Bretto77

I watched a video of a guy landing a mammoth cobia in the northern end of the bay. It apparently went 40kg. I have only ever caught them around the reefs out of Cairns. Never weighed them but landed some that went 120 and 130cm. They made a good account for themselves on an 80lb handline I know nothing about them down here.

It was a bit of a surprise. I have never caught one up there. Though about 12 months ago, a mate of mine caught a slightly larger one off the Jabiru island rocks in the south branch of the Coomera river, which is not far away from where Kat got hers. I remember being surprised at his capture too.

You are absolutely correct. It is covered under the hooning act by QLD police. I was told that by a police officer when I rang about some fools in that creek once before. I don't know if vessels were impounded but at least one was towed past us. I tipped my hat to the occupants of that vessel too. We spoke to one of the officers and he said they had been hit hard in the hip pocket. I suspect that legally he can't give much away.

Sorry guys in my slightly sleep deprived state I neglected to include the most important photo... Oops

Always much better than going to work. Hopefully there is reason to do some more reports before next year's grind back at work sets in.

Myself and @Kat launched from Jabiru island a bit after 5pm, 28/12. We had fresh beach worms but still had to get some yabbies. So up the creek we went. We opted to fish near the yabby banks with some worms for an hour or so while the tide receded a bit further before pumping yabbies. No joy apart from one barely legal whiting and a couple of under size bream. We pulled in to the yabby banks and pumped some yabbies under head lamps and I also threw the net and collected a few live mullet. We headed off to our second spot and @kat quickly cast aspersions on us with a catfish. Not long after I managed to cast off the catfish spell and landed a solid whiting. Then things went quiet and after a moses perch or two we decided to move. The third spot was very quiet also. I think I might have picked up a keeper bream before laying down to have a kip. It was after midnight and I had been awake since 3am. Kat carried the batten, retiring after me, she was up before me and even snapped a few shots of a beautiful sunrise. I re-surfaced when a drag screamed and she posed a "what's this" question. I was a bit surprised to see a juvenile cobia around 35cm. Though small, we should have taken a picture of her first ever cobia. It was released. Kat was excited about ticking off a new species. In my experience, cobia go really hard and she could be forgiven for possibly thinking that she had hooked an absolute horse of a whiting. There might have been a stingray or two in the spot after that and we moved. I forgot to mention the ever present stingray frustration from the night before. I'm learning to instantly erase such experiences from my mind. Another spot yielded two more solid whiting, some under sized specimens and then the bream and stingray trash prompted a couple more moves before we settled on the last spot out the wind. This is where the greatest gratification of the trip would be had. We anchored and I picked up a solid whiting fairly quickly. Then it went quiet for a while.... apart from the jet ski folk and other pwc tweenies.... All of coombabah creek is zoned 6 knots for all vessels. What we experienced I can only describe as one of the greatest displays of ignorance, arrogance and general oxygen thievery I have ever seen first hand. It was predominantly, but not completely, very young folk. I am sure that all fisho's and yachties etc have had beef with pwc's and other boats at some time, but wow, didn't Coombabah really turn it on yesterday. Despite the frustration we managed to boat some keeper bream and tarwhine. Kat also picked up another solid 36cm whiting. We had not long finished verbally wondering why we bothered with speed limits and maritime rules/ common courtesy, when that "fly on the wall" moment came to be. Yet another two jet skis came roaring flat out around the corner towards us, when from behind them they were almost effortlessly zipped past by a ninja like figure on an almost all black jet ski brandishing the "candy lights". I will savour the sight for a long time and I swear that even from up wind, I could smell the instant deflation of their spirits. It was Maritime Safety Queensland who rounded up a bunch of tools in double quick time and they literally got the "hat off" acknowledgement of gratitude from me as they came past us. My day had been made. It was time to go home. The final keep tally was 7 whiting, 5 bream and 3 tarwhine. The tarwhine and the bream will be appreciated by my neighbour. Apologies for the single whiting on the board. Somewhere amidst it all, one of us landed another keeper and I should have checked the esky more thoroughly before photos and filleting. I am sure this would not have happened if @Kat had emerged from her day long slumber and taken on the filleting duties

I think I need the master... I feel like it's going to be a few hundred more goes at the moment. But I certainly hope you are right and a great epiphany occurs soon

I haven't even been able to muster up the verbal tact to entice her out of bed today

I am just working on embracing the emerging grey's, @Kat is a big help

A plan was made to to get some beach worms and try for some whiting. The "Frozen Fillets" section of the freezer was quite depressing. Particularly after one had gone away, then come back later to check again and still found it completely devoid of preferred options. The kids were due back at their mum's place Wednesday evening 28/12, so it was off to main beach beforehand. The girls could play and have a splash around, while @Kat and I tried for worms. No danger of returning them to their mother's place all sandy, as any remaining sand would surely be deposited in my car. After arriving at the beach $17 lighter and armed with worming pliers, I quickly proceeded to demonstrate that I was no more proficient (if not less) at catching worms than before. Self awareness kicked in and I reminded myself that any tool is only as good as the one using it. So back in the pocket for the pliers it was. Fingers were the go, at least I couldn't hurl them into the sea in a fit of frustration. With both of us trying to keep an eye on the kids (more so kat as she was doing the bag waving and facing the sea), we managed a meagre few worms in an embarrassingly long time. It wasn't for lack of opportunities either as there were plenty of worms there. We had some interested bystanders and luckily I managed a couple more so at least they could see what we were trying to achieve with all the antics. Eventually a gentleman further up the beach took pitty on us and sent his wife and young daughter down with an offering of a worm he had caught with just a pipi. Many cussings and just a couple more worms later, the whole situation got a bit tense. A surfer lost his board and was in trouble as things really were very messy out there. Another surfer came over to him but they were both getting churned up and dragged further out. We tried to keep an eye on them and sent the girls for a sprint to get a life guard. The life guard returned and and set out. She reached them but shortly afterwards lost her board in the chaos as well. She was still managing to get them closer however. A by stander (another surfer who had not been planning on going out that day) took the life guards board back to her after it washed ashore. Eventually they all made it back, albeit very short of breath. A couple more worms and we had to go and get the girls home. Some praise for their quick sprint and a little chat about just how quickly things can get very serious in or on the water ensued. It was a very eventful afternoon for them. Quite the mixture of fun and drama, with a squabble over who would get to tell mum at the end of it all. We ended up with about 10 reasonable worms and I can safely say that I am quite the amateur wormer.

You two are certainly dedicated. Well done! I could use tips on how to get someone else to fillet your fish for you if you have any?

I couldn't grab a single worm with the pliers... At least I could feel the worms slip out of my fingers after I had grabbed them when I put the pliers away. And yes the expletives abounded...

She doesn't throw a cast net anymore...

Well.... It's been a bit of a bonus I still do it sometimes

Hi all, Anyone got thoughts on worming pliers vs fingers? I can catch some by hand but I am far from proficient at it. In fact I generally burn through A LOT of expletives before I have even close to enough worms for a session. It would be a very modest investment I know, but if I end up hurling them in a fit of frustration, I might just be better off leaving them in the shop.

You are consistent! Good job.

Hello people. Born in Gladstone QLD. Did primary and one year of high school there. Did years 9-12 at a boarding school in Cairns. Fished hard as a kid with some success and some failure. Did some university study (aquatic resource management), straight after high school. Got the poo poos with studying my life away and got a job growing prawns. Moved to Cardwell for a while and then to Mossman for a while longer within the prawn farming industry. Never was my lifestyle/ fishing balance better than then. Mainly chasing Barra, jacks and mudcrabs, but I also used to love chasing jungle perch and sooties in the freshwater. I was also pretty competent on the archerfish in Tinaroo dam as a kid. Won a few prizes in local comps on archerfish. Had some questions about things sometime in my 20's and moved to Brisbane to study again (engineering and science). Met a chick and the study ended up going by the wayside. I ended up mowing lawns and doing handyman type work. I didn't much appreciate her handyman work and we parted ways. Got some TA and store work in the steel fabrication and building industry. Got some more skills and progressed a bit. I did fish a little in seq in this time but not much. I ended up being based here but working away in north Queensland a lot and there I rekindled the passion for fishing. Some great sessions on grunter and whiting around Mackay in particular. Blah blah blah.... Changed companies within the building and construction game a few times. Ended up working with three diesel fitters as part of a small unique team. That's me in a nutshell, sorry for rambling. One day a few years later, I was fishing at one of "MY" favorite spots when something made me look over my shoulder. I saw a woman striding confidently over the flats with a yabby pump on her shoulder... I was impressed. Enter @Kat and that was that thus far.

Concentrate on the task at hand @Kat

We may need to employ a supervisor/ training officer for @Kat while I am casting. Any suggestions @ellicat?

Guess bretto scored?.... "Cast netting for prawns chores"...while @Kat gets to try and tip me out of the boat!...

Good to see you guys got out had a crack and had some fun. I once caught a catfish in the freshwater on a popper in 4m of water. That surprised me.

Merry Christmas champ

Not long at all... Maybe 3 minutes tops.

With the original plan of escaping Christmas day formalities and going fishing earning a big fat "Access Denied", the scramble was on was on to include fishing amidst other commitments. Myself and @Kat launched from horizon shores and headed to Macleay island for Christmas on Friday morning around the high tide. We needed high tide access to drop off all the unimportant things at her mother's place, (clothes Christmas ham, presents and other groceries), that were inhibiting the potential of Kat's boat. A few short greetings later we were free and Kat popped on her "Verminator" hat. The account for the day opened with Kat hooking a solid fish within minutes of anchoring at our first spot. My spirits sank and bad "ju ju" tried to engulf my being at precisely the moment a fork tailed catfish around 55cm appeared by the boat. Many hours and stingrays by kat later and after many non committal taps, I managed to land a decent whiting (36cm). Something, finally. I was hoping that more than one whiting would be open to a dinner invite, but a number of under sized bream and a Kat sharking was all that followed. A quick pit stop to maintain hydration and the stroll back down the hill to the Macleay ferry terminal had me feeling much lighter than when I went up despite carrying supplies down. Kat landed a (36cm) bream in the ten minutes I was gone. It was almost high tide again and time to get back to where we would be leaving the boat on the beach at a friend's place. We decided to try one last time for some whiting very close to where the boat would be tied up. Two stingrays later and it was time for bed. One whiting and one bream would not provide a feed for everyone, so I vowed to try again in the morning. I woke before 5am the following morning and wandered down to check on the boat. It was still high and dry so I grabbed the yabby pump out and set off to collect some more bait before the tide covered the flats again. After getting bait and a delicate operation to extract kat from the family we set off again at about 8:30am hoping again to find some whiting. After a few under sized bream at our first spot for the morning I managed a 32cm whiting and hopes were high. Then it was back to bream, stingrays and sharks so we moved. After a few promising runs that somehow didn't hook up Kat landed a small grunter which wasn't quite eligible for dinner. Then the sharks started again. Time to go back to the beach and tie the boat off again. We tried briefly for whiting there before anchoring and securing the boat. Two more stingrays and a shovel nose.... The final keep tally was five bream, two whiting and a shovel nose. Personally I think that the only worthy keepers were the whiting. The shovel nose cooked up ok. I ate the whiting. I have been known to label packaged bream fillets for Kat's sister as "Plebian scourge of the sea" Plenty of good laughs though and as always much better than being at work. Merry Christmas to all

Yep. Tilt tray. You could potentially even use the tilt tray to tip the gravel where you wanted it