queensland Fish with crab entree

[Old Scaley]

Had a crack at crabbing down the Pin area with Australia’s Greatest Deckie @Benno123. We needed an early start so we could be at the yabbie banks on the early morning low. Benno got to my place at 4am and we were on the water by 5am. The yabbies were plentiful and we soon had a day’s supply.

We set our 8 pots on the way to the trusty yabbie bank, with the plan to fish for a couple of hours, then check and move the pots if necessary. The weather was perfect, with a light breeze under overcast skies keeping us nice and cool for the morning. The lines went out just around the turn of the tide and I was the first lucky angler very soon after that, with solid hookup. After s short but fun battle on 5lb braid and 6lb leader, a healthy looking silver slabbed torpedo came up beside the boat. This got Benno very excited cos he loves catching grunter, so he grabbed the net and we had our first for the day, a nice 42cm spotted grunter. Not long after that I landed a 35cm whiting and we thought we might crack the elusive 40cm+ on this trip.

 I had a quiet period for a while after that, and Benno started to add fish to the esky. We had a lot of by-catch throughout the day. Lots of good size bream, but we only kept 3 for the esky because they were well over 30 cm and gut hooked. Strangely Benno was the only one to catch stingrays, and he caught a few. There was a lot of by-catch in the pots as well, with lots of Jennie’s and few bucks.  We shifted the pots regularly trying to find where the boys were hiding, but ended up with just 3 keeper muddies and 2 keeper sandies. On the fish front we ended up with 12 good whiting, 6 good spotted grunter, a tarwhine and the 3 bream.

So overall, a pretty rewarding day. We were stopped by Fisheries just before the ramp for a spot check, and they were quite impressed with the quality of our fish. Good to see them out and about - this was about 7pm so they are not just working 9 to 5. 

Oh, and if you are wondering why I called Benno Australia’s Greatest Deckie, I wasn’t being sarcastic. I hardly have to lift a finger when Benno comes out with me. He tows the boat for me, prepares and deploys the pots as I drive the boat, does more than his share of yabbie pumping, ties most of my knots and even baits my line and tosses it out for me if I turn my back for a few seconds. All my other deckies are wonderful too, but Benno sets a new standard.

oh, almost forgot the obligatory dead fish photo. 

[GregOug]

Great haul. When’s my turn to take your deckie out? 

[ellicat]

That's a long day, but a very rewarding and tasty one.

How good was the 42cm grunter fight ?

[ellicat]

Oh, and yes, Benno is hard to beat in the decky stakes.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hey Steve and Benno

Good job guys. Those are some good fish and crabs. I love grunter too. Good fighting and great eating.

Cheers Hamish

P.S. One day I hope I can live up to your standard, Benno!  

[Old Scaley]

7 minutes ago, ellicat said:

That's a long day, but a very rewarding and tasty one.

How good was the 42cm grunter fight ?

Yes @ellicat it was a long day. As you know Benno’s opportunities to get out for a fish are pretty limited these days so he likes to make the most of them. The fight with grunter was a lot of fun on light line but not epic. Forgot to mention that we also caught more than our share of catfish, a few of which we turned into fresh crab bait. We think we were sparked a few times as well so there is lots happening despite (or maybe because of) the murky water.

[ellicat]

3 minutes ago, Old Scaley said:

We think we were sparked a few times as well

??

 

It's ok. I figured it out - sharked.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Just now, ellicat said:

??

Sharked?

[GregOug]

Just now, ellicat said:

??

I wasn’t game to show my ignorance. Glad you asked @ellicat.

[Guest]

27 minutes ago, Old Scaley said:

Had a crack at crabbing down the Pin area with Australia’s Greatest Deckie @Benno123. We needed an early start so we could be at the yabbie banks on the early morning low. Benno got to my place at 4am and we were on the water by 5am. The yabbies were plentiful and we soon had a day’s supply.

We set our 8 pots on the way to the trusty yabbie bank, with the plan to fish for a couple of hours, then check and move the pots if necessary. The weather was perfect, with a light breeze under overcast skies keeping us nice and cool for the morning. The lines went out just around the turn of the tide and I was the first lucky angler very soon after that, with solid hookup. After s short but fun battle on 5lb braid and 6lb leader, a healthy looking silver slabbed torpedo came up beside the boat. This got Benno very excited cos he loves catching grunter, so he grabbed the net and we had our first for the day, a nice 42cm spotted grunter. Not long after that I landed a 35cm whiting and we thought we might crack the elusive 40cm+ on this trip.

 I had a quiet period for a while after that, and Benno started to add fish to the esky. We had a lot of by-catch throughout the day. Lots of good size bream, but we only kept 3 for the esky because they were well over 30 cm and gut hooked. Strangely Benno was the only one to catch stingrays, and he caught a few. There was a lot of by-catch in the pots as well, with lots of Jennie’s and few bucks.  We shifted the pots regularly trying to find where the boys were hiding, but ended up with just 3 keeper muddies and 2 keeper sandies. On the fish front we ended up with 12 good whiting, 6 good spotted grunter, a tarwhine and the 3 bream.

So overall, a pretty rewarding day. We were stopped by Fisheries just before the ramp for a spot check, and they were quite impressed with the quality of our fish. Good to see them out and about - this was about 7pm so they are not just working 9 to 5. 

Oh, and if you are wondering why I called Benno Australia’s Greatest Deckie, I wasn’t being sarcastic. I hardly have to lift a finger when Benno comes out with me. He tows the boat for me, prepares and deploys the pots as I drive the boat, does more than his share of yabbie pumping, ties most of my knots and even baits my line and tosses it out for me if I turn my back for a few seconds. All my other deckies are wonderful too, but Benno sets a new standard.

oh, almost forgot the obligatory dead fish photo. 

Hang on to that deckie @Old Scaley mine pulled out a fly rod this arv and on the way home we pulled up at zaraffas and got me to ask for a skinny soy something or other , it's a wonder he didn't hit me up to give him a lift to Mardi gras. 

[Old Scaley]

1 hour ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Sharked?

Yep, sharked. I hate predictive text.

[kmcrosby78]

Great haul there @Old Scaley and @benno573 - good to see you got rewarded for your dedication. Few very nice feeds out of that lot, very tasty!!  And yes, good to see the Fisheries guys out and about and at different hours to keep people honest.

[benno573]

thanks for the day out @Old Scaley, was a cracking day on the water.  Never frenetic action but pretty consistent.  Looking forward to little miss trying yet another new species - she hasn't had grunter before!  and how good was it cheering and whopping away listening to australia destroy india's batting order.  I don't think i've ever got so many sms's from @ellicat either, i guess he was excited also.

 

We had a pretty cool experience early in the day too.  there was a big white bellied sea eagle around near us, steve had caught a bream that was probably just legal but it was released.  after initially swimming away, it popped up to the surface and was splashing around behind the boat and in no time at all the big fella glided past us, stuck the claws out and snaffled his breakfast.  Super cool to have such a big bird come past within about 10m of us.

 

the fisheries people were very polite and courteous, very happy to see them on the water, especially at this time of year.