dirvin21

We headed to Townsville again for another fishing trip this time a 2 day trip with a guide, it was a good deal basically landing at the airport with him there waiting to take us to the lodge catered for us for the nights and transfered back at the end all we needed to do was concentrate on the fishing. The first evening we wandered down to the water only 100m from the lodge for a cast didn't take long for Amy to hook-up to a pelican I'll give them one thing they fight hard. The locals were catching plenty of catish on baits and after awhile finally had a take resulting in a small gold-spot cod, a new species for me, then it was back for a restless night becase of anticipation for the next day. Day 1 we headed to Bowling green bay, water looked amazing and we were frothing at the mouth to get casting We started casting our first spot I had a couple of missed hits before Amy was onto a fish which took a B-line for the timber but she managed to get it back out and in the boat Her first black-spot a nice solid specimen That turned into the story of day 1 we caught loads of cod both black spots and gold spots, I also pulled the hooks on an assumed fingermark on a rock bar and got blown away by an unstoppable beast what the guide thinks was a juvenile groper, the barra ust refused to bite there were hundreds on the sounder with a basic case of lock-jaw welcome to barra fishing, still an awesome day and caught plenty of fish Day 2 we had the option of fishing the upper Burdiken in the fresh and almost certainly catching barra or risk the salt and get the variety and hopefully bigger barra, we risked the salt The wind was howling and it was cold.......... very cold! We started casting a mud ledge and it actually didn't take long to get a bite the fish flew to the surface and right before me was a barra happily throwing my lure at me, I took that one fairly gracefully, the response to the second one that did the same thing was not so dignified After awhile the barra went back to lock jaw so our guide suggested we work some deeper trees which opens up the chance of some other species, again the bite was tough not even the species Queenslanders consider to be vermin would bite, after a few trees I finally had a hit and pulled out a flathead..... not a positive reaction, shortly after Amy got a small gold-spot then I was hit by something far bigger the fish put u a good fight and out came a much better Gold-spot the bigger cod were one of the fish Id gone to QLD to catch We moved to a new tree for the tide change and our guide was confidant the bite would happen we were casting for what seemed like a long time before the place seemed to liven up bait was nervously rushing around and sure enough a hit, at first I thought it was a fingermark but turned out to be a small GT Still happy with the GT desite them being considered vermin in FNQ We kept casting the tree again and again and when it seemed like nothing was going to happen I had another take, it happened fast what I assumed was another small trev suddenly screamed towards the timber leaving me the only otion of grabbing the spool and going for broke feeling everyones tension I pumped the fish up as hard as I could and a fingermark was in the net, some dignity was lost with my reaction but this has been a bucket list fish for me since I was a kid. I think our poor guide took a breath of relief going by how happy I was to catch this fish because it was a tough session. We kept fishing for a couple more small cod and some more barra hits but just couldn't get the barra to play the game. We ended up on the water for 12 hours on day 2. Amy had a really tough 2nd day but she stuck it out and never gave up in true hardcore fisho style, also have to say our guide was awesome, a to bloke who never gave up trying to find active fish for us, I would recommend him to anyone and we'll definetely be back cheers for reading Dave

you don't need a specialist "stick bait" rod a general purpose 7 foot rod probably around 4-8 kg range matched with a 3000 size spin reel and some 20lb braid

Sebile stick shads, decently priced and work well

Things like small trevs and queenies should be everywhere, going on experience with small trevs your reels and braid should suffice go atleast 20lb flurocarbon leader, small stickbaits would alsobe worth packing

Welcome

would have been an eagle ray there are tonnes of them around and they're bascically unstoppable

I once hooked an octopus that was living in a schooner glass someone had chucked in the creek

Fringefin trevally....... pantolabus radiatus

A 2 or 3mm would be best for you, anything thicker and you'll have trouble moving

Awesome mate

They still bite... in rivers and creeks they'll be in the brackish but you still get bigger fish upriver that don't bother to spawn In dams they generally school up in the lower sections just a matter of sounding up the schools Deeper slower techniques work best lije soft plastics As mentioned above in rivers and creeks they're catch and release only from may to August (inclusive)

More for action 8lb is for 40mm hardbodies.... I use 20lb on the bigger lures aiming for bigger fish

15 or 20lb if you're worried, I catch most of mine on 8lb although it can get a bit interesting once tgey get over 30cm Lures: zerek tango shads 50mm, jackal squirrel 68mm, maria dsp 45 and 50mm, any colours with a bit of shine work bestthey like plenty of movement, the GTs seem to prefer a fast rip and short pause, the big-eyes prefer a fast erratic twitch Don't be afraid to put a bit of speed on your retrieves

I think one of the reasons for the extreme strike is a lot of yank bass fishos use straight through fluorocarbon rather than braid requiring a much harder impact to set the hook, just a theory, I get some of the youtubers in particular see to dramatize a bit they do seem to fish very heavy weed beds and timber so when a fish is hooked it's go for broke or get buried, we use the same tactics with bream around oyster racks turning the head and giving nothing or get busted off, the main difference is bream will turn their nose up at heavy gear so we have to go lighter gear

June is one of the best times to target bream on the mid north coast, fish may take a bit more effort but the average size is generally bigger ust a matter of making enough casts and finding what they want. First session was a yak upriver looking for fish along rocky edges and sunken timber, started by casting plastics, didn't take long to know it was going to be a tough bite. After some trial of different techniques and eventually slow rolling a hardbody along a fallen tree The fish played hard to get but with persistance and targeting the right structure almost exclusively being fine twigged sunken branches ended up with quite a few fish for the session no monsters but some decent sized fish Another tactic that works well in winter is targeting artificial lights under bridges during a couple of quick pre work sessions I have managed to get a few resonable quality bream Just before the bad weather hit managed a kayak session in some windy conditions on the main oyster racks last time I attempted this I ended up with 5 bustoffs from 6 hook ups In true winter fashion the fish were tough to temp and when they did hit it was very subtle resulting in many pulled hooks, which combined with strong winds frustration was building close to critical point when finally a fish slid in the net Decided a change of tactics was in order so out came the cranka crab. It's funny how you give the fish what they want and they play the game, hits came regularly with a few small fish but I was on the nasty racks looking for bigger fish Working along behind the oyster shed came up tight on what I thought was the bottom, then thought flathead as the fish slowly swam towards open water when it finally realised something was wrong it was far enough out to keep from bricking me, after a brutal locked drag tussle a much better quality fish was in the net not as long as expected but thick and gave me one hell of a run around working back to the launch site continued to get a few more small fish but the bigger ones still evaded, on the last rack there were 2 racks tied side by side with about a meter in between, couldn't get between because of the rope so nosed up to it said farewell to my cranka crab called out "hail mary" and sent a cast in there, it was nailed as soon as it hit the water it was a hell of a struggle keeping the fish from burying me and trying to get the net under it but by some miracle pulled it off and one of the better quality bream I'v landed in quite awhile was in the net the weather chased me off the water and now ust waiting for the rain to settle to get out and hopefully find some elusive winter blue-lips cheers for reading Dave

I wind it on off spool and tyen tie end off to my carport and walk line off along a laneway for as far as I can and wind it back on under tension

Awesome mate.... the spawn run is on my to do list

Suffix 8 braid, I was using J braid and after a couple of months it just started to snap at random spots As kingie chaser said all braid tangles the quality line stuff not as much it's all about having good line management and limiting slack line

Welcome to fishraider, nice report for your first post

eastern kelpfish Chironemus marmoratus

Go lighter, yes the lighter the line the further it will cast within reason, 6 or 8lb braid and 8lb leader, you'll need a different setup if you want to target kings and jew, start with flathead and work your way up to bream, start with 40mm cranks and shads a simple slow roll on the cranks and a twitch pause with the shads

1) couple of suggestions , add twitches and pauses rather than a straight slow roll retrieve, scent can make a difference, go as light on the leader as you can 2) sounds like your set up might be to heavy for the lures you're casting, a light rod in the 1-3 kg or 2-4 kg range 2000- 2500 size spin reel loaded with good quality light braid in the 6-8lb range 3) what sort of hardbodies are you using? get the best quality lures you can afford, if you give me an idea of your target species and areas your casting I can give you a few suggestions of specific lures and retrieve styles target species like flathead and tailor which aren't as fussy get your confidence up then move onto the tougher species like whiting and bream don't give up Dave

still plenty of fish to catch in winter start later, no need to get up at dawn, sleep in fish the afternoon if possible, I prefer to fish the run in tide as it brings warmer ocean water into the estuary, usually fish slower lure presentations with longer pauses

awesome mate.. cracker of a bream

You can get worms at shelley beach, more likely to get better worms up a bit further from shelley near the main beach There a jewfish around all year although hard to find Beach fishing may be an issue at the moment as we're currently having a big swell combined with king tides If you're bait fishing landbased try tge main breakwall and along the wall on the golfclub island