Daryl McPhee

I've been lucky enough to be working at Amity Pt on North Stradbroke Island, and while the work bit means that fishing time for me is very limited, I have been able to assist my students and Max to catch some good fish. 
As well as the usual grassies, Moses Perch and squire there have been some trophy fish mixed in. First, one of my American students on his 4th cast in Australia got an 84 cm mulloway on a lightly weighted hardihead. I suspect he won't get a bigger fish in his remaining time in Australia. 
Then Max showed came over and showed everyone how it is done with a trio of Mangrove Jacks - 47, 55 and 57 cm on live yakkas. He did an excellent job landing those fish landbased in very rough ground. 
The squid have been present but not abundant, but there are enough to make it worthwhile. 
Remember you don't need a boat to catch good fish. 

I've been lucky enough to be working at Amity Pt on North Stradbroke Island, and while the work bit means that fishing time for me is very limited, I have been able to assist my students and Max to catch some good fish. 
As well as the usual grassies, Moses Perch and squire there have been some trophy fish mixed in. First, one of my American students on his 4th cast in Australia got an 84 cm mulloway on a lightly weighted hardihead. I suspect he won't get a bigger fish in his remaining time in Australia. 
Then Max showed came over and showed everyone how it is done with a trio of Mangrove Jacks - 47, 55 and 57 cm on live yakkas. He did an excellent job landing those fish landbased in very rough ground. 
The squid have been present but not abundant, but there are enough to make it worthwhile. 
Remember you don't need a boat to catch good fish. 

I've been lucky enough to be working at Amity Pt on North Stradbroke Island, and while the work bit means that fishing time for me is very limited, I have been able to assist my students and Max to catch some good fish. 
As well as the usual grassies, Moses Perch and squire there have been some trophy fish mixed in. First, one of my American students on his 4th cast in Australia got an 84 cm mulloway on a lightly weighted hardihead. I suspect he won't get a bigger fish in his remaining time in Australia. 
Then Max showed came over and showed everyone how it is done with a trio of Mangrove Jacks - 47, 55 and 57 cm on live yakkas. He did an excellent job landing those fish landbased in very rough ground. 
The squid have been present but not abundant, but there are enough to make it worthwhile. 
Remember you don't need a boat to catch good fish. 

I think the sighting is credible. I have also been passed on anecdotal information of a possible sighting near the Coomera River a few weeks ago. While animals have their "normal range", you often find that you can get individuals that are "extra-limital" which means outside their normal range. A good example of this is some red throat emperors that turned up in southern NSW in the late 1990s and another is a pink snapper that was caught off Port Douglas a couple of years ago. 
I suspect this crocodile is just that, if indeed it is verified. They can move large distances in offshore waters to travel between estuary mouths. Myora is probably pretty good local habitat for them. Extensive open mangroves, plenty of fishand some nice freshwater input. 
 

Hello All,
Starting a new thread as I would like to share some of my good fishing spots in Molonglo River, Canberra. The spots shown in the attached image below are not easy to reach but that's exactly what makes them such good fishing spots. I have been fishing in this area a while now and will post some of my fishing reports from this area over the next few days. Stay tuned!

Yep, I fluked a few solid ones in the castnet (from my boat) a few years ago.

I don't target luderick myself, but if I had to I would go to the rockwalls under the boat passage bridge at Fishermen's Island. 

I don't target luderick myself, but if I had to I would go to the rockwalls under the boat passage bridge at Fishermen's Island. 

I don't target luderick myself, but if I had to I would go to the rockwalls under the boat passage bridge at Fishermen's Island. 

I don't target luderick myself, but if I had to I would go to the rockwalls under the boat passage bridge at Fishermen's Island. 

I don't target luderick myself, but if I had to I would go to the rockwalls under the boat passage bridge at Fishermen's Island. 

I started off the session yesterday arvo by packing my shark fishing gear and a selection of shark bait with the intent of catching …whiting. I Walked down to the jetty and set out my shark rod first And began cast netting. It wasn’t long before I could see big schools of herring splashing around the end of the jetty, I cast my net and caught about twenty. I cast out my spare old rod with a herring just to keep me from being bored. I started tidying my cart up when I heard the slow tick of my herring rod, I turned around and my reel started to scream . I hooked into it and whatever it was took a big run. Halfway through the fight it managed to wrap me around something but I managed to get it out, it started to tire and after one last dash for the jetty i got it to the surface and I saw the huge silver bat they call a mulloway. After a tense moment trying to get him in the dilly he was safe on the jetty
Sadly he had the usual barotrauma and also swallowed the hook. So I quickly dispatched him and took it home for quite a few dinners.
Cheers Thorbjörn 

There is definitely a croc in maaroom creek just south of Hervey Bay. 
Parks and wildlife are onto that one. Not sure whether they're going to relocate it or not though. 

I think the sighting is credible. I have also been passed on anecdotal information of a possible sighting near the Coomera River a few weeks ago. While animals have their "normal range", you often find that you can get individuals that are "extra-limital" which means outside their normal range. A good example of this is some red throat emperors that turned up in southern NSW in the late 1990s and another is a pink snapper that was caught off Port Douglas a couple of years ago. 
I suspect this crocodile is just that, if indeed it is verified. They can move large distances in offshore waters to travel between estuary mouths. Myora is probably pretty good local habitat for them. Extensive open mangroves, plenty of fishand some nice freshwater input. 
 

I think the sighting is credible. I have also been passed on anecdotal information of a possible sighting near the Coomera River a few weeks ago. While animals have their "normal range", you often find that you can get individuals that are "extra-limital" which means outside their normal range. A good example of this is some red throat emperors that turned up in southern NSW in the late 1990s and another is a pink snapper that was caught off Port Douglas a couple of years ago. 
I suspect this crocodile is just that, if indeed it is verified. They can move large distances in offshore waters to travel between estuary mouths. Myora is probably pretty good local habitat for them. Extensive open mangroves, plenty of fishand some nice freshwater input. 
 

I think the sighting is credible. I have also been passed on anecdotal information of a possible sighting near the Coomera River a few weeks ago. While animals have their "normal range", you often find that you can get individuals that are "extra-limital" which means outside their normal range. A good example of this is some red throat emperors that turned up in southern NSW in the late 1990s and another is a pink snapper that was caught off Port Douglas a couple of years ago. 
I suspect this crocodile is just that, if indeed it is verified. They can move large distances in offshore waters to travel between estuary mouths. Myora is probably pretty good local habitat for them. Extensive open mangroves, plenty of fishand some nice freshwater input. 
 

I think the sighting is credible. I have also been passed on anecdotal information of a possible sighting near the Coomera River a few weeks ago. While animals have their "normal range", you often find that you can get individuals that are "extra-limital" which means outside their normal range. A good example of this is some red throat emperors that turned up in southern NSW in the late 1990s and another is a pink snapper that was caught off Port Douglas a couple of years ago. 
I suspect this crocodile is just that, if indeed it is verified. They can move large distances in offshore waters to travel between estuary mouths. Myora is probably pretty good local habitat for them. Extensive open mangroves, plenty of fishand some nice freshwater input. 
 

I think the sighting is credible. I have also been passed on anecdotal information of a possible sighting near the Coomera River a few weeks ago. While animals have their "normal range", you often find that you can get individuals that are "extra-limital" which means outside their normal range. A good example of this is some red throat emperors that turned up in southern NSW in the late 1990s and another is a pink snapper that was caught off Port Douglas a couple of years ago. 
I suspect this crocodile is just that, if indeed it is verified. They can move large distances in offshore waters to travel between estuary mouths. Myora is probably pretty good local habitat for them. Extensive open mangroves, plenty of fishand some nice freshwater input. 
 

I think the sighting is credible. I have also been passed on anecdotal information of a possible sighting near the Coomera River a few weeks ago. While animals have their "normal range", you often find that you can get individuals that are "extra-limital" which means outside their normal range. A good example of this is some red throat emperors that turned up in southern NSW in the late 1990s and another is a pink snapper that was caught off Port Douglas a couple of years ago. 
I suspect this crocodile is just that, if indeed it is verified. They can move large distances in offshore waters to travel between estuary mouths. Myora is probably pretty good local habitat for them. Extensive open mangroves, plenty of fishand some nice freshwater input. 
 

I think the sighting is credible. I have also been passed on anecdotal information of a possible sighting near the Coomera River a few weeks ago. While animals have their "normal range", you often find that you can get individuals that are "extra-limital" which means outside their normal range. A good example of this is some red throat emperors that turned up in southern NSW in the late 1990s and another is a pink snapper that was caught off Port Douglas a couple of years ago. 
I suspect this crocodile is just that, if indeed it is verified. They can move large distances in offshore waters to travel between estuary mouths. Myora is probably pretty good local habitat for them. Extensive open mangroves, plenty of fishand some nice freshwater input. 
 

A mixed bag but only a couple of just legal grunter. None of the big grunter that I look for this time of the year. 

A mixed bag but only a couple of just legal grunter. None of the big grunter that I look for this time of the year. 

A mixed bag but only a couple of just legal grunter. None of the big grunter that I look for this time of the year. 

We'll be land based. 

I have been trying, (to no avail), to get @ARKS2011 to put this one together. It looks as though dad is flying solo on the post fishing activities again. 
 Myself, @Kat and @ARKS2011 launched from cabbage tree point 3/1/23 a little after first light. We headed to the northern end of Macleay island. The boating equivalent of a Westfield carpark just before Christmas soon unfolded. The place was packed out.
 We had some of Kat's beloved yabbies that I had kept alive since our last trip. The loose plan was to try and get some live squid around the top of the tide close by, perhaps entice a snapper on the run out,  then later target whiting. 
 I couldn't raise any squid and yabbies were achieving only pickers. The first fish into the boat was a toadfish courtesy of Amber. It was promptly doted over and named "Puffy".  Many under sized fish abounded. Squire, bream, Moses perch, stripey and even a spotted grunter. Not surprising however, given the inappropriate nature of our approach due to me quickly giving up on the live squid.
 We headed for whiting county on the western side of the island and Kat saw a familiar vessel. A quick hello to @GregOug and confirmation of similar degrees of success for the day thus far. Into the shallows we went.
True to recent form, we were quickly onto another great patch of stingrays, but a single miniscule whiting was found on Kat's hook at some point in time. I latched onto something solid which wasn't a stingray and my spirit soared. My hopes of a good sized flathead were promptly dashed by a gummy shark around 90cm. A keeper bream by me and some running, (very crude😬), cast net repairs later, I netted some mullet and gar. I was beginning to worry that the stingrays would swarm the boat and overthrow the crew, so we high tailed it out of there. 
A show of fish in some deeper water produced a few keeper bream and one just under legal snapper. Unfortunately the snapper didn't release well and probably made a very easy meal for one of the folks that @ellicat has been appreciating so much recently. Things went quiet not too long after that and we moved to check an isolated bit of structure we had marked many trips ago. 
I got one really good run into the structure and very quickly lost the lot. Bugger. I think another legal bream was kept from this spot. There were three turtles hanging around in the area which Amber found fascinating. I was not so appreciative when one swam through my line and I lost another rig.
We headed down towards Karagarra to collect fresh yabbies and stumbled upon a situation which helped me to put our limited catch into perspective. Someone in a much larger boat than Kat's had decided that the Chanel markers weren't for them and parked it up high and dry for a tide cycle or two. It certainly didn't look like somewhere you would usually leave a boat like that anyway.
We may only have been sporting a few meagre bream, but at least we still had opportunity.
The gathering of fresh yabbies provided fantastic amusement with Amber playing "Master of the soldier crabs". Herding them like cattle, she all but had them in a single group when a lack of attention to where she was going saw her bogged and seeking our assistance. She managed to free herself, but not before her upright function failed and we had a very muddy child. A quick dip for Amber before we headed off to another spot where we had caught good whiting in the past.
Again, nothing but bream were to be had initially. At least there were a couple of keepers amongst them. Then I picked up a legal spotted grunter which lifted my spirits. I hoped that more than one of those would make it aboard, but no, back to the bream.
It was a pretty warm day and the ladie's "Whingeometer" had been indicating an impending meltdown, so it was around to Karagarra for them to have a swim. 
After their swim we met a couple of gentleman who spoke of similar experiences to @GregOug at north west island, a report that Kat has urged me to read. They were very friendly retired fellows with plenty of stories to share. Though it made me acutely aware of my imminent return to work, it was great to see some long time mates catching up for a quiet afternoon ale by the beach.
 Last spot for the day and Kat was pretty grumpy about having contributed a donut to the keep tally thus far. I started catching more bream and Amber was busy signing up to AFO. With an unattended line in the water Amber still managed to land a couple of bream. Kat was still flying the donut flag with great disdain and blaming her position in the boat. Amber finished her sign up and Kat pulled rank in her own boat. With a nonchalant and abiding "OK", Amber assumed her new position and almost instantly proceeded to land a keeper bream. Two more followed shortly after. The bream bite was hot. Amber and I couldn't miss and were releasing legal fish. Poor Kat was seething. Eventually Kat lowered the donut flag by putting a keeper bream in the esky. We had enough fish, but were all on a donut when it came to keeper whiting.
 Amber snapped some pictures of building storm clouds silhouetted by the late afternoon sun and we headed for home. The final keep tally was 10 bream and 1 grunter. A complete fail on the target species, but quality time together trumps that in my mind.