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A very late notice and unexpected child free weekend revealed itself yesterday morning. While I was not happy about the circumstances, @Kat and I wasted little time in seeing the silver lining. With a coastal wind warning current it would be tucking up a creek somewhere that didn't involve travelling great distances in the boat. Our regular haunt ticked the boxes. We organised some blood worms, packed the boat, some sandwiches etc and off we went to brave the wind. There were plenty of spare parks at paradise point ramp as expected. We could have launched much closer but a better ramp with a pontoon and no cross current is worth a couple of minutes travelling in the boat, even in yesterday's wind. We found a spot that was sheltered from the wind and anchored up. It was less than about twenty seconds before my basically free spool drag screamed off. The catfish that appeared shortly after at the boat signalled the start of what would become a monotonously regular annoyance. My next bait was out a few minutes before it screamed off in a similar fashion and I think I actually called catfish again but was pleasantly surprised when a reasonable spotted grunter appeared at the boat. It had actually made a bit of a mess of my 10lb leader so I'm glad I opted for the net. @Kat couldn't seem to get any interest on her side of the boat yet and started making noise about swapping sides. Very soon it didn't matter what side of the boat you were on it was catfish aplenty. This went on for a while before I landed a solid whiting that was frustratingly shy of the magic 40cm mark. There were a lot of other undersized grunter, a few legal bream and tarwhine which were released, (and of course the mandatory pony fish). Kat then landed a good legal whiting, but it was back to catfish and undersized spotted grunter straight after that. Unfortunately it was looking like we were going to have to endure a lot of undesirables to get a feed of whiting. We chose to move to try and escape the catfish etc but to no avail. It was the same everywhere, a couple of good fish and then we just couldn't get past the vermin. @Kat bettered me on the whiting tally again and contributed two very solid specimens that were almost identical to the first one I got. But neither of us managed to bust the 40cm mark yesterday. Catfish OMG the catfish. Wow, to think that @kat wanted to rename her boat to "Katfish".

I dug some worms yesterday afternoon and took the little boat for a spin down to Jumpinpin this morning . Launched at the Alberton ramp at about 5.30 am and enjoyed the cruise down out through the mouth of the Logan River then , down past the power lines , and ended up down near Golden Bank .The sand flies were bad as usual, till the sun got properly up and the breeze picked up a little - lucky I took long pants, shoes and a full can of bushman’s.Sorted my way through undersized bream , grunter ,flathead and sting rays and ended up with a bakers dozen of pretty good quality whiting by 10am , got one that gave Kats 40cm model a little nudge , but fell short by a few mm’s and wasn’t good enough to make the grade. Just had some for tea , they’re hard to beat !

Dug some wriggler worms on Tuesday afternoon , it was hot , and unfortunately for me ,the beach was covered in 6 inches of weed where I wanted to dig ,forcing me to rake it off in order to get at the worms. Ended up getting enough worms in about half an hour for a quick fish . Headed down to the Pin on Thursday morning and fished the run up King Tide . The fish were there but not in numbers I like ,but the quality of the whiting was excellent so I wasn’t complaining .Also scored a lone Grunter which was a disappointment as I thought it was going to be a huge whiting . I tried to post a couple of photos in the usual way , but they still don’t load . Regards Neil

Mate and I are looking at heading further south than normal tomorrow to escape the likely 10-15knot slop that a trip over to the sandhills would bring based on forecast. Was thinking of hiding in and around Coochie and Macleay area to escape the wind and see if we can pick up a feed of whiting. Anyone got some starting areas we can have a poke around please? Thanks Craig

Headed to Jumpinpin with @Old Scaley today. 7am and we were fishing. Target: Whiting. The forecast was wrong and it was blowing a solid 15 knots, so after landing a little bream and a decent whiting at Kalinga Bank, we headed over to the Northern side of Crusoe, to take advantage of the shelter. I took a pic when the count was 7 and sent it to @Bretto77 to make his day at work a little better. We managed to put a feed together with 12 keepers. Plenty of undersize ones and Steve got onto a patch of small Tarwhine for a bit. We ran out of worms, so trolled some hardbodies for half an hour on the way back to the ramp. Off the water just after 1pm. Good to be back out there and the electric was all good after installing the new battery under warranty. Pic of 7 whiting via video -

It's been some time since I have posted a report. Someone else initially claimed reporting rights and I subserviently agreed. A number of factors have contributed to the lack of report from my beloved @Kat. I find myself with no choice (and her permission), but to blurt before the memories become a little obscure amidst the stress of the daily grind, commitment to children and the unabating will to always love her forwards. We ended up (by sheer unusual circumstance) with a Sunday that we were free to fish on our terms. So we did. The tides were such that Kat's once beloved yabbies could be gathered at a convenient time. A suggestion of purchasing blood worms (as the very friendly and proficient provider was open from 0430hrs) was also thrown into the mix. Both options were employed. Worms were purchased and the boat was launched. Yabbies we're pumped by myself and (begrudgingly) @Kat. Time to fish. The fish were not exactly at the X's we had painted on the water surface last time we were there, but we got a few. Kat is laying claim to numbers, I maintain that quality trump's quantity . Kat did not use a single yabby until the worms were gone and we were heading home. It would appear that she has changed religions... Here's a few pics.

Been a busy month in July for me with my daughter getting married and my oldest boy home for a month from his place overseas. He loves fishing and we have managed a few trips while he has been here. Last opportunity was Tuesday and thankfully the weather played the game. Put in at Jacobs Well and fished the Broadwater for a decent feed of whiting and a couple of bream. Lots of smaller models. Biggest whiting was 35cm. I still love getting out for a fish with my boys who are both in their 30s now. Makes the hard yards you put in when they are little worthwhile.

A blight on the dedication to my own and significant others' self preservation was noted. I had to at least remember getting a line in the water. @Kat had been suffering my work affliction whilst breaking her own ground on the work front. We had not fished for too long. Luckily, @ellicat gallantly exuded her talent and a suite of grassies earned @Kat a "cape" status earlier in the week. I had not done anything much except work, chores and transport kids since just after new year. @ARKS2011, @Kat, Charlotte and myself launched (allbeit very late), Sunday morning from paradise point and headed towards jumpinpin. I don't know the place very well and it was a weekend day, so I assumed that there would be plenty of activity on the water, and given the timing, few fish. As it turns out I was correct. It was a light gear/ live beach worm approach to attempt to get a feed of whiting. We did a drift to begin with for minimal reward. One legal whiting is not a haul by any rational criteria. Charlotte and Amber seemed more keen on fighting than fishing. We had a look at another spot briefly before finding somewhere we could drop the girls for a swim and a play on the beach. Kat and I deployed baits VERY close by. We were rewarded with miniscule tarwhine and whiting that would make great live baits (had they been the right species of course). It was about this time that we noticed what appeared to be a small Stedgecraft convention happening around us. One, two, three pulled up close by in barely a meter of water. We wondered if @GregOug might pull up next? They are sleek looking vessels and they had no problems in that depth. Looking at them I thought that all of them probably drew less water than Kat's tinny. "No fish here". Time to try another spot. So we collected two cooled and slightly de-energised children and headed off. Charlotte was looking at the high sand dunes and wanting to run up them and slide down. Amber thought that she might make it halfway up before resting and going further. I looked at them and wished I still had that energy and enthusiasm . Due to environmental and self preservation considerations, such a scenario did not take place. We settled on a spot that I had fished before and caught some reasonable whiting from. A handful of legal whiting found the esky via my hook and Kat remarked about losing her cape or leaving it in Brian's boat. I landed a small stingray and asked Kat if I should keep it for Brian as a mark of respect for his thoughtfulness in keeping the bream for me. The ray was promptly released. @Kat landed some unders and a legal. It was tough going. I will however, (from the far reaches of the shadows of @Daryl McPhee and @Bob9863 recently), take some solace in a 40cm model that was hooked fair and square in the top jaw on a no. 6 hook. It played up a little bit when it got close to the boat too. Then it was time to head off. The girls mother was picking them up from the ramp across from the grand hotel. It was a busy run back there but conditions were pretty good. There were a few quite large and relatively quick boats heading the same way. The kids always want to go fast in the boat. A little wake surfing during the overtaking process earned me squeals of joy and delight from my children but scoldings from Kat. We briefly tried a couple more spots after dropping back the kids but this didn't trouble the esky. In fact, all it earnt me was the opperculum spines of a very small flathead and associated blood loss. It's good just getting out with your loved ones. We certainly didn't rape and pillage the fish stocks but there was a meal in the esky and good times were had.

Hi All, Top Morning, nobody about. Fished down the southern end near the rocks. Bit slow at first. Four nice Whiting later. Sorry no photos. Haven't got a Super phone. Old school Cheers, Rebel.

Paradise point was the ramp of choice 5/1/23. Having dropped @ARKS2011 back to her mother's beforehand the crew was down to @Kat and myself. We launched about 4pm and headed up Coombabah creek to get yabbies. We had been watching a couple of storm cells on the radar and it looked as though we might just escape the worst where we were heading. The yabbies were not in great numbers and it took much longer than usual to collect what we thought we would need. Yet another little snippet that makes me feel like something is going a bit pear shaped in this creek system. Or perhaps I am trying to read too much into normal seasonal cycles and have not put the dots together properly yet. Likely the latter. Anyway we got our yabbies and checked the radar again. It still looked as though where we were was about as safe as it would be in the next hour or so. It was very calm at this point and the tide was just beginning to flood, so we were able to achieve a steady drift a little bit further up the creek. This yielded nothing more than a small bream or two and some Moses perch. It would have been nice to do some more drifts over the same ground as the tide flooded further (perhaps intercept a school of whiting moving up with the tide?), but things started looking a little ominous and the wind picked up. It was out with the anchor. Another radar check indicated that we might just get the very northern edge of a cell. Lines were still in the water and mine screamed off. After a lap of the boat a small trevally was landed and Kat kept it for a raw fish salad. I would have sent it back to swim and do it's thing. Kat food... My next bait wasn't out for very long at all when my reel received the stingray kiss. It was well over five minutes before ensuring that only a hook had to be replaced. A new catch for me in the creek however with an Australian whipray (Himantura australis) presenting as the hook thief. Some very light rain, an intermittent light show and a little more wind saw us reaching for the rain jackets. All electronic devices were stashed undercover inside water proof boxes. We hunkered down... Nothing more than some light rain and a stiffer gust every so often...? We barely even heard a rumble...? After about 10 minutes I dug out my phone and checked the radar. We could not have been more fortunate. I momentarily wondered if @Kat had some devine powers that I was unaware of, but quickly concluded that I would have seen them demonstrated by now for leader board purposes. The northern edge of a significant storm cell actually parted around the blue dot that was us sitting in a creek in an aluminum boat. I wish I could have taken some sort of rolling screen shot. We started heading for the seaway. There would be limited places to shelter from the forecast wind but we had to try something different. Our old faithful creek had provided a place to experience a parting storm but the series of letdowns had become too much. Though it wasn't sheltered from the wind we first tried a location on the western side of wavebreak island. Some small bream and Moses perch were landed very quickly but it wasn't comfortable fishing and I wasn't comfortable feeding pickers. The northern side of wavebreak island was about as sheltered as it was going to get. So we poked around there for a while amongst much larger vessels with the same idea. We found a likely spot and it was here we stayed for the night. A legal whiting was the first fish on board and they continued to come steadily in the next few hours. There was very "little"in the way of vermin but Kat did land a stingray about the size of a tea saucer. Even though it was a stingray it was almost cute . Things went a little quiet for a few minutes but then Kat's reel screamed. At first we thought stingray and then not. Close though. After quite a battle on the whiting gear (Kat did an awesome job), a shovelnose that probably just nudged the meter mark was released at the side of the boat. Kat retired for the night after this. I fished on for perhaps another 45 minutes and landed a couple more legal whiting, then retired myself. Kat was up before me and the tide was high. I remember her remarking about dolphins and a school of whiting on the surface hugging the boat, but I was still slumber prone. Soon enough I was ordered to get up and we pretty much started heading for home as it was very windy. We headed to the northern end of Crab island and drifted all the way back to sovereign island. Another legal whiting, two legal bream and one tarwhine were kept from this drift. The final keep tally was 17 whiting. 2 bream, 1 tarwhine and a small trevally. No great size amongst the whiting but we had a good feed in the esky. It is with a heavy heart and after much procrastination that I post this. It is likely the last trip for a while as I have had to return to the daily grind. A big thanks to @ellicat for enquiring about where I was planning on going at 04:44hrs on Monday morning

I have been trying, (to no avail), to get @ARKS2011 to put this one together. It looks as though dad is flying solo on the post fishing activities again. Myself, @Kat and @ARKS2011 launched from cabbage tree point 3/1/23 a little after first light. We headed to the northern end of Macleay island. The boating equivalent of a Westfield carpark just before Christmas soon unfolded. The place was packed out. We had some of Kat's beloved yabbies that I had kept alive since our last trip. The loose plan was to try and get some live squid around the top of the tide close by, perhaps entice a snapper on the run out, then later target whiting. I couldn't raise any squid and yabbies were achieving only pickers. The first fish into the boat was a toadfish courtesy of Amber. It was promptly doted over and named "Puffy". Many under sized fish abounded. Squire, bream, Moses perch, stripey and even a spotted grunter. Not surprising however, given the inappropriate nature of our approach due to me quickly giving up on the live squid. We headed for whiting county on the western side of the island and Kat saw a familiar vessel. A quick hello to @GregOug and confirmation of similar degrees of success for the day thus far. Into the shallows we went. True to recent form, we were quickly onto another great patch of stingrays, but a single miniscule whiting was found on Kat's hook at some point in time. I latched onto something solid which wasn't a stingray and my spirit soared. My hopes of a good sized flathead were promptly dashed by a gummy shark around 90cm. A keeper bream by me and some running, (very crude), cast net repairs later, I netted some mullet and gar. I was beginning to worry that the stingrays would swarm the boat and overthrow the crew, so we high tailed it out of there. A show of fish in some deeper water produced a few keeper bream and one just under legal snapper. Unfortunately the snapper didn't release well and probably made a very easy meal for one of the folks that @ellicat has been appreciating so much recently. Things went quiet not too long after that and we moved to check an isolated bit of structure we had marked many trips ago. I got one really good run into the structure and very quickly lost the lot. Bugger. I think another legal bream was kept from this spot. There were three turtles hanging around in the area which Amber found fascinating. I was not so appreciative when one swam through my line and I lost another rig. We headed down towards Karagarra to collect fresh yabbies and stumbled upon a situation which helped me to put our limited catch into perspective. Someone in a much larger boat than Kat's had decided that the Chanel markers weren't for them and parked it up high and dry for a tide cycle or two. It certainly didn't look like somewhere you would usually leave a boat like that anyway. We may only have been sporting a few meagre bream, but at least we still had opportunity. The gathering of fresh yabbies provided fantastic amusement with Amber playing "Master of the soldier crabs". Herding them like cattle, she all but had them in a single group when a lack of attention to where she was going saw her bogged and seeking our assistance. She managed to free herself, but not before her upright function failed and we had a very muddy child. A quick dip for Amber before we headed off to another spot where we had caught good whiting in the past. Again, nothing but bream were to be had initially. At least there were a couple of keepers amongst them. Then I picked up a legal spotted grunter which lifted my spirits. I hoped that more than one of those would make it aboard, but no, back to the bream. It was a pretty warm day and the ladie's "Whingeometer" had been indicating an impending meltdown, so it was around to Karagarra for them to have a swim. After their swim we met a couple of gentleman who spoke of similar experiences to @GregOug at north west island, a report that Kat has urged me to read. They were very friendly retired fellows with plenty of stories to share. Though it made me acutely aware of my imminent return to work, it was great to see some long time mates catching up for a quiet afternoon ale by the beach. Last spot for the day and Kat was pretty grumpy about having contributed a donut to the keep tally thus far. I started catching more bream and Amber was busy signing up to AFO. With an unattended line in the water Amber still managed to land a couple of bream. Kat was still flying the donut flag with great disdain and blaming her position in the boat. Amber finished her sign up and Kat pulled rank in her own boat. With a nonchalant and abiding "OK", Amber assumed her new position and almost instantly proceeded to land a keeper bream. Two more followed shortly after. The bream bite was hot. Amber and I couldn't miss and were releasing legal fish. Poor Kat was seething. Eventually Kat lowered the donut flag by putting a keeper bream in the esky. We had enough fish, but were all on a donut when it came to keeper whiting. Amber snapped some pictures of building storm clouds silhouetted by the late afternoon sun and we headed for home. The final keep tally was 10 bream and 1 grunter. A complete fail on the target species, but quality time together trumps that in my mind.

Hi, I live a long way inland but going to Murramarang near Bateman's Bay in a few weeks. Plenty of experience with trout, redfin, cod etc in the fresh but have done bugger all salt fishing, so have a few noob questions to get me started: I have a beach rod - what line and leader should I spool it with for fishing the Durras area, and what bait? What rod and reel for estuaries/rivers in this area? I have plenty ranging from small trout spinning rods up to big Murray Cod baitcasters. And again, what bait and lures? Pretty keen on having a crack at Bass. Also considering taking my kayak to try on Durras lake. Thanks!

Another launch from Jabiru Island occurred on new years day afternoon. We were a little late arriving, (mostly due to mild fatigue and and preparational procrastination), and @Kat was getting anxious. The obligatory 6 knots up to the yabby banks prompted much fidgeting and chomping at the bit. After all, the yabbies wait for no humble man, woman or child. With a modest low tide beginning to flood, two pumps and one child were employed to collect enough for the evening session, and a morning session a day later elsewhere. Off to our first spot. As per normal, @Kat flaunted with superstitious realisations by voicing a thought about "Stingrays". Seconds later the affliction began with a telltale screaming of my drag. Five or so minutes later, valuable fishing time and another hook had been wasted. Then it was Kat's turn for much of the same. We may have managed a keeper bream before moving further up the creek. In the second spot mother nature assaulted us with pony fish and we moved again into a much shallower spot. This started well with me landing a decent whiting, but again we fell victim to stingrays and pony fish. The stubborn slime of the pony fish did nothing for their charisma in my mind. Amber took quite an interest in the downward extending jaw of the pony fish and incessantly fired questions about it. She also decided that due to their general broad flat profile, that they should be called "Matt". We pulled anchor and drifted the shallows for a short while. Amber landed a reasonable bream with the prompt exclamation of "oh... It's Brian!". There were a few more relocations for little satisfaction. Kat kept a legal Moses perch and I got another reasonable whiting. We persevered until after midnight keeping a couple more legal bream and I think a tarwhine also. Not another single legal whiting graced the boat. It was time to go, as I still had to come up with an arrangement for keeping the remaining yabbies alive when we got home. We left feeling a little defeated by the whiting but had some fish and some quality time together. As always, plenty of laughter.

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

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

Finally wet a line at dusk today, was great to smell the salt air again, omg lost count of the bloody stingrays but a few good whiting, with one standout at 42

The tides were right to visit Shorncliffe Pier to extract some seafood for Christmas lunch. Yabbies and worms produced a feed of yellowfin whiting with a couple of bream and tarwhine mixed in, while the crab dillies provided some tasty blue swimmer crabs. As always, fishing up in the shallows in less than a metre of water is the way to go when chasing whiting. A left field catch from there last week was a 32 cm swallowtail dart that must have wandered out of the surf zone. The first one I have got there in over 30 years.

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.

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.

Went down to the Pimpama River last night anchored up about 5pm and within 30Mins had one 33 and one 35cm Whiting and thought is going to great night and that was that only bream after that.

Didn't want to hijack Kat's thread but I think some might get inspiration from this photo I took of Youngy fishing Nerang River. He has a massive print of a similar photo(which I will not publish for his benefit)on his wall at home. I love photography long before I started fishing and I gives me the same satisfaction as catching a good fish.

Hi Legends! Last Friday afternoon Brett and I made a trip to the Gold Coast to fish Coombabah Creek. The plan was to get there in time to pump yabbies, have a fish for some fat whiting, sleep on the boat the night (hoping the thunderstorm didn't eventuate!) and pick the kids up from the Coast in the morning and take them for a fish in the boat. My fisho mate from Macleay had challenged me to a week-long whiting comp as he was staying in the Creek or the Coomera for the whole week. Part of the reason for our trip. We the previous Sunday from the bank and Tuesday afternoon/evening from the boat and it was almost dead – barely anything biting. I think we might have caught one legal whiting combined both sessions. With the view that the bite had to change sometime, we were hopeful it was going to be Friday night. I phoned my mate on the way there, he asked if I was going past the bait shop. He was supposed to be in the Coomera but had stayed because one of his mate's mates had bagged out on whiting that morning. He asked me to pick him up some live blood worms – the story was that the blood worms were working and the yabbies weren’t. I wasn't planning on spending money on bait but got worms for him and some for us. We also pumped yabbies on arrival. We headed up to one of the more productive and well-known spots in the creek. It wasn’t long before I had a fish on and landed a 33cm Spotted Grunter. Released to the esky. Brett got a legal Bream which I made him keep (sister likes Bream). Over the next few hours Brett used yabbies and I used worms (while being accused of cheating on my beloved yabbies!). It is hard to recall, but I think I got about 7 or 8 decent sized whiting, while Brett may have got 1. It went quiet and we were both tired, so we headed down the creek to a spot where we got some nice fat whiting a couple of weeks ago. This spot is rarely fished by other boats from my observations, it is out from the yabbie banks too far to cast from the land where I have fished numerous times but away from the channel. We went to sleep pretty quickly. About 4am in the morning I was woken by another boat. I sat up to see what was happening and they were going slowly down the channel looking for crab pots by the mangroves. I strongly suspect that they were share farmers. I tried to get back to sleep for a while but eventually gave up about 5.15 am and put my line in the water – with one of the last worms– it should have been low tide well and truly, but it was still running out. Brett started fishing shortly after me. I hooked a decent whiting after about 15 minutes and was hopeful for more, but the bite was quite slow. On this trip, for one of the first times, I was using the method that some of you legends had imparted to me – the rod in the holder facing straight down to the water or leaning on the back of the boat – with light drag – then when you see the rod bend – lift up gently etcetera. That night I had to break the necks of almost all the whiting I had caught to retrieve my hook. Anyway – probably about 6am my line was being played with for quite a while, the rod tip bent a little, there was a short run and then nothing. Eventually I thought I better check my bait and felt a little resistance, a few flaps and then gently lifted the rod out of the holder, I tightened the drag slightly and started winding in. No resistance - thought I had missed the fish until the drag started peeling off and I could feel the weight, the fish did a few good runs with the drag even tighter – I called that it couldn’t be a whiting, too strong and heavy. Brett said, while laughing, it is an elbow slapper. As I got the fish close to the boat I was both amazed and ecstatic – it was the biggest whiting I have ever laid eyes on. I was scared I was going to lose it as I pulled it into the boat (didn’t even cross my mind to use the net as I was so excited). I managed to get it safely into the boat and I still can’t believe how big it was - measured 43cm on the brag mat (not 44 as in the photo). Weighed 688 grams! I am absolutely stoked – I could barely bring myself to fillet it and definitely didn’t break its neck at the time to retrieve my hook! I went on to catch whiting all day but only a few at a time – 19 legal whiting in total – I think 15 were mine, 2 to Brett and 2 to Brett’s oldest. Brett also switched to worms but could hardly land a fish all day. I got quite a lot of very dirty looks. I can only conclude the method works (Brett was generally holding his rod - fishing rod!). A big thanks to everyone on AFO who has helped me achieve this – particularly @Daryl McPhee and @Neil Stratford for his PM last year on how to catch whiting. If I have forgotten to mention anyone in particular please forgive me. Can’t wait to try this again very very soon. PICS:

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.

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.

We thought we would give the tailor a little rest and change up our diet with some whiting fillets. Something I get asked a fair bit about how to catch fish at places like Shorncliffe Pier. Most anglers overcomplicate things. You just need to keep it simple. The video from yesterday highlights the three simple points you need to consistently catch yellowfin whiting at a place like Shorncliffe Pier.