowed to try again in the morning.
 I woke before 5am the following morning and wandered down to check on the boat. It was still high and dry so I grabbed the yabby pump out and set off to collect some more bait before the tide covered the flats again.  
 After getting bait and a delicate operation to extract kat from the family we set off again at about 8:30am hoping again to find some whiting. After a few under sized bream at our first spot for the morning I managed a 32cm whiting and hopes were high. Then it was back to bream, stingrays and sharks so we moved. 
 After a few promising runs that somehow didn't hook up Kat landed a small grunter which wasn't quite eligible for dinner. Then the sharks started again. Time to go back to the beach and tie the boat off again. We tried briefly for whiting there before anchoring and securing the boat. Two more stingrays and a shovel nose.... 
The final keep tally was five bream, two whiting and a shovel nose. Personally I think that the only worthy keepers were the whiting. The shovel nose cooked up ok. I ate the whiting. I have been known to label packaged bream fillets for Kat's sister as "Plebian scourge of the sea"
Plenty of good laughs though and as always much better than being at work.
Merry Christmas to all👍

Hi all. 
 
Here's a quick report for Wednesday the 21st's trip out to the flats (Redcliffe region). 
A few nights beforehand, @AUS-BNE-FISHO,  another mate Jarvis, and myself planned to chuck around some lures during the outgoing tide on the flats around Hays Inlet. 
Our target species was flatties, however anything else was welcome if the fishing was quiet, primarily due to the fact that our lures of choice were good all rounders. 
At around 10:30 we set off on the train to Kippa Ring, and caught a bus out to the hornibrook pier end of the Hornibrook/Ted smout memorial bridge.
Note it was around 12:15 when we arrived at our spot. 
We fished the pier for a short time; Hamish knew someone who's good at cleaning up the flatties there however we had no luck. However, this time was somewhat beneficial as it gave us some time to kill while we waited for the outgoing tide to make the flats walk-able.

It was a nice day. 
We began to fish in the cleaner water up near the bridge, walking out and wading so we could cast into the deeper channels.  
To start, Hamish used a 3.5 or 4 inch baitjunkie grub in the 'voltage' colour which is a similar colour to like nuclear chicken, if you're not familiar. 
I used a 3.2 inch baitjunkie minnow in watermelon pearl colour, which was a nice natural pale and sandy green with little red flecks. 
Jarvis was using some sort of powerbait plastic which I believe was a nemesis minnow. 
While walking we came across some nice flatty lies, ranging from 40-50cm, so this was promising.
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Within around 25 minutes of fishing I was onto the first fish; a micro flatty which I didn't bother measuring, but I'd say was about 25cm or so haha. 
We continued to fish as a group and moved a little further up the system every few casts.
Soon after my first fish I was onto another flathead at around 30cm this time. 
 
Hamish and Jarvis were still yet to get off the donut. 
We continued fishing for a little while and by this point we had reached the less clean water, closer to a distinguishable pipeline which came from out the mangroves. 
Jarvis called out to Hamish and I and told us he was onto a fish. It seemed to be putting up a decent fight from what we could see from afar, so we suspected it was a good flatty. 
Keep in mind Jarvis is only just getting into light tackle lure fishing so he was quite excited. 
To our surprise, he pulled in a 40cm or so catty 🤣, of all species, especially those that would actually eat a plastic most of the time. 
Although he'd caught many of these fishing the brissy river, he was still a happy man, as he had caught his first fish on a lure!
Hamish and I were happy for him.
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By now the tide was pushing back in again so we figured we had better start walking back to get our bags of the mangroves before they got washed away 😅 and before we had to wade all the way back. 
For some last chance hookups though, we all punched out some hopeful casts on the way back. 
On my last cast before I called it quits, I actually thought, "as if this will catch anything", as i had casted perhaps 8 metres out into 40cm deep water from the bank. Haha. 
To my surprise, my polarised sunnies presented me with a nice view of a flatty jump up from his lie, swim over in a split second, and munch my lure as SOON as it splashed into the water. 
I was able to bring this one onto the sand, so I claimed a picture. Even though small, I had still gotten 3 fish here at my second time trying out the spot, so i was satisfied. 

Small
On the home stretch jarvis came across some line tangled within a little drain into the mangroves where there was some crab pots. 
On the end, there was a nice atomic hardbody of some sort connected to a rotten carcass of another catty. Seems like they were more common around here than initially expected. 
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This was pretty much where we ended our session but we did have some fun on the train ride back gambling our tackle with each other flipping a coin. 😆
We all ended up 'winning' some new lures and hamish got that Atomic which I'm sure he will enjoy throwing for some jacks off the kayak during an upcoming trip we're going on.
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Cheers, Charlie.
Hope you have had a nice christmas day today. 
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Tides: 12:20 PM, 1M (arrival). 2:17PM, 0.6m, LOW. 
Moon: About 95% moon, increasing.
Tackle:
Charlie: 1-3kg Abu salty stage, 2500 diawa exceler. 10lb braid, 14lb fluoro. 
3.2'  baitjunkie minnow, Prolure Clone Prawn 92mm. (all fish caught on baitjunkie minnow). 
 
Hamish: Abu veritas, 2500 diawa tierra, 10lb braid, 10lb fluoro. 
4 inch baitjunkie grub; voltage. 3.2 inch baitjunkie minnow; gudgeon or motoroil colour. 
(correct me if I'm wrong)
Jarvis: Unknown shimano 6'6 rod w/ abu blackmax reel or something, 8lb mono straight-through. 
Powerbait nemesis minnow, savage gear 3d minnow. 
 
A fairly successful day for some. 
🙂 
 
 
 
 
 

Pretty sure there’s a size limit on your font.
 
All jokes aside like Hamish said stick to a cast net.  Traps similar to your one are only used for bait collection in fresh water.