Last time Kat and I went fishing she caught this -
Yesterday we went to Caloundra. We were on the water at 6.45 and made our way up a bit slower then normal as there was a bit of swell to contend with.
We anchored at the first spot where the pickers were thick. I landed a lancer and then a couple more along with a legal grassie before Kat pulled the anchor up and we changed spots. The swell was running a good 2+ metres (forecast to be 1.4) and I eventually succumbed and became seasick.
Kat was fine and went on to land 3 more nice grassies, biggest going 43cm. A new PB ! Quite the turnaround from our last session. Not long after her albright failed, so she was lucky to get it in in the end. Phew !
I continued to get weaker and lose the will to live, so we eventually left for the journey back about 12.30. We were fortunate that the rain predicted did not eventuate and we had clear skies all day.
A summary photo of the day once we were back home -
Thanks for the day, Kat and also for sharing a fish with me. Apologies for being poor company, but we'll do it again in better conditions.
Sorry bout that Kat, my bad lol
All are welcome... we'll give my spots a rest... but can't wait to try all of yours, Brian's and Steve's spot x's... 😉 who knows, maybe they are there too and its just Brian scaring them off 😜
With work getting a bit quieter now i have been keeping an eye on the weather and today looked the goods to go out to Green Island for a sniff to see if the bay snapper had come again there yet this season to play. 🙂
Well the bad news was the east/ n easterly was a bit stronger than i thought and the eastern side of green was fairly lumpy 🤨
It wasnt dangerous at all but very uncomfortable.
The good news is the snapper have arrived there and i managed to catch my limit of 4 within a couple of hours, the first 3 were quite small, 2 at about 45cm and 1 at 55cm.
Then big papa came along at 71cm. I reckon there were bigger specimens to be caught but i left them for next time and called it early.... was sick of keeping my balance the whole time... gettin old 🙄
Took a leisurely cruise down the highway this morning with @Old Scaley and ended up at Jacob's Well boat ramp. Luckily I had brought the boat with us. We headed up to Crusoe Island and spent an hour trolling each side of the channel for flatties, but no joy.
We then headed to a spot to target some whiting. They weren't thick or large but we ended up putting a feed together, taking home six each. Biggest was 32, smallest 25. All caught on blood worms as the tides weren't right to pump yabbies. (Thank God haha)
Took this photo part way through the morning to send to @benno573 to help him through his workday.
Also managed quite a few bream and a noisy grunter a couple of centimeters short of a picnic.
3 worms released at the end of the day as part of boosting the brood stock in the area.
Your posts are slightly confusing, in your original post you say you will be targeting smaller bigeye, parrot, squire, etc. If this is the case you would probably be best off with a lighter rod, like what Neil Stratford has said above.
If you plan to target larger fish like 50-60cm trevally, tuskfish, jew, mackerel, etc, your 4000 reel will probably be fine. I don't think you will come across a huge amount of tuskfish in the Seaway, nor large mackerel or kingfish, but jew, trevally, and large bream are all quite common (as well as the occasional mangrove jack, queenfish, etc).
Cheers Hamish
Been a bit busy with Easter since we returned from our trip so just getting around to the report of our last session, which was Wednesday arvo. We had hoped to fish Wed morning but fatigue set in plus we had to help the sister in law pack up their campsite beside us (bro in law had to return to Brisbane for work for a couple of days) so we opted for a sleep in, which my body appreciated ..... 🙂. Gave the body one more solid work out on the Wed arvo back at the further gutter, with us taking 5 rods (two alveys and three spinning reels) and me doing ALL of the casting in quite windy conditions, which meant big well which at times came in from 45 degrees and was a challenge. My 10 year old nice managed to catch two fish (a dart and bream), George and Liam got one each as did my wife and I.
I caught my 37cm bream on a tiny hook as one of the other fish had swallowed the hook and rather than get out the red tubing and hook to re-rig I opted to cut the trace and tie on one of my pre-made bay whiting rigs, with a tiny baitholder hook. Thankfully, the tiny hook did the job 🙂.
Liam and I stayed behind (while the others headed back to camp just before dark to shower and prepare dinner) to clean the fish and as we started walking back we noticed a large motor home up behind the dunes and realised there was a sand track and carpark up there. Hmmmm ..... wish we'd know that prior to now ......
Thankfully the skies cleared the next morning after some heavy rain during the night so we were very relieved to be packing up a dry camper trailer as it meant we didn’t have to dry it out back at home. We stopped in for a pie at Carbarita on our way home - great spot that we haven’t explored yet - next time!
Got up at 5am with my ten year old son Liam and had our first baits in the water at 5:30am. Walked further from the headland at Hastings Point than yesterday morning in the hope of coming across some big whiting again, but didn’t find any.
Liam proceeded to keep me very busy casting his line out (I was wrong yesterday, his rod is only 6ft 6inches (not 7ft) but with a 5 ball sinker (compared to a 4 ball we’d used the previous two sessions I was getting good distal for him and the extra weight was keeping the bait out in the gutter much better which also negated the sweep a fair bit.
Most times by the time I went back to grab my rod I would turn around to see he was hooked up. His first fish was a nice bream and he proceeded to catch two more, along with four dart for a total of 7 keepers. Me on the other hand caught a bream (the smallest of the four) and three dart (one small one was thrown back, our only small fish of the morning.
At about 7:30am I started pondering Liam had dropped a fish or lost a bait and he couldn’t recall it happening which means for two hours each bait produced a fish. Sure enough, I cursed him with him being baited on his next bait.
I dropped a couple including one nice suspected bream that pulled the hooks due to the pressure on the line as the tide sucked back out.
Another magic morning with my young fella and then nice fish for the table. The bucket was a bit heavier on the walk back, particularly the sand track up through the dunes. Hopefully heading back out this arvo with my 7yr old son George as well, plus my two nieces. George and the older niece are both keen to come tomorrow morning but I think the 5am start will put them off ….
All fish again caught on pippies, which were in plague proportions once the tide had started going out.
Hi all
Last Tuesday I packed up some fishing gear and clothes to go to my Grandmas at Yeppoon. We left on Tuesday and after a gruelling 9.5 hour drive (stopped at Childers, Gin Gin, and Mount Larcom) we were there. As we flew along the Bruce Highway I eagerly awaited the sight of the Calliope, Mary, Boyne Rivers, etc, as I always find it interesting to look at them. I would love to give them a crack fishing one day as they all look like they would have something in them. On arrival, I played a couple games of pool and rigged up a light rod in preparation to go for a session in the morning.
Session #1
It was low tide, so my plan was to fish for flathead and cast net at a nearby creek. The tides were very small though, so, unlike previous holidays where there has only been a small channel of water (often holds big mullet), there was still a lot of water on dead low tide. I started off by flicking my prawn lure (1/4 jighead for casting distance) around for about 25 minutes, but after no hits I figured I'd try my luck for some bait while it wasn't too sunny. 20 minutes later I had caught one or two undersize flatties, some Crescent Perch, and Glassies. I went back to flicking my lure, and after ten more minutes of no luck I switched my lure to a Baitjunkie Grub with a 1/8 jighead (maybe the lighter weight would help, I hoped). 30 minutes later I had still managed nothing, so I decided to try cast netting a bit longer. I threw the net for ten minutes for a couple more undersize flatties (all swum off well luckily) and I gave the plastic a few final flicks. The tide was rising fast now so I finished netting when I got 15 glassies in one throw 🤮 and scampered up the rock wall.
"Ahhh, yet another crappy session at Ross Creek," I thought to myself as I walked away with mud all over me.
Quick Stats:
Tide: Low Tide, I fished about 45 minutes either side of the tide change
Moon Phase: 34%, increasing
Fish Caught: -
Lures Used: Holt Production 4inch Swimprawn in White spot and Diawa Baitjunkie 4 inch Grub
Tackle Used: Abu Garcia Veritas 3-5KG, 10 pound braid mainline, Diawa Shinobi 2500, 6 pound leader. 1/4 and 1/8 jigheads.
Session #2
I spent a little while rigging up another rod with a tiny ball sinker and a baitholder hook in preparation for a session that arvo. I arrived at the chosen location and beforehand picked up a bag of prawns from the nearby servo. Normally I would make a better effort to catch bait but the bait at this servo is all good, large prawns (I think they must get them off the trawlers then freeze them themselves).
Anyways, there were a couple of folk fishing on the wharf I intended to, so for the first few minutes I casted into the shallows/near the rock wall. Luckily for me it seemed they were packing up at the perfect time so I scampered into position. After getting debaited and pickered a couple of times with a baitholder hook, I made the switch to a size #4 long shank hook. It didn't take long before I pulled up two undersize bream (23CM), one of which fought decently as it was foul hooked.
The wind was terrible so I set up so none of my stuff would blow away. I was struggling to feel small bites because the wind was often blowing too much line out. My third fish I hooked was a bit better though, but inevitably, it wrapped me around one of the pylons. This happened 3 or 4 more times that day - though I believe they were all small bream and cod, and the reason they busted me off was because I was dropping 5cm from the pylon. It was a fair time before I caught the next fish but I did manage to end up getting two little butter bream. Eventually I pulled in a couple more tiny cod, but at about 5:30PM I called it quits. Interestingly, I saw someone throwing a cast net. I never thought there was much bait in the harbour but that changed when I saw him pull up enough herring for a session in one cast.
Butter Bream
Quick Stats:
Tide: 12:40PM, 2.9M, High, 6:20PM, 1.9M, Low
Moon Phase: Increasing, 34%
Bait Used: Prawn cubes
Fish Caught: Butter bream, Bream, Cod
Tackle Used: Shimano Stradic 3000, 15 pound braid and leader, Shimano Raider 4-7KG. Size 00 ball sinker and #4 longshank
Session #3
The next session was the following morning, at the same spot again. I arrived a little after six, and was the first fisherman at the harbour. A large charter boat (going to Swains Reef, I presume) was unloading/departing, but I can't say that I felt like I wanted to be on that boat. It was so windy I was practically getting blown away!
My Dad and I gave the net a few casts off the first wharf for a couple of lancers and one extremely unlucky grinner (kept for strip bait). We then decided to move locations to the wharf I would be fishing off. It only took a couple of throws before we had gotten a good amount of herring and bony bream (as well as a couple other undesirables). I got to fishing, and my Dad headed off. After a good while standing in the wind, I finally landed the first fish of the day. I think it was a little bream or cod (can't remember). This continued and I got pickered a lot, but to pass the time I continued cast netting. I ended up netting a small GT, so I flicked my soft plastic around for a little while in hope of enticing one. Nothing was interested, so I got back to bait fishing.
Trev
I was struggling to feel any bites and because of the wind my 00 ball sinker was being blown out of the water before it sunk and got into the strike zone of larger fish (enticing lots of crescent perch, my new archenemy). I was excited when I heard a short, sharp run on my overhead outfit. I picked it up but after a short fight I was disappointed to see an undersize cod, which engulfed a bait bigger than it's mouth. I got a few more runs, one which led to the head of a bait going missing, one which led to another small cod, and a third, much more interesting one. At first I thought I was simply snagged, but upon tugging my line I realised I was making some headway. 3 minutes later I had some cutting in my hands from the braid, a huge, rusty boat propeller, and another undersize cod wharfside! Lol.
The propeller cod
I fished for a fair bit more after that but eventually had to go home so packed up with some fresh bait and high hopes for my next session.
Quick Stats:
Tide: 1:30AM, 3.5M, High, 8:20AM, 2.4M, Low, 2:00PM, 2.6M, High
Moon Phase: 43%, increasing
Bait Used: Prawns and live herring/bony bream
Fish Caught: A few cod, bream, and other pickers.
Tackle Used: 15 and 20 pound braid mainlines, 15 and 30 pound mono/fluorocarbon leaders, size 00 and 2 ball/bean sinkers, barrel swivels/albright knots, size #4 longshank and 4/o circle hooks, Shimano Stradic 3000 on Shimano Raider 4-7KG, Abu Garcia Barra King 650 on Ugly Stik.
Session #4
I rerigged my rods after the morning session in preparation for more fishing. I was dropped off at the harbour and walked over to my chosen location with my three rods. There was one other kid fishing (maybe 11) and from the looks of it he wasn't having any luck. One throw of the cast net got me around 25 small herring, so I figured I wouldn't bother catching any more for a while. Unfortunately, only around ten lived, which was annoying.
I deployed my heavy rod with three livies bunched on the hook and put my lighter combo down with a light weight and whole herring. It didn't take long before I was on the board with a small cod - these seem to enjoy munching on herring much more than bream, which seem to like prawn. I continued to get pickered and alternated between grinner fillets (I had some success with small bream on these in the prior session), herring, and prawn cubes. To keep me occupied my overhead would scream off regularly, but they were only small cod gobbling my herring.
When I ran out of live herring I decided to throw the cast net again. One throw brought me about thirty small herring this time. Although it was very tempting I decided to stop throwing the net as I had no use for so many herring. I redeployed live baits and continued feeding fish on my light line. While I was waiting I flicked around my 3.2 inch plastic, and jigged it around pylons to no avail. I caught a couple more small cod but eventually I ran out of livebait, so I rigged up a small dead herring and lobbed it out into some water away from the structure.
At around quarter past five, my overhead was hit hard. Line was flying off, and I was quick to set the hooks. I did one wind and could feel that this fish was very big. I was struggling to gain line, and after some thumping headshakes I was questioning whether my already chaffed 30 pound leader would hold up. I had about 6/7KG of drag on this fish, but it was still taking some big runs. I was jumping around up the wharf fighting to keep this fish from busting me off, and eventually I could see my leader.
The fish made one final bid to win it's freedom by thrashing about beneath the jetty. Somehow it did not cut me off on the oyster encrusted pylons, and I could now see the sinker. One more crank allowed me to lay eyes on the large, silver, fingermark. Woohoo! I never expected I would see one of those!
The battle was not just over though, and I needed to enlist the help of the boy fishing to land it for me. We both scuttled down the rock wall to a concrete slab we could stand on, and while I held the rod the boy held the fish in the gills and brought it up to the wharf. I must admit, I certainly wouldn't have done that in fear of getting cuts in the gills.
Seeing as though it was my first good fish of the trip, and I have never tried Fingermark, I decided to keep it. I doubt it would've lived anyways as it was quite exhausted and held up by the gills for a long time period too. I bled him out, and a bit after 5:30PM I very happily departed the jetty with my catch. 😄 I gave some of my herring away to a newbie father/son fishing team as well, so they could try with some fresh bait (and so I could get rid of a little bit).
Happy days!
I filleted the fish up back at my Grandmas, and it was frozen in preparation for dinner a couple nights later.
Statistics of Trip:
Tide: 2:00PM, 2.6M, High, 8:00PM, 2.1M, Low (hardly any run)
Moon Phase: 43%, Increasing
Air Pressure: 1013
Humidity: 75%
Bait Caught: Live herring
Bait Used: Live herring, dead herring, prawn cubes, grinner fillets
Fish Caught:
Tackle Used: 10, 15, 20 pound braid mainlines. 6, 15, 30 pound fluorocarbon leaders. Size 2 and 00 ball sinkers, 1/8th jigheads (size #2 hook), size #4 longshank hooks, size 4/o Gamakatsu circle hook, large barrel swivels, Shimano Stradic 3000 + Shimano Raider 4-7KG, Ugly Stik on Abu Garcia Barra King, Abu Garcia Veritas 3-5KG on Diawa Shinobi 2500.
Overall Success Rate: 90% - fun session!
Session #5
After my successful trip the day prior I had eagerly prepared my gear to fish at the harbour yet again. I was very happy when my uncle offered to take me out on his boat for a couple of hours, as I have always done well off there. Unfortunately, a large rain cell had been reaching Yeppoon, so it was a wet, very windy day to go fishing.
We got to the boat and set up out of the wind. We were immediately getting small bites, but there was nothing large nibbling. My uncle somehow hooked a ponyfish which I decided to drop down as a livebait. I didn't hold high hopes as I have never caught anything good on a ponyfish but I figured I may have some luck.
My uncle was trying with prawn and grinner strips, and I was sticking to herring. My uncle caught the second fish, a small bream. 2-0! Eventually, after many picker attacks and hit and run incidents (crescent perch), something much better had a go at my bait. It took two speedy runs, but in the end I did not set the hook. I think the #4 longshanks are a bit small for whole herring anyways.
After that I caught three small bream, but my uncle caught two more fish, ultimately giving him the win, 4-3. We went hope wet from the rain, annoyed we did not get any keepers.
Quick Stats:
Tide: Low, 2.0M, 11:00AM, High, 4:15Pm, 2.7M
Moon Phase: 52%, increasing
Bait Used: Prawns, grinner strips, herring
Tackle Used: 15 and 30 pound braid mainlines, 15 and 20 pound leaders, size 00 ball sinkers and #4 longshank hooks. Shimano Aero Baitrunner + Rogue Firepoint Boat Rod and Shimano Stradic 3000 on Raider rod.
Fish Caught: Bream, Ponyfish
Session #6
For a brief period that arvo the sun had come out, so I decided to walk to Statue Bay and flick a plastic around for a flatty. I rigged up my Shimano Cranx overhead rod on my baitcaster, and tied on a 1/4 jighead for casting distance with a clear coloured Ecogear 4 inch Flickbait. Eventually I arrived, and I could not believe my eyes! It was completely packed, at every spot I could possibly fish. It's probably one of the crappier/worse fishing locations in Yeppoon, as there is only a small sandy section (the rest is rocks, just go at low tide to look).
Obviously, seeing as though I was there, I had a few casts. I was pleased with the distance I was getting (25m). After ten uneventful minutes of casting, I got badly snagged. I decided I would attempt to find my lure the next time I was free on low tide, so I left, disheartened.
A badly rigged plastic I found buried in the sand. I also saw some people cleaning a mudcrab they had obviously caught somewhere else there.
Quick Stats:
Tide: 4:20PM, 2.7M, High
Moon Phase: 52%, increasing
Tackle Used: Shimano Cranx on Diawa Baitcaster Reel, 15 pound mono leader, 1/4 jighead, 4 inch Ecogear Jerkbait
Fish Caught: -
Session #7
After that rather dismal session, I decided I would go back to the harbour the next morning. I rigged my rods up, and arrived at the harbour before any other fisherman by a mile. My Dad did a few throws of the cast net to begin with, and nailed some sizeable herring and a bony bream. We also caught our first ever 'Happy Moment', which we cautiously nudged back into the water. I deployed my baits and my Dad headed off. Before this, the wind had briefly abated enough for me to have good contact with my bait. In the prior moments, Dad had caught a Flat Salmon in the cast net, which was released. The same fish quite possibly produced those weird bites, and after some brief aerobatics (a noobs queenfish, haha) I had a badly gut hooked slab of bait on the wharf. I chopped him up and kept him for strip bait.
The weather was still pretty dismal, and on top of the extremely strong wind there was still a fair bit of rain. I started off the session by doing the normal 'drop the bait 5cm from the pylon and get pickered before it sinks', which lasted for a fair while. I was waiting for the big rod to go off though, and after landing a couple of tiddlers (one of which was a toadfish which ended up dying as a result of having the longshank hook so deep down it's guts 😕) I was feeling down. The flat salmon strips had also produced some small cod.
Upon checking the big rod in the mist of a shower I realized that a large fish or ray had been sitting on the bait. After about 5 seconds the biggun started shaking it's head a lot, which confirmed to me it wasn't a stingray. Annoyingly, it spat my live herring bait soon after! That was enough for me to confirm that I was likely hooked up to a big cod. I was running low on livies so I casted a sizeable ponyfish back into the general area and began fishing with my light line again.
Between rebaiting, bending over, and ensuring my bait was sinking, or not getting blown away, I had neglected to check the heavy line. After pulling in a couple pickers (cod if I remember right) I was pleased to hear my ratchet clicking madly. I waited until the long, slow run ended before I clicked my baitrunner into normal drag. I would've had about 7-8KG of drag on this fish, but I wasn't making any progress. It went towards the shore, so I maximised my chances by cranking line in really fast. Unluckily for me this fish clearly knew what to do, and began swimming towards pylons in front of the wharf. After a brief tug of war the fish began to strip line quite fast. It would've taken around 20 metres with my line wrapped around the pylon (somehow didn't snap straight away) before I got busted off. Arghhh!
I fished for a couple more hours but could not entice anything sizeable. I got picked up for lunch, wet and chilly, and rerigged in preparation for an arvo sesh. It is also worth noting the prior arvo I left my sunscreen tub on the wharf, and it was still there the next day. Yay!
Quick Stats:
Tide: 4:30AM, 3.5M, High, 11:40AM, 1.8M, Low
Moon Phase: 62%, increasing
Bait Used: Live herring, ponyfish, prawn cubes
Tackle Used: 15 and 20 pound braid mainlines, 15 and 30 pound fluoro/mono leaders, size #4 longshank and 4/o circle hooks, large barrel swivels, 00 and 2 ball/bean sinkers, Abu Garcia overhead on Ugly Stik and Shimano Stradic 3000 on Raider.
Fish Caught: Tiddlers, Two bustoffs/lost fish
Session #8
I arrived back at the harbour keen to go fishing. There was no one fishing on the the wharf I like going off to my delight, so I scampered over with my gear and set up. My dad couldn't help himself with the cast net, and gave it a few throws. It was very sunny, and this proved to be good for a couple of garfish and bony bream. I sent these out on two live bait rods, this time, and continued netting. I caught a sizeable mullet in the net as well, so when one of the garfish carked it, and got pickered as a dead bait, I sent him out. I also caught my first ever Sicklefish, which was tiny. (released)
These are supposedly tasty when big
It was terribly windy and there were a few fast moving storms hitting/just missing the harbour, so I had my poncho ready. I dropped my leader to ten pound after a while as nothing was happening, and I was immediately rewarded. It wasn't amazing but was nice to get a healthy bream out of the pylons (maybe 23-26cm).
I continued changing baits (not the mullet, but herring, bonies, etc) when they got pickered, and I tried casting in many different locations. It seemed the big fish were not chewing one bit, and I can't imagine that the wind helped that one bit. It began to get crowded in the harbour, but I stayed to try and get a fish. There were others cast netting in preparation for a night session, families showing kids how to fish, and some float fishing (maybe for garfish??? it didn't look like it though). I headed off a bit after 5:30PM, sad that on my last fishing sesh of the harbour I got none. I released the mullet and my dad gave the cast net a couple more throws for some herring - he couldn't help it 😉.
Quick Stats:
Tide: 11:35AM, 1.8M, Low, 5:45Pm, 3.0M, High
Moon Phase: 62%, increasing
Bait Used: Livies, prawn cubes
Fish Caught: -
Session #9
For my final session of my trip to Yeppoon, I decided to try a spot, known as Causeway Lake, which was recommended to me by a helpful/nice fella. I woke Dad up in the morning, and we drove to the harbour to catch our live herrings. The first cast brought a school of scat, which were released/fed to seagulls, but the second cast brought a Chrissy Tree of sizeable herring. We filled up the bucket and drove to the Causeway Bridge. It gets very crowded here, so I was pleased that I could select the best spot on the bridge as I was first in.
The Causeway Lake has been built so it is cut off from the ocean on any tide that is lower than 3.7M. The good thing about this is that it means that, when the lake is cut off, it doesn't go down lower and lower, therefore meaning there is always some water. The bad thing is that fish from the ocean (barra, trevs, etc) cannot make their way into the lake. There are supposedly resident fish in the lake though, so I figured I would give it a crack.
After I deployed my livie rods, I dropped a lightly weighted prawn cube down into the water. It began getting nibbled by toadfish and baby bream, so I left it down in the water for ten or so seconds, but it didn't seem like anything big was coming. Just as I lifted my bait out of the water, a GIANT cod surfaced and gulped down some of the fish!!! Wow! It was easily 80CM, and it had a giant, thick head. I am glad I didn't hook it as I would've just left a hook in it's mouth, though I am sure it is a resident cod to the lake and it wouldn't of mattered too much anyways. While this happened, two blokes flicked lures at various access points around the bridge for ten minutes, though caught nothing and left. Weird. Maybe they were just sussing a spot out.
At around 6:30AM, another fella came by. He was flicking lightly weighted baits, and started his day off with a Moses Perch. Shortly before this, I caught my first ever fish in Causeway Lake, a tiny cod -
🙂
Shortly after that, the bite went a bit quiet, and some other people rocked up. They were nice enough, but seemed like they wanted to mind their own business/a little bit funny. After a couple tangles due to their lousy casting, and a bit of a cast netting display from the other fishers, I hooked up to my next fish. I was hopeful for a little Mangrove Jack when I saw a flicker of red, but I wasn't complaining when I pulled up another Fingermark (28cm?). Not even two minutes later my other rod went off with a little Estuary Cod. It definitely seemed the fish here came on the bite for short periods, or maybe it was just luck.
I decided to photograph some fish this session
After that, I kept fishing. I was beginning to run out of live herring, so I started trying to make a dent in my huge amount of deadbait I had accumulated from previous sessions. The fella on the rocks caught a small queenie about now, and my Dad finally headed off (after generously picking me up a big milkshake for brekky, seeing as though I hadn't had any as I had been fishing instead for the past few days 🙂).
The bite was quite slow, and 9:00AM came quickly. I think I had caught a couple of little breambos, and lost a lot of hooks by then. The snags were bad, so I was slowly figuring out where not to cast. Baits that had so far worked were live herring, dead herring, hardyheads (netted at the harbour), and prawns, but flat salmon was not proving to be any good. The little bream I was hooking were feisty enough to keep me entertained, and on a 4/o suicide hook they were greedy to be eating the bait. At one point the bites were immediate but I was only getting pickered, opposed to hooking anything.
Greedy
I continued fishing but now that there was a good amount of pickers hassling me I focused on dropping my baits straight down with a light sinker more. I had a slightly oversized baitholder hook on my Stradic for this fishing, but that did not stop me from landing another small bream or two and a colourful wrasse (which somehow survived despite being hooked it in neck).
Too many photos!
After those pickers, I ended up getting so wound up with all the snags I switched to a shallow diving lure (as it was quite shallow around the areas I was fishing). My overhead had been broken off (snag) so I stopped fishing with that as well, because I really couldn't be bothered to re rig for the fifth (or more) time. I decided to drop my heavier line straight down on top of a ledge too - I knew there would be some cod in there and my assumption proved to be correct. After the other two that had been on the bridge left (their only notably catch was a small grassy), I had I the bridge to myself. I casted my lure numerous times, and was overly cautious when I saw something large and brown come out from the depth as I thought it was a bird that had gone swimming for fish. "Why oh why didn't I pay attention and realise the diving bird was on the other side of the bridge!" I thought to myself - Because I think what came up and had a go at my lure was that big cod from before!
Two others rocked up on the bridge at around 11:30AM (a bloke and his girlfriend, maybe 19), so I figured I wouldn't hassle them too much. The lure had proven fruitless so I checked my bait rod. To my surprise, it had a small cod on it. I managed to use the remainder of the dead bait winching in small cod, which would hit hard but give up too easy (3 or 4).
Cod
At around 12PM I packed up my gear, and called my last fishing session in Yeppoon quits. Although I didn't catch anything worth telling my Grandma, I was still happy with the session.
Quick Stats:
Tide: 5:35AM, 3.7M, High (tide would've just made it over the into the lake), 12:20PM, 1.5M, Low. Tide was only running from about 5:30AM-6:15AM, from what I found.
Moon Phase: 71%, increasing
Bait Used: Live herring, dead herring, flat salmon, prawns, hardyheads.
Tackle Used: 15, 20, 30 pound braid mainlines. 15, and 20 pound leaders, Size 3/o baitholder and 4/o circle hooks/ Size 00 and 2 sinkers. Barrel swivels. Abu Garcia Veritas on Diawa Shinobi 2500, Shimano Stradic 3000 on Shimano Raider, Shimano Aero on Rogue Firepoint Boat Rod (this combo caught all the cod).
Fish Caught: About 10 undersize/little cod/fingermark/bream/wrasse
Other
Anyways, apart from those 9 fishing sessions (9 in 5 days, not too shabby), we did a few other things. The Bluff Rock walk (2.3KM's or thereabouts, a nice and easy walk) was fun, and there were a couple of great viewpoints/lookouts. I beat my Dad in pool for the first time ever (proud moment 🤣), and the Fingermark was deep fried and tasted delicious. I think I ate about 15 prawns and 6 big pieces of fish! The drive on the way home felt a lot quicker but it still ended up taking the same time, 9.5 hours (possibly because of a longer stop to get lunch). I had a great time - and I figure it was a great way to spend some of my school holidays.
Thanks heaps for reading this report, I hope you enjoyed.
Cheers Hamish
Ironpot/AKA Bluff Rock
Happy to be first at the spot
Fingermark Gob Shot
P.S. Sorry for the bad report title - I was struggling with inspiration lol.
Sorry was a bit slack with the reporting didn’t really take many photos , fishing was pretty good, went and got some livies and anchored up at boat rock. Hooked two good Spanish floating livies out the back, but landed none. One bit through my wire trace( was only using 40lb single strand) and the other pulled hooks. Plenty of nice reefies made up for it though. Just had to get past the kingfish. Got some great Moses perch nice and fat, kept a smaller kingfish for the smoker, decided to call it early and go check my pots. First two pots had none, third one had seven and last one had two. It was a petty about the Spanish but I Was pretty stoked to have nine sandies and some good reefies and be back at the ramp before midday. Not bad for a solo session.
Sunday morning incoming tide on the beach; castnet scored half a dozen big prawns and three legal whiting - all but one whiting were blacktip and hammerhead food in quick time.
Last whiting got snaffled and got a glimpse of what looked like a largish shovelnose; so was not being particularly conscientious fighting it. Finally got it close enough to see - turns out was an estimated 120-130 salmon (lost my tape measure so just a guess).
Was lip hooked and I don't need something that big, but just stayed belly up trying to swim it - which we seem to get most of the time for the bigger kings on the beach, so home it came. I think they fight themselves to death because at the end of the fight they're basically dead when they hit the beach, whereas the smaller ones just swim off immediately. Big barra just swim off immediately too.
Two other guys fishing; both got a king salmon over a metre straight after so there must be a few around.
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