Towknee

So my 2020 goals were (thanks for the link Hamish)
 


 
1. Catch a nice feed of tailor with my Son
2. Take my old man on a successful mackerel session in the bay
3. Explore the bay more
4. Catch a long tail tuna
5. My son catches a flathead
so I achieved item 5 which was a memorable day. 
 
This year I upgraded the boat, so can sneak a bit further so I’ll keep items 1-4 and add an extra. Catch a dolphin fish! 

Hey guys,
I've been up north past Lockhart River since last Friday with a mate and doing a bit of fishing. Currently having a rest day after 4 long magical weather days out on the reef and in the cooking sun. 
Its been neap tides and hardly any flow so far (thus fishing has been a little slow for some species) but things are starting to move a bit more now and should be firing in a few days time for the next reef trip. 
Here are a few pics! 
The shack 

The ramp

Restoration rock 

The town 

The rig (Liams renegade 420, same as what I used to own. Love those things!)

Day 1 on middle reef. Caught about 15 trout on the flats and 4 of the 7 species up here so far. All on Gobblers lures ripped past the shallow bommies. 


Day 2 on outer reef 50km offshore. Some bigger fish around and subsequent dustings. Lots of trout and co again. Nice bluefin trevally off the top. 
Amazing sights many sharks 
day 3 outer reef. Passionfruit trout and coronation trout. 
Day 4 Bligh Reef. Not many pics, but a stunning day! No wind all morning, it was HOT (Suffered heat stress later that day). Had a 100kg+ black marlin followed stickbait to the boat. Same with Wahoo. Caught 4 species of tuna so far (longtail, mac, skipjack, yellowfin) as well as 3 species of mackerel. Some big yellowfin 60km offshore but could only get small ones past the sharks. 
Lockhart River ramp
yellowfin sashimi. The best I've had 
Rest day feat. Iced filter coffee
Still over a week to go, will post more as the trip unfolds. 
Cheers,
Sam
 

I used spectra / dyneema on my boat exclusively. They do perish in UV after about 4-5 years, however, the ease of use and lack of metal shards meant this was a no brainer for me. I prefer them to the strap as they are easier to wind on - not worrying about the strap being dead centre all the time.

No worries Hamish, good to see it get some use! 
Look forward to seeing the photos of the fish you will catch, now that your more mobile! 

No worries Hamish, good to see it get some use! 
Look forward to seeing the photos of the fish you will catch, now that your more mobile! 

No worries Hamish, good to see it get some use! 
Look forward to seeing the photos of the fish you will catch, now that your more mobile! 

I can put my stuff in the car. Can show you how to sort one out too if you’re not sure. Not sure how the onlookers at west end will take that one though! 😂

Tackle world Lawnton has 20% off sale. 

Tackle world Lawnton has 20% off sale. 

Tackle world Lawnton has 20% off sale. 

Tackle world Lawnton has 20% off sale. 

You can use lighter gear if you are trolling a hardbody but need a good solid rod if you are using a trolling board or paravane because of the extra drag. Hardbodies or spoons on the lighter gear would be more fun but you need the boards to keep the lures down a bit deeper. I have a heavy overhead set up for trolling the boards but this year I want to use a heavy mono hand line like the pros,  just for the extra fun and mayhem of getting loose line all over the deck of Brian’s boat.

I paid too much for it, but still managed to keep a straight face when I told the wife I had to get it now because it was on special. 🤫

@Old Scaley sent me a link the other day about spotted mackerel. The season is almost upon us. I also followed a link to an article on schoolies. Trolling was the main thrust of the articles. I realised I needed a new rod for trolling to pair with my Penn Fathom 25 2 speed reel, so hit up the tackle shop yesterday and selected a locally made Live Fibre 8-15 kilo rod as well as some trolling accessories.


 
Now we just need to get some decent weather to get out there and test it all.

I hog tie them. An old salty fisho showed me years ago.
I looked like i'd been Texas chainsaw masacreing the things one day. A beautiful white fishing shirt turned to a stained looking maroon, not to mention the hat, hair, eyebrows. 
All from the donger and their fits on the floor. 
 
I have a a length of 80lb Schneider about a meter long with a 10/O hook at either end. 
As soon as the fish hits the deck you jump on it. One hook in the mouth, knee on head, bend the fish like a banana. Double wrap the tail and the second hook in the mouth as well. Can be difficult with the larger models over say 7kg but still effective. 
Stops all that carry on and you're not creating a massive blood bath with a donger allthough there still is blood.
Fish can sit on deck or straight in the esky and bleed them. 

Headed out recently on my own for a solo session with the intent of nailing some tasty dollies. Made damn sure I’d have my livies and be first at the fad which can make the world of difference. So with a tank full of yakkas and unfortunately only 3 slimies I headed straight for fad 4. Anyone who wants to chase dollies out from spb you can forget about fad 15 as this thing is sitting on top of sand and dosnt attract three fifths of F all in my opinion. I’ve wasted fuel on  previous trips to 15 and dosnt even seem to have rat kings on it. If anyone on here has seen otherwise please let me know but for me it’s a wasted resource.
had the joint to myself which was nice but with a drift of 3 and a half knots it made it interesting keeping the boat in gear to stay semi stationary upstream of the fad whilst fighting some decent dollies on my own. Ended up with three hookups all to quite thick quality fish in the 1.2 to 1.5m range. Landed one, pulled hooks on the second and the third was never really hooked properly but was just running with the fish In it’s mouth,  excuse the crappy selfy photo. After this they went quiet but I think it was due to the fact they only wanted the big over size livies that swim fast and go down deep. So with only small yakkas left and a charter boat and few other boats steaming over the horizon I decided to head back In close to boat and middle reef to try for some reefies. Got busted off twice on some little jelly been yakkas 😡. But managed to piece together some good size and quite chunky squire, grassies and Moses  
things started to get pretty quiet now so had a go for some Deep water squid but only managed the one. Headed back across a glass bay before the wind picked up so all in all was a pretty good outing.

Very Nice! 
 
what size minn Kota do you need to hold her in position? 

Very Nice! 
 
what size minn Kota do you need to hold her in position? 

Thanks! it will be 112lb with 72"shaft 😁

Hey team!
I went shark fishing last night in the passage (caught nothing), but there was a group of lads 200m down the beach from me who hooked into this monster while targeting sharks too. It took half a freshwater eel bait. I’ve only ever seen a few caught in SEQ land based. I’ve also heard rumours of giant cod and grouper living under the bridge, so there must be some truth to it! She was released and swam away strong. Catch of a lifetime for that Bloke!

I went out to check the letter box this afternoon and heard an odd bird squawk, so look around and there was this young Major Mitchell parrot looking down at me from one of my bamboo clumps about 3m up,  so went closer to get a better look. It started to climb down a branch trying to get down to me so I thought that was a bit odd, normally they fly away when you get too close to them. Anyway it continued climbing down all the way down to the ground branch by branch, then after a bit of coaxing it came up to me and started to nibble on my feet and toes ( brave bird!). Even allowed me to pat it. My wife keeps telling me I need to make new friends, she doesn't like my other ones, the long slithery ones that slide along the ground, It was visibly quite hungry and trying to find something to eat on the ground with out much success, obviously it was someones pet that had somehow got loose.
Got some bread and a pear from the house as they were the only things that I thought that it might eat as I didn't have any nuts.  It didn't like those, so got my wife out there as well to keep it company whilst I scrounged around inside trying to find something else to give it. Found some Muesli clusters in the cupboard and got a small container of water for it. That was a bit more appetizing for it, then I remembered my neighbour keeps some parrots so rang them in case it was one of theirs that had got loose. Although it wasn't theirs but they did have a spare cage and their daughters other half works as a vet assist, so they came over and collected it, they will put it up on their facebook page so hopefully it will be reunited with its owner.
So that's my good deed done for the day.😇

Yeah, the star port fitting does the job, I’ve had a rod buckled over so hard I had to push it back in towards the boat to get the lock undone, If it were of dodgy construction, I probably would have lost the lot, I mainly use baitcaster outfits and the reel sits nicely behind the lock.

Hamish,
Sounds like a plan, focus on school for the rest of term. Then you’ll have plenty of time to get caught up on the fishing talk.
 

Hamish,
Sounds like a plan, focus on school for the rest of term. Then you’ll have plenty of time to get caught up on the fishing talk.
 

Hi all
Well seeing as though I am completely addicted to AFO and spend a fair bit of time on it, (and it is coming up to all exams/assignments on at school) I figured with my dad that I better take a break. This is just so I can focus on my school work, like English, Math, etc, and then when I've done all my work I will be back on for an 🥁... 8 WEEK HOLIDAY!!! YEEHAA!
Obviously I will still check in (for threads like 'Christmas', so I can see what's going on), but only once or twice every day for a very short period. That way I maximise study, earn lots of brownie points with my folks if I get good grades, then maximise fishing time, therefore maximising report time! 
Bye for a bit!
Cheers Hamish
(P.S. No one take offense - this has got to be the best website ever! Just got to do silly school 😞).