Sunsine coast of Qld

[Yowie]

Hooked up the caravan and headed north in early July.

Stopped at different places on the coast and inland. Stopped at Sawtell, near Coffs Harbour, and had a fish in the creek near the van park for 1 keeper flattie. Cooked prawn heads were the bait. (plenty of fresh caught and cooked prawns up there at present)

I tried a couple of beaches at various places, including the Sunshine coast around Maroochydore, for undersized bream and whiting, and 1 Dart, a new species for me.

Headed inland for a while, then back to Maroochy for a longer stay. I scored the last spot on a charter tour, so headed out on a day of little swell and light  wind. The days before were not ocean fishing days of big swells.

First stop was 55 metres deep, and bugger all fish, so the skipper decided to move to 85 metres. A long way to haul up. First drop and I was on straight away. The fish were only in a small spot on a reef, so it was winding up to head back to the spot many times when the drift went quiet. I pulled out 5 teraglin and 2 reddies. Not the best of photos (don't know what happened) but the smaller reddie is 35cm (Qld legal minimum) so you can guess the size of the trags (they were not measured). I also pulled up a Pearl Perch (another new species) but it was 1cm under size so didn't come home with me.

The main fish caught were trags, reddies (one good one around 60cm, the rest pannies) and some pearl perch (a few small ones thrown back). 40 fish kept amongst 8 fishos.

As I was hauling up one fish, about half way up, the line stopped then headed back to the bottom. Felt like a hooked a shark that swam about near the bottom. Every time I gained 2 turns of the reel, it took back a lot more line. The skipper said to give it all, which I did and the line eventually snapped. Everyone was happy with some fish, and when I returned to the van park, I gave away some trag fillets to a few people, including some friends that turned up unexpectantly in the van park.

At Maroochydore shopping centre, part of it is built over the local creek, mostly the food section, and the surrounding water contains hundreds of bream swimming just under the surface. Some small and some legal sized ones. No-one fishing for them, though I would expect you would be told to bugger off if you tried fishing. Just a hook in a bread crust would be all that is required to hook them.

Back to some windy weather and big swells for the next several days. Maybe a fish for outside flatties at the end of next week.

 

[Woodsy1]

Great report Yowie, Sounds like a good holiday.

Woodsy

[Rebel]

Great photo and report. Happy holiday.

[LandBasedKeith]

Great report. Looking forward to get my own caravan and do what you are doing...

[Yowie]

Thank you all. It was a good holiday, though not much fishing happened. There were a few bream scattered about, but I had enough Trag and reddie fillets to keep me going. Like Jewfish, trag does not freeze too well, it goes a bit soft after thawing.