Malcolm

has been a long time between posts I have not long finished my second boat build which took 12 monthsI will

Got back to the river after a bit of a break and scored myself a new PB Yellow Belly at 6.4lbs.
Got 3 little trout and a redfin as well but damn this had me feeling pretty good until a bloke near me caught a 13.5lb one. 
But I guess that gives me plenty of room for improvement in the future. 

Went out today with a mate and his son-in-law. He usually fishes offshore from the Sunny Coast or down the northern rivers area where his daughter and son-in-law live. He has heard me talking about big Bay snapper and wanted to have a crack at them. We left the ramp at 6.30am and headed to the bay islands area. Spent a bit of time looking for live bait but no luck there so headed straight to  spot X. 
We had some cuttlefish heads and frozen yakka for bait, which were deployed with long traces and light sinkers. The waiting game began. Soon after @ellicat turned up and parked up near us. A short time later we saw Brian hooked up and he landed a legal snap. We were getting no touches but I encouraged the boys to be patient and wait for the big run. After about 3 hours we decided to move to spot Y and fish a bit lighter. Rerigged with a heavier sinker running over the hook looking for some local reefies . My mate put a fillet from the  frozen yakka on his hook and the son-in-law and I went for cuttlefish. A few minutes later, my mates rod buckled over and something decent took a huge run. A couple of runs later and up pops a big knobby. I slipped the net under it and we dropped a beautiful 79cm snapper on the deck. My mate’s pb by a long shot. He is not a social media type of guy, hence the blanked out face.

After a few quick high fives, his line was rebaited and back in the water. Around this time @ellicat appeared beside us so I sent the photo to him to keep him keen.  Next minute, my mate was on again. This time a nice 62cm model came on board. Happy days. The wind was starting to get up a bit. The son-in-law had never caught a snapper and I was still on a donut so I decided we should head back into the port and have a crack on the last of the run out. Happily the son-in-law managed a presentable 46cm snap and a 42 cm flathead.  I got a couple of undersize snaps so avoided the donut.
overall, a pretty good result. Problem is, I think my mate thinks we can do this anytime in the Bay, so pressure is on for next trip.
 

I built this thing Benno

Yes I was must say the water was pretty dirty thats my excuse anyway

Really good Ive been making changes to weight distribution ect and it handles really well

Yes I was must say the water was pretty dirty thats my excuse anyway

Really good Ive been making changes to weight distribution ect and it handles really well

I built this thing Benno

I built this thing Benno

Good on you Malcolm. 
Nice view.

Shame you didn’t get a few more fish Malcolm, still looks like a fun time and a nice snapper though! 

Stayed it the Pimpama river all night Monday for one winter whiting.
Next morning out to the pin for a couple of 30cm whiting on blood worms Then up to Coochie for a 40cm Snapper on cooked prawn.
 
 
 

Stayed it the Pimpama river all night Monday for one winter whiting.
Next morning out to the pin for a couple of 30cm whiting on blood worms Then up to Coochie for a 40cm Snapper on cooked prawn.
 
 
 

Stayed it the Pimpama river all night Monday for one winter whiting.
Next morning out to the pin for a couple of 30cm whiting on blood worms Then up to Coochie for a 40cm Snapper on cooked prawn.
 
 
 

Stayed it the Pimpama river all night Monday for one winter whiting.
Next morning out to the pin for a couple of 30cm whiting on blood worms Then up to Coochie for a 40cm Snapper on cooked prawn.
 
 
 

Stayed it the Pimpama river all night Monday for one winter whiting.
Next morning out to the pin for a couple of 30cm whiting on blood worms Then up to Coochie for a 40cm Snapper on cooked prawn.
 
 
 

Stayed it the Pimpama river all night Monday for one winter whiting.
Next morning out to the pin for a couple of 30cm whiting on blood worms Then up to Coochie for a 40cm Snapper on cooked prawn.
 
 
 

Stayed it the Pimpama river all night Monday for one winter whiting.
Next morning out to the pin for a couple of 30cm whiting on blood worms Then up to Coochie for a 40cm Snapper on cooked prawn.
 
 
 

Stayed it the Pimpama river all night Monday for one winter whiting.
Next morning out to the pin for a couple of 30cm whiting on blood worms Then up to Coochie for a 40cm Snapper on cooked prawn.
 
 
 

Stayed it the Pimpama river all night Monday for one winter whiting.
Next morning out to the pin for a couple of 30cm whiting on blood worms Then up to Coochie for a 40cm Snapper on cooked prawn.
 
 
 

Got home from fishing late Thursday and checked the forecast for when i could go again. Noticed Friday afternoon there was a window. Organised with eldest son,Mitch, to head out at 12.30pm. 
By the time we came to leave my place the forecast had changed a bit, but we decided to launch anyway and have a look at what reality was. It wasn't too bad so we went to Green where we could not get the bait to bite. Fortunately I had some frozen pike in reserve, so we deployed a couple and also sent out a floating pillie in case any mackerel were about.
Plenty of action for the next couple of hours. I landed 2...a 44 and a 52. I lost a big model when my line got caught on the bottom right near the boat. I prayed for about 5 minutes but in the end it rubbed me off on the braid. Damn, I hate tying braid to leader on the boat.
Not long after the exact same thing happened to Mitch. Very frustrating for him as he hasn't caught a fish for ages. It would have been nice to get him on a big one, but not to be.
A few other failed hookups and two wobbygongs later we decided to call it around 5.30. Mitch's wobbygong was only a little tacker but mine was a horse unfortunately. Mitch landed a little squire about 25 to finish.
Also had a safety check from the water police. 

 

We cooked up both for dinner, crumbed with chips and gutsed ourselves. 😄 

Stayed it the Pimpama river all night Monday for one winter whiting.
Next morning out to the pin for a couple of 30cm whiting on blood worms Then up to Coochie for a 40cm Snapper on cooked prawn.
 
 
 

Went out in the southern bay late this afternoon with my brother flicking some soft plastics in some very shallow water. We picked our way through a lengthy species list (Snapper,  Grassy Sweetlip , Gold Spot Cod , Mosses Perch, Flathead, Black Spot tuskfish , ) and came away with a nice little box of fish . 
Regards
Neil

Hi all
I was lucky enough to be invited out to go fishing with Brian and Steve today (Friday) targeting mackerel in the Rous Channel, and possibly catching some reefies or winter whiting as well. Unfortunately, Steve was unwell leading up to the trip, so he was not able to join Brian and I today. We launched at Manly a little before seven, and motored out into the bay to carry out the first task - catching livies!
Initially, it was looking like there could be some rain. There were a couple of clouds about, but according to BOM it was clearing up/not that bad. There was also a bit of wind when we initially went out, and it was quite lumpy at our chosen location for bait. Regardless, we sounded around looking for some shows of pike, but we struggled for the first twenty minutes or so. Then, we found something that looked like it may have been pike, but after I pulled up an undersize squire we decided to continue our search. About 30 minutes later we had still gotten no livies so we decided to head to St. Helena island to have a look there. Apart from a small wrasse, this did not produce any livies either, so we motored back to the original spot, where we still could not manage any livies. The electric motor was easy to use though - it was going to be a lot better than anchoring!
Eventually, we decided it was calm enough to head over to the Rous, and with the radar showing no more storms and calm weather we were feeling hopeful for some mackerel. On arrival, the electric was deployed and it was holding fine in the current. We casted out our pilchards under floats and then chose to fish the bottom while we waited. After I landed a couple of pickers, Brian hooked up to something a bit more substantial. After a solid hit, he brought in a solid 33CM Venus Tuskfish - a welcome catch!

Tusky
After that, Brian lobbed another cuttlefish piece down and so did I. It wasn't long before he was on again to something decent, and it showed itself as another tusky. Annoyingly, it got lucky and managed to shake the hook as Brian was about to lift it into the boat. I hooked up shortly after as well, and I managed to land a just undersize tusky. The conditions had improved considerably from the morning now, and it was quite calm!

Good day at the Rous Channel
Anyways, although we thought we might be on a patch of tuskies, they stopped chewing after that, meaning we went back to pulling in the occasional picker waiting for the mackerel lines to go off. We switched to long shank hooks in hope of some winteries, but they were no where to be found. Eventually, some birds started eating our pilchards - somehow managing to lift them out of the water repeatedly but not get hooked. We also saw a turtle breach, and Brian saw a dugong. 
Suddenly, there were some bumps on my mackerel line and some line was tugged off. I quickly grabbed the rod and I was on a fish! I started cranking line back towards the boat, but the mackerel wasn't coming in easy and was taking some speedy runs. We eventually saw the shape of it, cruising towards us in the water - it then managed to shake the hooks... Lucky. The action hadn't ended yet though, and Brian's set up went off. This fish was fighting a lot harder than mine, and was taking some lightning fast runs - dangerously close to the electric motor propeller. It was looking like a big schooly, but we never got to see it because the line ended up breaking on the moving prop. Bugger!
We redeployed our baits and sat back down waiting again. It wasn't long before some more mackerel came along and my pilchard was being attacked. I started winding, and the mackerel was coming in to the boat. We had to land this one, we thought, and after some quick runs around the boat Brian grabbed my float and pulled in my first ever mackerel, a 70CM Schooly. Woohoo!

 70CM Rous Channel Mackerel 😀
We got our lines back out quickly and we were hopeful some more mackerel would come by but it had seemingly gone quiet. The tide was beginning to change now, but the spot lock was still holding us in position fine. We eventually drifted around with the rising tide, and after berleying a lot for quite some time Brian was on to another decent fish. He fought it to the boat and it was a nice tuskie, but like before it too managed to spit the hook. 😭. We decided to call it quits at about quarter past two, and for the last half hour or so I tried fishing my pilchard about 3 metres below my float. On the way back in (loved not having to pull in an anchor) I managed to lose my hat overboard but luckily we got back to it in time. Interestingly, when I filleted the tusky, it had shell coming from it's stomach, suggesting it maybe had been eating some crab.
Thanks heaps for taking me out today Brian, it was heaps of fun!
Hope you enjoyed the reports,
Cheers Hamish
Stats of Trip:
Tide: 8AM, High Tide, 1.8M, 2:00PM, .5M, Low
Moon Phase: 6.3%, nearly New Moon
Bait Used: Pilchards, cuttlefish
Fish Caught: Mackerel x 1, Tuskfish x 1, lost 2 of each
Tackle Used: 30 pound fluoro leader for mackerel, gang hooks, torpedo floats, small sinker to help pilly sink, 4/o circle hooks or longshank hooks, about a 4 ball sinker, swivel, 20 pound fluoro leader for bottom bashing. I used a Shimano Stradic on Raider for bottom fishing, and Ugly Stik on Abu Garcia Ambassedeur for mackerel. 
Weather: About 15 knots wind and cloudy first up, calmed to sub ten knots later in the day and sunny
Humidity: 95%
Air Pressure: 1012
Overall Success Rate: 90% - we saw and caught the target species but lost a couple to and Brian got some nice tuskies
Also, if anyone is interested, here is the Youtube video Brian made with some video of the days fishing -