benno573

19 minutes ago, GregOug said:

We also caught some good sized Wirra  but threw them back after only finding a reference to a 50cm size limit for cod on our phone! I now realise it’s 38cm and we could have kept all three. I have now printed out and laminated a two page size chart for use in future.

There’s an app for it called Qld fishing 2.0. Let’s you upload a photo and it tells you what it is, legal size etc. not all cod are 38cm, some like Māori cod have a larger minimum size. The app is not perfect but works pretty well on common species. Assuming they were legal size cod not only could you have kept them they were valuable entries for team north you threw back… are you secretly working for the south?

Thanks @ellicat for the day out, a rare day where everything we planned out to happen basically worked. Couple more macks would have made it perfect but still very happy with the overall result. Only low light was me managing to lose one of the last remaining yamashita paravanes in the world - not sure whether something hit the braid or it just failed but never good to lose something irreplaceable.

3.8kg of top quality fillets from my share.  

Another cod, 26.5cm, team north

Cod team north 26cm

@ellicat today enlightened me to the fact that I am not limited to one entry per category! In light of this…

tailor 44cm and 38.5cm team north

Who are you and what have you done with Greg???

Cod (finally) 47.5cm team northside

hamish, a baitrunner is the perfect reel for the kind of fishing you do.

I used to run several when i regularly fished the river with livies, also great when floating baits for snapper, macks etc.  Great for shark fishing as well.

Very generous mr @ellicat - hopefully hamish can catch more fish on that reel that i have ever seen you catch!  

i wouldn't be too concerned if a particular lure isn't working on a day.  i also wouldn't ever go fishing with just one colour or design as fish are fickle and it pays to try a couple of different things if one isn't working on a particular day.

some days, the minnowZ in colour "x" on a 1/4oz jighead kills it, other days a 2.5" grub in colour "y" on a 1/8oz is what they want, colours vary depending on water condition, overhead conditions... not to mention what bait is around at the time.

I would suggest having a couple of natural colour lures in differing sizes/designs and a couple of brighter coloured ones in differing sizes/designs, generally 2.5" up to 5" in length.  I would have jig heads from 1/8oz up to 3/8oz, usually in a 1 or 1/0 size hook.

I also do well on trolling hard bodies as @marty suggested, these can also be cast around weed beds and drop offs, golden beach is great for this.  crackerjack 55, zerek tango shads, micro mullets... anything from about 40mm up to 100mm that dives to the bottom is worth a go.  colours don't seem to matter too much in my experience, if the water is dirty generally go with something a bit brighter or shinier.

2 hours ago, ellicat said:

??? I am Santa.

 

you only come once a year? 

I too prepare as much as possible the night before.  Lay out the clothes, few last items on bench that I need to grab in the morning.  Also helps me sneak out the house at early AM without disturbing the boss and bubs.

4 hours ago, Hweebe said:

Looked like an epic trip. I was over there 20 and 24 December as a late decision to go camping. Lucked out on the weather as rain mostly stayed away aside from the occasional short shower.

The plus also was that it wasn't too busy either. The MICAT Ferry to and from Moreton does get expensive during holiday periods.

I camped on the Eastern Beach, Pippies and Dart were plentiful but no horses close to your PB dart.

Comparing Beach/Island camping, which would be your pick?

Fraser, Straddie, Moreton, Bribie, Double Island

 

 

 

yeah i was expecting it to be heaps busier than it was but was not disappointed in this.  We managed to regularly find ourselves on the beach with no-one else within cooee of us, even during Xmas.  Glad you had a good trip over there mate, nothing wrong with fresh dart fillets to keep the camp fed, great fight in the surf as well.

IMO - Moreton > Fraser > Straddie > DI > Bribie

Reasoning:

Bribie - Just too busy and easily accessible. it's like a highway there on a weekend.  And the camping spots and beach fishing aren't that great.

DI - cracking spot but just too busy and too accessible to the masses.  25+ years ago when I first went there it was totally different to now and would have been far higher up the list.  Generally reasonable fishing though.  Not too bad to go to mid-week, especially in winter time when the crowds are less.

Straddie - Only ranks behind Fraser as it is not as picturesque and has more limited fishing options where you can camp.  Some great camp sites towards the southern end of the eastern beach.

Fraser - Just loses out to Moreton as it is far too crowded in my opinion.  Overall this would be the most varied and scenic of the spots mentioned.

Moreton - see report above.   Only downside I can think of is the cost to get there.

hey mate,

anywhere along banksia beach or red beach at bribie would work, sylvan beach is ok too but can be very busy on weekends.

there is a heap of options on the northern end of the gold coast as well, paradise point down to runaway bay is well worth a look. also over on the southport spit, there are plenty of spots along the broadwater side of the spit.  all these GC spots can get pretty busy on weekends though.

7 hours ago, Dinodadog said:

I dont know why but DINO can nearly always get a few up at baroon all year around, unlike some other dams.

Edited for accuracy.  I reckon i could get a krispy creme no worries!

4 hours ago, Old Scaley said:

What a great trip @benno573. And some top notch photos from you and @ellicat. I reckon you might want to check whether that bloke playing with Dottie has blue card, though. You picked the perfect weather window in what has been generally a pi$$ poor summer for fishing and camping.

I could have used the blue card as the unique item for SOO I guess? Definitely lucked out with the weather.

Forgot to add… I pretty much had this guy trained after 3 weeks. Wave a fish frame in the air and he would magically appear. He even bullied the pelicans out of the way! Super cool to watch every time!

Hi all,

headed out for a kayak trip with a mate with flathead being the main target. Arrived at spot a and was greeted with appalling conditions…

Although the lack of breeze did mean a serious bath in 40% deet was required immediately!

the water looked dirty and a quick trip down to spot x proved this to be the case. Given it was just after high and the dirty water would only get worse, I made the call to move to a different spot about 40 min drive away.

we loaded up and then re-launched at spot b. The tide here was almost dead low and the water looked much cleaner. We both had hits fairly shortly after launching with no hook ups. The tide started to push in a bit and I decided to try old faithful pontoon 21 crackerjack 55 which has delivered the goods repeatedly over time. About 50m into the troll I had a good hit and soon landed the first for the day at 46cm. I explored a bit more and other than 4 pike and a crab pot had no further interest. A spot that had looked likely on the low tide now had enough water over it and sure enough I was on again with a tango shad accounting for a mid 30’s model which was released, shortly after the crackerjack got whacked hard and a much more solid weight came on the line. I then landed a 54.5cm model which was released straight into the esky.

By now I was being very greedy and trolling 3 lures behind the yak which is fine if you are going fairly straight - it has 4 rod holders after all. This allows you to use different colours and sizes in the same area and work out what works on the day. I had a good hit on my heavier rod with a larger yozuri 80mm lure nicknamed the slayer and a nice 50cm model was boated. I then went to retrieve the tango shad and it got nailed on about the second turn of the handle. A nice 45cm model was added to the net and some serious “sorting stuff out” ensued with two cranky flathead on my lap.

I trolled around the area a bit more but couldn’t get another hit so went exploring further upstream. I was trolling along a mangrove edge past some likely looking drains with no luck. I then went past a larger feeder creek with bait everywhere and just felt like something would happen. Sure enough the crackerjack got nailed. The last fish of my bag came in at 51cm. After boating this one, it managed to do a half back somersault with pike out of the net and embedded one hook of the second treble firmly into my calf. Never had a flathead been pinned so quickly! Thankfully the other treble fell out of the fish in the process which just left me with a lure hanging out of my leg. At this point, I realized the pliers were not on board anymore (an accidental donation to the fishing god) and my mate with his pliers was about 500m away against the current. Pedaling a hobie with a treble in your calf is certainly less than comfortable and also creates a decent shark burley trail. Managed to wave him over from about 100m away and the treble was successfully removed - thankfully in one swift attempt.

I kept trolling my way back to the launch point as my mate had plenty of room in his bag that I was happy to try and fill. Two more undersized flatties were landed and subsequently released.

all in all, a cracking day out exploring an entirely new system and the fillets make 4 feeds for the family which is a good result.

Thanks for reading

cheers,

benno

Hi all,

Bit of a belated report but better late than never I guess?

I decided to burn a bit of long service leave and have a proper break over the xmas/new years period which saw the family and I head over to Moreton Island for the first 3 weeks.  Car and trailer loaded, 2 x kayaks, a SUP, a very very full freezer, several many fishing rods, and just a “couple” of bottles of appropriate holiday spirit and away we went.

Arrived at the camp site and spent some time setting up given the extended stay.  The clouds were good enough to assist me that afternoon in reviewing the drainage and stability of the tarp with a passing storm giving us a bit of a smack but the sun was soon back out.

To go through every fishing trip in detail will take a long long time and far too much typing, and I am sure no-one wants to read every little bit so I will try and do a bit of a highlights package:

-          53cm dart taken on a pippie on the eastern beach – new PB.  Can’t say I have ever had one dart fillet that fed 2 x adults and a toddler easily.

-          3 x bag outs of pan-sized snapper on the kayak, as well as some nice sized grassys

-          Catching 12 legal snapper in less than an hour on the kayak (only 3 kept as that is what was required to feed the masses)

-          Plenty of flathead off the beach, not a lot of size to them but good numbers of legal fish

-          Summer time tailor were plentiful!  Spinning on light tackle off the beach and stones was great fun and kept the fresh fish supplies topped up nicely.  Not big fish but hungry and around in decent numbers

-          Catching the biggest sand crab I have ever seen by hand when I saw it just wandering around in a gutter – it was promptly released into a couple of sandwiches

-          Great little rock fishing sesh with Ellicat when he came to visit for a few days, tailor, bream, a beautiful little golden trevally, dart and several tonnes of BS to go with it

-          Holding my daughter while beach fishing and her winding in her first fish with dad’s help and her being rather excited by the whole process

-          Seeing some commotion on the surface while out on my kayak which I investigated only to discover two manta rays having significant adult type relations.  The female swam off a minute or two later and then the male must have decided my kayak looked like a hot female manta and followed me around for the next 5 minutes and got rather up close and a little personal with me – he was “only” about 8ft across… what could possibly have gone wrong with that?  Of all the days to NOT have my go pro with me… very very cool experience though.

Low lights:

-          Epic tarp failure when we were away from camp and had a very heavy downpour.  Water ended up pooling on there and we came back to find some bent poles, a collapsed tarp and a very wet campsite.  Thankfully we were able to re-build fairly quickly, only real casualty was an LED strip light and about 6 poles which was a minor Xmas miracle, could have been so much worse.  Even managed to patch the Xmas lights back together which kept the daughter happy

-          Being out kayaking during the same very heavy downpour – had to punch back in to less than 100m from the beach to know where I was.  Little bit sketchy that’s for sure.

All in all, it was a great trip, 2.5 out of 3 weeks of generally good weather (other than a couple of passing storms), quality time with the family and a mate, no issues with the 4WD’ing and most importantly didn’t run out of “Xmas spirit” which would have been disastrous!  We did end up pulling the pin a day early as from boxing day onwards the weather certainly turned (30kn SE and RAIN) and showed no sign of real improvement so easier to exit when the toddler was not too bored and cranky.

I will post some photos shortly for your viewing pleasures

Thanks for reading

cheers,

benno