Old Scaley

Very tasty haul there @Fishaman. Is that fish up in the top tray the Iron Jaw? Is it some sort of jobfish?

Well, I am going to start today so that I have some sort of record of what I did wrong. I will do a quick report so I have a record, but it was a pretty quiet outing. @kmcrosby78, when are you going to win the Lotto so you can give up work and fish midweek?

I have often thought of keeping a record of my fishing trips so I can learn from successes and failures. Anyone doing this? Do you use a book? Maybe an app? Spreadsheet.

Nice stuff as usual @Dinodadog. I might have to give away the salt and start fishing the fresh - 64 fish in one trip makes all of my outings in the salt seem pathetic. Plus I wouldn’t have to flush the motor or worry about rust in the trailer

Try this one https://tides4fishing.com/au/queensland/brisbane @Ryannnnnnnn

Very nice Bay snapper there @Allnighter. I’m guessing from your site name that you usually fish at night? Were you using bait or plastics? Any sharks there at the moment? Thanks for sharing.

Time to start practicing my pathetic casting in the back yard...... This WILL be the year

Hi @Ryannnnnnnn. I remembered reading something about the Swan Bay green zone recently. I found it here https://flatheadclassic.com.au/swan-bay-green-zone/ Hopefully this will give you some good info.

Nice detailed report @AUS-BNE-FISHO. Keep them coming.

How do you do the cook up, Mark? Fillets straight on an oiled barbie plate? You should have some sort of deal with the other campers where you keep bringing in the fish and they keep your camp esky full of beer and ice.

Not in the same class as grinner, hey @kmcrosby78.

You would be the most popular man in the caravan park every year, Mark. Hope you have a great break down there.

Ok, so 2019 is pretty much done and dusted for me. Now I don’t work any more and can get out on the water while most of you are are doing the hard yards at work, I will probably stay off the water until the Xmas break is over. But I am already thinking about my fishing goals for next year. Here they are: 1. Get amongst the prawns in the late summer/early Autumn run. I have a good net and lots of time available but will need to sharpen up my casting and find a good deckie to help me out with the boat manoeuvres and take turns at casting. 2. Mangrove jack - haven’t chased them for a while and haven’t caught one for a few years, so they are on the list. 3. Macks- school, spotted or Spanish, In Moreton Bay or beyond. 4. Catch a longtail tuna in Moreton Bay. Have caught them in other places but they have defeated me so far in the Bay. Pretty modest list really. Anyone else care to share their wish list for 2020?

Sorry, can’t help with that area but don’t forget the closed season for wild barra is over that time. Good luck!

Thanks @ellicat. Same to you and yours. To all the friends I have made on this site over the years, and those I am yet to meet, I hope you have cold beer, good wines and tight lines over the break and that you and your families stay safe and well. Let’s hope the wind drops, and we get some rain to put out the fires and get the systems firing again in the new year.

Thanks for posting @rayke1938. I have been trying to work out for a while what those hand written numbers and letters mean on the board in your photos (photo number 4 above)?

Hi @Ryannnnnnnn. I am getting to know my new Garmin 93sv and have been looking at YouTube videos and other articles on line. Some are more useful than others. This is one I found ages ago that is really useful in trying to interpret the sonar view. https://doctorsonar.com/blogs/educational-articles/12380345-lowrance-pros-corner-by-luke-morris. I think it predates chirp so it won’t answer that question but hopefully it will give you some idea. Good luck, mate.

That is correct @GregOug. You can just follow the markers out from the heads. It is mostly just sandy bottom out there but there is a reef that would be in striking distance in @Wazza80‘s boat on a really good day if you have a gps and sounder. There is another reef off Woodgate but beware the green zone. Again, get local advice first because there is a lot of water between fish out there and if they are not chewing you can waste a lot of time and fuel and miss out on good fishing closer to home. If the wind and tide are right, I like to drift the drop offs around those red markers. You can sometimes get good sweetlip, cod or other reefies along there. I think it takes a couple of trips to places like Burrum to crack the code. It might seem like there is nothing there the first few times you fish the area but take note of where and when the locals are fishing because they don’t generally come home empty handed.

Looking at the forecast for Thursday, I would be going early and getting back to shelter before the tide change around 11. That way you should avoid wind against tide and have a good run back home. In spring and summer, you will often get a NE wind springing up at around 11.15 and combining that with a run out tide can make it a long wet trip home.

Toogum is a great whiting spot, but there are lots of sandbanks to be aware of.. Hang around the boatramp and get some tips from locals, or just head up to Burrum for more variety and a better ramp.

Drop into the hardware/tackle shop on the corner. I think it is called Burrum Traders. He has some laminated maps of the river with fishing spots marked and may also give you some insight into who is catching what, especially if you buy something there. As Greg said, there are lots of mangrove areas with good snags for jack. A lot of people fish the rock bars inside the Gregory River, which branches off the Burrum just past Walkers Point (you will see these places on the map). Make sure you have plenty of water and drive carefully because some of the rock bars are quite shallow. If you are lucky, the big grunter will be running. You will know if they are on by the 40 boats all lined up, but there will be plenty to go around if they are on the chew. That usually lasts about a week or so at a time and is usually the week before or after I go there . Usually plenty of bream and flathead in the river. You might even catch a barra when jack fishing but remember it is closed season. Take the pots and a cast net. Plenty of live herring and mullet around the creek entrances on the turn of the tide. Have a good time and don’t forget to post your adventures.

It was the funniest thing I have seen on my tinnie since I “accidentally” dropped a sandcrab onto @benno573‘s toe. Good day out Brian, pity the fish didn’t play the game. Strange to only get 2 really good whiting, but no small ones or bream. You forgot to mention the crescent perch and the one clawed crab that hung onto my yabbie long enough to get him in the esky. How nice was it sitting in the boat without anyone else around, listening to the test match and enjoying good chat and a few laughs? Life is good.

“Fishing” would be an exaggeration @benno573. First time was mostly playing with the new combo and looking at some of my regular underperforming spots through a new lense. I did mark a large school of big fish in a known thready location and went back to that spot on the second trip at the top of the tide armed with prawns, squid, pilchards and an array of plastics and vibes. The school of big fish wasn’t there but there was a huge school of something down there so I tossed everything at them for an hour before something heavy finally swallowed a green prawn. It had been a lean trip of small flatties and 30cm squire so I was hoping this one was dinner. Not a lot of fight but plenty of weight so I was hoping threadie when up popped a monster catfish. I moved on pretty quickly after that but could nail a keeper. I guess I needed your expert guidance. Had 4 pots soaking for 5 hours for a total of 2 female sandcrabs. So you didn’t miss anything. Let me know when your next day off coincides with reasonable weather and we will go smack them somewhere.

So, just to finish off this thread, I have taken the new combo (Garmin 95sv) out twice now. The first time I was just playing with settings and trying to get the transducer to hold bottom while travelling. I love this piece of kit - it is easy to use and the touch screen is very responsive and doesn’t seem to mind wet fingers. Holding bottom while travelling is still not as good as I would like it to be but maybe it is the boat hull that is making it hard. I know the general rule of thumb is to run a straight edge along the bottom of the hull and have that line dissect the transducer, then kick it up a notch. Using that system I lose bottom readings at 10 knots. Dropping it deeper is better and I still have a reasonable picture up to 18 knots which is probably ok, but I have seen better on other boats. You can set up favourite views. My favourite is the split screen of traditional sonar and down view. The screen is a generous 9” so the two views are easy read and you can make either view full screen just by tapping on that view. I am still trying to figure out side view, mainly because I have never used it before. I have drifted past structure like rock walls and beacons and have not seen the detail I was expecting. I think I just need to do more research and spend more time on the water playing with different settings to get the most out of it. The navigation side of things is easy to use. Dropping a waypoint is simple and so is editing waypoints and navigating to waypoints. You can also do your own mapping of places that aren’t mapped on the chart, but I haven’t put an sd card in it yet to enable that functionality. The inbuilt maps look a bit different to Navionics, but have at least as much detail and I didn’t need to buy a card. Updating charts is easy through wifi and a phone app. Pleased to see that all the green zones are marked. When I put an sd card into the device I will be able to capture screen shots and will put some up if I come across anything interesting. For now, I think I can say that I am very happy with this purchase. Here are a couple of screen shots that I took with the phone camera. They don’t do it justice but you get the idea. Cheers everyone. Edit. Sorry, adding photos is not working for me. Will try again later. Working now, but not worth the wait.

Jeez, @davostephens, you really have been browsing the old stuff on this site, haven’t you? That’s great though, I really enjoy seeing some of the old posts and some of the old contributors as well. I never did get into smoking fish, but might have to think about it again now. Thanks for some of your other posts too mate. They have been interesting and useful. Look forward to seeing some of your trip reports from up there in fishing heaven.