Beach Tuna, Mackerel and Tailor

[Slider]

Large shoals of whitebait and anchovy in Laguna Bay are being herded to shore on the outgoing tide each day by mostly mac tuna, with quite a few longtails mixed in. Over the past week or so (since last nettings), I've managed 7 or 8 longtails beached with one bust up and one dropped at my feet from boil ups often well within casting range. The longtails are only small in the 4 - 7kg and the macs are mostly 3 or 4 lb. There has been the odd small chopper around the bait also.
Yesterday morning had us chasing tuna again but couldn't get a crack at any longtails, so ventured closer to the river mouth where we found school macs, choppers and a few mac tuna busting up south of 1st cutting. The fish were only small but good fun for Stu from Wide A Wake, Lee (Maso) and myself.

Went down yesterday afternoon for the run out to find bait being smashed in very close by tailor, tuna and mackerel in front of the Beach Front Caravan Park and nobody even looking at them. Was simply a case of retrieve a slug close to large boiling masses and a strike was assurred. Choppers up to 2kg, school and spotty macs that were borderline keepers and 2 longtails kept me very busy for around 2 hours.

Saw 2 tailor caught by a guy using bait and 2 on spinners from a crew of many. Just about everyone was using small lures around 15 - 30g and their distance and standing position simply wasn't sufficient to get to the schools with 10 knots of northerly and slight swell on highish tide. I was using a 65g slider and standing comfortably in thigh depth water with the odd waiste deep wave to easily get to the fish. One fellow had a 30 odd gram slug with a sinker 18 inches above it - doesn't work, but the sinker directly on top of the lure would stand a chance.

All fish over the last week have been returned other than 1 longtail that didn't have the strength.

Will head down shortly and see what's happening this morning. I can hear some waves crunching with the start of the run out so expect it could be a wet exercise getting to the fish til later in the morning.

In relation to nets - it took a few days for tailor over 1 year old to return after last weeks nets and the quantity of bait would be the reason for their early return. The mackerel and tuna don't seem to be spooked at all by the nets any more and 1 year old choppers haven't leant to stay away from netting.

Lindsay

[uripper]

Lindsay

Is this Laguna Bay @ Noosa ??

MalM

[Slider]

That's right Mal.

Swell made things impossible this morning as far as seeing surface activity and couldn't find any tailor over rocks in good gutters. Sediment from recent fresh has spoiled water clarity also.

Is a pro mackerel fisherman trolling up plenty between the river mouth and 1st cut - out around 600 metres.

[bg1000]

hey slider, good to see some fish moving in the area. how was the bar up there this morning? passable or breaking right across?

Also the pro was catching tailor or mackerel?

Cheers

[Slider]

Bar was ok bg1000 - swell is south east. Saw a few small craft cross this morning.

Pro was catching mackerel.

[Freeeedom]

Thanks for the report Slider. First good weather report I'll be up to have a shot at them. You've gotta love standing in the surf waist deep on a winter's morning - and none of these p*ssy waders either - it is Queensland after all
Cheers Freeeedom

[johnlikes2fish]

Be there tomorrow Lindsay hopefully will get a fish late afternoon
John

[skipalong]

how big were the macks the pro was getting?

[nuggstar]

thats amazing stuff slider, i realy wish i was there to see it. lol ya looking for a side kick on ya next mish

[Rowdy1]

Good to hear the tailor are back. good luck and tight lines

[Slider]

So you'll be here in the next few days then Freeeedom? Yeah mate, don't want waders for that type of fishing - few of us had a giggle the other day when we were chasing macs and longtails near the 2nd cut. The fish were boiling on the edge of the channel at low tide in totally flat conditions - could cast a fly to them -sun was well up and warm. Fellow pulls up and sees what's happening but has to get his waders on before he can start to play. By the time he had them on, the fish had moved on and we were jumping in trucks to follow.

Skipalong, the macs weren't large and I'd say schoolies, but was looking through small binos.

I'll see John on the beach by the sounds - won't be early though.

Next mish is offshore 1770 from Sunday for a week Nuggs - the boys are doing ok on the reds there now so hope weather plays the game. But am here otherwise - just don't expect me to put you on any fish as those days are gone.
It is a wildlife spectacular seeing that sort of pelagic feeding in the waves - and falling out of.

Swell was dropping off this afternoon, but very little happening. Saw some choppers feeding on the surface at the 2nd cut but a bit out of range. Couldn't see any activity out further but as the swell drops and water clears I'd expect things to fire up a bit around the bait again as the tuna get themselves organised and herd towards shore.

[Freeeedom]

I'll probably do my bit to ease traffic congestion on the beach and wait until the school holidays are over Lindsay. Then I'll hit the beach mid-week if the weather looks good.
I love to see the guys in waders sloshing thier way back up the beach when they take a wave chest on and have their waders half full of sea water. They have to lie down on the beach with their legs in the air just to drain enough water out so that they can get them off. I bet they don't get caught twice!
Cheers Freeeedom

[2DKnBJ]

G,day Slider

Was up there last week from Sun to Wed and had trouble even draging a scale out of the water.Seemed to be a bit of fresh water along the beach though.
Will be up there for the first week in Sept so hopefully a bit more luck goes my way.Will see if i can find you on the beach somewhere and have a beer and maybe find out some of your secrets.

Cheers Dazza

[Slider]

That's the norm here in winter Dazza. The fresh is what has triggered the bait to be inshore and the pelagics behind them. And in years gone by, would also trigger the bream to spawn and come on the chew. But bream just don't seem to be around here these days and are only ever caught in ones and twos at best. Catches in the hundreds weren't difficult in June /July in the 70s and 80s and fish quality way above what is available now. It is at least 15 years since I've seen a mature yellowfin bream with bright golden pectoral fins.
The fact that dart have become a somewhat rare catch is, I think, very alarming. But that's where we're at. Again the quality of the fish being caught is much smaller than in the past with people now bragging when they get half a dozen average dart for a session. Wasn't long ago that it was near impossible to steer clear of the dart when chasing oyster cracker. They were in every gutter in numbers.
Tarwhine and whiting were often available in their hundreds when we were kids and we could walk down in front of Teewah, pick up some eugaries and play with all these species all day most days. But despite the fresh and excellent gutter formations, these species are not being caught in any numbers at any time of year, The eugaries aren't plentiful now either.

Swell disappeared altogether yesterday and is very flat this morning with a fair westerly. Watched a couple of schools of mac tuna in front of Teewah earlier that weren't too far out, so looks like some potential for pelagics around bait again for the next few days

Probably a wise move Freeeedom - so much quieter mid week away from school hols. The swell has filled in most of the gutters also and will need a few days of calm to form up again.

[brisboys]

Nice to hear theres some things being caught in the area

Does anyone know if the rock wall out from the beach at noosa is any good?
Or would the rock wall along the river be a better option?

Thanks
Sam

[Slider]

Not sure what the water is like off the middle groyne on Main Beach Sam, but could be worth a go off the wall at the mouth. Dropping tide from full would be the time to hit it.

Few schools of mac tuna in close the last couple of days and small choppers amongst them. Again the run out tide is when they're available and the area to look is from the 3rd cut to Teewah. The macs are mostly small, but found a couple earlier around 10lb.