Alex2505

Couple more whiting for team south
390mm and another 350mm

Went for a flathead fish this morning ,but my Lowrance side scan  told me to forget the flathead and fish for something else. 
Ended up getting a nice feed of threadies off the sand in 1.2 m of water. Jess those things go on light gear. Hopefully the photos come up ok as they were beautifully conditioned clean fish.

team south 
Flathead 510mm
Threadfin 1030mm  ,930mm and 965mm
Gave all the fish barring 1 Thready away ,  which I’ll be having with some nice fresh salad tonite.
regards
Neil

My son spent some time fishing over at Amity Point without me. 
He wanted to target pelagics landbased and he certainly produced the goods. He was targeting bonito on small metals next to the boat ramp. He was  doing okay when a ripper of a Spanish mackerel grabbed the small lure. He wasn't fishing with wire and managed to hook it squarely in the mouth. He also didn't have a gaff. There was a big crowd of onlookers watching him land the fish and several boats returning back to the ramp with donuts. It could be a long time before he gets a bigger one landbased. 
 
 

Pearl Cichlids. 
I had these when I had an aquarium. Great looking fish but extremely ferocious. 
 
If anyone catches one. Don't let it go. Destroy it. 
 
 
This recent vid came across my feed yesterday. 
 
 

I’ve been  wanting to make a custom spin  rod for  Tailor  fishing up at Fraser Island for a while now . About a week ago I got on Facebook and  purchased  an old  trashy looking 13 ft butterworth surf rod, (the number on the blank appears to be ss 51569 )for the princely sum of  $50 -hoping I  could do something with the blank.
First up , I stripped it all back and shorted the blank down  till it felt real good at 11 foot 8 inches. I wanted the rod to be powerful ,but as light as possible , so got on line and ordered a set of Alps  aluminium oxide High Rise  Guides , a Fuji reel seat , some shrink wrap grips,  and a butt cap from a local supplier . I had a bit of thread and epoxy in the garage which I used for the project . It took me two nights to bind it all up and epoxy it . My wife even made me up a little decal sticker  for it.
This morning the epoxy had all gone off rock solid  , so I put a Shimano  6000 Saragosa  with 20 lb braid on it and loaded it up to give it a test.Jezzz …  It feels like a weapon and cannt wait to fire out some 65 and 85 g Raiders later this year. I’ve used a lot of high modulus rods but I recon those old school surf rods are hard to beat when surf fishing , they cop a flogging out there on the beach and a lot still being used 20 to 30 years later . Super glad I gave this old girl of a rod a second lease of life.
Neil

We got quite a few really good  70 cm plus tailor up at Fraser last September ,  the best year for big fish I’ve ever had up there , best fish was a 76  cracker ,  looking forward to using that stick later this year to crack an 80 . 

Towards the end of February I headed out in the bay in search of some Jew, I found them and had an absolute shocker!, I lost 4 fish (& plastics) to line break as I was going extremely hard on these fish to try and avoid being sharked, I also got snagged once, got snipped by a mackerel, and when I finally managed to get one close to the boat it got sharked about 3 metres away, I was devastated but not willing to give up, having lost 7 plastics & jigheads I headed off to BCF that afternoon to restock & get some new line.
The plan was to head out there the next day and see if they were still around, well, what a difference a day makes, I dropped the first fish, but managed 2 in 2 casts after that, the 1st went 95-96?, there was a little bit of chop out there and they weren't behaving themselves on the brag mat

I'll admit I took a pretty ordinary pic of him, but you get the idea. After I gave him the treatment and got organised again, this little guy paid me a visit

With 2 onboard in quick succession, the decision was made to leave them be, as its just too risky sport fishing for them with the sharks never too far away, so I decided to move on in search of some more fun.

That fun came via a little 30cm small mouth, which was a first for me in the bay, a Trevally not much bigger came after him, then I headed back in. It was a pleasant few hours all up.
Fast forward a month or so, with very little fishing taking place because of some average weather, when I saw the conditions for Tuesday just gone, it was an easy decision to head back out in the bay.
Jew were on the menu once again, so I deployed the same plastic from the previous outing and after working him for about 15 minutes I hooked a big grinner, now I "technically" didn't land him, no leader was touched, I swear!, I just let him chill next to the boat while I grabbed the pliers, when I came back to the rod he was gone, result!, the scoreboard remains unchanged.
Not long after that incident I hooked up to what I initially thought was a small shark, it hit the plastic just off the bottom and started to scream off, then it started coming up, rather erratic mind you, thinking it was a shark I wasn't interested in playing it out, with a heavy drag set to try and beat the sharks, I wound it in with little respect, that was until I saw it was a nice Spotted Mackerel, perfectly pinned in the centre of the top jaw there was no way he could've escaped, I swung him over the side and swifly gave him the treatment.


A surprise, and very welcomed addition to the esky, Jew were still on my mind so I kept plugging away, I missed a good hit, then the next flick resulted in a nice little Jew, success!.

Another dodgy pic, he got a little bent out shape in the esky. So far that 1 plastic has nailed 3 Jew & a spotty, he's almost earned his retirement I'd say??.
After that Jew I headed off in search of some Tuskies, having arrived at the spot and deploying the bait, I had a few enquiries early up which saw nervous anticipation almost reach fever pitch, you just never know how big it is until you set the hooks, this one sadly was no beast, and I made very short work of him. Still a very tasty fish though.

Thinking the bite might be on, I hung around for a few hours but couldn't manage anything else, which in all honesty wasn't such a bad thing as the esky already looked pretty good, and I'm well stocked for the next few weeks.
I pulled the jewels out of the Jew this afternoon, they are something I don't usually keep but I might start doing so in the future as they do look kinda cool.

 
 
 
 
 

@Old Scaley 39cm Grass Emperor.

Did a solo trip down the Pin this morning in search of some Threadfin . 
Spotted some threadies  and  baby bullies  feeding  together in 1.5 m of water right where I expected them at 11.30am .
 I managed to pull a feed  before they wised up . 
team south  - 
Threadfin  885 and 1100mm
Bull Sharks 800, 740 and 765mm 
Grunter 350mm
Regards
Neil

Hi all, 
I drove up to Yeppoon last Thursday for a quick visit. After arriving late Thursday arvo, my Dad and I decided to go for a fish at the Causeway later that night as there was a run through tide. It was still pretty crowded just before 10, but there weren't any fish getting caught. My Dad and I alternated the lures we were using for the next hour and a half but after no bites we decided to call it quits. 
The next morning I didn't go fishing, but in the afternoon I went out to Double Heads. Unfortunately, the wind was very strong and the water was a bit brown, so I didn't bother fishing. My Dad and I then went to Ross Creek, where we also caught nothing except a large stingray which my Dad hooked that put up a good fight. 
The next morning we decided to give the harbor a crack. We caught some livies and tried a couple of spots, and ended up on the rockwall at the mouth of the harbour. We didn't have much success here, but my Dad did hook up to a decent fish (probably a cod) which broke him off in some of the rocks. We were a bit more hopeful about this spot now so decided to try there the next day, because it was still very windy. 
The next morning we repeated the same thing, where this time my Dad caught an undersize cod. Things were still very quiet and windy though. We also flicked plenty of lures around but no hookups. The next morning we came back to this spot and I caught one bream, so it was also very quiet. A bit unsure what to do to try and get a bite, my Dad and I decided to have a flick with some lures around the harbour later that night, which resulted in nothing except a very long sleep in the next morning. We tried in the harbour again that arvo with some smaller plastics and soft vibes but no bites once again. 
Overall, although it was a quiet trip, it was still good to try some fishing up in Yeppoon. I'm going to Victoria today so won't be able to fish in the river that much this holidays unfortunately. 
Cheers, Hamish. 

I took a drive down to the Tweed river and collected some driftwood for the garden earlier this month. I found a well weathered piece of sleeper that I thought I could make into something interesting. With all this crap weather I  found some time and got out the electric soldering iron and etched a  Kraken into it to add a bit of character. Next piece I  find ,  might make a  Rum tasting paddle with a similar design.
regards
neil

A very late notice and unexpected child free weekend revealed itself yesterday morning. While I was not happy about the circumstances, @Kat and I wasted little time in seeing the silver lining.  With a coastal wind warning current it would be tucking up a creek somewhere that didn't involve travelling great distances in the boat. Our regular haunt ticked the boxes. 
We organised some blood worms, packed the boat, some sandwiches etc and off we went to brave the wind.
There were plenty of spare parks at paradise point ramp as expected. We could have launched much closer but a better ramp with a pontoon and no cross current is worth a couple of minutes travelling in the boat, even in yesterday's wind. 
We found a spot that was sheltered from the wind and anchored up. It was less than about twenty seconds before my basically free spool drag screamed off. The catfish that appeared shortly after at the boat signalled the start of what would become a monotonously regular annoyance. 
My next bait was out a few minutes before it screamed off in a similar fashion and I think I actually called catfish again but was pleasantly surprised when a reasonable spotted grunter appeared at the boat. It had actually made a bit of a mess of my 10lb leader so I'm glad I opted for the net.
@Kat couldn't seem to get any interest on her side of the boat yet and started making noise about swapping sides. Very soon it didn't matter what side of the boat you were on it was catfish aplenty. This went on for a while before I landed a solid whiting that was frustratingly shy of the magic 40cm mark.
There were a lot of other undersized grunter, a few legal bream and tarwhine which were released, (and of course the mandatory pony fish).  Kat then landed a good legal whiting, but it was back to catfish and undersized spotted grunter straight after that.
Unfortunately it was looking like we were going to have to endure a lot of undesirables to get a feed of whiting.
We chose to move to try and escape the catfish etc but to no avail. It was the same everywhere, a couple of good fish and then we just couldn't get past the vermin. @Kat bettered me on the whiting tally again and contributed two very solid specimens that were almost identical to the first one I got. But neither of us managed to bust the 40cm mark yesterday.
Catfish OMG the catfish. Wow, to think that @kat wanted to rename her boat to "Katfish".

Last minute decision to go hit up the Jungle Perch in the local creek between the rain.  I had fished with Declan a few times and he had not been successful. The rain had brought out a bit of flow and silt in the creek and the fish where on. Declan got his first followed by 20 more and I got some as well. Not bad for a couple of hours. 

Got my new boat last year after 20 years owning my last tinnie. So I talked the wife into an upgrade and bought a 651 Mclay hardtop.
I got straight into getting some good mojo for the boat with a few trips offshore brisvegas and a trip out on the bunker group up north.
I very happy with it so far and here is a few pictures now we can load them up again on AFO.

Whatever is abundant in the area??? Macerated pilchards and  squid worked for me at times. 
Hired a houseboat in Cardwell year's ago before yasi. It had a macerating toilet... Soooo.... Stuff it, I'll give it a try... Fingermark and grunter😜👍

All,
Got the new boat on the water end of October 2023 and what a ride it's been, done plenty of trips to break her in, mainly chasing squid and chasing Tuskies which I loved doing in my teens with my Dad.
1st trip was on the tuskies was 2 weeks before I got my boat,  i headed out with a good mate in his boat to see if any of my old hunting grounds still held the elusive blackspot and wouldn't you know it 2nd drop with a rather large sleepy crab wich spells big trouble at this spot in some rather ordinary seas off Moreton Island I was on,  under locked drag, with 80lb braid and 120lb leader I was hooked up to a dinosaur of a blackspot Tuskfish that was running hard for the coffee rock ledge, after some very intense spool thumbing and some grunting I'd managed to to turn this fish and have it heading my way until it decided it wanted that rock some more ,  with a few ugly rod angles and a few more grunts I managed to get him boat side for netting and my 1st blackspot in 20 + yrs was on the floor of the boat and we was in absolute awe of the colours this fish went, ended weighing in at a modest 10.2kg after being bled. 
Enough rambling, I'll let everyone enjoy the pics
Cheers Josh <><
 

team south Tai Bui nice yella NPD 3/3/24

The new boat

Headed out with 'The Dentist' today. Up at 2.30am for a 5am launch from Mooloolaba.
Headed to the area where we've had success on the grassies in the past. I managed a grassie first cast and then again on the second cast. Not monsters but were big enough to not need to measure them - mid 30's. At the same time, The Dentist was getting snagged and busted off and was retying for most of the first part of the morning.
I thought it would be my day to out-fish him. Wrong. I didn't add a legal fish after those first two. Meanwhile the boat tally went to 8 grassies to low forties (Av size was down a bit this trip), 3 Spanish Flag and a Hussar. Only bothered by a few sharks, but nothing like the Bay. Towards stumps I landed three Red Throat Emperor which was cool to see. Undersized though.
A Wobbygong finished my day. On the way back to the ramp we came upon plenty of schools of Tuna busting up - both Long Tail and Mack.
Thanks for the day, mate.
 
No pics as we didn't have time at the end of the day, due to being delayed because of low discipline levels and having a few casts at the tuna.

Last trip to Moreton was quite interesting. Went to a spot I normally have good luck at. Been fishing the river lately so was really nice to go fish ocean for once. Water was very dirty which was expected, never seen the water that dirty around that area before so it was quite a change. 
Got to the spot early morning and was glassed out which is normally, conditions looking amazing and the hopes of something decent was high. Was planning to go for tuna and mackeral but I normally get tuna in winter, mackeral and maybe cobia was still an option though.
We managed to get some live herring which died pretty quickly so we put it out as dead bait and managed to get a few out live. Sadly only bream were out and something else that kept taking our bait, never know what it was but I doubt it was very big. By then we were fishing for about 3 hours and it was now 11am, decided to get some bream just to have some fun. My small rod was rigged up for lures as I was throwing lures so I decided to use my 7-15kg rod for bream in structure, maybe not the lightest rod but it definitely feels like a 4-8kg rod. I put small cut pieces of herring on a small hook and a small sinker and kept the bait between the shade and sun and managed a couple bream all between 25-32cm. 
I put out the rod with herring again and leader got clean bitten off which lifted by hopes up, mackeral were around. After no luck on the stickbait in the morning i decided to put on a 30g metal in a shiny green colour. After a bit of casting a decided to go for bream again. My mate went to practice his casting with the rod later that day around 1pm, 2nd cast mackeral. Wasnt big by any means maybe 35-40cm but still better than nothing. Put a 30g metal on his rod in a bright pink colour and started casting. Got a couple more after that but they were very scattered, not as many bust ups as usual as well.
 
Anyways that was my trip to Moretan last weekend
 
Tight lines

So I've recently bought an electric motor and starting enquiring about the plate being fabricated to the bow.. I'm keen to add some flat gunnell to the sides of the boat and extend the casting deck to fit a livewell/ more storage...
so I got to thinking...😬🤪
Being my first boat and also being an apprentice, why not have a crack myself?
I have never welded aluminium but weld stainless and carbon pipe regularly, have access to an AC/DC tig and can get enough materials to do all the jobs for a similar price it would cost to do just the bow mount...
I think I'm going to use this topic to document and record the progress, happy to hear any advice from people that fabricate or have any constructive recommendations to the build... 
To start, I'll give a bit of history on the boat.. I sold my Hobie PA14 when this boat came up. Pretty much a clean swap. It's a Horizon 2000ish 4.2m with a 30hp 2001 Honda 30hp on the back. Trailer was only 12 months old but I believe had been mistreated (along with the boat and motor, they lived on stradbroke)
the motor wasn't running so started with new fuel , fuel lines, filters, got it started but wouldn't get on the plane... 
Carbies next...
Bought a carby gasket set, thermostat, impeller service kit, new plugs and got stuck in. Pulled down the carburettors and took them to the local small motor mechanic to be ultrasonic cleaned, reassembled 
still wouldn't get on the plane.. 
Stripped down the carbies again, somehow there was gunk in the bowl so ultrasonic cleaned again then cleaned the jets by hand with oxy tip cleaners...
My first time on the plane, beautiful! Cruises around 20kts in good conditions, to date have not assessed l/km but it really isnt concerning. Have taken it for over 40km round trips up north. Just take some extra fuel ⛽️ 
the tilt mechanism was damaged and the tiller arm didnt move vertically at all, sorted those out with replacement parts. Was very hard to steer for the first couple months until I found a bolt that restricted movement in the steering, loosened that and greased the nipples. 😄 
In a perfect world, I would have a newer motor and a newer tinny but this is what I have to work with. She's not perfect or pretty but she's honest. 
I'll post photos and updates when things happen. if you got this far into the write up I commend you.
Hope I have this in the write sub category.. 
Also, in the meantime, I'm going to keep fishing, I'm keen to catch more fish on lures, if anyone is keen to come for a burn on the water and show me some things, let me know. (Really just want your GPS marks) 🤣 

Flathead 620mm, Bream 310mm,Cod 320mm, Grassys 390mm 370mm,380mm School Mac 720mm Spanish Mac 2x 1100mm
For Team South.
Regards
Neil





FF

Got out with my partner and daughter on Friday, just caught the top of the run in and spent some time exploring some of the drains . As the tide turned we started to fish.
I was focused on drifting around with lures, running motor oil coloured grubs , paddle tails and shrimp. Laser ayu double clutch when I though a flatty might be sitting in the shallows. 

I missed a couple of hits throughout the day (amateur hour) and spite our efforts neither of us landed any fish.
 
The next day we took out a frozen mullet I netted a while ago to target the same drains, this time fishing the top 2 hours of the run in. We both caught at least 8 legal bream , at least another 12 undersized. the largest just on 30cm, all released to fight another day.
all bream caught on a 1/0 circle on strips of mullet. 10lb leader.
 
It was my partners first time on the boat since April last year so there was no complaints until it was time to load the boat….
When approaching the ramp my partner threw the rope around the cleat but not secured and stupidly I jumped off onto the jetty , pushing the boat off and away to the abyss. My partner panicked as it had been some time since she operated the tiller . I was struggling not to laugh which later cost me some snarls and awkward words. 
 
I obviously take full responsibility as I should have secured the boat to the ramp myself or at least checked what she had done … a valuable lesson … 
🤪
Take-offs from the day:
-it’s a juggling act having a toddler on a boat , definitely need to find more ways to entertain her and also keep her cool, keeping her under an umbrella did okay but she was definitely too hot. 
-need to spend some more time training my partner in boat operations in case of an emergency. 
-need to train myself more to try and avoid said emergency.