Noosa Cobes, Spotties & Spanish

[Goldfinch]

Managed to get out off Noosa 4 times in the last week so here's the report card.
Tues Nov 19 - Headed out at 1pm for an arvo tide turn in 10-15knots. Loads of bait on Sunshine reef so I slow trolled weighted pilchards for a while but didn't get any takers. Decided after an hour to change to hard bodies and go a little wider. Caught a 90cm Spanish on the bibless around a tonne of bait so decided to anchor up around 3pm and find a trout. This is where it got hectic. Put the first bait out towards the bottom and line starts to peel off half way down. Set the hook and away we go. Landed a nice 6kg Cobia. Put a plastic out the back, a floating pillie and a bottom rig. Plastic got bitten off, both other rods went off and hooked up. Fought two cobes for a while but these were bigger models and at anchor I was struggling. Had to bust one off and landed a 8kg model. Anyway, this went on and on and on with every drop with some massive models testing my gear out. The arches on the sounder were insane. I'd had enough around 6.30pm and pulled up stumps, with my 2 cobe bag limit and a spanish. Wish I had had a deckie for this one.

Wed Nov 20 - Took a mate out for a Morning session who'd said no to the previous arvo session. I said that he may regret it as it was most likely to be an arvo bite. Sure enough, the morning was slow. Just one undersize Cobe, couple of Cod and plenty of MUTTON. Great conditions, no fish.

Frid Nov 22 - Went for a morning session on a mates boat trolling for Mackerel on Sunshine. Quite a bit of boat traffic out, great conditions. We slow trolled pillies again and within first 30 minutes picked up a nice spotty about 85cm. Went quiet for a while, lost a few tails to hesitant bites but then the bite got more aggressive. Next we hooked a school spaniard around 90cm, then another spotty around the same and then another spaniard about 85. Nothing big but a good feed. Then we had a double strike on both rods. Adrian pulled the hooks on his and mine just bit straight through the 15kg graphite tress leader. Bugger !!!

Mon Nov 25 - Got invited out for a quick arvo sesh in pretty ugly conditions but couldn't say no. Once again on Sunshine reef chasing the bait. Tried a couple of spots with the iPilot with no major takers. Moved and found a good patch of hanging bait and dropped down our ganged pillies. Mate was onto a good trout, got him off the bottom and half way up then pulled the hook. I got thumped on the way down, got trigger happy and tried to set the hook to early and pulled mine as well. Oops. So we tried again. I could see some arches on top of the bait so slowly dropped my pillie down with the overhead and it got smashed half way. Gave it some run, set the hook and fought a nice 6kg cobe. Mate got a couple of small snapper, dropped another one and then I hooked another cobe on the bottom. This time a bigger model. I was using 80lb leader and 50lb braid so I didn't give them much run. After a few minutes had a nice 8kg model in the boat. Had a quick troll around the birds, nothing happening and very sloppy conditions so headed in.

Summary - Sunshine reef is fishing well at the moment leading up to the tide changes and wherever the bait is staying put. Slow trolled pillies down deep are catching the mackerel and weighted and floating pillies are catching the cobia. Still to catch a trout but they are being caught. If you can outsmart the Mutton Birds with some stinky burley then you'll catch a fish. Here's a few pics and stills from the video footage.
Cheers
dave

[SunnyCoastMark]

Well done, I was trying to get out there Saturday morning for that brief window before the northerlies hit, but didn't happen. Hopefully get out there this weekend to do battle with the mutton birds.

Although at this stage - the forecast is looking a bit sus...... :-?

Mark

[Bazzawookooka]

Dave,


Thanks for the report and the pics. It's great to see that people are still prepared to share their experiences with fellow sufferers of the fishing condition.


One day I'll drag my sorry @rse up to the sunshine coast and have a drop on one of those inshore reefs that seem to work so well this time of year.


Thanks again and best of luck for the summer.


Steve

[Back In Black]

Dave, very nice mate. I thought you'd been lying low for a while.

With the slow trolled pillies down deep, I take it you are using a down rigger ??

Thought about getting one of these. Reckon they are worthwhile??

Can't argue with the cobes mate, I reckon they are great on the chew.

Top report & keep them coming.

Tony

[solemandownunder]

AH....at LAST........a REAL cobiaman :o:D......WELL done M8. :)

Thanks for the share.

Cheers, Ray.

[Jigsrule]

Well done Dave. Always enjoy reading your reports. Thanks for sharing

[Apollo]

Nice report and well done.

Ever looking for a deckie mid week, I do get the occasional day off and only live just north.

Steve

[Horse]

Great report Dave. Hopefully a few of those Spotties are on a collision course with my slugs come Christmas. I used to slow troll Pillies off Noosa over 30 years ago. It looks like it is still a good technique. We just ran a gang of Tarpons through the back of the Pillie so it trolled upside down with a net lead or bit of sheet lead on the first hook and a pink Squid over the lot. One on top and another with a large barrel sinker a couple of feet in front. I imagine you are now using a much more sophisticated rig to run them now


Cheers


Neil

[Back In Black]

Great report Dave. Hopefully a few of those Spotties are on a collision course with my slugs come Christmas. I used to slow troll Pillies off Noosa over 30 years ago. It looks like it is still a good technique. We just ran a gang of Tarpons through the back of the Pillie so it trolled upside down with a net lead or bit of sheet lead on the first hook and a pink Squid over the lot. One on top and another with a large barrel sinker a couple of feet in front. I imagine you are now using a much more sophisticated rig to run them now


Cheers


Neil

Neil,
Sounds a bit hi tech mate. I'm dropping around to see Dave on Friday so he can show me his rig.

He's quite happy to share info with me as he knows the fish are REALLY safe when I'm on the water!!

Tony

[Goldfinch]

Thanks for the comments guys. Tony….you crack me up :-).
Neil…I use a pretty similar rig to what you explained above but I just use 4 x Mustad 7766 6/0's ganged with 10cm of single strand wire tied to a swivel. I place a green coloured skirt along with another little tinsel type skirt I got from Davo's bait n tackle over the nose of the pillie. I find you can put the hooks in the upside or underside of the pillie, they both get hits as long as it's not spinning. I always use the barrel sinker on this rig about 2.5 metres from the swivel with 80lb leader. The surface rig I use is called a Davo's Spaniard Special, once again from Davo's tackle here in Noosa. It's a custom made lure with some serious bling on it. I'll post a pic tonight when I get back from filming. dave

[Back In Black]

Thanks for the comments guys. Tony….you crack me up :-).
Neil…I use a pretty similar rig to what you explained above but I just use 4 x Mustad 7766 6/0's ganged with 10cm of single strand wire tied to a swivel. I place a green coloured skirt along with another little tinsel type skirt I got from Davo's bait n tackle over the nose of the pillie. I find you can put the hooks in the upside or underside of the pillie, they both get hits as long as it's not spinning. I always use the barrel sinker on this rig about 2.5 metres from the swivel with 80lb leader. The surface rig I use is called a Davo's Spaniard Special, once again from Davo's tackle here in Noosa. It's a custom made lure with some serious bling on it. I'll post a pic tonight when I get back from filming. dave

Oh crap Dave, now the whole damn world knows!!

Now I'll never catch one!!

Tony

[TREVELLY]

Oh crap Dave, now the whole damn world knows!!

Now I'll never catch one!!

Tony

You would be surprised the number of people that read this and then do nothing mate - we are a lazy bunch ;)

I have a manual and an electric down rigger - each time I take it out it is too windy to use - so being lazy it stays at home ;D

Oh and Dave thanks for the report - nice cobe mate.

Do post the pic of the bling rig - might just get un-lazy - maybe ::)

[malby]

Thursday 28th November.

Went out to Sunshine Reef. Trolled pillies, lures etc. Bait everywhere. Could not raise a scale at all! Not even the baitfish would take a hook. Moved in to Jew Shoal and same deal. Not even the baitfish were feeding. Saw one guy get a good Cobia on a ZMann plastic jigged off the bottom on a 1oz jig head. That was it. Heaps of boats out there trolling the reef. Never saw one hook up from 6am to 10am.

We did see a free swimming Spanish Mack swim straight past our boat and must have seen all our offerings and was not keen. Maybe it was fish Ramadan? Do fish fast? The barometer was around 1015 for most of the morning and we were 4 days out from a new moon.

On the plus it was a beautiful morning to be on the water and the Noosa Bar was easy to traverse as the swell was quite small. We came in bang on low tide and the bar was breaking right across but again no problems crossing it.

Mal

[Goldfinch]

Mal, I was out there filming and I saw all the boats trolling, probably you included. We came in from Chardons reef at around 7.30am and we put out two trolling rigs and a live rig and within 5 mins we saw the mackerel swim past the boat and under the boat so we threw 55gram slugs at them. We hooked up straight away every cast, double hookups. We just kept looking for them on the sounder. Got 5 in the boat, spanish and spotty, pulled the hooks on a few and a few undersize ones as well. So they were taking a fast retrieved slug over a live yakka and pillie. Figure that out??? The bite didn't last long before that NE'ster came up. Got to be versatile on Sunshine to catch the fish.

[malby]

Thanks for the tip Dave. What a bummer I never thought of trying that at the time. Spent half my fishing life spinning metals off the rocks down in NSW and it never occurred to me. Not just that but the last time I caught a significant number of spotty's and Spanish was on a reef quite close on a Trekka 2 charter using an 80 gram raider fast retrieved under the boat! Der! Anyway, I was certainly amongst those boats you observed at 7.30am. We only saw the one free swimmer but we did at one point see some very significant arches on the sounder but could not find them again. Do you have a side scan Dave or just a good old down scan. I believe that side scan technology works well in up to 30mtrs. I have a Lowrance HDS Gen 1 and can see plenty under the boat but I wonder how much action I miss outside of that down scan area?

[Scalem]

You're almost legendary now Dave, expect nothing less than quality reports from you these days. Are you bulking up since I saw you last? Been going to the Gym? Who needs a Gym when you do battle with Cobes that regularly, reading your reports are like Daves' weight loss and fitness program! I might be giving you ideas now, you can be my personal trainer if I ever get up your way::)

Scalem

[Goldfinch]

Thanks for the tip Dave. What a bummer I never thought of trying that at the time. Spent half my fishing life spinning metals off the rocks down in NSW and it never occurred to me. Not just that but the last time I caught a significant number of spotty's and Spanish was on a reef quite close on a Trekka 2 charter using an 80 gram raider fast retrieved under the boat! Der! Anyway, I was certainly amongst those boats you observed at 7.30am. We only saw the one free swimmer but we did at one point see some very significant arches on the sounder but could not find them again. Do you have a side scan Dave or just a good old down scan. I believe that side scan technology works well in up to 30mtrs. I have a Lowrance HDS Gen 1 and can see plenty under the boat but I wonder how much action I miss outside of that down scan area?

Mal, I only use a normal Sounder with a transom mount 600w transducer. It does the job fine. I just know what to look for on my screen. Sidescan is probably good but I'm catching fish so apart from investing in iPilot, I'm happy with my current setup.

[Goldfinch]

You're almost legendary now Dave, expect nothing less than quality reports from you these days. Are you bulking up since I saw you last? Been going to the Gym? Who needs a Gym when you do battle with Cobes that regularly, reading your reports are like Daves' weight loss and fitness program! I might be giving you ideas now, you can be my personal trainer if I ever get up your way::)

Scalem

Hahahaha….you're a funny man Brian. I am just living the Noosa lifestyle mate :-) There's things you have to do to enjoy cougar town. lol