Dave_

Absolutely awesome! I have actually heard of Snapper coming up to the surface but not like this! Amazing and possibly a once in a lifetime capture. Well done

Does anyone know what type of eel that is? I've never caught one like this.

Yeah, I've thought about a set-up for the beach. Everything points to a quad or one of those polaris 4x4 utility things. That's what I'd use anyway.

The wreck is still there but I wouldn't climb on it now. You still get squid and slimies around it in summer.

G'day Raiders, This is a few trips in one as I've been too flat out to post so my apologies. Went to Stockton Breakwall a few times over the last few weeks, all nighter for Jew one night, chased pelagics one day and gave my gun winter Bream spot a run on Sunday. Frigates - There's still a lot of bait in the water but it's tiny. 3-5g metals will do the job but take a bunch. There are Macs and Watsons Leaping Bonnies mixed in and some are quite big (60+cm). They are still hanging around, mostly off the very end. Jew - No luck for me but everyone else seems to be getting them. I was catching bait when my livie got taken when my rod was in the holder. My young fella grabbed it and nearly went in (10-20kg Sensor Surf 13' and Saltist 6500h with a heavy drag hahaha) but another fisho grabbed him and by the time I got there I let him have a crack. About a 10 minute fight resulted in the 60lb leader being shredded. Shattered for the young fella, I held his shirt and another bloke kept weight on the rod butt when the fish ran, he had to have it under his arm because the Sensors have a long butt section and he couldn't reach the reel properly. Big Jew.... Bream - Same spot, same time each year. These are spawning fish so I released anything above 35cm. If you fish light (8lb and 8lb which is ultra light for a Breakwall) and you have fresh bait, it's a fish a cast but they're hard to land. Some are huge and they're super clean fish so we kept a few. Released dozens more. Biggest went 38cm but we've got them to 44cm at this particular spot. Fresh Yakka fillets done the job and are easy to catch on the left just before the end of the wall. I seen a 44cm Bream spit up half a whole Yakka once and that's why I use Yakka fillet here now haha. There were a lot of other bits and pieces too, Jackets, Tailor (not many), silver drummer (juvenile ones), a 42cm Trevally, sharks and eels etc I also attached some pics of my wild set-up for anyone interested. Cheers

Cracker Yellowbelly mate

Just got offered a job up there......hmmmm...

G'day Raiders, This is a fairly late report, my apologies as I've been flat out. Me and the young fella went for a look up at Barrington Tops a couple of Sundays ago. I decided to try a spot I hadn't been to called Junction pools. For anyone who knows the Tops, you take a right just past Polblue camp grounds and follow Barrington trail for about 12 km's. We finally got there (1st and second gear all the way) and the scenery was amazing and it definitely looked fishy. We used lures, plastics and bait. We had a few missed chances, then the young bloke hooked up to a small fish on the Trout Powerbait. I dropped another small fish on a tassie devil lure. We tried hard but the fish were really shy. I dug up some worms from the river bank. I was getting bites every time with these but I couldn't hook up. We were just about to leave when I finally hooked up. Another small fish but still fun. Seen heaps of wildlife, kangaroos, wallabies, possums, a wombat, wild goats, different birds etc. Not a bad day for someone who's a pretty hopeless Trout fisho. Cheers Dave

Cracking fish mate, well done.

That trout cod looks awesome. What an amazing looking fish. Are these a rare capture? Both fish look in top condition and it's good to see. Well done mate.

I went there in May last year and I'm going back in October/November. I done a couple of charters, creek and reef. PM me if you have any questions. Cheers

+1

Went to the same spot today and got 2 37cm Flatties on plastics, a 30cm Bream and a 38cm Tailor. There were a million bait fish in the water and the were hundreds of chopper Tailor eating them and also a penguin, a sea turtle and a giant eel. I also saw a bunch of Kings fly through in a flash but I didn't see them again.

Nice mate, those big Tarwhine are everywhere at the moment.

Nice mate. I might have to give the Blackfish a go this year.

+1 for the Caldia 3000. I also have the 3000SHA. They're awesome and tough.

What a haul!

G'day Raiders, I went to Stockton with the family yesterday. The plan was to have a picnic at the park and then have a not too serious cast off the rocks. Weather was awesome and it was almost dead low tide. I tied on a Z Man minnowz in mood ring colour and the mrs and the young fella used prawns. First cast and my young fella was on and he landed a 35cm Tarwhine. Beauty. 5 minutes later and the mrs had a 28cm Tarwhine. Good start. My plastics were getting mauled by chopper Tailor, even on the bottom, it's a good thing the z mans are almost Tailor proof haha. I hooked up to something solid in close to the rocks but I dropped it. Next cast was exactly the same. Frustrating. The big Tarwhine kept coming. I've never seen them on like that before. They fight hard when they're big too. The mrs got a 28cm Bream too. Next cast she was on to something different, heaps of weight and a different fight. Up came a 55-60cm Lizard. Panic ensued and the 6lb mono snapped before we could grab the net. Bugger. More Tarwhine come in, nothing under 25cm. We kept about half a dozen. Suddenly the young fella is on to what I thought was a big Tailor. I couldn't believe it, a big Mullet took a prawn. That's the second strange Mullet capture by us in the last week haha. We let it go. The guy beside me landed a 40cm Snapper on a prawn. That was a surprise. I got a few small chopper Tailor on plastics and then I nailed a nice Flatty on the plastic. It went 44cm and into the esky, it didn't make up for losing the big one though! We had enough fish in the box by this time so we left them biting. Sorry but I didn't get pics of the Tarwhine. Cheers Dave

G'day Raiders, Went to Lake Mac last weekend, the Mrs booked a cheap weekend away online. We didn't do a lot of fishing, mostly just relaxing but me and the young fella got up early on the Sunday morning and had a flick off one of the jetties where we were staying in the hope of a Whiting. I caught some little prawns in my trap the night before so we used them with tiny sinkers and needle sneck hooks. It wasn't long before we had our first of many small whiting to 25cm, both sand and the ones with the dark blotches on them (trumpeter?). These were mixed in with baby Tarwhine and Sanpper by the dozen. A big school of fish were hanging around the pylons under the jetty, chasing smaller bait fish. These turned out to be a type of small herring, very similar to what I've caught in cast nets in Far North Queensland. I cut one up for bait and the young fella threw out a strip. In no time at all he's on and we're calling it for a decent Bream but up comes a legal Snapper at 31cm....wow...didn't expect that at all! Just as the sun was coming up, we seen some surface activity just within casting distance. I tied on a 28g metal and cast as far as I could. 3 or 4 casts for no touches until I decided to let it sink. Something smashed it on the drop and I'm calling big Tailor or reasonable Salmon. After a strong fight I couldn't believe my eyes, it was a big Mullet. I thought I'd surely jagged it but no, straight in the gob. Unbelievable, I can't say I've seen that before! Time ran out and we had to go. It was a strange yet fun little sesh, I guess that's part of the fun of fishing! Cheers Dave

I could be wrong but it looks like it could be a Cox's gudgeon.

It looks like a type of goby or gudgeon to me.

G'day Raiders, Me and the young bloke entered the Pirtek comp on Sunday and decided to try a few new spots in the Hunter River for Bass. With the barometer at 1023, I thought we'd be in for a good day. We drove until the ute could take us no further so we pushed on further by foot until we found an awesome little beach/cove where the river was wide and deep. We were armed with every lure I own, including plastics, hardbodies, surface and blades but the order of the day was bait, something I never use for Bass. I got a bucket full of live shrimp the night before and it wasn't long before we had our first fish.....a hefty Carp....good fun but not what we wanted. This was quickly followed by a second slightly smaller Carp. Bugger...crap spot......or so we thought. That was the last we seen of the ol' mud puppies but things went quiet for a while. Suddenly our shrimp start getting hit by something different but we're not hooking up . We landed a small Bass of about 25cm but lost about a dozen shrimp in the process so I changed to big mouth circles with success. Every cast was a bite and we landed about 12 or 14 Bass to 32cm. Great fun until we ran outta shrimp! The young fella started digging for worms but couldn't find any. I found an old rotten log in the scrub and smashed it open to find about 20 big wood grubs, beauty! That was bait sorted for the rest of the day. The Bass loved them, we got another 8 or so and we got our biggest for the day on the grubs. Things went quiet again and I kept losing my wood grubs to strange bites. Suddenly I hooked up to a beast. I was thinking "please be a monster Bass" but after a good strong fight, up come a fat eel. It fought like a fish, not the typical fight you usually get from them. The Bass disappeared and we got another 2 eels, both while retrieving at speed. The eels scared the Bass away but we still had an awesome day with heaps of fish landed. It goes to show that bait is still a good option from time to time and it pays to go the extra mile to find a good spot. Cheers Dave

Sounds like you got some Berkley Vanish in FC Rock packaging. FC Rock and Siglon are top leaders.

Me and the Mrs have been looking to do the same thing for the same reasons. As has been said, getting an even half decent job up there is extremely difficult and you can just about forget about working in Port Douglas itself unless you're in marketing or tourism or you're a chef. We're both highly qualified and experienced but jobs are rare and the money is shocking......it's a small price to pay to live in paradise in my opinion. It doesn't matter how you look at it, the fishing is awesome up there.

Nice mate,that surface strike is so addictive!