Bit slow today at eastern arm. Could not find quite a few of our new pots that we deployed a fortnight ago as they are now under water. The ones we located were reasonably full but the ones in deeper water the shrimp were all dead. Ended up with 26 bass from different locations but some locations hard to find with the high water levels and marks submerged. Water is a bit murky with all the fresh with visibility around 2 to 3 feet, Best bass 46cm rest varied from 18cm upwards. One spot we thought we were being hit by barred grunter but turned out a school of 18cm bass that we moved on from. Hai had left his rods at home but fortunately he had a 3ft ice rod stashed in the boot and it was interesting watching him land a 45cm bass on it as it was spooled with 3lb mono.
Well i did 11 hours on the Bris River today.....only legal fish encountered were tailor up to about 55cm....wasting perfectly good live baits for jew.
Plenty of squire and small grunter about smashing plastics but none a suitable size for the esky.
Unusually the only flathead encounter was in the cast net.....all 30cm of him.
I concewntrated on the reefs in the river and avoided the wharves today.
About to head out for my last fish before work starts. Hopefully Hayes Inlet produces the goods. Dohles rocks has given me nothing, except for 2 broken rods (thanks kids) and about 50 bucks worth of tackle and bait down the gurgler. At least the kids are outside.
Hi All.
Overcast & grey morning.
We didn't have our new recruit, so we headed for the rocks at sunrise.
Calm water which was good.
Started with a bonito. These fish like a fight. Tested my new Penn 6000 conflict reel. Works well.
We ended up with 4 snapper 42 to 48cm. We let the bonito go. Caught 3 of them. Also caught 2 tailor ( released )
Bait was fresh squid & Metal lures. I had a new lure a Nomad Ridgeback 40g. Tailor seem to like them.
Off to breakfast at the Norah Head coffee shop.
Top morning. Lots of laughs. These teenagers are really into rock fishing, even if their Mother's do not approve.
Cheers.
Was hoping to wait until the photo issue was rectified but some of you may enjoy the story regardless.
On 7th Dec with a very fully loaded car and trailer we jumped on the morning MiCat to Moreton Island with 21 nights of relaxation in my favourite place to look forward to. I let the tyres down as far as I dare with the load on, had the obligatory smiley pie and coffee and soon we were on the beach at Tangalooma. After a bit of a challenge getting to the top of middle road, we had a beautiful run up the eastern beach towards cape moreton. Unfortunately, I was pretty much run off the road by a peanut coming down the hill from the lighthouse and the trailer then developed a mind of its own when trying to reverse out and I ended up needing to deploy the recovery boards to get me back on the straight and narrow and have another crack at the hill. No dramas the second time and we were soon picking out a site at North Point campground. A few hours of work followed and soon we had a camp set up that would survive anything but the worst weather in a fairly shady and sheltered corner of the campground.
Next morning I was up at early AM and went for a bit of a walk around to check the gutters on the beach and all that, had a cast but wasn't successful. After breakfast we headed off down the beach with the kids to some beautiful little low tide gutters that were about knee deep and calm. While playing around, I noticed some birds circling in the surf break and then saw some fishy-shapes chasing bait in the waves. I grabbed the only rod I had with me (the 2-4kg flick stick with 10lb) and threw a 20g halco twisty on. Second cast I was away. After a very good argument on the light gear, I had the first fish tacos of the trip sorted with a 53cm tailor. About an hour later he was sizzling away in a frypan back at camp.
Next few days were a bit tough on the fishing front. Early morning starts up the rocks spinning were mildly successful, however, I did work out I could put the little fella in his backpack carrier and take him along with me. And the best part was he absolutely loved it... well.... for the first 90 minutes or so anyway. But was still pretty cool hanging out with him and managing to catch a couple of fish along the way.
Morning 4 was a complete bust on the fishing front, could not get a hit on a slug or a plastic anywhere so I was walking back across kind of a swampy section near camp and my morning took a massive turn - for the good! There at my feet was my lunch, now if I could just get hold of him with all 10 fingers still in tact... A few interesting moments and near misses later and eventually I had my prize - a 1.7kg full as buck muddie. Even the young fella appreciated this - I held it up to show him which was met with a "Wooooowwwwww" from him. Glad I had strapped him in to the backpack well though. A crab wrap for lunch was a very unexpected but welcome addition to the menu that's for sure. After the crab wrap, during the midday nap period, I went for a walk down to the rocks given the swell was picking up a bit and landed 3 mid 40's tailor in the first three casts. Then a surfer paddled right over where the fish were sitting, sat there was a minute and then paddled off again. Needless to say, the fish disappeared thereafter. Maybe the surfer was a vegan or something and that was his idea of a protest. Still, three tailor was ample for dinner.
Next day I had collected some pippies and headed over to a favourite rock fishing spot of mine, however, it was very quiet but I managed to pull three nice dart out, the best one going 43cm. There's another dinner sorted!
After 7 days, the outlaws headed home and were replaced by @ellicat and my mum. After a new false starts, ECat and I finally found where the flathead were hiding. I was first on the board with a lovely 63cm model. While it was only 1 or 2 each time we tried the spot, they were all quality fish in the mid 50's.
The weather finally became good enough for me to try a kayak trip which saw me throw the tub in early and head on out. It took me a while to to find them but I managed 3 snapper 43-49cm, one just legal spangled and a 38cm grassy. I then hooked something huge that had me scrambling to get on top of it to try and pull it out of the rocky rubbly bottom. A good battle ensued and a stud 53cm grassy surfaced, much to ECat's distain as he is yet to crack the 50cm mark on a grassy and I have now 4 times in his presence. Sorry mate - oh wait, no I'm not... 😛 I headed back in and watched ECat land a legal flatty from the beach as I was coming back in.
All too soon, ECat had to head home - hope you had a good trip mate. Glad you got to witness the might BT50 recovering a brand spanking 300 series jsut before getting on the barge - that was a bit of fun. 😉
The day after he left, it was forecast to be 20kn+ northerlies but they never showed up and the ocean completely glassed out around lunch time. I grabbed the kayak and headed out, not knowing the carnage that was about to unfold.
Things started slowly, it took me a good 1/2 hr before I got my first decent hit - and what a hit it was. Ripped 20lb line off the reel under fairly heavy drag and ended up busting me off on the rubbly bottom about 100m away, my best guess was a GT or a kingy - or so i thought... maybe another culprit was to blame as will soon be revealed. I soon after I found a patch with some nice snapper, and put three 40-48cm models and a bonus grassy into the box. I tried a different area and first cast hooked the 3:14 express from central that had me chasing after it flat out while it peeled line from the reel. Surely this couldn't be a shark, I would have been busted off ages ago... what could this be? After about 10 minutes I got sight of the fish and about 10 minutes after that I had 85cm of cobia doing it's best to escape from under my legs on the kayak. A very quick brain spike and bleed and a louder than necessary yahoo and then a minute to recover, check leader, plastic etc and we were back into it. Next cast a 43cm grassy came to play. Followed shortly after by a cracking 55cm snapper that gave me a real run around and completed my bag out. I decided that was enough and just one more cast... wholly hell. Seconds after the lure hitting the water two things happened. A manta ray surfaced just near where my lure landed and my rod was just about ripped out of my hands. For a second I thought I had hooked the manta but it zigged and whatever i had zagged. Knowing cobia love hanging around mantas i quickly worked my way out over sand and settled in for the battle. This one was far heavier and more stubborn than the first one and was slugging it out down deep, I would make a metre of line and he would take 2 back. This went on and on. About 1/2 hour later I finally had the fish yakside - now how the hell do I land this thing? I ended up tailing it and lifting by the line as well and got it on my lap. A quick spike and bleed and a rather nose heavy and slimy, bloody kayak headed back to the beach. The big cobia went 110cm - not huge by cobia standards sure but everything seems bigger on a floating bit of plastic. It also meant a double bag out for the first time ever on the yak.
At this point I will mention that ECat had been kind enough to loan me his 60L freezer which was a very welcome item in the campsite after such a trip - on top of my 80L fridge/freezer. approx 11kg of fillets were recovered from the days captures - a day of kayak fishing I will not forget in a hurry.
Other than that day, a few more nice flatties found their way into the box but the fishing effort was rather half hearted - I was happy to finish on a high.
Roast turkey and potato bake made for an awesome Xmas dinner, plenty of time spent with the small people at the beach. Luckily, we only copped one storm on Xmas eve with a fair bit of wind and 57mm of rain in 1/2 hour, got the edge of a few others but nothing too bad. Everything stayed standing and dry on the inside at least.
All too soon - even after such an extended stay - we were packing up and heading back to the MiCat for the trip home. Middle road had washouts about 1/2m deep in some spots from the storms the previous two days which was pretty crazy to see.
I will attempt to add some photos when the site is fixed if people are interested, I didn't take heaps but there's a few that people might like.
Hope you enjoyed the read, I tried not to make it too long.
Hi Pete
Yeah mate I feed the fish there with my kids roughly every fortnight mainly because it's close to home, they can sit there all day chasing kangaroos, crabs and undersized bream. Unfortunately deep water bend is a victim of its location. It gets a lot of pressure and gets very busy. We occasionally catch fish eating size, maybe 1 out of 4 trips being generous. BUT I've caught legal flathead, trevally, prawns, javelin, bream and flounder. I've seen sea turtles and a species of small sea horse/dragon I've never seen anywhere else. I've never had a favourite tide but find sunrise gets the fish biting. I've wasted hours fishing pre dawn for not a bite. Fresh bait works best, I castnet prawns, mullet and herring. So Its not my 1st choice spot if I'm looking for a feed, but you never never know unless you have a go!
Good luck and post some pics if you get anything decent.
Hello, I am a fishing beginner, and am looking for fishing spots. I have been to Shorncliffe and various nearby spots, but have low luck catching anything. I am planning on going to "Deep Water Bend Reserve". Any tips for fishing there?
Back to eastern arm this morning. The shrimp pots were a bit light on. They were placed in the submerged grass on the edges. We headed downstream to where we found some fish last trip but all the large fish had moved on and only 20cm models remaining. We tried numerous other places and could only locate small bass. Caught our first legal fish at 10.30 after 4 hours fishing. We had given up and were heading back to the ramp when we lucked on to a small school of larger fish. Of the 21 bass that we caught only 7 of them were legal with the best one going 44cm.
Hello everyone, I am getting back into the fishing scene after a ten year hiatus (I stupidly sold my boat ). I am Sydney based but hopefully moving to Foster/ Old Bar area in the next 12 months. I look forward to picking up where I left off.
Cheers Churchy.
Just go fishing....I don't care what I catch....have PB's I will never get close to matching again so put no weight on that anymore.
I am probably the only guy in Brisbane that doesn't care if he loses a trophy fish boatside. Does not make me sad or angry or anything anymore. I do feel guilty when I get sharked though.....that fish was not on the shark's menu before I hooked it.
To be able to post a photo in the comp I guess.....today I didn't get a bite, my deckie caught a legal bream and a undersized moses perch....no crabs, no prawns.....really fabulous weather today, NOT. 6 hours on the Pine.
Jono4500 reacted to rayke1938 in hinze eastern arm 21/1/24
Jono4500 got a reaction from fatboy in Deep Water Bend??
Jono4500 got a reaction from Rebel in fishing goals for 2024
Jono4500 got a reaction from GregOug in fishing goals for 2024
Jono4500 got a reaction from AUS-BNE-FISHO in fishing goals for 2024
Jono4500 got a reaction from kmcrosby78 in Suburbs of Origin 2024 Monthly Competition
