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 

1 hour ago, Drop Bear said:

Interesting thanks for posting.

The rec fish representatives are

Ryan Tully, Gary Powis, William Bowtell

Anyone know who they are? 

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/

54 minutes ago, Andrew_P said:

Nah mate all within an hour from Brisbane

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

8 hours ago, Kenne said:

You need to do 35,561 casts..

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.

17 hours ago, benno573 said:

To be honest - both...

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. 

On 20/12/2020 at 1:09 PM, Polly871 said:

Where would I find pipis in Yeppoon qld what beach?

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

On 25/04/2021 at 9:23 AM, bulldogs195461 said:

G'day all 

Some of my trebles on my lures have rust, should I change them? Cheers john

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

Quote

 

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

On 24/04/2021 at 10:00 PM, GregOug said:

Did you ever catch a mud crab Greg? I remember you lamenting some time ago that you couldn’t find one to save yourself.

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

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.