GregN70

Yeah samsteele115, i'd love to get a SEQ Spano too. But i'll keep trying here as much as possible till I can get down to Brissy in Dec/Jan for a holdiay. I'll bring my boat down and hope for good weather.

I’ve tried the coastal outer islands where there are bombys like you say many times. and been out the the outer shoals up to 70-80km out over the reef drop offs n edges, current lines, pressure points, bait shows etc. but never seen a mackerel yet. I’m actually 50 and fished all my life, yet never seen a mackerel of any species caught in my boats. Which is why I though new rules would be good, cause I’d like to get just one before I get to old to fish offshore

Maybe just bad luck. ive done everything including. trolling lures trolling rigged swimming baits trolling live baits including off a downrigger Live baits unweighted, under balloons jigging and using flashers floating out pillies but never seen a mackerel yet. Even a Spotties or a schoolie be good but now luck so far in about 30 trips and 3 charters

Wow so many up there. But in qld they seem to be very rare these days. Maybe if I’m going to ever tick off a Spano on my bucket list I should head up to the NT one time.

The cheapest stuff I could find was; Rod - Diawa Saltist BW (82XH SPIN) 8'2" 2pc But Join, PE8 rated. $129 MoTackle Reel - Rapala Type-R 7500, Full Alloy Rotor & Body, 18kg Drag, (4.9:1 Gear) $189 MoTackle And then of course youve go briad too. But I reckon those above would handle most situations and all for about $318.000

Hopefully I’ll manage to get one over the next few years. Pretty elusive

William Bowtell ( Bill) is a fishing commentator and author in several publications. He specialises in Spanish Mackerel, active in ANSA and is a wise old cookie and been around a long time. I've chatted to him a couple times about tips on finding a spano, decent bloke. https://fishandboat.com.au/black-macks-bill-bowtell-2017/

That's excellent, a good location works wonders, and SEQ still turns it on. I'm a bit further away from SEQ up in Yeppoon, and its hard going up here at the best of times. Looking forward to getting back down there at Christmas and chase some pelagics in the bay and offshore GC.

wow, where do you fish to catch so many great species? Or do you travel up and down the coast seasonally ?

Probably a good idea. They are almost impossible to find off Yeppoon these days

I love chasing jew especially on hard bodys of the rockwalls, but as for eating, it's those worms that turn me off them, the more you look the more you find.

Nah, it certainly was a thing back then. Word also got out, and a few others got in there too. Some did the wrong thing and exploited it, one i believe even took out the biggest Bream award at more than one Straddie Classic Fishing Comp

Here's an old story about a spot there I used to fish (No Longer Accessible). I was living at Banyo at the time, it was about 1995-1996 and I fished Shults canal a bit, got a few legal fish and some crabs at times, but after viewing some ariel pics of the airport I noticed a pond, not far off the canal which is connected to the salt by a tiny tidal creek (blue) only on king tides, and with some fresh inflow on the western end when rainy. We accessed it by parking the boat on the bank in Shultz and walking up the old dirt road (red), at first I just wanted to see if it was salt (it was brackish), and if so toss a crab pot in. However, there was not only massive crabs in it, which could be seen just walking around in the shallows, but it was full of BIG FISH which had never seen a hook before and not at all shy, I mainly caught Bream some up to about 1.5kg, and whiting of epic proportions, mostly all caught on small bass lures and on ultra light lines (95% were released). We named this pond Jurassic-Pond and started to visit there more over several weeks, however the airport authorities got on to it, and us and soon shut it down and issued warnings and threatened fines. Still have not beaten my PB Bream and Whiting from there, very fond memories of Jurassic Pond.

ABU and Penn are all the same company, they are all under the main Parent Group Pure Fishing. Pure fishing is the following brand names. Penn, ABU, Stren, Owner, Shakespeare, Berkley, PFleuger, Fenwick, Fin-Nor, Van Staal, Mitchell. And many of the reels are actually the exact same model, just in different colours, stickers & spool designs etc. So do your homework when looking at new gear. Personally I only buy Daiwa reels, and have done so for over a decade, I find them the best quality and best value for money.

Just one more cast ?

Fishing is really hard work. For instance, i've been trying to catch a Barramundi & Threadfin around the Rockhampton/Port Alma region for a few years now, and if look back and add up my time on the water and estimate the number of casts it works out to 35,560 casts, with not a fish to show.

I quite like catching Morwong, they often save the day. Not that they are good eating, but at least in my local area with so few fish on offer it can be rewarding to finally bend a rod even if it is one of these.

I have sat them alive in a tub of clean sea water for about 24hrs and change it every so often, seems to work as they cycle the water through their system and you start to see a bit of sand building up in the bottom of the tub, and change the water.

No where there. Don't exist in that area. They preffer fine sand and strong wave action, yeppoon has neither.

Definitely change them, If you had damaged braid, you'd change it, or if your reel had a stiff drag, same thing, you'd fix it. Hooks are probably the most important thing in the whole set up as that's what is going to get you attached and stay attached, so keep-um new, keep them strong, keep them sharp. I usually order a few boxes of different sizes in bulk (25) packs every couple years, only about $13 - $25 a box for the usual sizes. And about once every year, on a rainy Winters day i'll get all my tackle boxes out, crack a few beers, put some tunes on, and change all the ones with rust. https://www.motackle.com.au/fishing/hooks/treble-hooks/vmc-t9626-3x-saltwater-barra-treble-25pcs.html

Yes, managed to get onto a few. Real hard work though. Middle of the night, in hard to get to places, miles from anywhere, eaten by sandflies. But managed a couple legal ones.

Im looking at Coffs Harbour area, there looks like a job coming there towards the end of this year. And as to what the problem is with fishing out of Yeppoon. Well it's to do with distance and water depth. The Keppel Islands are surrounded by waters no deeper than 20m, usually 15m on the eastside and no more than 8-10 on the west. So then to get to the these contour lines east from Yeppoon it will take you this distance 30m-51km, 50m-72km, 100m-128km, Continental Shelf 381kms The closest true reef complex is new reef which is 76.7kms east from yeppoon. Compared to 1770, 30m-15km, 50m-58km, 100m-72km, Shelf 148km And from Coffs 30m-2.8km, 50m-7.6km, 100m-19km, Shelf-28km The other things that are a problem is the dirty water outflow from the Fitzroy River which at times can extend 50kms out to sea and shuts everything down. Then the current offshore here often runs South to North which again shuts it all down, and finally the lack of bait. It's an unusual sight to see birds working on bait. It just doesn't seem to happen here much at all. And one last one, between Stange Bay and Gladstone which is 355kms of coastline there is only 1 coastal boat ramp to launch from (Roslyn Bay Yeppoon) which gets that busy in can take hours waiting in line to launch and retrieve your boat. Cheers

Hi all, Greg here. I moved from Brisbane to Rockhampton/Yeppoon area a couple of years ago. I thought i was heading to a fishing Mecca but it really wasn't that at all, in fact i regularly caught far more in Brisbane than I have ever manged here. But anyway, I moved here for work, Im in the Electrical Engineering field. A new boat has come my way recently, a new McLay 581 CrossOver cuddy cabin, with a 140 suzuki and topped with some Simrad bling. I head offshore from Yeppoon and chase reef fish and mackerel, don't find many but I try, often up to 123km strait out, a 3hr run each way. I like deep water fishing, sadly the deepest you will find within 140kms of yeppoon is about 60m, so im planning on moving to NSW soon for the better fishing overall and deeper offshore waters. I also have a 4m Stacer Barra Pro with a 30hp Suzzi, front lekky, humminbird side scan for the creeks, but will be selling that soon as the creeks and inshore around here are absolutely hopeless fishing & crabbing. My bucket list fish are Wahoo, Dolphin Fish, Yellowfin, Blue-eye Trevella, Hapuka, Bar Cod, Blue & Stripped Marlin, 25lb Snapper, Flathead, Whiting and Tailor.

As for the 4x4 tracks, the only place of concern is what they call big sandy. Its where the road goes from dirt road to full on sand track and a little steep at points. So air down your tyres before the sand starts, just after you cross a small creek is good. then get ready for big sandy. see video.

Very few reefs, the bottom is all sand, so working off the headlands is the best option, especially just out from 5 rocks point itself. The odd spanish pass through there as do cobia at times. What rubble you find on the bottom off the points will yield Trout, Cod, Stripeys, Grunter and the odd Finger Mark. Queenfish and school mackerel around the rocks.