3 days left i thought i better go fishing...

[astro66]

Well with 3 days till the world stops thought i better get some fishn in .....20 mullet for bait and a dozen big eating ones i was ready to go .....noone else wanted to come so a solo trip ...doh
5 mins with bait in the water the herring is off....39cm flathead ....back he goes and a nice start...next off was the heavy rod with a smoking run and hes off after a min .....mullet smashed in half ....oh yeah its 4:30 in the arvo and they are here :P
Thats the end of my fishing because some well i wish i could write it here @#$%@$@% ####### sees me getting bites and catching fish and motors over and anchors on my lines .....i mean like 10m if that directly back in line with me ....i asked really nice if he could move as he had anchored on my baits .."its a free country " was the answer .....so i asked not so nice ..." #### off im not moving" was his reply ....and i mean the river was empty with maybe 3 boats anywere near us he had the whole river to fish in ....well in come the heavy rod with a mullet about 50cm long on it ....zzzzzzzzzzzz missed the back of his head by maybe 20cm over his shoulder and splash over the back of his boat ...winding hard the mullet jumped up into his boat across the floor just missed his wife and back into the water with 2 3/o hooks hanging out ..."next shot has more hooks and 6 sinkers on it" well didnt he move quick then .....and all i got was "happy now ?"
Reset the lines and the waiting games starts again ....maybe 10 mins later mr free country is off home with nothing...not even a bite for the day..."see you later cokbreath" was he departing comment ...what a ###### .... well mr cokbreath should have waited another 10 mins because it was on .....warning shot rod i mean heavy rod was off hard .... oh yeah ....massive runs ...big head shakes ....a couple of mins and there's red flashes ...oh yeah ...hes in and 55cm jack ...this guys a fighter wearing someones 3/o mustard and a meter of leader for jewelry....

106966

Rebait and out asap ...well W.S.R is off again 5 mins later and his the twin brother ....mother would be so proud :P

106967

Rebait and out again .....some young guys come over and pull up to see what was going on ...maybe the ugly stick bending in to the water was a give away ...give them a couple of pointers and they are off to a spot i give them to get some mullet ....while they were gone maybe 15 mins the herring rod is off ...well this is a light setup that i run some live herring on just in case there isnt any mullet eating fish around ...ohhhhh no this is going to end bad ...there isnt really a run so much as the fish didnt even know it was hooked and just went home ....grate on the rocks tink gone ....wind in for a looooooong time lol ...
Rebait and back out ....young guys are back and have some mullet out now and they are on in maybe 10 mins .....jack one for them ...and herring rod is totally smashed bang its off after a smoking run ...wind in and no hooks ...mmmmm whats the jingling noise ...second runner is dangling loose ...well herring rod is out of the game ...
thats 2 to me and 2 to them ...

W.S.R is off again three laps of the boat and hes in ....its triplets :D

106968

Next up lazy rod is finally doing something ....and hes done me proud with another jack 49cm ...so ugly i didnt take a pick :P

Final score ..me 4 ...jacks 10 ..crabs 2 ...shovel nose from hell 1 .. young guys a couple of jack and a nice flatty ...

4 jack in just over 2 hours with more still in the water and low tide in an hour ...out of bait ...

MMMMM only two days left till the world stops ....

[Lucky_Phill]

Great report ( story )......

The W.S.R. is a beauty :)

Nice work..........................


LP

[flynny15]

hi astro. which river are you fishing. or is that a secret. cheers

[astro66]

sorry mate ...maroochy river ....gps mark 545.6.5353 lol ....it seems the world isnt ending anymore....hehhehe ..seabreeze had me worried :P

heading back out tonight ...been nice and hot .....waters warm as ...late low tide ...nice fast run ....4 days till full moon ...little bit of fresh from the storms...got a good spot with tonnes of mullet :D ...taking back up this time because its hard to wind three rods at once lol ....its like the jack perfect storm ....

Is it worth fixing a runner on your rod anymore ???? herring rod is down ...probably cheeper/easier to buy a new rod ...

[mugg]

Great post and nice jacks,well done

[Seahorse]

Mate, can you check those numbers again. They seem a little mixed up

[wayno60]

Ya killin it bud, great work..

and the worlds not ending on Friday, that's been postponed till a later date.

[The_Jack_king]

Where Were u fishing mate. I catch quite a few jscks down golgie ey.

[astro66]

Out again last night....back to work monday :-[ .....well talk about the night of the one that got away ......

Plan A .Get down the ramp 2pm ...get mullet...fish 3 pm to late ...catch 10 jack :P

Wifes plan A . Go out to dinner ...maybe go fishing later ...::)

Soooooo we get to the ramp at 7pm ...5 hours late ....up to get some mullet and the river is alive with mullet ...fill the tub with 50 big mullet in mins ...spend an hour hunting down some smaller ones...back to our spot by 8pm ...

Wind is 20 knots ....tide is slow turning ....2 foot chop....do the windscreen wiper mime for 15 mins and move to the edge of the bridge to hold steady out of the wind ....well it was that rough that the boat next to us had a young guy about 20 throwing up lol ...

Well first up is the new herring rod replacement ...a nice penn 6000 spin reel on matching 7 foot 8 to 15kg rod loaded up with 40 pound braid and 40 pound fluro leader....really nice flexy tip with plenty of meat in the middle of the rod and you can see every tail beat of the live bait ....
Had a smaller mullet maybe 200mm long and its been smashed hard ....drag cranked up hard to keep the jack off the rocks and pylons and the new reel is silky smooth just like its 560LL brother on the W.S.R ....Its reeled off maybe 70m of line in seconds ...we are one side of the bridge and it was out the other side in 5 or 6 seconds ....a close to 100m wide bridge....and up in the air it went ....a barra in the meter plus range ....3 jumps....4 jumps ....back down deep and i turned it back and got some ground ...bringing it back under the bridge it was over one side through the pylons and over the bail arm goes ....back out i gain some more ground on him and hes off to the pylons on the other side jumping through on the other side channel and bail arm over again....back out into the channel and hes feels done so i lift him up off the bottom pump and wind him to the top....omfg hes huge ...son is screaming look at the size of it ....and its off back down over to the pylon maybe 3 meters away and not quick enough on the bail arm and hes gone...wind in and the leader is shredded ....swear words were uttered onto childrens ears ....;D

Time to move back out a bit .....we wont land anything here ....young boys turn next on the new herring rod ...massive run and its into the pylons and gone ....doh ...

10 mins later the new herring rod is off again ....quick fight and its in ...
107039

nice little 65 cm cobia ...back he goes ...

Rebait and settle in for a wait ...well if you can call 5 mins a wait ...herring rod is off again and the young boy is on it like a fat kid in a lollie shop ...another huge run and its up doing flips...jumps...quadruple back flips and hes onto his first barra in the river ....it has a huge jump at the boat and out come the hooks ....bit smaller than the first but still a huge fish ....the young boy is devastated ....its ok babe you can have the next fish ::)

Well that didnt take long and hes on again on the herring rod ....off towards the nearest pylon and i called jack ...pump and wind babe hes almost got you on the pylons ....hes into it ....turned him and hes up to the boat ....
107043
a nice 55cm jack .....a really solid fish..

When i cleaned him in his gut he had a 5/0 heavy live bait hook still in a mullets nose ...well it was just the scull all the meat had been digested ....if you use those hooks and were fishing a couple of days before....a 12 year old caught your fish and it was a cracker lol ...

Rest of the night was a series of big runs with no hook ups ....W.S.R bust off on to the pylons a few times ....The new rod is a cracker ...talk about a lucky rod lol ...

Two weeks off over crissy with a huge 15m x 5m patio built and preping the slab by hand because i couldnt get a machine in ....repairing pipes because an idiot used the sink vent to hold up the joist on the old deck ....bad idea with the weight cracking the 90 degree pipe under the sink under the slab and the sbend under the deck ...one and a half days to jackhammer through the wall and slab to get to the bend and replace it ....that was fishing time lol...

Got out fishing 3 time over the break ...5 or 6 flathead ...8 jack smallest 47cm up to 55cm ....cobia...bream...grunter...hooked a couple of barra ....a barrow load of mullet (oldies in both family's love them) ...trevally ...god i love the maroochy river....

I need a holiday lol

[astro66]

Have a heap of people asking what rig i use ...were to fish ...bait ...

107045
1/0 to 4/0 suicide hooks depending on the mullet size ...use 1/0 with the same rig for herring ...top secret lumo bead :P ...snell the first hook and leave just enough to reach the tail ....leader 20 to 80 pound mostly 20 pound on the herring rod and 50 on the others...all flurocarbon leader...

Bait ....live mullet...live herring ...herring are dying really fast with the warm water at the moment so mostly mullet ...anywere from 100mm up to 600mm...jack like them in the 200mm range up to 400mm but they take bigger

where...bridges...pylons..trees in the water...rocks...pipe lines under the water ...jetties ...rocks...junctions of smaller creeks ...

Time/tide...i like dusk a week before or after a full or new moon ...change of tide just after dark ...i get alot of my fish from 2pm to 5 pm ...who ever recons you need to stay till 3am to get fish have no idea ....they are there all day ....feeding around sunset/sunrise ....

Thanks for all the positive feedback ....hope that helps ...

[wayno60]

Nice Red dog..

[ollie1]

nice work astro!! how cool are the barra!! i haven't fished it over the holidays, been offshore chasing the mackerel.
I'll give it a crack this weekend. Tides will be good! see ya out there.

[Rainbowrunner]

thanks for the tips astro66,
went for a quick run with my son(one of the very rare times I get to fish with him now) got a few livies before dark and ended up with 1 red fish out of 5 runs for the evening the rest failed to hook up
Ill have to be careful I might catch the fever, I know he is a bit more excited about chasing them again now

http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/a602/barracod/kjack25crop_zps5159f354.jpg

[astro66]

OLLIE SHOULD HAVE BEEN OUT TONIGHT....!!!! hooked up on three barra over 1m ....one in the 80s ...two into the pylons after an aerial show ...one spat the hook first time to the boat ...one jumped out of the net and spat the hooks ....the big one is huge it would be 1.2m easy ...i need bigger hooks lol not that i was targeting them ;D...guys next to me two big jack in the late 50s and the early 60s i ended up with a nice 70cm flattie and a dozen big sea mullet ...and a lot of gear into the pylons ....two boats next to me wondering wtf was going on with my rods being smashed every 5 mins ...ran out of mullet for bait and only have one rod with a rig left on it....

Nice rainbowrunner ...they are addictive ....always chasing that bigger one ....

[Willdoe]

Good Read and thanks for sharing the how to do it. How do you keep 50 livies - big onboard tank or an overboard keeper?

[astro66]

Have a live bait tank that holds 25 or so smaller mullet..just pump water every 15/20 mins ...bigger mullet go into a 60ltr tub and just bucket fresh into it ....all the big one get filleted and go to the oldies they love them....