Fishing Reports Info

This was Paul's post on one of the fishing forums.

"Been chomping at the bit for the last few weeks to get out for a fish. Yesterday was the first fishable day for weeks so I jumped at the chance to get out with Smithy and my mate Rick.

Had a lazy 6am start and headed out looking for some Spottie Mackerel working bait schools on the surface. We found birds working pretty quickly which signposted the action. Smithy deftly got us alongside the boil and first throw of the slug I was on! But they weren't spotties, instead mac tuna. Still they were really good fun on my light 20lb outfit. We boated 3 or 4 but the school was finnicky and was only surfacing every few minutes and sometimes only for a couple of seconds before they moved on.

I've been pretty keen to get onto some Kings or AJs vertical jigging so we headed wide to give it a go. I learned that it's hard work in deep water and I'm still pretty unco at it. We had no luck on the jigs so changed to livies. We marked a large school of kings on the sounder but they just weren't hungry. Even tried a big plastic but couldn't get a hit. We tried another one of Smithy's spots and again the fish were there but didn't want to play. Picked up one squire here that went about 38cm.

So we turned our attention to trolling minnows for pelagics. Nothing at the first spot but at the second spot we had a triple hookup on the minnows but two spat the hooks and the third took the whole lure. With toothy critters about we changed to trolling livies for a spaniard or wahoo.

We had several baits smashed with no hookups and then a short while later managed to boat a good spaniard.

After that we continued to just miss them, pulling in bait heads and tails but not hooking up.

We could have easily landed 5 or 6 of these spaniards but it just goes to show the difference between a good day and a great day can be a few millimetres.

Overall it was still a pretty good day on the water, nice conditions, a relaxed atmosphere on the boat and a good spaniard.

To be honest I'm counting down the days before I get back out there"

With unfishable weather up here and all tournaments run regardless the weather unless a strong wind or gale warning are current I headed to the Gold Coast to fish with Jim and Ryan McKinnon on their recently done up 233 Haines Hunter Formula Galaxy II.

Day one on the Friday we took the safe option of running the beach into Kirra bay and fishing the Kirra bait spots. We found little bits but not the mother load. From lunch on we trolled home down sea.

Day two was a better forecast and we were going heavy tackle regardless. We put the lures in at 120m and trolled all day. We saw Team Garmin and Adios fighting fish beside us and were right in the middle of the action but it didn't happen.

Day three we had heard about some slimey mackerel. We put the gear out in amongst lots of birds and it didn't take long to start marking some excellent bait. We drove off it to where another boat had just popped off a black and had our own fish on. It spat the hooks after 50-100m and we didn't get a good look at it but we were thinking billfish. A short while later both Jim and I saw a bill whack but it didn't pop the rubber band or carry on with it. By then Amigo the only game boat in the area had tagged one. We lost the bait for a while and then watched Amigo pop one off live baiting. That was enough for us so we started live baiting. Second troll up wind Ryan got this 14.8kg wahoo. It won heaviest other species light tackle for him.

We put one bait out and cleaned the deck of blood. Just as the second bait went out and we had gone about 15mins we were on again. This was a 60-70kg black marlin. We fished into overtime and ended up on 5.1kg of drag on 8kg line and eventually popped it off over the 3 hour mark and with 1.5 hours to get the wahoo back to the weigh station before the deadline.

Keely booked this one in. Live bait was hard to get but we jigged enough up in the end. 50m into trolling a spanish mackerel jumped up and hit the bait but didn't let drag off. I wound the bait in and sure there was only a head left. No further bites on the couple of mackerel reefs I tried. We went to bottom fishing but it was all rubbish and undersize stuff. The boys on the radio were onto the yellowfin tuna so we went for a look. By then a lot of boats were on them and having a centre console would have been a big advantage to get casts in closer. We heard about a school of spotties on the radio from another mate. First cast here we were on but then lost it. The bait would gather around the boat and use it for protection and we could see the spotties swimming around in front of us. Very frustrating seeing so many but they were shut down. Move off 50m and it would explode with predators again. Go back into casting range and the bait would hide back in under the boat and the action would die off. We went home with our tails between our legs.

Damian booked this one in with his two boys. We still had livies in the tank from the morning session so we gave them a try straight up. There was nothing going on so we headed to another lot of bait grounds to try for cod and cobia. First drift and one of the boys was on. We thought this was going to be it but we tried livies on every bait school I knew of in the area and nothing. By then the northerly was up pretty strong so we punched home into it.

Bruce is an old fishing contact from Dalby who was down on holidays. We picked this day as the best to take his couple of sons out. We trolled around all the bird schools in closer going for a yellowfin but didn't have any joy. We headed to the marlin grounds and jigged up some live bait. We got a few but they were hard work in the current. We trolled the billfish grounds looking for bait but it is still a desert out there.

Adam had a big crew this day. The live bait had turned up for a couple of days beforehand so we loaded up on nice size slimey mackerel while the game guys caught a sailfish and a marlin just after we left. We headed to a mackerel reef and they were on straight away. With one rod out drifting along getting the next one ready it went off. This was a nice spotted mackere. After landing in and going another 50m we had the second one. Long story short we smashed them. We had a triple hookup and a couple of double hookups. At the end of it we had three spanish mackerel, 6-7 spotty mackerel, a mack tuna and a mahi mahi. We would have lost anther 5 or so winding them in too. It was a ripper morning of good fishing, good blokes and good weather.

This one had been booked in for a long time. The boys wanted to jig and had bought some gear along so that is what we turned our attentions to as well as a bit of bottom fishing for Chris. We had a look at a few live bait spots on the way out and pinned our hopes on a wide spot. Closer in we found some birds and had a cast with Scott landing a nice gold spot trevally out of a school of hundreds of trevally. They were up on the top for a bit and we got a good look at them but they were just as spooky as any tuna school. At the wide bait spot there was a bit of a show but they were hard work and jigging up so slow they were eating into our fishing time as the boys had jigs and plastics to try anyway. First drift and first drop Scott was on. This was a nice AJ around the 10-12kg mark.

This set the scene for a few drifts. Hits or a fish if you were in the zone at the right time.

Chris perservered with the bait going for pearlies but the undersize ones were out in force. After all the boys had landed a nice AJ each and the action had slowed up we went to live baits. Chris was dusted twice in a row then Scott hooked up big time way up off the bottom on his jigging gear and had it coming till it woke up. It ran a good 15-20m straight back into the bottom and dusted him. The next couple of drifts were quiet so the lost fish must have spooked them so we moved on.

We stopped and dropped on any good show we found trying for a snapper on plastics or pearlies and other reef fish on the bottom. A piggy and another pearly were about it. Still quiet on the reef even though the shows were good.

We put the game gear in going for a marlin or a wahoo but by then Chris suggested going in so off we went.

Michael's mother in law Lyne had organised this trip for the boys. They were visiting from the Downs and Western Qld where they were drillers and irrigation specialists. Heading out I ran over a few bait spots but things were still barren. We started off trolling and on the first lap we hooked up bigtime. I was guessing it was another good 12-13kg yellowfin like a couple of days before. Mid fight there were boofs all around by good tuna which confirmed my suspision. Close to the boat we dropped his which was a bummer. We tried a couple of other spots on the troll but no further joy. We made the switch to bait. It was slow at first but once I went to my hussar/parrot spot they started coming aboard. We ended up 2 under bagging on hussar and a bonus good venus tusk fish until a shark came along. The young fella fought him for half an hour or so till I locked up on the leader and popped him off after everyone had got some good video and pics of the critter. Just another dusky or inky whaler.

Richard was back again and this time the boys jagged perfect weather. We headed to the bait spot and even though they were slow going on a couple of spots we eventually caught enough for our needs. We set up for mackerel. We saw a couple of pros get some beside us but we had no joy. We tried for a cod or cobia on the bait schools but no joy there either. Eventually the birds got onto some big meatballs of bait and workups and we started casting into them. We had some good hookups but missed all the good fish, only landing the mack tuna. Underneath the surface activity by letting the slugs sink the boys started getting good hookups too. A couple actually stayed connected and they ended up with some legal reefies and a few undersize. All in all it was still a slow day and it would be good to see the EAC start cranking from the north and bringing some fish with it.

This was a last minute decision for the boys as they were going on another charter late in the week. We headed straight where I had been getting the yellowfin. Sure enough we hooked up big time with this thing dumping a good 300m or so. After we survived old mate getting it out of the rod holder, dropping it into freespool and a birdsnesting we survived plus then all the big un-needed hooksets we set about fighting it and up came this ripper.

We trolled a bit longer but did no good even though the shows were great. We decided to bottom fish the shows hoping for reefies. I had one of the boys spinning plastics flat out off the bottom hoping for a aj/kingy or in recent times, a jobfish. Surprisingly this snapper climbed on.

Other than a million and one triggerfish and iodine bream etc. that was about it. A ripper of a summer arvo weather wise with no seabreeze.

Sean had booked this one in. We had a troll for yellowfin etc. but didn't actually hook any. We saw quite a few zipping around slurping in flying fish and getting airborn to do it. We switched over to reef fishing and pulled a few but it was hard work. Still not too bad for summer and the middle of the day. The grassy in particular was a ripper and they had a bit of chew with three kept and one undersize released which is a good sign.

Andrew and Bruce booked themselves in on this one. My memory is getting hazy that far back and with so many days in a row during that period but I know we started off getting live bait to mackerel fish with. Whilst doing that we slipped a couple of baits back down and ended up with two ripper big gold spot estuary cod. The day was not a waste from then on. We went mackerel fishing but at one spot a scum line had moved in. We tried a rock where earlier in the day a 18kg and 24kg spanish mackerel had come off but no joy there. We trolled beside the mackerel pros who were getting the odd one but no joy for us. We headed off looking for the longtail tuna a mate had found the day before where they stretched for acres but we only found one small pod we didn't try as I was looking for the motherload. Unfortunately the motherload had left and we had to play with the mack tuna on the dirty water line. We had a bit of fun then headed up the beach looking for spotty mackerel but it is still a weird season.