FISHING REPORTS
Watch this video and check out the reports below!
Fishing: *On two trips this week we headed North from Burnett Heads in perfect weather and glassy seas.
Catches included Cobia, Goldspot Cod, Spanish Mackerel, Snapper, Sweetlip, Nannegai, Queenfish, Hussar, Tea leaf Trevally and Slatey bream.
On the first trip the water temp was around 24 degrees and pelagics still on the prowl. Upon arriving at our first spot Skipjack Tuna were smashing baitfish on the surface and we immediately hooked up to one of about 5kg. We then anchored up and started a berley trail, which brought in some massive Spanish Mackerel.
It was a hard choice whether to throw slugs and baits to these big, marauding Spanish or fish on the bottom. In the end we got around to a bit of both and ended up with a nice variety of fish for the day.
On the second trip the water had plunged to 20 degrees and there was no sign of pelagic activity so we decided to target the bottom species. The day started with a few nice Hussar coming aboard but the highlights were a 12kg Cobia caught on whole Yakka and a lovely 10kg Goldspot Cod, also on Yakka.
*Sun 17 Jan 2010-
Had a top day out today with Spanish Mackerel, Hussar, Red Emperor and Spangled Emperor. Pleanty of wildlife out there with Spanish Mackerel, Tuna, Eagle Rays, snakes, turtles, Longtoms and Jellyfish spotted, water temp was 28 degrees.
*Sat 21 November 2009-
Got out for a fish early, bit choppy early but it turned out a nice day with a north easterly around 10 knots. Best fish was a 5kg Goldspot Cod along with Hussar, Fingermark Bream, Trevally, Slatey and Sweetlip. Noticed a lot more bait schools accompanied by Mackerel and Tuna so it looks like a big summer ahead, hopefully we get more consistent weather.
*Sun 13 September-
Left the Burnett River at 7am with Mick from Toowoomba and his sons,got a few Grassy Sweetlip before the wind kicked in and we came back early
*Tues 15 September-
A better day with the wind at least light, headed to a few spots picking up Grassy Sweetlip, Squire, Tuskies, Hussar, Trevally and a Fingermark Bream.
We noticed more pelagic activity with some Tuna around breaking the surface, and in the afternoon had some fun catching Giant Trevally and Queenfish on slugs.
*Sat 5 September-
Headed out with Darryl, Blake, Al and Graham today to some patches of reef off Burnett Heads. A light North Westerly of 5-10 knots increased to 10-20 knots by afternoon but a mostly pleasant day.
High tide was around 10am and the fish came on the bite from 8 am onwards and we ended up with a mixed bag of Hussar, Grassy Sweetlip, Trevally, Grunter Bream, Stripeys and Venus Tuskfish.
There were a good few Red Emperor but unfortunately just undersize, we also got busted up by several decent fish which were probably bigger Reds or Coral Trout.
An interesting day with glassy seas early and showers later, and an abundance of wildlife with dolphins, sea snakes, turtles and tuna spotted. Water temp was 22 degrees.
*Thurs 20 August-
We finally got out offshore again, after weeks of having clients eager to go fishing and getting plagued by windy weather, today turned out ok, with a slight chop early morning easing by the afternoon.
We travelled 110 kms today searching for fish and seemed to find patches of them in various places, catching a few, getting hassled by triggerfish and moving on to the next spot, ending up with a mixed bag of Hussar, small Red Emperor, Cod, Trevally and a nice Sweetlip. I found some nice new patches of reef which I'll definitely revisit soon. A very pleasant day on the water and great company!
Hopefully we'll get out for a few afternoon/ evening trips soon for Snapper and reefies, we have a few people keen to go so let us know if you'd like to join us too.
A few pics below of the day with Jim, Terry and Kiwi:
*Wed 29 July-
It's been a while since our last report, we've had adverse weather stopping us on the days we've been wanting to go wide and when it's been windy I've been at Lady Elliot Island driving the dive and glass bottom boats. Hopefully soon we'll get favourable conditions to go offshore when there are customers ready to go
but today I had a fish in the river with Brent from Houston, Texas.
We had a fun session scoring a good haul of bream and a 62cm flathead, releasing all the fish bar a couple of bream and the flattie. The bream are now running in the rivers and there are some thumper size ones too, mostly caught on my secret favourite bait and sp's, and they put up a solid fight on light tackle!
Here's a pic of happy customer Brent:
*Tues 22 July-
Went out for an evening charter with some guys from the Sunshine Coast and NSW, flat calm conditions, got on to some snapper and then a huge Barracuda before it all went quiet. Some nice showings on the sounder so hopefully the bigger snappper will turn up soon.
*Monday 6 July- Today we had a couple of spearo's for a charter, Russ from Brisbane and Dale from Adelaide, both experienced freedivers. The day started out ordinary, grey skies, choppy seas, and chilly. We first tried for some livies but couldnt find any so decided to keep going on the hour long trip to our spot for the day.We arrived to water of 20 degrees and a deep blue colour. The spearo's decided to have a fish first to wait for the sun to get up higher in the sky and were soon on to a variety of bottom fish and having a ball. A few really big fish were missed, one smashing a live 1kg trevally we had on only to miss the hooks. At about 11am they geared up and jumped in with their spearguns for a look, and found visibility of 25 metres plus and fish everywhere!
By the time we headed home at 2.30 pm we had bagged some good fish and released a lot more with Russ spearing the biggest, a Golden Trevally of 16kg, and Dale nailing a nice
Mangrove Jack and a 5kg Queenfish. Julie got amongst them too with some hard fighting Trevally.
*Tuesday 30 June-
A perfect day for a fishing charter, 0-5 knots or glassy all day!
Had Jeff, Shelley and their kids from the Sunshine Coast and we had a ball,
catching some nice size Tea leaf and white trevally on bait and lures and missing some good size fish on livies.
Just after midday another livie gets smashed, ratchet screaming and this time we are on,after 15 mins a lovely Cobia comes up after circling the boat several times,
we've caught some nice Cobia lately, this one weighing in at 19kg, you've gotta love winter!
A fun day with dolphins, sea snakes and green turtles keeping us company, sometimes appearing right next to the boat!
*Sunday 14 June we had a charter with Peter and Tony from Brisbane. Peter wanted to try a bit of spearfishing so we didn't go too deep. Headed out at first light. Light breeze, small swell, mild temperature, great start!
Got out to our spot and anchored up and got the berley going, but it took a good few hours for things to start happening. The boys hooked up to some nice tea leaf trevally on light tackle. It was around high tide at 12pm that Peter geared up and went for a spear, after 20 mins he speared a nice 8kg Golden Trevally which he proudly brought back to the boat, his biggest fish spearing!
I had baited up with a whole yakka and I had just set the rod on the holder and turned around when the ratchet screamed, this fish was going hard and not stopping. After playing it for a while I handed the rod to Tony to have a go.
This was quite a battle and after 30 minutes Tony handed the rod to Steve to finish it off, five minutes later we gaffed a 31.5kg Cobia on 15kg line.
By the end of a beautiful day a 2kg and 3kg Snapper had also landed in the esky, along with some lovely trevally.
More recent pics, click on image for larger view:
