mangajack

It is with a heavy heart that I tell the tale of a long lasting friendship that ended on Friday.
It was about 1982 I was introduced to GT270 and we became inseparable for nearly 43 years.
I dressed it up with all the nicest of accompaniments over those years and it served me well with many fine encounters of being triumphant.
Sadly on Friday it threw a tanty with the grinners around Mud...what a terrible way to go....topped itself about shoulder height is a most unexpected way...what a disgraceful way to go after being such a champion for so many decades.
Now standing in the corner with all the other dis-used, abused and broken, like a naughty child told to stand in the corner facing the wall....not a whimper at all.
Thank you Mr SnyderGlas for creating my prototype friend, he was an outstanding comrade for so very long.
My initial thoughts were disbelief and a hollow sense that grows within....thoughts of finding a suitable replacement to fill the void and then the realisation that nothing else could fulfill the spot in the rack.
To be honest, i don't think I could develop that amount of trust into something I could buy today...pure graphite just does not have the personality or the toughness of glass and graphite blends.
Anyway, enough of the dwelling on loss and time to regale the stories from Friday....6am launch....live baits by 6.15am....Mud at 6.25am.....Bloody bastard grinners within seconds ad they didn't stop.
So After several spot changes I found ourselves well east of Mud on a rubble patch i had not previously encountered in 12m of water. 1st cast was a small squire, then a few grinners....retie the leader and cast out again only to feel another grinner on the bait....ripped the bait away from it harshly and BANG...huge hit and peeled 30 odd metres from the reel then all became slack...reeled it in to find a lot of grinner teeth marks on the last 40mm of leader...dirty little shytes.
Oh well....came back to the rock wall and the water was filthy so went to the tripods for a quick look..not much there but in crossing the channel i spotted a school of jew so spent the next 30 minutes trying to coax some interest out of them....I left them sleeping and quietly motored away, defeated once more.
Into the river!!!!  I don't know why i got excited then, the high light was the biggest flounder I have caught in 30 years, and a couple of jumbo bream in the kilo class....snapper flathead and jew we encountered were all wearing nappies....
I ended the day with a leisurely drive from Pinkenba to Petrie that took 1.45 hours in the Friday afternoon Gateway traffic....so relaxing indeed.

Consider a Mooloolaba Pick anchor https://www.whitworths.com.au/mooloolaba-pick-anchor
Thats what all the boats have on the swains that I have been on.  
Shackle to the top then lay chain down the shaft and heavy zip ties to what you would normally attach to.  If its stuck you just pull back over the top and it snaps the zip ties and you then pull the anchor up from the head.
Mate bought a very expensive version of one (cannot remember the name) but it uses a sheer bolt to hold the fins in place and all you do it drive over the top and it sheers the pin and the fins collapse.  A guy up in Mackay makes them.  Very neat.

I'm happy landing anything. And getting on the leader board. Until Neil goes fishing again ...... 😂😂

We had a similar day yesterday. The only legal fish was dropped beside the boat. That's fishing.

Took the kayak out up castle hill way. Got this 42cm fella. That was the fruit of my efforts for the day. 0800 till 1400. Flicked a lot of plastic. Might take some bait next time.

School free day. End of their Holidays.
Arrived around sunrise. Top morning.
One of the easiest places to go rock fishing.
First up a nice drummer ( Released ) The boys caught 2 tailor.
I caught two nice snapper 45cm & 48cm.
The boys caught 2 flathead & another tailor. They were happy.
Enough for me for my return to the rocks.
I tried out my new rod. Storm Gomoku 13ft. Casts very well. I had a Penn SpinfisherV 6000 reel on it. Good combo.
Newport Arms for breakfast
Lots of laughs.
Cheers.

That is the most popular spot there for squid....and the most accessible.

Two bends up past Castle Hill is the slabs.....between the concrete slabs and the rocks before them is a large reef crossing the river......you can't miss it.

Plenty of fish smashing prawns up near the slabs in the pine on Anzac day....brassy trevally, jew and tailor....been a few decent jacks there recently too.
 

The Ripples at Bribie would be worth a shot in the kayak.....just outside the mouth of the canals near Bansia Beach. Been a lot of squire there recently.
Not as bad for the winds as Redcliffe and same sized fish.

Two bends up past Castle Hill is the slabs.....between the concrete slabs and the rocks before them is a large reef crossing the river......you can't miss it.

Plenty of fish smashing prawns up near the slabs in the pine on Anzac day....brassy trevally, jew and tailor....been a few decent jacks there recently too.
 

Two bends up past Castle Hill is the slabs.....between the concrete slabs and the rocks before them is a large reef crossing the river......you can't miss it.

That is the most popular spot there for squid....and the most accessible.

Plenty of fish smashing prawns up near the slabs in the pine on Anzac day....brassy trevally, jew and tailor....been a few decent jacks there recently too.
 

Plenty of fish smashing prawns up near the slabs in the pine on Anzac day....brassy trevally, jew and tailor....been a few decent jacks there recently too.
 

The Ripples at Bribie would be worth a shot in the kayak.....just outside the mouth of the canals near Bansia Beach. Been a lot of squire there recently.
Not as bad for the winds as Redcliffe and same sized fish.

The Ripples at Bribie would be worth a shot in the kayak.....just outside the mouth of the canals near Bansia Beach. Been a lot of squire there recently.
Not as bad for the winds as Redcliffe and same sized fish.

The Ripples at Bribie would be worth a shot in the kayak.....just outside the mouth of the canals near Bansia Beach. Been a lot of squire there recently.
Not as bad for the winds as Redcliffe and same sized fish.

Thinking I might take the kayak out tomorrow while the wife and kids are out and I have the day off. What's in season that isn't a bream flatty or whiting? Im happy to catch them, It might to nice to actually target something for a change!  

Nice day and haul, Neil. That southerly chopped things up a bit in the bay today.
@benno573 and I came upon a huge, thick school of herring at the Pin one day. We made the mistake of throwing the castnet. We got about 200 in one cast. 7 out of 8 of them were stuck in the net. It took us a good hour to get them all out. Never again. haha

It was another  solo trip chasing rainbows this morning .
Did a bit of exploring and found a little bit of gold at the end of one rainbow ,down Jumpinpin way.
I also stumbled across a fantastic live bait spot stacked full of herring and huge hardy heads , never seen so many in one small area., the water was literally black and boiling with them .(Those threadfin are now on my short list for May)
Unfortunately I Left my tags and good brag mat in the other boat , so the little jewie didn’t get any jewellery to wear home.
Unfortunately for the  Northside I had an old  measuring device stashed in my rod locker.
SOUTHSIDE 
Flathead 570mm
Mulloway 740 mm 
Big eye trevally 510mm
regards
neil

Couple more whiting for team south
390mm and another 350mm

That is the most popular spot there for squid....and the most accessible.

I am leaning towards too many flushes or floods in the 13 years since 2011 has altered the habitat and or bait locations and cycles.
We get dusky flathead all along the east coast and deep into the Gulf....so I am not sure it is a temperature change that has them shut down. I used to catch lots in Mackay and the Capricorn Coast when I was there.
2011 saw every worm bed in the Pine River scoured to rock and repeated in 2013....the worm beds returned after 5 or 6 years and things started to normalise...since 2019 we have had reasonable to large flushes recurring randomly in relatively quick succession....some in season, others not.
I think this weather pattern needs a break....we actually need a drought to stabilise the rivers and creeks. Getting heavy flushes 4 times a year is not good year after year.