Old Scaley

Still rubbing the salt out of my eyes @ellicat from the trip back to the ramp, but still a great day out. As usual we learnt many new things NOT to do, but also found a couple of spots for further investigation in more favourable weather.

Would be very keen for the clay pot recipe if that is possible.

Hi @Hweebe, here is an old Fishing Monthly article that I have found useful. http://wp.fishingmonthly.com.au/2018/02/02/school-mackerel-on-spoons/

What a ripper!

Reverse “boss’s weather”

Go the Titans for the fun of it. Mrs Scaley was deriding me on the weekend for always picking the Qld teams no matter their chance of success and then actually trying to pick the winner of the other games. She couldn’t see the point in that. After contemplation I have decided she is right so from now on I will be picking who I want to win rather than who I think might win. Sounds like a cop out, but what the heck. Good luck everyone.

You can do either, but the idea is to have a guess. If you end up tied on points at the end of the season the margin will be the deciding factor.

Good pick up @kmcrosby78. Title now edited.

Crumbed flathead is on the menu for a couple of nights Hamish, but the bream were all released to fight another day. I did think about releasing the big girl but turned out to be a good call to keep it because I didn’t catch another smaller one. I know not everyone will agree but I have always thought that as long as you are not greedy and you stick to legal limits it is always ok to keep a feed.

Not the flathead, Brian, I was drifting across a sandbank. But it is so good moving from spot to spot and not being able to stay still without using the anchor.

With a fairly ordinary forecast for the rest of the week I thought I should sneak out for a quick fish today before the wind kicks in again. I haven’t fished the Port of Brisbane for a while so decided to give it a crack today on the bottom of the tide since that was conveniently happening around midday, so I could have a sleep in and a leisurely breakfast and miss the peak hour traffic. I needed to clean out the freezer of old fish frames so I took the pots for a swim as well, although I was not confident. Had some old pillies to get rid of as well so planned a mix of bait and plastics fishing. Dropped the pots about 10am and then did a bit of bait fishing hoping for a snapper or two. Moved around.a bit between regular spots for no joy so decided to target flathead on the last of the runout. First cast, and first lift of the rod and I was connected to something with a bit of weight. I was fishing light with 6lb braid and 6lb leader on my favourite plastics outfit (2-6lb Samaki Zing Rod with a 1000 Daiwa Presso Iprimi reel) and this fish was giving me a good tussle. I got her up close to the boat and could see it was a good flattie. She didn’t like seeing the boat or the landing net so I had a number of false starts with the landing net. At that point I was starting to wish I had a deckie to manage the net. Eventually I was able to slip the net under her and get her into the boat. A nice fish just on 70cm. An old fashioned Squidgy Wriggler in rum red did the damage. The drift was slow because there was not a lot of run in the water but I repeated the drift a couple of times, but didn’t get another hit. Went back to searching for snapper but could only find bream, mostly about 28cm, but I did hook this fatso. The photo doesn’t do it justice. It was only 34cm but fat as a football. No doubt there will be heaps of fat bream around as we go into spawning time. The wind was very kind today and the conditions were beautiful. No crabs, but that was no real surprise. Another great day on the water.

Last week the referee stole a victory from Manly and this week the referee gift wrapped the victory for them. Not too many teams can win with an 8 nil penalty count in the second half. And the winning penalty was dubious at best.

You should only snap it if you misuse it. Personally I would have gone 6 to 8kg for the rod, but it looks like you have bought the blank already. You should stop most things but with that weight braid you will need to be a bit careful how you manoeuvre fish out of the snags. With the greatest of respect , why ask the question after you make the purchase?

Holy crap, @Drop Bear - no pressure. Maybe a popgun might be closer.

Hi @Hweebe, OzFish is a national volunteer organisation dedicated to restoring habitat in rivers, creeks, bays and the ocean. The Central Moreton Bay Chapter is working on restoring shellfish reefs in Moreton Bay, which were decimated by commercial exploitation of oyster and other shellfish stocks to make building materials. You would be amazed at the contribution that these reefs make to the marine environment and the impact they have on water quality and marine life in general. A few of us on this site are members of the Central Moreton Bay Chapter and there are other men and women who are members but are not on this site. @Drop Bear is our fearless leader and the rest of us do what we can to support him and the project. It is pretty cool really. We have our own oyster lease, an oyster barge, a recycling plant at the Port of Brisbane and other great things, thanks to the support from OzFish and other generous sponsors. We usually meet once a month but Covid put a halt to that. Our first meeting for a few months is now this Saturday morning at the recycling plant. You would be more than welcome to come along and see what goes on and meet some of the legends that keep this thing going. I see you live very close to me so would be happy to share transport if you were interested. Absolutely no pressure though. I guess you have seen the website but here it is again: https://ozfish.org.au/chapters/central-moreton-bay/ Let me know if you would like more info. Thanks for your interest.

If the wind drops you can expect to be carried away by sandflies and midgees, so take the aerogard. Plenty of coffee rock not far out that hold good reefies. We found Bowen Snapper to be a common catch and they cook up nicely. Should be some big whiting up the creek if the wind is up too far to get out in the Bay. Any wind from the north or northwest makes fishing that part of the Bay difficult. I can give you more detail at the OzFish meeting on Saturday.

I knew if I kept tipping them they would win one day!

My tinny is pretty stock standard, but I added a “pee pipe” which is just a length of poly pipe that stops you getting your own back in windy conditions. I have different sizes - 50mm diameter poly pipe for the decky and of course, 90mm downpipe for me. I keep a drinking straw in case @ellicat is on board Seriously though, I often think about what I could do but lack the imagination to come up with anything so looking forward to hearing from others. From memory @rayke1938 has a few tricks on his bass basher to make life easier. Over to you, Ray.

Nice report @Hweebe. I am lucky to be able to fish mid-week these days so I can avoid the lunacy of busy ramps on good weekend days. It is not too bad if you have another person with you who can either drive the boat in circles while you get the trailer or vice versa. Seems to me the unwritten rule is whoever gets the trailer down the ramp first gets to pull their boat out first. But as @ellicat says, that is where common decency kicks in and we all work together to get off the ramp as quickly and smoothly as possible. Unfortunately some days that decency is not so common. Yet on other days, people will fall over themselves to be helpful. People, what an enigma they are. Glad you got onto a few fish, and thanks again for sharing.

Did you get any video of the trebles in the castnet debacle? I’m sure it would make great viewing....... What time did you call it quits? I was thinking about a trip down there sometime this week but might reconsider if you two guns couldn’t fill the esky.

Hi Hamish. It was good to get Greg’s first hand experience on the trawlers, and good to see a very young person taking an interest in things like this. One of the reasons for the discrepancy may be about the type of trawler Greg was on. The reading I did was clear that the toll on bycatch on the ocean going trawlers is much higher than the little beam trawlers used in the rivers and estuaries. This has to do with the length of the trawl and the crushing effect of the heavier catch in the offshore boats. It may also be that there has been a lot of effort gone into bycatch reduction in recent years. You can’t really compare the situation in the Fitzroy with the Brisbane river. The netting that was removed there was associated with professional fishers targeting barra, unlike the Brisbane river trawlers that are licensed for prawns and squid. I probably come across as an apologist for the trawling industry, but that is not the case at all. I would love to see super trawlers removed from the ocean and making sure the industry continues to be properly managed and regulated. I am just not sure that the little beam trawlers in the river do too much harm. But that is only my opinion and everyone is entitled to their own views on these things.

When I saw this topic, my first instinct was to jump onboard and sign the petition. Then I thought that I should have some evidence to back up that decision. So I went trawling (pardon the pun) through reports and other information online to see what I could find. These were mostly state government reports examining beam trawling, some specific to the Brisbane River and Moreton Bay. The consensus seems to be that they have insignificant impact on the environment and on recreational fishing, although there is not a lot of solid data on rec fishing to base this on. Having fished the mouth of the river for many years now, I haven’t noticed a decline in fish stocks - I used to catch not much and I still catch not much, but can’t say that there seem to be less fish around and there is no evidence to say that is the case. I have fished when the trawlers have been working the area and never seen piles of bycatch floating in their wake, but obviously there is a level of mortality among the bycatch. There is some evidence of damage to the benthos (sea or river bottom) but this is deemed to be insignificant compared to natural and other man-made factors that have an impact. I totally respect your opinion and your right to run a petition @fishingnut, and anyone else who wants to support the petition. After all, it can’t be a bad thing to reduce any pressure on the environment and the fishery, but I always like to know what I am signing and why I am signing it.

If you do go to Peel, don’t forget to check the green zones location. And, don’t cut across the northern side of the island too close in because there are lots of prop smashing bommies in the shallows. Not saying I know someone who may have done that on their first trip there......

Nice work @ellicat and @crazywalrus. That boat is starting to get some real mojo now.

Holy cr#p Ray. You will have biceps like Arnie if you keep up that sort of performance. No wonder you find the salt water a bit dull.