tugger

Hi All, 
Its been a while since my last fishing post and a long time since I last had a fish to be honest I think Australia Day was my last fish . Headed out with a mate from Tasmania who has not ever caught a decent shallow water bay snapper before , So the pressure was on . Lucky me,  with literally months off the water and know knowledge of fish on the chew any where the search was on. 
Headed out for a quick  bay snapper session Saturday arvo leaving Clontarf around just after 1pm to grab some live baits and then find some nice hard rubble bottom to anchor up on and burley in hope of a July snapper,
After spending a couple of hours searching for live baits and finding some nice rubble bottom with a little drop off we anchored up about 3.45pm and started to burley up , send some baits back hoping some fish would come on the chew, 
After waiting close to 1hr (5pm),  the 1st rod got lit up and the decky was into a nice fish with good head shakes,  few tense moment as the fish ran for drop off with great intent ,  but some nice rod work and Ben had his head turned and coming to the boat nicely,   few more small runs and  I slid the net under a great fish , as we were dehooking this fish and getting ready for a few happy snaps - the other bait-runner went off hard , so I set the hook with it still in the rod holder - struggling to get this one out of the holder,  I was now onto another nice fish which I felt running hard along the bottom almost straight away.,  after some back and forth action I slowly had nice snapper in the net and on the deck of the boat 🙂 yay me,  trip successful,  So we quickly rest the baits and went about a few photos,  after getting a shot of Ben holding both fish , both rods went off again with a big double hook up on 2 more cracking snapper at 75 & 78cm  - which went back - I went checked the esky had a quick measure and with a 81cm & 84cm in the ice box I realized we where wasting out time.  Ben had set another 2 baits out and whilst holding my Snapper for a photo we had another double hook up,  Ill put the photo up of myself looking away at the back of the boat holding my fish with a concerned look of holy geeeeezzzzz.  😆.  
We had another crazy 20minutes with about 5 more fish hooked and released totaling 11 for the session and taking the 1st 2 home for a feed, 
Both fish weight 6.0kg & 6.1Kg  . 
 
Hope you all enjoy the read 🙂
Cheers Josh <><

Just about sorted for the trip.
Leave to Perth on Thursday and back end of August.
See you all when I get back, might take a little while to write the report. 😉
Rods in a rod tube, now to throw some clothes and camera equipment in.

 

yes you would think he is a long way from home kurt also got one around that size last year so there slowly coming,how did you go sunday
 
 

Some solid tuskies Brad and a horse nanny that lost its bearings

went for a look around off straddie today to see if we could find some new ground was me terry my brother and his mate, we headed over the bar just before the sun came up and our first stop was the livie grounds we found it hard to get livies but after an hour or so had some in the well,and the search was on we went past boat rock and found a little lump where we got some nice parrot my brother then got a a nice pearlie and a few snapper and a nice large mouth ,was good day but had to leave around midday as i had other things on might head out sunday,

Good snapper would have been fun getting the old spots to fire

Its not free but worth it I use it on my tablet that's 10inch gives great definition and a awesome sonar map option which I use to fing the structure and drop offs.

Good luck Robbie 

About 15 years ago i used to fish the bay islands regularly with my sons and one close mate, but then some life changes got in the way and my close mate unfortunately passed away 😢
Back then i was a regular to Ausfish and met some great blokes, and had some great fishing adventures.
I sold the 5.2m Formosa 10 years ago or so, but have recently rekindled my passion for the bay again and have bought a 4.2m Renegade with the desire to fish the bay again with my two sons 😊
Well, the glorious bay is still there all these years later and i am thoroughly enjoying re-living the good old days!
What a beautiful place we have right at our back door!
Luckily i kept some gps marks from all those years ago which are still producing some great fish.
These are from just 5-6m of water.
 
 



 
 

I am heading to Moreton on Friday back Sunday. It will mostly be a social trip that I go on each year with a bunch of South African Australians. 
Lots of Beers and laughs. I am the camp cook for our little group so packing the camp oven for a bit of fun. 
I hope to get into a few Tailor at high tide in the holes and perhaps get some whiting in the gutters at low tide. 
Wish me luck. 
Report to come about this time next week. 

This sounds like an amazing trip I hope you get some great weather my tips would be to download the HD navionics app on to your phone or tablet it gives great definition of depths, drop offs, reefs etc I still use it to find new ground.
If your chasing Spanish look for lots of tight lines next to the reefs on the navionics it will show where a ledge is that has deep water right up next to the shallow reefs. I like to troll these or anchor and float baits out off the drop off a good tactic in windy conditions where you can get on the Lee side of the reef and get baits out in to deep water but you are still in flat water. 
Trout and other reef fish will be every where just Mark all reef bommies you pass over and look in different depths of water because fish may feed better in different depths depends on the day.
We fish for Reds predominately in 50 to 60m so don't  be afraid to look around any little bump may hold good fish. I like to use mullet fillet for bait as it stays on the hook well but keep any legal size fish and fillet them especially Hussar. I use 6/0 and 8/0 true turn hooks in a double gang with a swivel in between.

This sounds like an amazing trip I hope you get some great weather my tips would be to download the HD navionics app on to your phone or tablet it gives great definition of depths, drop offs, reefs etc I still use it to find new ground.
If your chasing Spanish look for lots of tight lines next to the reefs on the navionics it will show where a ledge is that has deep water right up next to the shallow reefs. I like to troll these or anchor and float baits out off the drop off a good tactic in windy conditions where you can get on the Lee side of the reef and get baits out in to deep water but you are still in flat water. 
Trout and other reef fish will be every where just Mark all reef bommies you pass over and look in different depths of water because fish may feed better in different depths depends on the day.
We fish for Reds predominately in 50 to 60m so don't  be afraid to look around any little bump may hold good fish. I like to use mullet fillet for bait as it stays on the hook well but keep any legal size fish and fillet them especially Hussar. I use 6/0 and 8/0 true turn hooks in a double gang with a swivel in between.

Let me know how the bait reef mark goes i hope the slimie mackerel are there for you 

This sounds like an amazing trip I hope you get some great weather my tips would be to download the HD navionics app on to your phone or tablet it gives great definition of depths, drop offs, reefs etc I still use it to find new ground.
If your chasing Spanish look for lots of tight lines next to the reefs on the navionics it will show where a ledge is that has deep water right up next to the shallow reefs. I like to troll these or anchor and float baits out off the drop off a good tactic in windy conditions where you can get on the Lee side of the reef and get baits out in to deep water but you are still in flat water. 
Trout and other reef fish will be every where just Mark all reef bommies you pass over and look in different depths of water because fish may feed better in different depths depends on the day.
We fish for Reds predominately in 50 to 60m so don't  be afraid to look around any little bump may hold good fish. I like to use mullet fillet for bait as it stays on the hook well but keep any legal size fish and fillet them especially Hussar. I use 6/0 and 8/0 true turn hooks in a double gang with a swivel in between.

This sounds like an amazing trip I hope you get some great weather my tips would be to download the HD navionics app on to your phone or tablet it gives great definition of depths, drop offs, reefs etc I still use it to find new ground.
If your chasing Spanish look for lots of tight lines next to the reefs on the navionics it will show where a ledge is that has deep water right up next to the shallow reefs. I like to troll these or anchor and float baits out off the drop off a good tactic in windy conditions where you can get on the Lee side of the reef and get baits out in to deep water but you are still in flat water. 
Trout and other reef fish will be every where just Mark all reef bommies you pass over and look in different depths of water because fish may feed better in different depths depends on the day.
We fish for Reds predominately in 50 to 60m so don't  be afraid to look around any little bump may hold good fish. I like to use mullet fillet for bait as it stays on the hook well but keep any legal size fish and fillet them especially Hussar. I use 6/0 and 8/0 true turn hooks in a double gang with a swivel in between.

Hi, I am heading up to North West Island, QLD from Moruya Heads on the South Coast of NSW. We are spending around 16 days on the island with family and taking a 455 Quintrex with 60HP Yamaha. Keen to do a bit of fishing/spearing while out there. If anyone has any suggestions on gear, lures, recommended shoals/reefs/spots to check out or gear to bring to the island any insight would be appreciated. 1st time to this area and super keen to get onto some Reds and possibly a few big GT's, Doggies and Spanish Mackeral. Thanks in advance for any advice. Look forward to posting some pics of my adventure in the near future.
Cheers Glenn

Went out yesterday with Robbie (drop bear) and a friend of his from Germany. We headed out early and crossed south passage bar at 1st light then stopped at the bait grounds. Then once enough live bait was collected we anchored up off point lookout nth stradie.
Conditions were a bit lumpy but smoothed off a bit behind the rock in and around the whirlpools made by the current. The snapper were patchy at 1st but got thicker as we got closer to the top of the tide. Then a shark took a liking to our live bait and Stefan played with this beast for 15 minutes or so before breaking him off.
The next live bait didn't last long before a Spanish mackerel made the reel scream but again the fish won its freedom. The 3rd slimie mackerel again was out for only a couple of minutes before another Spanaird took off.
Stefan was a bit seasick but it was not stopping him from fighting this fish. After a few blistering runs the mackerel doggedly went deep and used it's mass to slow the fisherman. Soon colour could be seen down deep and I called it for a Spanaird. Once I sunk the gaff and lifted it aboard Stefan high fives us both and I even got a cuddle from a very happy German.

The snapper kept coming in just pan size from 38cm to 45cm with lots of little fish in between. Then at the top of the tide we caught a couple of snapper over 50cm to finish off the bag. 
The weather was getting betting through the morning so we got a great trip home. The run around peel island and over to Cleveland was like glass then a few beers went down while we cleaned the fish to top the day off. Thanks for crewing Robbie and I bet your friend will have a good fishing story to take back home.

After this week of big seas it will be worth a look next week there as the snapper like it there after some rough weather 

It's school holidays would your boys be keen to come up 

After this week of big seas it will be worth a look next week there as the snapper like it there after some rough weather 

After this week of big seas it will be worth a look next week there as the snapper like it there after some rough weather 

Very keen

yes its been a while if we get weather like the last time i was there be great up there for 2 weeks with 9 days on the reef i think it was,julian heading up i think the guys from ausfish and auscrab will be there the fortnight before
 

I thought I would be no hope of this but, I'm keeping a positive mindset and see how I go as it gets closer. 

The Fads are long overdue in Qld though they work so well down south I have fished the 1 off the Tweed and it always has fish over the warmer months.