benno573

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!

There’s still some yakkers on here @ellicat! Although I do cheat and use peddles as opposed to paddles! welcome to the site mate. I’m sure Hamish will keep you in line.

Better than a donut I guess! Tip - plenty of fish to be found out there in a lot less than 20m of water.

Ok. Does the grey have the white patch on the dorsal fin? I thought they had a black patch? These look exactly like “schoolies” I have caught previously that all had the white patch - as they die the tend to get a mix of spots near the tail and bars towards the head, they aren’t always obvious until some time after death though. I thought greys were a deeper body like a sharky Mack and had bars all along? Just want to make sure I’m not identifying wrongly given one is a 50cm legal size and the other is 60!

Assuming they were schoolies - you would have needed to lot more pillies as they have a bag limit of 10. @aussie123 - how would one easily tell the difference between a schoolie and a grey mackerel? I’ve always used the white patch on the dorsal to denote a schoolie? Is there a defining feature of a grey Mack?

I’d go Jacobs well ramp mate. Well lit and always people about. Just be careful which park you choose - avoid under the gum trees unless you want your car covered in cocky sh1t! I parked overnight a few times there and never had an issue.

So the obvious question at this point... did you catch anything?? glad you made it out and back safely.

Thanks mate. Did you get out on the weekend??