kmcrosby78

Alternate titles considered for this topic: 'Paravane trolling - no longer boring ......' 'One rod, 4 people, 2 and a half hours of mayhem' ........... Took my boys and my dad out this arvo (left ramp about 1:30pm) with the hopes of coming across some tuna working the surface and hopefully some mackerel in with them. Went past Spero Kartanos who does great reports on the Fishing Monthly website and our local paper out here in Wynnum and he called us over for a chat - was glad we did as he's always helpful with advice and my boys hadn't met him yet. He let us know the mackerel were on the chew over near the Hope Banks, which was evident as there were quite a few boats in the area. So, over we went, paravane deployed (one to begin with, before my dad asked why we aren't putting a second out ....). I stuck with one for a few minutes before deciding with four of us on the boat we should be able to manage it. Problem was, I was letting my boys do lots of the boat driving and they sometimes turn a bit too sharply (often as they're distracted looking at the tuna schools pop up ........) and, you guessed it, we got an almighty tangle. It was about 2:30pm when we sorted it and went back to one line in the water. As we went past a tuna school I threw my soft plastic set up in but it wasn't heavy enough (1/6th jighead - I need to stock up on some bigger/heavier ones). Then tried throwing it behind the boat and free spooling until we were past a school, then winding through them, to no avail. So plastics rod was put back in the holder and our/my focus turned to hopefully getting some action on the paravane/spoon set up. Then, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, a solid fish goes on a couple of good runs and before too long (5 minutes or so) a reasonable mack tuna is netted, with my boys going off as it's the first tuna they've seen landed (I would have preferred a longtail but beggars can't be choosers ......). Not too long after several schools were popping up in close proximity to each other and the next 2 and a half hours was a blur of fish on, fish landed, lure/paravane back in, bleed fish, wipe hands and prepare for the next strike. Sometimes there wasn't time for this, I think three times the next fish struck before I could put the rod back in the corner rod holder. Good times!! My boys had some more quality practice driving the boat, changing the speed, etc and did a great job overall. About halfway through the mayhem my boys wanted to have a go at winding them in and despite me being dubious about their ability to do so (biggish rod/reel, paravane creates decent drag and we keep driving forwards to help keep the fish hooked) they managed to do so (George needed some help from me to hold the rod up and towards the end of the fight I helped handling the line towards him). Glad they could though, made it even more special for them. We left them biting about 5pm as the esky was getting full and wanted to get back to the ramp before dark but could have easily stayed for longer and caught more - our last fish was another nice spotty that George wound in so a nice way to finish. Back at the ramp we chatted to two young boys on the pontoon that were waiting for their dad to reverse the trailer and they ended up on my boat checking the fish out. My boys decided they wanted to give them a school mackerel so we did . By far the best session I've had with the boys in fact one of if not the best session I've ever had (including on charter boats) and very glad my dad was along for the ride. Irony is that my three brothers and I often recall our most memorable session as kids which was in dad's boat near Mackay where we nailed the spotties. History repeats . Finally tally 16 schoolies (including the one we gave away), 7 spotties and the mac tuna. We had no undersized mackerel (one we caught was right on legal - 50cm - so we threw it back), didn't drop any when swinging them into the boat - only netted the tuna - and only dropped 3 or 4 fish in total, due to the boys inexperience maintaining either speed or correct direction when driving the boat once we were hooked up or because George struggled to keep momentum with the reel. Overall, gotta be happy with that ..... . I was going to go again tomorrow but think I'll be busy enough filleting and we have plenty of fish that will last a while. My parents are taking some up to two of my brothers tomorrow plus my cousin and an uncle, both sets of grandparents will get some plus my sister in law and my neighbours so they won't go to waste . I can't guarantee they'll be on tomorrow but you'd think they would be, there's plenty of bait (small whitebait I think) out there so if you are free, I know what I'd be doing . Thanks for reading.

Nice haul there Brian, much better than the grinners we were getting at Green and St Helena. You have me intrigued, did your guest's user name start with D?

Yes they are a good size although I have heard about some 85cm models being caught. Maybe on the weekend ….

Took my boys fishing in the bay on Tuesday with a lunchtime launch. Westerly wind a bit stronger than I had hoped but comfortable enough and flattened out around 3pm before kicking up again when we anchored at Green Island (so we’re protected a little). Came across plenty of tuna schools south and west of Hope Banks but couldn’t get them to eat a slug nor our ganged hook pillies whilst drifting Liam got one small school shark that was released). Finished fishing at Green til sunset for just grinners (several) and undersized bream and squire. Went again the next arvo (boys had rugby camp in the morning) and conditions started off great before the wind picked up and then almost glassed out in the late arvo (forgot my phone so no on water photos ). Plan was to troll from Hope Banks down to Peel hoping to find mackerel but on the way the tuna popped up again and we couldn’t resist trying again. No hits on the slug despite landing it amongst them and then my braid played up. So we decided to try trolling around the schools fora while - good decision with two nice spotty mackerel (73 & 75cm) landed and another dropped beside the boat. Boys did a good job driving the boat, watching the trolling rod (only used one) and looking out for tuna popping up. In the past they have been a bit negative about us trolling with paravane but they might be converted now …. . Weather looks good for the weekend so may get out there both days while they are still around (these were my/our first bay spotties). Sounds like they’ve been in that general area for a couple of weeks so plenty of bait around obviously. Will solve my braid issue and find a suitable jig head and plastic and see if we can’t catch a tuna while we’re at it . Get out there peoples .

Is the magnet underneath the red thing (heat shrink?)? Nice work getting both to the boat - good result

Sounds like a bit of an ordeal Ray but glad you are on the mend.

Hope you are back up and at ‘em soon Ray.

Is that where they’re moving them to …… if so then yes, I reckon they’ll be quite competitive ….

Funnily enough, I've never looked at it/thought of it that way before, and am probably going to go on one whilst up the Cape this winter. In theory yes it would definitely condition crocs to see boats as a source of food. Certainly wouldn't want one jumping into your tinny with you ........

Cracking session there Dino, well done! Gotta be hard to beat that!!

Cheers Steve. Liam had the option to come but is a bit gun shy after a couple of lumpy trips where he got seasick. George is keen but with 5 already in the boat and a Broncos game that night I opted to keep his powder dry ...... Hopefully get out a couple of times next week and chase some mackerel in the bay - sounds like the spotties are currently on the surface.

Don't be too disheartened Brian, your mob have potential to become a quite good touch team ............ .

Headed offshore at first light on Sat morning with my dad, two of my brothers and one nephew. Crossed the flat South Passage Bar about 5:30am and headed straight to a ledge my brother found last year that has produced pearlies and snapper. On the way I saw a couple of tuna breach just outside the bar, plenty of birds flying around and my brother driving the boat thinks he saw a marlin. Interesting . Opted against potentially wasting time gathering livies to optimise the early bite - sadly this plan failed as the current was very strong (even with a sea anchor out) and we drew a blank. The wind was stronger than forecast (constant 15knots from the south east) so instead of going to the Cathedrals area next (were also worried about the current) we opted to check out the Sevens Reef (pretty sure we haven’t fished it before). Quite a few other boats had the same idea so we did some short drifts and were impressed by the amount of structure- definitely worth some more exploration. I changed from my 50lb braid floatlining rig to a @tugger special 25lb mono floatlining rig with a strip of mullet and two hooks. Got busy/distracted (eating from memory) and all of a sudden my reel is screaming. The fish did two screaming runs before I got to it and I was concerned the 25lb line wouldn’t be up to the task. Luckily it was and soon enough up popped a large fish that at first I thought was a snapper before we realised it was a 71cm spangled emperor (pretty sure it’s a first for me). We didmy get any more runs so decided to head back inside the bay to try for some mackerel but on the way to the bar we found some tuna so had fun with them for an hour or so with huge schools popping up everywhere and nowhere near as flighty as they are inside the bay. We caught about ten tuna, with at a guess 6 skipjacks and 4 Mack tuna (my vagueness is due to rushing home to get ready for the Broncos game - @ellicat, great game …. ). Saw a few large splashes that indicated some larger predators were in the area (no surprise there) and I also caught a large long tom that engulfed my metal slug as soon as it landed - angry little bugger …. We put my nephew into quite a few and he fought them well mostly and also got lucky with two being tail-wrapped which made for an easy fight. Good day on the water (and start to school holidays for me and the kids ) and plenty of fillets. We had some of the skipjacks as sashimi which was ok - we didn’t have wasabi which would be a nice addition. Had the spanglie just fried in a pan and taste was nice. Quite a meaty fish (tougher texture probably partly due to size) but I certainly wouldn’t throw them back. Dad is going to smoke the back tunas and I will do some of the skipjacks in or with a stir fry. Almost forgot to add that the bar was as flat as on the way back in so we circled around the Rufus King wreck to check it out. Also came across two tuna schools in the Rous Channel but couldn’t tempt them. Thanks for reading .

Good solution although it would be interesting whether the angler would be able to get the hooked shark to the boat without it being bitten/eaten on the way in, as happens to mackerel.

Whereas I thought he was talking about @GregOug ........ hmmmmm ....... .

Now that's one very memorable capture, well done!!

I 'may' have already known the result ...........

Well done mate, did it the hard way but got the rewards .

Possibly. Interesting Tigers v Knights game this arvo. I couldn’t watch it to the end - Tigers were a bit scrappy but the Knights look shot, especially once Saifiti was sent off. I am assuming the Tigers finished them off ……. ?

Yes Robson was excellent.

Up the Broncos .....

I can only hope you have tipped the Cowboys then …..

Very nice indeed