Old Scaley

I too was wondering why those dates in particular. I have no inside info but the start of the closure aligns with the end of the school holidays in Queensland so maybe the thinking was to let people have a crack at snapper through the school break and then close it down for a month?

Thanks @Hweebe, can see the photo now. It is a whiptail. If you get one, you will get plenty. Not bad as bait but sounds like you had plenty of quality bait on board already. I am no mackerel expert but I do know they are a schooling fish that move around so the bite might be on for an hour or less then quiet for a while until they move in again. Maybe you were at the beacons during a lull? Also, watch the fishing reports to see where people have been catching them. The beacons are popular spots for macs but I haven’t seen any reports of them producing lately. Then again, I don’t read too many reports so maybe they have been a hotspot? The Vietnamese guys are usually on the money with where and when they fish from my observations (and I don’t mean that in a disrespectful or racist way - I think they just have their own networks and are good fisherpeople). I’m sure if you keep fishing the way you are, you will crack the code soon.

Thanks for that very comprehensive report. Bad luck with the donut, but no one can say you didn’t give it a red hot crack. I can’t see the photo of the fish. It just shows as a blank rectangle for me.

And I find it easier to do after cutting the slabs into fillets because you don’t have that long slab to do in one hit. Hope this helps.

A sharp, thin knife and staying above the skin a bit more than with other fish. You might have to sacrifice a mm or two of flesh to avoid leaving patches of skin still attached.

Nice work @tugger. Us leaving must have fired the starting gun for you. No shortage of people out there on the day.

Well I did make exactly the same mistake when I ordered chain sock, but I did manage to get it on eventually. I can’t remember exactly how I did it but I remember it took a longgggggggg time and a lot of cursing. Did you watch the video that Lance put in this topic? I thought @ellicat‘s chain might have been smaller than mine, but I could be wrong.

Interesting discussion. I used to have one of those cheap support arms on a previous tinnie, but it fell off somewhere on the road between Burrum Heads and Hervey Bay and I never replaced it. I have had the current boat since 2006 and have never had one on it, just relied on the tilt support lever. Probably should have read the manual more closely. I haven’t had a problem yet but interested to hear if others are using/not using them and which ones you recommend. @ellicat, maybe this deserves its own topic?

At first I thought what a lame idea. But I couple of times through the match I realised it had sucked me in and I had to remind myself that there was actually no crowd. Great game to restart the NRL. Once the Broncos had those couple of six again calls they were gassed and never really recovered. Losing The captain before half time didn’t help - they needed all the interchange they could get. Plenty of lessons there for coaches from all teams about the new playing conditions. And wasn’t good to only have one ref again instead of 2 competing with each other for tv time.

It sure was a nice day out there. And while the fish weren’t chewing their heads off, we have come home with less many times. You couldn’t wipe the grin of @ellicat‘s face, he was really loving his new toy. Thanks for the day, Brian, we will do it again soon.

10 minutes now..... but who’s counting?

This old thread has heaps of great info. Still yet to crack the code in the Bay though.

Congrats @Allnighter. The Moreton Bay longtail is on my bucket list but has eluded me for years. Because I am a bit limited by boat size I don’t get the opportunity to chase them too often but have spent many a frustrating hour chasing schools in the western bay when they are there. They seem much more skittish than they are up north or in Hervey Bay where I have caught them previously. Might have to stop chasing feeding schools and concentrate on finding bait schools. Thanks for posting.

Can’t be too late @ellicat. Have to have boat cleaned, fish cleaned, self cleaned and imbibe several football enhancers before playing 80 minutes of rugba league. Could be a big day.

Wednesday still looks great. Thursday looks like a glass out. But, it is only Monday today.

@ellicat I have a navionics gold card you can have. It is a few years old and probably has a few useless marks on it but you can have and see if it suits your needs.

If I have to......

Photos come up fine on iPad and iPhone. See if they work when I add them.

Geez you were keen going out last night! I was sitting happily in front of the fire with a warming rum and a cleansing ale! Glad to hear it all went well. Shame about the no bites but I can’t help thinking you may have jinxed yourself with the name ellicatch. Maybe change it to something like “Greenpeace 2” or “PETApal 1” and the mojo might kick in

Found the setting today. You need to go into the charts menu, choose “restrictions” then “green zones”. Hit the radio button to turn it on and all the green zones show as a brighter shade of green than anything else on the map. Hope this helps someone else.

Don’t be fooled @Hweebe, I get more than my fair share of donuts, but every day you can get out on the water is another great day, especially when you you can share it with a mate. Plus, we got to see turtles and a dugong came to visit, so really the fish and cuttlefish are just a bonus.

Welcome @The Sloth. Looking forward to some reports. Hope you enjoy the site.

It was a great day out as usual. A good feed of cuttlefish and squid. The mackerel were on again and we left them biting once we boated 10. They were all mid 60s and above. The biggest was 72cm. @Drop Bear has the photos.

Looks like a sweet ride @ellicat. Can’t wait to pull that anchor. Congratulations mate, it is a beauty.

This site is pretty good Hamish: https://www.animatedknots.com