samsteele115

Another day, another wrong forecast. Probably saw 1 other boat out there yesterday and I reckon it might be the weather forecaster wanting the bay to themselves by scaring everyone off with a 15-20 knot northerly forecast. It was a glass out! I fished the bay islands targeting snapper with my brother in the arvo which happened to be a run out tide. We got some just legals or just unders that were all released back into the 4-6m depth where they came from. (only got a pic of one the day before. This 36cm is apparently the first squire caught on Gobblers Lures new paddleshad) We got snipped a few times also, and eventually caught the suspected culprits; school mackerel. All undersized though! Still fun on 6lb. The first keeper fish was a Watson's leaping bonito. I don't mind eating those things. They are nice smoked too. The bite slowed in that area and we moved on to target flathead and squid. It was awesome sightcasting the squid when we saw them, but we only got 2. Enough for dinner at least! I got 2 of the target species before calling it a day as the light faded. Man I love flathead fishing. A 45cm and 57cm were caught and kept and we had a delicious assortment for dinner 20210624_114829.mp4

Yeah... hmm. Fishing "marks" as a guarantor for catching fish is a ridiculous myth out there that many people cling on to, and don't have much success when being so close minded with their "spot". Funny that.

You have inspired me to put more time into the bay islands! Very very nice, love your reports. Thankyou. I snuck out after work also, managed a barely legal snapper but it was a good confidence boost. Was a lovely little weather window

Nice! Bay and estuary tailor are so under rated hey. I've had some of my best tailor sessions at mud island and pine river. It doesn't have to be in the surf! Easier to specifically target in the surf I guess

Not really mate in my limited tailor experience. If they are hungry they'll eat legitimately anything. If they are wary, I find a slow sinking stickbait jerked at medium retrieval gets them to bite. I can't remember specific brands haha, but anything in the small stickbait size that you'd throw at tuna (4 inch kinda size)

Mate just go for a spin reel I reckon. More versatile, and sounds like it's more suited to the rods you have. Been getting heaps of tailor on slugs and stickbaits the past week could easily bag out each time but not necessary. When they are on I reckon it's quicker and easier (and more fun) watching them smash lures off the top. In the time you're putting bait on the gang hooks you could have caught another one on a lure. But of course there are the days when bait reigns supreme!

Hey mate, there are some longtail tuna playing around the gorge at the moment. I had a cast at one freeswimming yesterday but no love. You'll mostly encounter small GTs when the swell is up, but it can be pretty quiet fishing in calm clear conditions like it is currently unless bait/birds/fish are visible, then you're in with a shot. Fish activity has been on the increase the past week, hopefully they come in close enough to cast at.

Yes, and to allow yourself to feel and process emotions also during this stressful time. Be kind to yourself

Strongly disagree. In SEQ there's every chance of having a crazy mackerel session. A mate of mine got a nice landbased moreton bay Spanish last week also. My point being they aren't rare here and it's only better the further north you go (hence being a little surprised about the potential lockouts and your lack of success at yeppoon). On a recent cape trip we nearly got cleaned up twice by flying mackerel just driving from A to B. It's probably a case of a missing piece somewhere, combined with extreme bad luck. Would love to see you get a SEQ mackerel. Keep trying!!

Maybe sensitivity is high, but either way that's a pretty standard Spanish screenshot. To break it down: the red "squiggles" are mackerel. Sometimes when they aren't feeding they will appear a bit more horizontally if they are just cruising under the boat. Each sounder brand uses different colouring schemes but in this case reds are the strongest return echo (the bottom, larger fish). Dialing back towards cooler colours means the return echo isn't as solid. When bait is balled up you will get yellows and sometimes even reds (if it is small bait), and in this case it appears the bait is a little scattered and of larger size (maybe yakkas or slimeys). There are a few clumps of them in there but mostly they appear to be individual and are being harassed by the mackerel. If you drop a lure below your transducer you can quite often watch the fish come up to meet it (obviously you would hook up before seeing evidence of this, as once the image is displayed it is all history) but it's pretty cool.

+1 Even if you throw a large popper or surface stickbait around all day it's pretty unlikely to not bring up a Spanish (When casting around bait or structure at the right time of the year). I like to do it for the aerial strikes

Good question. Something im keen to learn more about too

If it wasn't mentioned they'd fished before then yep! Stand behind them and gently guide them through the motions all inclusive

No Robbie, it's a squid Easy mistake with the Victoria misread hahaha that's hilarious

Yeah true! Didn't know that about the guts. But yes to leaving scales on and peeling it all off at the end!! Very satisfying

Got some squid with my girlfriend Victoria today. She also got her first which was pretty cool. I was about to go through the basics of casting with her when she snatched the rod out of my hand, flicked the bail arm over and whipped out a genuinely good cast. Got a squid straight away how dare I assume she didn't know how to fish!! I've learnt to not push my hobbies onto others, so it's refreshing when there is organic interest and a pre-existing learnt skill I had no idea about. We were also watching the rescue boats combing the area for the missing kayaker. Pretty heavy. I hope everyone had a good weekend

It could be a fluke, ill report back after next session

Yep I'm with you there mate. By contrast, where I live people can launch their boat from the beach and fish most of the year if they want. Keep bag limits, give fish away to neighbours and friends and do it all again the next day. I also fish for food not sport these days, similar to what you're saying. Again it's interesting that mackerel could be a target. I'll have a look with fresh eyes in the morning. Thanks for sharing

Thanks for the responses! I have a fresh wave of motivation to change things up when it's quiet. This morning I cast a small blade using ultralight gear in the surf. Its something that I haven't done in ages, and I felt it time to give the heavy gear stuff a miss. I just wanted a fish or two for breakfast! It didn't take long before I caught a little trev. And a bream soon after. Interestingly the bream went harder. I now remember why I used to be so fond of light gear, it's fun. Anyway, I don't usually keep bream but today felt important to cook up a nice feed on a breakfast fire and get my mojo back again. Delicious! I was that keen that I went out after breakfast to try to catch lunch and dinner. This time on my popping gear using an 80g jig skipped across the surface. Got a little GT (maybe 50cm) and got whacked on top by some larger models. It was nice to catch fish again haha

It seems strange that mackerel are a potential target for lockout or closures. I would have thought many other species would be higher up on that list. Unpopular opinion, but I don't mind the idea of tighter restrictions and take limits in general if it means more fish out there swimming around

Big fish mate! Keen to do some more exploring of our inshore reefs the cuttlefish technique is one I haven't really heard of! I guess not many people target them in the bay? That's epic!

Evening all, I haven't caught a noteworthy fish in quite a while; maybe a month, maybe two. Upon reflection of today's landbased mission targeting flatties which resulted in a pike and longtom it got me thinking: Have I got lazy? I know i used to change lures way too often (spending half the time doing so instead of having a line in the water). But in 4 hours today I used 2 lures. Probably the same yesterday too. I think that is a problem. I'm curious, how often do you change your lure/bait that isn't working?

Great session mate! Expert levels

Thanks Benno, It was! Featuring home grown Thai basil, chilli, pak choi

Thanks Brian. Mate I reckon I haven't caught anything of note for about 20 trips or so haha. I think I've been a little impatient and/or stuck in my ways. Always learning