benno573

If this was referring to my baby in a bad mood you wouldn't want to be out there in anything short of the queen mary... top day out regardless of captures. i see once again my commitment to work has me ussurped for #1 decky aboard ellicatch. or is because you still remember our last trip out?

so what did you end up getting @Drop Bear?? and when is the trip? +1 to @jon suggestion around using large slabs of fresh fillets for big reds. hussar works really well, my biggest red to date come on a whole fillet of iodine bream. failing any of those species being available, up there you should be able to get a bludger trev or something like that that will keep you in fresh flesh baits for days. not sure what other trophies you are chasing - i used to get one just for showing up in U6 soccer so maybe try that as a back up?

hey mate, much better option to stay shore based. if you walk the beaches either north or south of the resort with soft plastics on about a 1/6 or 1/4 oz jighead you will find flathead pretty much anywhere. look for anything that may concentrate bait - a log, a small gutter, weed or rocks and pepper the area with casts. you will also find bream, flounder and might get lucky with a tailor or trevally if there is enough bait around. I like to use natural coloured 3-5" paddle tail lures, gobblers and zmans probably my 2 favourite. Try to match whiting / hardy heads as they are the predominant prey in the area. tip - avoid the area directly in front of the resort and around the wrecks. go to area where there is few if any people or boats and you will have the best success. I would personally head south from the resort until i was past the desert walking track for best chance of success. also worth a flick off and around the tangers jetty if you are still allowed to fish there. can hold a variety of fish from bread and butter to kingfish, trevally, mackerel if there is bait around. good luck.

No option to return to anaconda given device doesn’t perform as stated?

This makes Ben a saaaaaaad panda. what a useless device.

Hey mate. A lot of the ones I use are not available any more. I’ve found Mann’s 10+ a good option - they’ll dive to about 15 feet if you let out enough line so perfect in that 5-7m bracket. Anything about 90-120mm long that runs to 3-5m is the go. Haven’t found color to be a huge concern - something bright and silly works just as well as something natural. Big fan of purple - have had good success on purple in the past.

Hey mate, welcome. Fellow yakker and recent member of the parenting fraternity myself - although I’ve stopped at one - you certainly look to have your hands full! time - dawn and dusk for sure. There’s heaps of isolated rubble areas out from redcliffe that could all hold snapper on their day - can be very hit and miss though. I’m sure if you put some time in and use the lightest possible gear it will net some results in time. I like trolling the area with small deep diving lures - covers ground and when you find an area holding fish you can target it more intensely with plastics etc. look forward to reading a few reports! cheers, benno

Yeah, weren’t the best conditions but at least it was nothing like as cold as it would have been this week!

All the best mate. Where are you leaving the keys to your boat??

Sounds dump but good old leccy tape is always around. Great for a “mandaid” but also for keeping gunk etc out of a cut over the top of a bandaid. really random one - a condom or two (new and unused preferred). A great way to keep a dressing on a finger clean and dry.

Nah, mrs wasn’t overly interested - isn’t normally that into it and just has the occasional dabble so no change there. Bubs didn’t see a lot of live fish but certainly enjoyed watching 14 pelicans fight over the frames and all the other birds and trees along the way. She met Candice too.

Hi all, with the relaxation in restrictions opening Moreton back up to visitors, the Mrs, offspring and I loaded up the BT and hopped on the micat last Sunday. New experience for all of us - camping with a 5 month old... what could possibly go wrong.... managed to to get all set up and as ready as possible before the rains came - we had about 35mm in an hour but thankfully I’d poured a big bourbon prior to the rain so it wasn’t too bad. monday was looking like my best chance of a kayak so I was up early and down the beach looking for a spot to launch. Swell was up, sweep was huge and tide was dropping - not a good combo. After about an hour and several aborted attempts I called it a nasty name and headed back to camp. Went down the beach an hour later with bubs, swell was down and wind had dropped out. Managed to get out, fishing was annoyingly quiet thanks to a group of spearos. managed one cracker grassy at 41cm. Made it safely back to the beach. had a bit of a flick off the beach that arvo for one long Tom and a bream. found out pretty quickly fishing opportunities were going to be quite limited as it had to work around bubs nap times and not leave mum to do it all on her own... maybe will invite the outlaws next time! I had a quick spin off the rocks Tuesday morning, nothing of note landed. Had a flick on dusk on Tuesday arvo for 5 bream and a decent tailor. wednesday the wind was more SSE but still about 15-20kn. The Mrs wanted some fillets for the freezer so I was back out on the kayak for a full 3-hr session! wind made it challenging but I managed 2 nice size snapper @ 42 and 44, a 35 grassy and a 64cm school Mack. Heaps of undersized and other bits and pieces kept me amused. I released a 38cm bream in there as well. Time for the better of me so I had to head back to the launch spot but decided to troll a slug for the fun of it. In 6m of water, near no structure at all I got a hit and then a screaming run - surely not a mackerel here! Had a good argument and a very solid schoolie at 71cm was boated. Fluke!! Shared some Mack fillets with a family who were a bit short on food - they were extremely appreciative. no fishing Thursday day time, snuck down to the beach on dusk to the same gutter from Tuesday hoping for a couple of tailor to take home. Unfortunately lost a cracker at the shore, teeth and 12lb leader not the right combo. Did land 8 legal bream, best going 34cm. Donated 2 to some guys who were relying on fish for dinner but didn’t have the right gear/technique, rest released. thankfully a dry pack up on Friday and a nice easy trip back to Brisbane. learnt a lot about #dadlife. Bubs loved the trip - hopefully a sign of many more camping trips in the future. No photos of fish unfortunately save the one filleting shot - note the assistant. cheers for reading. benno <‘><

Nice one mate. Good to hear she swam off strong

Can’t work out from that last photo of that was a smile or you’d just watched old mate wet himself... solid day... only 60 bass by 11am... how tough...

Hey mate. Simple one if you are doing any night trips - lights. Many of the lights. When you think you have enough add one more just to be sure. Also replace any old incandescent bulbs with LED’s if possible. One for me was a safety gear “grab bag”. Stored flares, a torch, v sheet, portable radio etc in a watertight bag that if stuff hit the fan you could grab it and go. Also made inspections by fisheries/coppers simple - one bag had it all. other than that I think most people have covered off the main bits - smart storage solutions, everything having its place etc etc.

Just don’t pop your load too early mate...

Keep practicing mate. There’s so many different techniques and some of them are much easier than others - even for a young fella like yourself.

Hey mate. Welcome to the forum. As a fellow yakker, I understand your comment re jet skis. Absolute bane of my existence. The canals that run off currimumdi lake can hold good trevally - basically if you find the bait you’ll generally find the fish. Pelican waters is another good spot. further south there is some good fishing around the mouth of bells creek and also a few spots in coochin creek. The upper reaches rarely have an issue with jet ski lice and can produce surprising captures at times - jacks, cod, mulloway and flatties.

@Old Scaley I don’t think there is an issue with fish not being on the chew. We had 4 hits for two fish landed on the troll before sunset. Unfortunately the pin area in general can be very quiet after dark at the best of times, I think if we were in one of my usual spots for an afternoon incoming tide it would be fine and several more whiting would have been added. Just available time and tides didn’t line up this time. No comment on the treble in the cast net. At least it was still daylight. Was as a great night out regardless - kind of like when we used to sit by the river at west end except we were in a boat and could go wherever we wanted. Thanks @ellicat for the invite

Sorry @GregOug, didn’t see this one in time. More than happy to decky and can do most bits of boating having done it all in a past life. Home life just dictates a bit more prior planning/notice at this stage though...

Sweet rig mate! as far as where I used to anchor up, I generally fished out from the cape around Roberts, Brennan’s and a bit further south from Henderson’s so none of these spots were a big run. in a westerly: In anything southerly: i hated being out there in anything more than about 12kn northerly but pretty much your only option for a good sleep is the below - but coming around combi point in the dark can be problematic on an outgoing tide with any kind of swell. Hope me this helps mate. give us a shout if you’re ever short on crew!

Hiking stoves are a great option for a quick hot drink if you have one. re-iterate the comments around anchoring and a really bright light. I used to head in closer to Moreton if I was outside - even just inside north point or in under the cape in a westerly. What kind of boat you heading out there in mate?

I’m sorry to let the team down... the wee one we believe has started teething, hence the unsettled week so far. Hopefully some good weather next weekend

Macks don’t have scales... I need to teach you the ways of crispy skinned mackerel. I don’t skin schoolies or spotties, you lose too much meat. And done right, the crispy skin is delicious. And i completely resent the fact that you have already replaced me as #1 decky...

Far out... talk about you old fellas overthinking this... just invite me. I do an excellent job of winching boats onto trailers, retrieving anchors in up to 50m of water and can make a huge mess of any boat with just one cast net - hope you had fun cleaning that up on Saturday @ellicat!