Mission

Forgot to add that George managed to wind in a squid that we netted - it was wrapped around a pilchard whilst we were fishing for mackerel. Squid entree sorted 😎.

Belated report from a great family day on Moreton Bay last Tuesday. I took my two boys in my boat and my three brothers and their sons (3 of them) went in our dads boat (unfortunately dad had a pre-organised doctors appointment so couldn’t make it).
We set off around 8:00am from Manly (about an hour earlier than my bros) with the intention to fish the beacons for mackerel prior to going to Tangalooma Wrecks. That plan changed somewhat when we came across birds working and then tuna smacking baitfish in numerous small-medium bustups on the southern side of Mud Island. 
 
Long story short I first tried throwing the metal slug I had rigged up right into the bustups a couple of times for no love so we then tried drifting around with some lightly weighted pillies (the way I caught my one and only long tail tuna to date ..) but had no tuna love despite them popping up near us a couple of times. 
 
We ended up drifting along the eastern side of Mud as there were still more bustups coming and finally, after a grinner caused false hope, we finally had a proper hookup (or so we thought ..) and after pondering if it was a squire or cod, a 48cm school mackerel hooked in the stomach came up and was promptly released.
Happy that a desirable soecies had been landing we continued drifting and not long after George’s nominated reel begun singing and he leapt straight into it like a seasoned pro despite being 7yrs old and battling his first ever mackerel 😎. He fought it well, letting it do a run when nearing the boat and his brother Liam managed to bet his 58cm schoolie. Yay!!!! 
 

 
Liam was on next with a 59cm schoolie and we had a very happy couple of boys (and dad …. 😎). 


Not too long after a rod went off again and I instinctively picked it up (can’t let the kids have all the fun … 🤔😃) and soon knew this fish had a bit of size to it, evidenced more with a screaming run when still at least 10m from the boat. Catching a glimpse of it mot long after we were surprised at its size (I haven’t caught bigger schoolies before) and for a moment I wondered if it might be a grey Mack or small Spaniard. After some coaching from dad, Liam managed to get the net in the water enough for me to guide a 73cm (from memory) schoolie into the net - stoked!! 😎

 
My brothers dropped my nephew onto our boat for some cousin time as they were about to head to the beacons (no love for them despite plenty of bait on the sounder) and then a snorkel at the wrecks. As we were on a hot bite we stayed for a while longer, with another run not long after which my nephew Darius latched onto. Despite winding in all the way to the swivel/sinker and some dodgy net work by his cousins we managed to net his 63cm (again, from memory) schoolie dnd he was one happy boy. We didn’t end up getting photos apart from the kill shot later as this one was bled in a bucket whilst we made our way to Tamgalooma Wrecks, not before passing through a glasses out section in the vicinity of the four beacons area - magic!! 
 

 
We found the others and they’d finished snorkelling so we went over near the shoreline in front of the sandhills and rafted up so we could have some hot dogs for lunch - gourmet!! 👍😁.  After that all the boys swam into shore and took turns sliding down the sandhills on body boards (first time for my boys) with George (the youngest of the crew) going first and becoming a mess of tangled legs and arms flipping over and over for the last part of an extremely steep (and fast!!) slide. I didn’t realise it was him at first and must admit, was pretty relieved he was OK … 😳. Liam was next and he was super fast also and came off right at the bottom but also lived to tell the tale. 
 
I had one turn from three quarters of the way up (it’s a jolly steep hill and quite a workout, particularly carrying two boards up …) and I was happy with my medium pace as it me  as my there was no xhance of a shoulder injury (getting old and cautious I know but I had a reconstruction when I was 19 and it hasn’t been the same since.
One of my brothers had an inflatable SUP which kept them amused also. So did watching all the fourbies roll off the ferry and make their way up the beach at varying speeds, with one going ridiculously fast, a couple very heavy/low at the rear and one getting bogged when turning for the first exit. 
 
At about 3pm I decided it was time to see the wrecks. The others were going to go do some more fishing so George opted to join them and another one of my nephews chose to join us. The wind had picked up considerably (as forecast to) but it was still fine to snorkel and still good visibility. If you haven’t done it before put it on your to do list. It was only our second time and the amount and variety of fish is fantastic with some massive bream that look snapper, some big flathead and whiting including one very large flathead (at a guess 80-90cm) along with plenty of other varieties of fish, a couple of cod and big blue parrot or tuskies and a massive school of pike.
The trip home was very rough (you realise how far grime home you are when you cop bad conditions) so I tucked in behind dads boat (bigger than mine). It played up towards the end (near Mud Island) so I went ahead of them and kept an eye on them to make sure they could still continue and met them back at the ramp. Motor was limiting to about 2000revs so not sure yet what the issue is/was. We got a bit wet in my boat (centre console) so we’re glad to have a warm shower when we got back to my parents place around 6:00pm. Big but rewarding day!  

I sorted the fish out the next morning, cutting the bigger one into mostly cutlets (except the tail end) and filleting the other three.
Looking forward to getting out again soon. Still need to extend our shed at our new house to fit the boat. Soon hopefully as we sell/settle our old house next week 😎. Will be much easier to hook up and head fishing once the shed is extended- bring it on!!!

Great work Daryl and pic is a brilliant example of sand/summer whiting vs goldenline whiting. For those playing at home the 2 most obvious features are dark blotch under the pectoral fin and more pronounced fork in the tail for sand whiting. Goldenline whiting don’t have the dark blotch, have asymmetrical tail lobes and feel a lot rougher to touch. Plus their fins are a deeper yellow than the sand whiting. Thanks for the post!

Here is a photo I took of the two species together for a forthcoming fishing column. 
 

It was another good (but wet) day on the Shorncliffe Pier for whiting with Max getting a good feed. The size of the fish has improved with most fish on or above 30cm and one sand whiting mixed in with the yellowfin whiting. Yabbies and bloodworms (Cribb Island worms) did the trick as usual. 
It is such an easy and consistent spot for whiting and I am always surprised that more people don't give it a serious go. 
 
 

Not this particular species (yellowfin whiting) Kat, which tend not to be down that way. There are plenty of sand whiting on the chew there already though. Here are a few from a couple of weeks ago land-based at Runaway Bay. 

This is the time of the year that the yellowfin whiting are consistently good at Shorncliffe Pier. We ventured there again today and were not disappointed. No really big fish with the best only about 32cm, but the numbers were good. There were a few less bream mixed in with them, but there were still bream to 34cm that swam off for another day. Less bream generally means more whiting. 
I always find it surprising how many people dismiss spots like Shorncliffe Pier, but there are plenty of fish there if you stick to the basics. 

Shorncliffe Pier produced another feed of whiting late yesterday on the flood tide. Although the general consensus is that it is overfished, the reality is that with a little bit of effort, and a basic understanding of the target species you can consistently catch fish there. 
All you need is either yabbies or worms, light monofilament line and fish in the shallows. Although I am using Cribb Island worms (bloodworms from the bait shop) the locally abundant and easy to dig rock worm is the pick of the worm baits there. 
 
 
 

Got lucky today with a few nice ones on plastics in the shallows. 6lb braid, 8lb leader.
 
 
 



IMG_0510.MOV

I have been very slack regarding writing reports lately, but promised Brian that I would write one today, so here goes.
Recent reports of quality whiting persuaded @ellicatand myself to take a trip to the Nerang to catch the evening high tide. We had a little scare on the way. Brian’s pre-ordered blood worms were not anywhere to be found, but luckily the nice young fella at the Gem scouted up the dregs of their currently limited stock, so we were in business again. Down the very congested M1 to drop the boat in the water at 4pm, for a 5.30pm high tide. 
At our first spot, I cast out a live worm on a size 4 short shank baitholder style hook, a size 4 ball sinker with a 6lb Fluoro  leader attached to 10lb mono on a soft fibreglass rod. I let the rod rest at a slight angle with a very loose drag. Then I started to rig up my second rod, which was a soft plastic outfit with light braid (4lb, I think?), 6lb leader, size 1 sinker and size 4 baitholder. I wanted to compare strike rates with the two systems. Before I could finish rigging the second rod, the drag took a run on my first rod, resulting in a nice 34cm whiting. Not long after that I lost a good fish on the second rod. Could have been a bream, because Brian caught one just after that. The bites went off after that and we decided to move and get ready for the tide change and darkness.
Once we were settled in at “Old Faithful”, Brian decided to put a bell on his rod. Neither of us had any of the lumo tubes left that you attach to your rod, so we picked up a couple of bells at the Gem to text out their effectiveness. I was far too lazy to bother, so would rely on Brian’s research. It was different - at times I thought I was fishing with Santa Claus because every time he touched the rod, the bell would rattle. I think it did help in picking up a bit of action that he might have missed when lighting his durrie or checking his phone, but I will leave it to him to verify.
Anyway, you wouldn’t say that the fish were chewing their heads off, but we did have what we call an “accumulator’s innings” and came home with a nice feed of 11 good whiting and 1 reasonable bream (kept early because we weren’t sure how the session would go).  We called it quits at 10.30pm and made our way home on a much quieter M1. As usual, I didn’t take any photos until I was getting ready to fillet the fish this morning. There were a couple of 34s in the mix, so nothing to compare with @Kats 42cm behemoth, but a good feed anyway.
Thanks for the day/evening @ellicat. We will get that elbow slapper this season for sure.

A paternoster rig with 2 drop loops as in the pic. Just make sure that the 2 hooks are far enough apart that they can't hook each other. I also like to use a bit of light line between the bottom swivel (or loop) and the sinker so if you snag the sinker on the bottom, it will be much easier to break the sinker off and not lose all the hooks and part of the main line. Just make sure that the light line is strong enough, so you don't snap it when casting and lose the sinker before it even hits the water.

Hi all
My school holidays started yesterday, so I decided to start them the right way by going fishing. In the prior weeks, I had been busy with school, but managed one (pretty crappy) session at my local park. 
The session at the park started off on a Friday arvo. I brought some dead bait along and first deployed lines, and then @TheCharliefisho arrived. I got to cast netting to try and catch some livies, but I couldn't manage anything good. Early on I think I got one bite on my heavy rod but for the next while it was dead. I eventually threw my net on top of four or five tilapias, and then another large one fell out in the following casts. Although it brought some excitement, it definitely wasn't welcome because it still means they are swimming around in the river. I eventually caught a couple of anchovies and bony bream, so we sat back and waited for a line to go off. Despite many mozzies, staying into dark, and a couple snags, we didn't end up catching anything. "Oh well", I thought - at least I went fishing!

Tillies
Stats of Trip:
Tide: 2:40PM, 1.9M, High, 8:57PM, .6M, Low
Moon Phase: 50%, Decreasing
Bait Caught: Bonies, Anchovies, Glassies
Bait Used: Live and dead bonies, and anchovies
Fish Caught: -
Tackle Used: 8, 15, 30 pound braid mainlines. Abu Garcia Veritas 4.0 on Diawa Tierra 2500. Shimano Stradic 3000 on Shimano Raider. Shimano Sedona 6000 on Abu Garcia Nexus. Size 2 and 6 ball sinkers, 4/o circle/suicide hooks. 
Humidity: 84%
Air Pressure: 1011
Overall Success Rate: 20%
The next session was a lot more exciting, and happened yesterday. I started the day off collecting livies for about an hour and a half, which mainly consisted of mullet and small silver biddies. I tried fishing briefly as well but did not have any success. After that, we determined we had enough bait to get started. The first fish of the day was a legal sized squire caught by Andrew - things were looking good. Surprisingly, it was not on a livie but instead a pilchard. 
I started having some more luck in the cast net, and I got about 30 herring for bait in quick succession. Unfortunately for us, this is when we started pulling in toadfish after toadfish. They would all hit the bait/fight like an alright fish, but they were very disappointing to see. We did have the jetty all to ourselves though, which was good. It was a nice day, and, as it had not started to warm up, it was a good temperature. 
As the tide started to run a bit harder, the fishing went quiet and our baits were consistently pickered. The tide was very slow compared to what it usually is, and I decided to experiment with a paternoster rig. I was dropping one line (light rod) straight down with a 6 ball sinker, and the other, with a size 4 star sinker, was being casted out into the middle of the river. Eventually, after some more toadfish and picker attacks, Andrew was on to another squire - which went undersize. After that, it was quiet again for another 45 minutes or so before he caught another legal squire which was released. At this point, I had still caught nothing - my most significant catch might have been a cast net full of decent sized scat. 
The tide was half way through the rise when things went really quiet, and basically any livie was not getting a touch. In fact, the only thing that seemed to be catching fish at that point was pilchards, and even then they were only getting pickered to bits. It was at this point (a bit before 2) that we were all considering packing it in, as it looked like the bites had stopped. I did managed to land one sea toad in this period, and got mysteriously busted off by something which took my whole hook, dropper, and sinker as soon as it bit my herring. 
At about 2, I switched my pilchard back to a live herring on my dropper rig and fired it out into the middle of the river. I went back to sit down but it didn't take long before the end of my 8 foot rod was bouncing around and line was being yanked off my baitrunner. I set the hook and got the line tight, and immediately felt a lot of strong headshakes. I was almost adamant my luck had not changed and I was on a toadfish, but the fish was taking a couple of snappy runs so I was eager to see it anyways. Initial thoughts were a slightly larger squire, but we were pleased to see a nice and fat grunter on the end of my line! After a couple more dives and a struggle landing it, the fish was eventually gaffed and lifted onto the jetty. Woohoo!

60CM of Brisbane River Grunter
Following that, the fishing started to go crazy! Andrew had a fish on both of his lines at one point, and landed a legal squire after a nice tussle, and after I redeployed my bait with another live herring it didn't take long before I had a 39cm squire on the jetty as well. I was pretty happy with that, as it was my first from the Brisbane River. Michael then hooked up as well, but it was unfortunately just another toad. To finish the hot bite period off, Andrew pulled in a 35cm bream, which was a random but nice catch as well. It is worth saying this all happened in the space of twenty minutes, after hours of no action. 

Squire
Anyways, after the fish stopped biting so much (high tide change), Andrew headed off. We all managed to catch ourselves some keepers, but unfortunately for one other fella fishing on the jetty there seemed to be no more biting. Michael finished the day with a stingray, which seemed like it could be a thready at first due to the runs it was taking. I was happy with my PB grunter as I left the jetty, and I had some tonight - it's a delicious fish! 
Thanks for reading, here are the trip stats:
Stats of Trip:
Bait Caught: Mullet, herring, silver biddies, glassies, ponyfish
Tide: 8:00AM, .7M, Low, 2:45PM, 2.1M, High, 9:30PM, 1.0M, Low
Moon Phase: About 40%/Third Quarter, so not much run
Bait Used: Herring, silver biddies, glassies, mullet, pilchards
Fish Caught: Multiple toadfish, 5 * squire between us all, 1 grunter
Tackle Used: 8 pound braid mainline, 20 pound fluoro leader, Abu Garcia Veritas 4.o, Diawa Tierra 2500, Shimano Aero Baitrunner, 8 foot Jarvis Walker cheapy, J-braid 30 pound and 30 pound fluoro leader. Size 4/o suicide and 6/o circle hooks, six ball and 4 star sinker. Large barrel swivels. 
Air Pressure: 1006 dropping to 1002
Humidity: 89% in the morning, dropped to 47% in the arvo
Air Temperature: 21 degrees in the morning, increasing to high 20's/30 degrees
Overall Success Rate: 80% - good session
Hope you enjoyed the report,
Cheers Hamish

It was a good after work session on the tailor yesterday at Point Halloran. It is a very consistent spot to catch tailor and there is always plenty of room so need to fight with the crowds. As usual, the old skool techniques of Alvey's, mono, and pillies. 

Met up with @Another Wazza on Thursday at Port of Brisbane ramp with a plan to head to the Four Beacons to chase some school mackerel, then move up the west coast of Moreton investigating more beacons.  We scooted down the calm river about 7am. Once we were out of the river the water got lumpy and the wind was up above forecast. We motored for about 5 minutes before deciding it was a bit too hectic and that we would tuck in around Mud for a bit to wait for the wind to drop. After changing course I decided Mud wasn't a comfortable option either so we moved back to the sanctuary of the rock wall. A school of tailor were busting up but they were gone as quick as they came.
We then decided to have a look for some threadies near the pipeline but couldn't locate any on the sounder. We checked another spot before heading up to Clara Rock. We were flicking plastics around whilst spot locked with the new gadget. Wazza hooked up to a fish that gave a very good account of itself. A few guesses as to what it was were made, then up popped a nicely conditioned jew. It went 77 on the measure and I got some happy snaps before releasing it to be caught again at Harry's later on when it's a metre long.


After that we poked our nose out the front again and it had calmed down a bit so we made our way over to the beacons. We ran drifts with a pillie under a float and one on the bottom. No interest whatsoever for the next several hours. Conditions were a bit bumpy and ordinary and when motoring to start another drift my mackerel setup jumped in the water never to be seen again. First rod loss from the rod holders ever. Not happy, Jan (mainly because I had to rig up another rod haha).
That was it, before we knew it it was 4.30 and we made our way back in conditions that improved the further west we got.
 
    *                                                     *                                                          *
 
Friday I'd organised a session with @Old Scaley starting at gentleman's hours. Hope was high that the forecast was on song this time. Today we were going to chase the school mackerel starting at the Rainbow and then moving up to the beacons later. We were on the water at 9 and headed over to find a few boats around but nothing bad. We were easily able to get a drift in. We did several drifts without success, then spot locked for awhile. Still no joy, so we decided to move a bit closer to the small pack. As we did a boat trolling in front of us landed one before continuing his troll so I spot locked about where the mack would have hooked up. No joy, so after about 15 minutes we tied on a paravane to one rod and a laser pro in QANTAS on the other rod.

We began the troll and not 20 metres into it the paravane rig hooked up. First schoolie was landed going 61 or so (the biggest for the day). We continued trolling around and picked up 13 in total, keeping 6 and returning 7 that were undersize.

Eventually the clock struck 3 and it was time to head home. On the way home we encountered a heavy fog that made seeing pretty difficult so we took it easy until we were through it, then the skies opened a bit and we had a bit of rain on our glasses for the trip home. Glad we have GPS's these days to follow the track back as it is difficult to get your bearings when you can't see any land.
Here's the final catch that we shared.

 
Thanks for coming out Wazza and Steve. It certainly beat sitting at home looking at weather charts and waiting for next Tuesday 😉
 
Steve bringing one in.
 
 
 
 

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?…🙈
 

Been on a trip up into the Northern territory but on the way back the wife and I stopped back in Cairns. The weather was mint so I hit up my mate in town and went fishing.
Got my PB on 2 large mouth nanigi plus my mate caught a cracking gold spot cod. We also caught a good bag of coral trout to throw in the box.
I have fluked the good weather again like last year when I hit Cairns. About our touring in the caravan we have travelled 12000 km and had an incredible trip. Hooked one good barra in Kakadu with it jumping 3 or 4 times before a croc got it.
Until the next big trip here are some of the fishing trip photos.
 




 

I just know the boundary on our station had 2 rivers on it and by the map we
had to by law not fence within 22yards of the bank.
This area was owned by the crown. this is in QLD.
Law could have changed as I'm  talking 65 years ago.

Got up early today and picked up @Old Scaley for the journey up to Bongaree boat ramp. Headed up the eastern side of Bribie and stopped at a mark for some livies, but nothing showing so motored on and discovered there were a LOT of tuna bustups going on around us.
Steve rigged a spoon and launched it into the pack. A couple of winds and he was on. Woohoo. Good start. About 10 minutes into the fight he lost it and the spoon... maybe sharked (as it became a dead weight and then nothing) ?? We tried a few more schools without any luck. Never mind, Steve was happy to have had some fun.
We arrived at the spot we were going to bottom bash at. A few lancers were landed and strip baited, only to catch more lancers. I think Steve landed this tuskie before we decided to shift spots.

 
Next spot there were more lancers and whiptails pickering us. Rather than pulling anchor I decided to just let out more rope and drift until we were fishing in a different spot. It was quiet and I was pondering a shift again when a nice 34cm grassie jumped on. Then Steve and I both managed to catch grassies, tuskies, squire and Maori cod. Some were unders but we managed to put a good feed together by the time we decided to pack it in. We also dropped some goodun's.
Steve's nice 48cm Maori.

The feed.

 
On the way back to the ramp we came across more tuna bustups but they were pretty flighty. Eventually we cruised into a school and Steve hooked up once again. A few blistering runs and Steve was getting some line back. We were both thinking this could be the bay tuna that has eluded him for many years.
Unfortunately it wasn't to be, with the treble hooks pulling. We continued to chase them for awhile as well as trolling a 6 metre diver. No success, so we put the throttle down on what was a pretty smooth bay, and made it to the ramp an hour or so later than we planned.
I'll put up some footage of Steve's screaming reel later.
 

Sunday morning incoming tide on the beach; castnet scored half a dozen big prawns and three legal whiting - all but one whiting were blacktip and hammerhead food in quick time.
Last whiting got snaffled and got a glimpse of what looked like a largish shovelnose; so was not being particularly conscientious fighting it. Finally got it close enough to see - turns out was an estimated 120-130 salmon (lost my tape measure so just a guess). 

Was lip hooked and I don't need something that big, but just stayed belly up trying to swim it - which we seem to get most of the time for the bigger kings on the beach, so home it came. I think they fight themselves to death because at the end of the fight they're basically dead when they hit the beach, whereas the smaller ones just swim off immediately. Big barra just swim off immediately too.

Two other guys fishing; both got a king salmon over a metre straight after so there must be a few around.

oh and don't forget lots of spices and flavours like lemongrass and kaffir lime. 

You have to put them through the mincer and this chops up all the bones so you can just eat them. 

Thanks, Drop Bear.
But, what are fish cakes? Have to google it now....
Mission 
Got it! But isn't there many small fishbone in bony bream? I think it's hard to pick meat off the bone.
Mission

Hit the bunker group last week with a few friends and my son Brock. I deckied in my mates 6.7m bar crusher and Brock was in a 6.8m Haines hunter. We hit some ordinary weather heading out but it got alot better as we reached the bunker group reefs. 
It started off alright with our boat finding good coral trout and red throat emperor.


We tried for some red emperor but they just weren't biting so moved back to some shallower water where the trout were chewing.
 

We found another good patch of fish as we moved around and watched the boys in the other boat bag a few Red emperor. My son getting his PB red as well as the skipper getter his 1st ever Red times 2.

We spent the night anchored behind the reef we were fishing and rafted up having a few well earned coldies together.
The next day we caught some more quality fish, then at lunch time we had a snorkel over the reef checking out all the colour of the coral and fish. As the trip rapped up our boat had caught good coral trout, red throat emperor, moari cod, tusky, Spanish flag, hussar and plenty of just under red emperor.
We left the reefs and headed in getting back to the ramp just on dusk. A stop in town that night before driving home the next day and filleting our catch. Here are the trout from our trip back at the ranch.

So the story goes that Bananas on boats are bad luck - as I understand it, they are bad luck for both boating and fishing. 
As this is a fishing forum I pose the question - are Bananas bad luck or good luck when fishing? - given the photo attached!
My BF's mate Graham, and his mate David, were fishing off Cairns chasing Marlin.  They were not hooking up to anything and apparently there was a longstanding feud between Graham (who is against Bananas on boats) and David (who is not superstitious). 
Graham complained to David that they were fishing and not catching and he had to get rid of the Banana!  David started eating the Banana and promptly landed this 40lb beauty!  They had to chase it down to prevent it being devoured by sharks.
So are they good luck or bad luck 😺?

Last Tuesday the fishing weather gods aligned and the BF managed to get the day off work.  We headed to the GC Seaway departing from South Maclean about 2.30am.  Unfortunately had a couple of stops to make before launching at the Spit boat ramp so the sun was already coming up when we launched.  The bar crossing was a non-event as the weather, tide and swell was almost perfect.  I logged our trip by phone - my first time logging a trip.  The plan was to return about 3pm.
We headed to the 36 fathoms found a bait ball on the sounder and I dropped my Sabiki bringing up a minimum of four slimy mackerel each drop.  Once I had dropped the bait jig three times we decided we had enough live bait for the time being.  We dropped a live bait and another two rigs with squid at the same spot.  No joy.
We hit another mark or two close by and did a drift or two, again with no joy!
It was difficult to find bottom, the current was raging through despite the reports otherwise.
We decided to head back in a little and fished one of the FAD's.  My first drop I felt a couple of small taps, felt like I might have had a couple of bait fish on (Paternoster rig with two dropper hooks - No. 5/0 for snapper).  Pulled up a baby flatty and another barely legal (the latter released to the Esky to accompany the whiting fillets in the freezer).  
  The next few drops we both pulled up small flatties.  Other smaller reef fish were landed and then the BF got wrapped around the FAD by an unidentified fish.
We decided to move further in and head South East to a couple of marks.  The first mark produced some decent snapper after a few drifts, my PB, which measured 50cm on the boat and had shrunk a couple of cm by the time he hit the Bragmat!  I also got a 37cm one and a couple of unders.  The BF got a couple of unders, a 60cm (again it had shrunk by the time it hit the Bragmat).  On the last drift the BF hooked a monster that he swears was a Snapper, it peeled off the drag and unfortunately the hook pulled.  I have never heard so many choice words erupting from his mouth!  The F word continued every few minutes all the way home!  Lol.  All of you know this feeling I am sure.  
For the first time offshore on C-Jay with no marks of our own I thought the trip was very successful - I feel another addiction coming on!