Townsville school macks

[aaron_gilmour]

Hi all.

popped out yesterday morning before late shift to target school mackeral. With the cold weather coming the macks are coming through.
Headed out in rough conditions and started throwing a metal slice around cannel markers. Caught my first ever schoolie on the 5th cast;D

After 30 min of no more fish decided to anchor up and start a pillie berley trail and float a pillie out the back and throw the slice while waiting. This paid of with a few more keepers coming aboard and a few small undersize fish as well. Things became slow so decided to travel to another marker and repeat the process. Ended up with 4 keepers and threw back a few just legals and undersizes.

They are great fun and pull dag. Most fish were caught on the lure but think that without the burley fishing would of been slower.

Cheers

Aaron

[richieboy]

Nice fish Aaron. I may be getting shifted up that way for work mate so I'm watching any reports from Townsville or Darwin with interest as I'm not too familiar with the area. Certainly great fishing to be had up there.
If I do get up that way it will be next year so be prepared for a PM or two from me. Top fish and go the twisties!! Looks like you've upgraded the trebles??

Rich ;)

[cobiaman]

well done on the schoolies mate, they taste great, one thing you can try is putting a single hook on the lures, we do it and have a much better hookup rate and lose less fish. cheers graeme

[Mozza]

Aaron,

Good fish.

I am looking forward to getting in to some myself. I'm pretty sure I saw you coming in as I was heading out and I must admit after seeing 3 boats around the markers, I thought about doing the same.

But I was on my way to spot X for some barra and you'll find I wasn't disappointed (see this forum).

Good to see they're here though; maybe this will be my year for keeping a relatively constant supply of mackeral in the freezer.

Cheers
Mozza

[aaron_gilmour]

Hi Rich,

I upgraded the trebles to owner type as they are strong but still fine enought to offer good penetration. I also lined in Darwin for 14 yrs so where ever you go i should be able to help with some area to target.

I have a few spare gamatsu 1/0 and 2/0 spinnerbait stinger hooks that I will try and see how they go as cobiaman suggested trying the single hook.


Mozza,

Am trying to land my first tvl spanish mack of the season as my first hooked this year, est 80cm was taken at the boat by a huge grouper that was est 1.7mtrs long at cape cleavland. I thought at first it was a shark until it came to the surface as swollowed the mack with ease and pulled the hooks from the macks mouth.

Might pop out friday morning to the cape and see if i can get round 2. See you out on the water.

Cheers

Aaron

[dirk diggler]

nice fish mate!

[richieboy]

Aaron: I also used the owners on my slugs up North but found them very soft and flexible. Even some of the smaller queenies (60-70cm) were bending my trebles after I'd landed em. Can't go past the sharpness tho.

Richie

[bushbeachboy]

Nice catch Aaron. I love doggies myself. Easy to catch, pull a bit of drag, run hard for a short time and taste great. If the weather improves (it's always windy) try over the grass beds near Alligator Creek or you could try tucking in behind Maggie near West Point.

[aaron_gilmour]

Hi Bushbeachguy,

What sort of depth are you talking about on the grass beds near alligator creek. I always assumed the grass beds were in sallower water. I popped out again this morning in not so favourable conditions and got 2 more legal schoolies.

Caught a few cod,queenie and a barracuda along the rock walls getting out og the lumpy seas. Today west point would of been sheltered from the wind. If its still blowing that way over the weekend I might try there.

Cheers

Aaron

[barkers creek]

some nice macks i got a few of them at the local river was a bit of a surprise throught i had a jack but wat do ya no a mac

[Mozza]

Bushbeachboy,

I'd ask the same question myself - the whole of Cleveland bay is less that 5m depth and all of it is covered in seagrass. Would you be talking 1 or 2 k out from Alligator? That's in about 2m depth country.

Aaron, I admire your perseverence; a bit cold and wet wasn't it?

The barra is going down very well thank you.

Cheers
Mozza

[aaron_gilmour]

Mozza,

It was windy and cold. Did have the vest on and rain coat. Tommorrow looks the goods with the wind dropping back to 10-15knts. The water is really clear at the moment.

Watched bait get smashed up on the starand this morning walking the dog. Wish I had a rod with me. With the cold snap lets hope the water temp drops and the macks pick up with the bait coming closer to shore.

Cheers

Aaron