Neil Stratford

Couple of photo s from my camping trip to Fraser .Hopefully the star photos show up ok

I recon your ready to go the real deal now Kat .Show up the sooky boys and and go and get a 25kg plus Spanish Mackerel , seems that few people are skilled enough to catch them anymore. There’s no rush , Ask Santa for a 24kg trolling outfit for Xmas , and collect yourself some Bonito in the freezer ready for April May next year. I look forward to viewing the photos! Ps Over the next few weeks you might even challenge yourself to a 80cm plus flathead!. I suggest a Zerek Hot legs shrimp in pink ( retro fit the std weedless hook with a std 3/8 2/0 jig head) as a soft plastic and if you want to troll, I’d be looking at a micro mullet in pink on one side and a Pig Lure in Green on the other side . Set them about 20 m back and troll at about 2 to 3 knots with the current. regards neil regards Neil

Well done Kat 400mm whiting What’s the next Species\Size target? regards Neil

We caught our fish right in front of our camp site near the Maheno , just look for a small gutter with an opening in the back bank with a bit of white water over it. I suspect there will be less fish a around in October but they’ll be bigger and maybe they might have migrated a little south by then. Neil

Just got back from 2 weeks camping on the eastern beach on Fraser Island. We had a mixed bag on the weather front , wind from all directions , and a few showers, but as usual the tailor bit their heads off . I haven’t done my tag report yet , but I m sure I tagged about 150 tailor and released many more after running out of tags. We keep a few good feeds of fish and brought home a bit of frozen fish. Attached are a few happy snaps.

Yes I suspect the two pro boats were working together , but the third boat was a share farmer for sure. Just a bit strange that the pros checked the same pot within an hour of each other, the first one emptied and re baited it , then the next guy rechecked it after an hour , maybe a lesson to be learnt here , might have to delve deeper into this technique. Yes because tailor are a soft fish I bleed them by simply inserting my index finger , twisting it side ways to severe the throat completely and then snap their necks backwards , then I throw them straight on ice. It’s very quick and effective. Very importantly it allows you to get your line back in the water quickly , to have a crack at another one before the school moves on.

I bleed the tailor by simply breaking their necks to improve their eating quality.

Went for a trip down to the Jumpinpin area this morning with my brother.It was a cracker of a morning , with just a slight westerly blowing. The flathead we’re on fire , we keep 3 nice eating sized ones , and would have released approx 30 others. Plenty of double hook ups , at one stage my brother got 5 in 5 casts and I managed 3 from 3 at the same time. Also brought home a nice by catch feed of tailor that took a likely to our plastics. We just wedged the boat up against a tree on the bank in about 6inches of water and picked them off basically one after the other on plastics as they moved down a tiny channel in front of us. Interestingly whilst we were parked up , we saw 3 different boats check the same crab pot. 2 of them had yellow stickers on the sides. Don’t know who actually owned it , maybe none of them?…

Pies and donuts aren’t good for you Ray! Neil

Great to see you caught a few Ray. Well done Regards Neil

I have a 10000 Sustain on a Venom Stickbait 30 to 50lb rod with 40 lb braid on it that I throw lures for mackerel , I’ve caught a few by catch large log tails on it , it handled them ok . Without looking up the specs I’m guessing the Stradic might be slightly more bulky than my sustain , but I’m sure you wouldn’t be disappointed. The rod is 7’11” and will throw lures up to 100g. Yes - I also suggest you take your reel loaded with line , and try it on a rod and load it up in store before making your final choice. regards Neil

No , the only issue with the Minn Kota was the prop shaft simply didn’t spin . I probably should have replaced the bushes and all the seals in the lower unit , but they looked ok. I’m pretty sure the issue was with a carbon build up on the bushes, the bush casings and the “what’s it” that spins between the bushes. I recon if I would have given the casing a bit of a hit , I could dislodged enough carbon to get me home. I went for a 4mm galvanised brake cable. $19.99 ex BCF. Fitted it in 10 minutes . I’ve tried Stainless cables before , they aren’t as flexible and also believe it or not they rust out pretty quickly . regards neil

With the Bass King (Ray K) taking some sick leave , I took my brother for a fish down to Hinze Dam this morning. With a late start, we arrived at the ramp just after 7am to find a broken brake cable dragging on the boat trailer. It had rusted through ,and just popped , so I cut it off , and binned it . Bummer No . 1 , fortunately it’s an easy fix for later this week. We then pulled some shrimp traps that had been soaking unchecked for weeks ,with very limited success , got about 50 odd shrimp then major Bummer 2 occurred. I Hit a submerged stump with the electric and it stopped dead in the water and simply didn’t want to spin the prop, so had no choice but to come home early on the “ auxiliary” . We detoured slightly and stopped off at A spot called the “honey pot “ on the way home and got a quick 2 dozen bass before running out of shrimp. Got back to the ramp and found our way home safely. Fixed the electric motor this afternoon , seems it was either an dirty thing me bob that sits on the end of the armature unit or the brushes themselves. Must have got some carbon burn on , when it came to an abrupt stop .Doesn’t really matter what it was, it’s all fixed now., and seems to be running ok.At least I got an good insight into what’s behind the prop on a Minn Kota. ps Ray K , if you read this , I rebaited and reset all your pots in the “Coke Can “ area. Neil.

No need to count them Hweebe ?? , big brother always out fishes little brother doesn’t he !

Soft plastics used were , ZMan 4” Curl Tails in New Penny Colour. Neil

Thought I’d stock the freezer with a few snapper fillets before the month long closure commencing on the 15th July. Went out approx 200m from the ramp at Wellington Point this morning with my brother and found some good shows of fish , got our 8 snapper in 2 hours and headed in . Tagged and released approx 20 undersized fish we had to sieve through to get our Quota.All caught on soft plastics. regards Neil

A few nice circular swells rolling over the bar late this afternoon

For those interested here’s a photo looking straight out through the creek entrance. It’s about half way into an incoming tide. The deeper water is just behind the last red buoy heading out at about 45deg along the back of the sand back on the right. regards Neil

I think you should have a look at something lighter like the 7 ft 4 to 8 lb Wilson blade n tails rods matched to a 2500 series shimano reel loaded with some 5kg braid. But be very careful not to high stick this type of rod , The high modulus blanks are nice and light and great to use , but will break if not always treated with respect. Neil

Trust me Kat the sharks are no fun at all when using 50 lb line . Yes the shark mackerel have an ammonia smell to them similar to shark ,The flesh appears nice and clean , I use them for reef fish bait. regards neil

Currently holidaying at 1770 for a couple of weeks . We had a break in the weather yesterday and got out and managed to put a few reef fish in the esky. We counted 13 different species of fish that came over the side . As expected the sharks were in absolute plaque proportions.At one stage we couldn’t get close to getting any fish to the boat it was just shark chaos , so we moved 10km north to a completely different reef , where we found some peace for a few hours.Pictured is my grandson with a little shark mackerel which he took a liking too.

Nice Fingermark , well done , regards Neil

You’ll have to sack those deckies! Neil

Might be a while till our dams settle out all that silt and the fish school up again. I’d say what fish didn’t go over the walls are sulking and in survival mode.

Some nice bass there Ray, looks like you all had a good day. regards Neil