Jono4500

Went to NPD this morning with Craig. Neil and Hai. Weather was a bit dreich at first with the drizzle easing and the sun coming out to a perfect glassed out day.  The shrimp traps opposite the ramp were disappointing so we headed off to the first spot where we found a few bass and a couple of forkies at the first drop off before running out of bait. We then did the rest of our pots and pulled up on fad 2 and got stuck into some quality bass and the odd small forky, The fish slowed down after a couple of hours and we went to the floats where Craig caught a nice 45cm yella. We were told that there were some bass around FAD 0 but could not locate anything there so we called it a day with 6 forkies,1 yella and 41 bass with the majority of the bass being over 30cm and aprox half of them over 40cm with the largest 46cm

Went to western arm with Rick and Joy. Shrimp traps a bit light on but good size. We were restricted to fishing in the bays due to the wind. Found one spot that was ok but as the boat was yawing a lot we kept on getting snagged besides feeding the prolific barred grunter. Found a couple pf trees where we were able to tie off fore and aft but the barred grunter still prolific to the delight of the eagle. We finished off early with a total of 26 bass ,one tandanus and a nice yella. All tagged and released,
 

Brilliant. 
All you need now is a slingshot. 
 
 

Yeah, my bad. I've been up since 3.30 this morning and didn't even look at the weather before suggesting. Don't go to the Redcliffe reefs.

We have been trying to get up to Baroon Pocket dam for a while and been thwarted either due to availability or the dam closed due to rainfall. We finally made it this morning to find the visibility near zero due to a heavy fog that did not lift until around 8am. We used the gps to find one of out usual spots and found the bass hungry . We pulled around 40 before they went quiet so we went upstream and could not find any bass so we went downstream and found another school where we ran out of shrimp . Final tally was 62 bass and one tandan. Largest bass went 42cm and the tandan 58cm. Only disappointment was that Bucks pies were closed due to anzac day. 2 fish kept for the table others all tagged and released.
 

It is with a heavy heart that I tell the tale of a long lasting friendship that ended on Friday.
It was about 1982 I was introduced to GT270 and we became inseparable for nearly 43 years.
I dressed it up with all the nicest of accompaniments over those years and it served me well with many fine encounters of being triumphant.
Sadly on Friday it threw a tanty with the grinners around Mud...what a terrible way to go....topped itself about shoulder height is a most unexpected way...what a disgraceful way to go after being such a champion for so many decades.
Now standing in the corner with all the other dis-used, abused and broken, like a naughty child told to stand in the corner facing the wall....not a whimper at all.
Thank you Mr SnyderGlas for creating my prototype friend, he was an outstanding comrade for so very long.
My initial thoughts were disbelief and a hollow sense that grows within....thoughts of finding a suitable replacement to fill the void and then the realisation that nothing else could fulfill the spot in the rack.
To be honest, i don't think I could develop that amount of trust into something I could buy today...pure graphite just does not have the personality or the toughness of glass and graphite blends.
Anyway, enough of the dwelling on loss and time to regale the stories from Friday....6am launch....live baits by 6.15am....Mud at 6.25am.....Bloody bastard grinners within seconds ad they didn't stop.
So After several spot changes I found ourselves well east of Mud on a rubble patch i had not previously encountered in 12m of water. 1st cast was a small squire, then a few grinners....retie the leader and cast out again only to feel another grinner on the bait....ripped the bait away from it harshly and BANG...huge hit and peeled 30 odd metres from the reel then all became slack...reeled it in to find a lot of grinner teeth marks on the last 40mm of leader...dirty little shytes.
Oh well....came back to the rock wall and the water was filthy so went to the tripods for a quick look..not much there but in crossing the channel i spotted a school of jew so spent the next 30 minutes trying to coax some interest out of them....I left them sleeping and quietly motored away, defeated once more.
Into the river!!!!  I don't know why i got excited then, the high light was the biggest flounder I have caught in 30 years, and a couple of jumbo bream in the kilo class....snapper flathead and jew we encountered were all wearing nappies....
I ended the day with a leisurely drive from Pinkenba to Petrie that took 1.45 hours in the Friday afternoon Gateway traffic....so relaxing indeed.

After an enforced lay off I finally got to wet a line with Rick ,Joy and Amelia this morning. It originally looked that it was not going to happen as Rick had car problems and we did a turn around and went back to my place and swapped cars and we headed off an hour later. After doing our shrimp pots we headed upstream to just before the plantations and got stuck into the bass. Final tally being 79 bass and one tandanus. I had a bit of a problem handling a couple of bass around 45cm but just had to play them out.

I’ve been  wanting to make a custom spin  rod for  Tailor  fishing up at Fraser Island for a while now . About a week ago I got on Facebook and  purchased  an old  trashy looking 13 ft butterworth surf rod, (the number on the blank appears to be ss 51569 )for the princely sum of  $50 -hoping I  could do something with the blank.
First up , I stripped it all back and shorted the blank down  till it felt real good at 11 foot 8 inches. I wanted the rod to be powerful ,but as light as possible , so got on line and ordered a set of Alps  aluminium oxide High Rise  Guides , a Fuji reel seat , some shrink wrap grips,  and a butt cap from a local supplier . I had a bit of thread and epoxy in the garage which I used for the project . It took me two nights to bind it all up and epoxy it . My wife even made me up a little decal sticker  for it.
This morning the epoxy had all gone off rock solid  , so I put a Shimano  6000 Saragosa  with 20 lb braid on it and loaded it up to give it a test.Jezzz …  It feels like a weapon and cannt wait to fire out some 65 and 85 g Raiders later this year. I’ve used a lot of high modulus rods but I recon those old school surf rods are hard to beat when surf fishing , they cop a flogging out there on the beach and a lot still being used 20 to 30 years later . Super glad I gave this old girl of a rod a second lease of life.
Neil

Hi All,
M.I.A. I had to go to Hospital for Surgery.
Second time in three years.
No fishing for six weeks.
Hopefully no more.
Cheers.

Not a goal but rather a hope, that being less sharks at my local.
One definite goal, get a 70-80 barra to take home. They are all way over that at the moment, which go back. Sunday's effort between feeding sharks:

I canned / podtponed my March barra mission to monduran (for now) after all this rain.  Instead focusing on kayaking sandy strait again. 

I canned / podtponed my March barra mission to monduran (for now) after all this rain.  Instead focusing on kayaking sandy strait again. 

I canned / podtponed my March barra mission to monduran (for now) after all this rain.  Instead focusing on kayaking sandy strait again. 

I canned / podtponed my March barra mission to monduran (for now) after all this rain.  Instead focusing on kayaking sandy strait again. 

I’ve already achieved my goal. How are the rest of you going?

Was wondering if prawns were on yet

Got a few. Top of my list though - Barra from kayak... Hitting monduran in March. Reach ungowa on kayak and fishing sandy straits.

Was wondering if prawns were on yet

Last minute decision to go hit up the Jungle Perch in the local creek between the rain.  I had fished with Declan a few times and he had not been successful. The rain had brought out a bit of flow and silt in the creek and the fish where on. Declan got his first followed by 20 more and I got some as well. Not bad for a couple of hours. 

Ray , Mark and I braved some very inordinate conditions at NPD  this morning . With 25 knots of South Easterly wind accompanied with squally showers strongly  apparent, the possibly of donuting was high on all our minds as we pushed our way down the dam.The previous ritual of a serving of chocolate donuts each was employed as per my previous trip with Ray , and again the donut was adverted. It was giant fork tailed catfish after fork tailed catfish with the odd bass thrown in just to keep us interested for the first few hours Something special was required to break us out of this ground hog day trip. I opened my lunch box , and low and behold my darling wife had packed us a bag of Jam Drops . These little treats proved to make the day turn from ok to extra special event. Believe it or not we then proceeded to pull 14 really nice yellowbelly  plus a few more bass off one snag in a few short minutes . It was carnage till a big squall came through and we called it for the morning.

Thanks Kelvin, we actually did burley a lot more on Saturday that we ever have, mainly because we had a lot of spearo's and other boats driving around us, my fish was a real a fatty. the overall results for the day were my fish @ 9.4kg , my mates was 9.8kg  & 6kg, we both got busted up by solid fish and i pulled the hooks on fish just before the net which would have been around 4-5kg mark.  
you can see in the pic below my fish upside down and how fat his gut was,   

All,
Got the new boat on the water end of October 2023 and what a ride it's been, done plenty of trips to break her in, mainly chasing squid and chasing Tuskies which I loved doing in my teens with my Dad.
1st trip was on the tuskies was 2 weeks before I got my boat,  i headed out with a good mate in his boat to see if any of my old hunting grounds still held the elusive blackspot and wouldn't you know it 2nd drop with a rather large sleepy crab wich spells big trouble at this spot in some rather ordinary seas off Moreton Island I was on,  under locked drag, with 80lb braid and 120lb leader I was hooked up to a dinosaur of a blackspot Tuskfish that was running hard for the coffee rock ledge, after some very intense spool thumbing and some grunting I'd managed to to turn this fish and have it heading my way until it decided it wanted that rock some more ,  with a few ugly rod angles and a few more grunts I managed to get him boat side for netting and my 1st blackspot in 20 + yrs was on the floor of the boat and we was in absolute awe of the colours this fish went, ended weighing in at a modest 10.2kg after being bled. 
Enough rambling, I'll let everyone enjoy the pics
Cheers Josh <><
 

How good is fishing….pic from Monduran 2 weeks ago

The wife was a bit upset with me when she found out I had been throwing the fish back my last few trips, I thought we still had a few in the freezer, but it turns out she had given a few to some friends parents.
So I was tasked with catching a few. I headed out at the crack of dawn to get a couple of hours in.
I got two in quick succession after a slow start, but then with 20min on the clock I noticed one up near the bank and made a play for it, turns out there was a few there, in 5-6 casts working the lure super slow I pulled out 3 more for full bag.
5 yellows in just under 2 hours wasn't a bad way to spend the morning.

 

Same way I approach all other tides @Bretto77  Just get out when wind and weather allow and if you brain the fish it is a bonus.