GregN70

I really like Schoolie Mackerel, used to catch plenty from anywhere around the Bribie blinker, out to the Bird Cage, 4 Beacons etc. Good fighters, good to eat, what's not to like. However now that I live and fish out of Yeppoon, these are no longer really an option for me, i've managed to get just one of a few years of trying. Can't wait to move back to Brisbane/SEQ area for the fantastic fishing there.

Thanks, I don't really catch anything these days, so I don't really have to worry that much. If I want to eat fish I have to go buy it.

That’s what I thought, but there’s no major blood vessels there.

Why do you snap the fishes necks like that?

Jump on YouTube and look up Old Fart Fishing, he's got a lot of vids catching fish in the creeks and river around mackay, should give you a few tips as to spots, plenty of landmarks to go off etc

Oh nice Bob9863, crabbing in Northern NSW was like that too. The biggest crabs ive ever seen, and very abundant. Especially Wooli River. 2kg Bucks, 20cm across the back were the norm, not the exception.

My family love seafood. So we eat a lot of Basa. I probably but 1kg per week. Sometimes hoki as well when on special. When we lived in Brisbane & NSW, I used to get a stacks of crabs, both sandys and muddies. The family, got used to a good feed of crabs once a month or so. But up here in this Yeppoon area, there are very few crabs anywhere. Sand crabs are super rare, and mud crabs aren't much better. We now keep a crab feed to a once a year special when I buy 3 or so from the FishO for easter or Christmas. Really miss the great crabs of Toorbul & Donnybrook, it's just to easy to get a feed there.

Before I moved to Central Queensland, I lived in Adelaide, Nth NSW & Brisbane area. Fishing from a young age, I had exceptional success in those areas, always catching amazing fish, winning fishing club awards, photos in fishing mags, fish in the freezer always etc. Then when I moved to Yeppoon it was like a tap was turned off, I could not catch anything. I started to throw more time and money at it thinking I just need to learn more about this spot, go further, use a better sounder, and go every day off I have etc. But that didn't help either, 2 nice boats in the shed brimming with technology and gear, 100kms offshore hunting for new untouched grounds, upset wife as i was hardly ever home on the weekend. Over a couple of years of doing this with only maybe 2 or 3 legal fish on the board, i started to doubt myself, I started to feel cursed, i started to feel useless and that it was just me that was useless. I ended up just giving up on the fishing and started just drinking and staring at my boats in disgust. I broke a few rods in anger and frustration and yelled a lot, had a cry. Went to the doctors, got diagnosed with depression, got on some meds and did some cognitive behaviour therapy. Changed my thinking, I got back into fishing about 18 months ago, I do like you say, I go boating, take the wife and daughter now. I still don't really catch anything, but I can handle those negative aspects or Cons much better and try not take it to heart anymore like i did. Eventually one day I might catch some good fish consistently. That mostly involves moving to a better fishing area, which will happen in the next couple of years hopefully. Until then I will go boating and if i catch something great, if not it's also great.

Nice, I guess a tuna would do that. Can't seem to say i get that adrenaline with 250mm long catfish.

For me these are pros and cons, Pros - Get away from the house and chores - Get to play with my toys, Fishing gear and Boats - Spend time with family & mates Cons - It's a very very expensive hobby, big distances and lots of fuel to get to less abused spots - Never any fish to catch, everywhere is already fished out - Never any crabs left, everywhere is all crabbed out - Can be very boring spending long hours on the water for not even a bite - The family get cranky when we do a full day on the water and still have to buy frozen fish (Basa) for dinner from Coles - One of my biggest cons is depression, developed from years of catching nothing I was diagnosed with depression and required medication.

I'd give that area a miss altogether, it's very hard to find any fish around there. I'd go further north to the Whitsundays, or even Cardell.

Pike Eel, they love canals after dark,

That's the stuff. If you catch your own prawns and want to stop them going black quickly, dip them in a solution of that, and drain before packing.

Bait Prawns are dipped in solution of Sodium metabisulfite Na2S2O5. Sodium met-b is used extensively as a disinfectant, anti-microbial & fungicide. In bait prawns it prevents the heads turning black and is widely used by bait shops and bait suppliers alike.

It can be a hard thing to do, I wish you well. Sadly my kids have almost grown up now, and despite my best efforts they hate fishing. Boy (12) & Girl (16) both describe it as "Boring", I feel kinda sad, thinking if only I brought them up in a better fishing area like the Gold Coast or Coffs where they could have caught some decent fish and gotten excited about bent rods and screaming drags like I did growing up near Bribie Island/Moreton Bay. My fault as due to my work I brought them up at Yeppoon with only undersized cod, tiny bream and the ever-present & always unwanted catfish their only fishy experiences to date. I can see why they got bored. I'm bored too.

Windy can be quite useful. However it is solely drive by deterministic model outputs with no forecasting adjustments/skil made by forecasters locally, the models used in Windy are, ECMWF (European), ICON (Korean), GFS (USA) and ACCESS (BOM), the exact same models as used by the BOM for their official forecasts, also the free version of Windy is only updated 12 hourly (unless its changed recently), rather than 6 hourly when the model runs are conducted, which means it can be a bit out of date by the time a new run is about to be uploaded. Check Times and Runs.

Yeah right, I don’t believe you. i thibk it’s absolutely crap here

Clearly I need to ditch my 2 boats, stop going 60+ kms offshore trolling live baits off downriggers, and deep jigging etc. The Harbour walls with servo prawns is where its at.

All day every day? There's not much more effort to give than that.

Nice, catch. That's more than i've caught here in 4 years. Must have put some huge hours in to find all them ?

Nice catch there mate, certainly a lot better that what I can get off Yeppoon.

I used to chase dart, bream and bonefish off the beach at Fraser Is. The surf made it tough, with loose line loops around your feet, but a stripping basket is worth using. I never got a bonefish but plenty of big dart,

Don't believe everything you see on FB, the only thing it's full of is mud, old cars & tall stories.

There's probably only 3 places i'd say best to avoid. Gladstone, Rockhampton, Yeppoon. Very bad areas.

Hi Ed. I've found that the better fishing is always south. The further south the more the marine biomass.