Offshore Mooloolaba

[Hookem_Herby]

Hi guys,

Well, it's been a while but I thought I'd throw up a quick report from a week ago. Like Ken's been saying, the weather and fishing hasn't been all that great up here in sunny Qld over the last month or so and with the rivers & creeks not producing a lot, I thought I'd head offshore for some fun!

The forecast was for 5 knots and flat seas and for once the BOM actually got it right!!

We headed out in perfect conditions at around 4am. The plan was to collect some live bait at the 5 mile before heading out 20nm to the FAD off Mooloolaba to chase some mahi mahi. Everything went according to plan and by 6am we were floating out some slimies for the surface feeding dollies around us.

It didn't take long and we were hooking up and landing dolphinfish, all around the 2.5-3kg. With action and blood aplenty, we were having a ball with 3 fish caught within the first half hour. This unfortunately attracted the attention of other fishos, which wasn't really an issue but it also attracted some w*nkers that had spearguns and they decided to virtually anchor upon the FAD and started shooting dolphinfish and wahoos. Needless to say, all fish had dispersed within 20 mins! Gee, thanks for that! A**holes

Since there was no point fishing the FAD anymore we headed for a trawler wreck nearby. First drop and a nice parrotfish came aboard.

Then things went quiet for a while, perhaps it had something to do with a couple of 8ft hammerhead sharks cruising the surface nearby. I was telling them where they could get a nice feed of 'spearos' a few miles away but they weren't interested! lol

We were just about to leave when my deckie's live bait gets hammered! We only saw the slimie flying through the air and neither of us was too sure what had happened when his reel started buzzzzzzzzzzzing and screaming! WOOHOO!!! A 4ft 'bull' dolphinfish had smashed the slimie and was now performing all sorts of aerial displays a few meters from the boat! Unfortunately, 10 mins into the fight the leader broke after the fish went on yet another acrobatic leap and that was the end of that! We could've had a gaffshot or 2 at it as it came alongside the boat a few times but the fish was still too 'green' and so we thought better of it at the time. In hindsight .... lol

As my deckie was cursing and telling the world how he really felt, the bloke in a boat some 30m away sumed it up perfectly I thought: "Mate, better to have loved and been hurt than not to have loved at all!!!" With that advice onboard we both smiled and kept fishing.

Since we were almost out of live bait we decided to head to another bait ground nearby. It wasn't long before the live well was full again! On virtually my last drop however I lost the sinker on my bait jig. Rather strange I thought since we were in 60+m of water and the slimies were sitting about half way down. No way had I hit the bottom! Hmmmmm?? I quickly tied on another ball sinker and dropped again. Felt some movement and a yakka surfaced, closely follwed by half a dozen legal cobia. I left the yakka on the surface and one of the cobes came flying over and .... you guessed it, it bit my bloody sinker off!!! Grrrrr

So the deckie dropped a live bait down and I threw out a lure and within 10 seconds we had a double hookup on cobia. Sweeeeeet!

We landed them both but only kept 1 as the deckie didn't rate cobia as table fare.

Anyway, we had bigger fish to target and with plenty of livies aborad we headed back to the FAD. As we got there a guy was in the process of landing a big dollie, about the same size as the one we'd lost earlier. Approx 4ft and 12-15kg.

Livies went overboard and within minutes we both had good runs and were both hooked up to solid fish. After a 15 min fight I landed a 9kg Amberjack. The deckie landed one almost the same size, his went 8kg. These things pull like freight trains and on 10kg gear they tested the knots, tackle and fisherman. After that we had 20 boats around us again and another boat load of spearfisherman turned up so we decided to leave them biting and run home whilst the conditions were still glassy!

I'm attached a couple of pics, unfortunately these were taken at home. Forgot to take the camera with me, the only blemish of the day!

Cheers,

Herby

[Guest MarkD]

Great Report Herby - well done

[Trouble]

Great read herby top effort mate..wish the fishing was like that down here at the moment..you lucky !!

[Hookem_Herby]

Cheers fellas!

Pedro, spearfishing for mahi mahis seems to be all the craze up on the coast atm. I'm hoping it will pass soon, might need some shark action to scare a few!

Perhaps a nice mix of blood, burley and macktuna will help next time these idiots moor up to the FAD with their little flags and asking other boats to stay 30m clear of where they are diving!

Anyway, can't wait for the mackerel to start showing up in numbers.

Herby

[Guest Jocool]

Geez....Here I am thinking you Queenslanders dont catch squat...cos you never have GREAT reports like I would expect! Good to see you guys know how to fish!

Good going Herb!

[Hookem_Herby]

Geez....Here I  am thinking you Queenslanders dont catch squat...cos you never have GREAT reports like I would expect! Good to see you guys know how to fish!

Good going Herb!

22536[/snapback]

Jo,

Just ask and you shall receive!!!

I'm off to Moreton Island (Tangalooma Resort) this Thursday & Friday (chick is going to feed the dolphins whilst I try and hook up to them! ). Just kidding Then on Sat we're off up to 1770 for 4 days again, hopefully the weather will be kind and we can have a shot at the pelagics off bustard head, since I'm towing BOB all the way up there. Fingers crossed I'll get a few so I can post another GREAT report.

Herby

p.s. Beefa - you're right! The cobia tasted just fine to me .... must be the way some people cook their fish!

[Guest Big-Banana]

Ripper fish mate. Bring those Dollies down South

[basic_fisho]

Top report Hookam,Shame about the bloody spearos.Those Cobia are great eating ,my son has cooked them up for me, and i enjoyed them very much.

Keep reports like that coming.Ben.

[allen glover]

Simply awesome report mate

Gotta love those days when everything turns out right

[Hookem_Herby]

Thanks lads, glad you enjoyed the report despite it being a Banana Bender update!

Allan, I can't remember the last time I had fishing conditions that we so ideal. Weather, variety of species and fish on the chew. Doesn't get much better than that!

Herby