dirvin21

the bream and flathead photos on the kayak are taken with a waterproof lumix and the others (last bream and trevs) are with my phone a samsung galaxt s5

managed to get in a few sessions over the last couple of weeks, After the QLD tri working so hard for fish I wanted to turn a few numbers and no better place than the oyster racks, conditions looked good with not to much breeze or current, and literally first cast without even turning the handle, a hit that set the mojo every rack produced either a fish or a strike on plastics and hardbodies working along spotted some smaller fish feeding at the surface on the racks cast a cranka crab at them as sson as it hit the water a pack of solid brutes appeared grabbed the crab and casually swam with it when the line tightened things got a bit ugly, bream really go hard on a locked drag after avery scary tussle a better quality fish was in the net a beautiful thick 35cm, biggest one I've landed this year and in solid condition , ended up with a good little session of 14 bream landed even sight casted quite a few working the edge of the racks, most of the fish were better than average size in the high 20's to low 30's with the one btter quality fish not to end the day had a few casts landbased on the way home for some GT's not much size but lenty of numbers cpule of days later hit the Hastings with Amy on the kayaks searching for flathead we saw loads of fish but the bite was a bit tough did end u with a few fish each the biggest 55cm a couple made their way to the dinner plate To finish off headed for a pre work session at Nambucca near the breakwall, the water was beyond clear and the fish very spooky, but with some persistence managed to fire up a couple of bream watched this guy get competitive and engulf the lure the crystal clear water makes it exciting working along the breakwall amongst a school of blackfish and other stuff there were bluefin trevally working along started casting at them, and casting and casting some more doesn't take much to get them to chase but takeas a lot to get them to bite. They are a very frustrating species the trik is to get their attention by twitching the lure and really increasing the speed when they get close and after a LOT of casts this guy nails it at my feet, took some good runs before coming ashore he measured 36cm a new pb a good sized bluefin this far south continued casting and after another eternity a smaller specimen but really well coloured we only see bluefins every few years so I'm always really pumped to catch them had a couple more hits and misses but that was it for the bluefin effort hopefully the end of winter and spring will keep producing cheers for reading Dave

Interesting never heard of the link with MND would be interested how they discovered it given exposure to blue green algae wouldn't be overly common, but if it leads to a cure fingers crossed, I know MND all to well I work in health I do agree the stuff is dangerous when exposed I've heard of cattle dying from drinking contaminated water

Used to see it in fish farm ponds all year but they're generally warm and full of nutrients, it's only dangerous if you drink the water or imerse in it, but will cause nasty weedy or "off" flavour in fish, bit of pointless trivia it's not actually a true algae it belongs to a group called "cyanobacteria" and produces a very potent neurotoxin

The shrimps pretty much disapear during winter, still get some yabbies but not as many as summer

Most people know them a bobby cod, one trip we caught over 200

For a rod... the Abu Garcia veritas has a 6-8kg model, my better half has one and it's a great stick... for a reel if you eant to save a few $$$ the "13" creed k 3000 is not overly expensive and a great reel for tye price I've had one for nearly 2 years and it still goes fine after a lot of punishment

If it's sentimental turn it into a keyring.... I wouldn't bother trying to fix it

Don't bother with anything but yabbies the spangled perch are a plague.... as Rick said 3000 casts I would say 9000 and don't be afraid to chuck big lures, it only took me 20 something years to get my first copeton cod

Don't go hard on them, back the drag off and work them slowly, keep they're head in the water boatside as much as possible to stop them shaking they're head

46cm fingermark caught on a Zerek hotlegs link to report

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