Success at Secret Spot ALPHA

[Wyoming]

Saturday was a beautiful morning and I left the pontoon at Raby Bay during Bankers' Hours, around 8.30 AM and headed out to spot Alpha, only a few minutes out of the canals. #On the first cast, before it hit the bottom and before the bale arm was closed, my 4" watermellon Gulp was savagely hit and in came a nice squire of around 39 cm. #Second cast - same result but a bigger specimen and I guess we had only drifted around 10 metres from the first fish. #We were just approaching the top of the tide, which is usually unproductive in my opinion.

"Hello, ello" says I, "I think we may have found a patch..."..... #and we kept catching them like this for a full 20 minutes with the biggest squire coming in at 62cm. #Now I thought that was a bit unusual, because at that length, they have usually matured into a full-on snapper (perhaps this one was a slow developer??) #We continued fishing until 11.30, discarding the smaller fish that we keep fresh and alive in the live bait well, and replacing them with their larger siblings. #Jim and I usually only keep 2 - 3 fish, enough to eat fresh without them ever seeing the inside of a freezer.

So we were tied up at home by about 11.45 and we only used 10 litres of juice - this has to be the measure of a good day.

Neil

[Az]

got to be happy with that, almost too easy by the sounds of things!!
beautiful eating at that size

[charleville]

Excellent! Well done! ;)

I heard Webby say at one of his Tackle and Tinny lecture that that Bay snapper often don't have the big knob for unknown reasons.

[T1]

Great stuff Neil! GULPS in W'Melon! What more is there to say?!?!?!

Take Care T

PS: i'll have to get over and fish Raby Bay one day, especially in the canals...

[White_Steenbras]

Nice catch, they'll go down well for tea and only 10 litres worth, you are onto something, shhhhhhh

[BrandonH]

Great catch mate ;) I could't raise one snapper scale this weekend at the Brissie river mouth >:(

Cheers
Brandon...

[blue-mako]

yeh a bit wierd that it hadnt developed a big bump yet...

troy

[Why-ting]

G-day Wyoming. theres some nice little bumps around Cleveland point and Ormiston reefs if you have a look for them. Nice fish at 62cm for that area. Well done


Cheers Whytey

P.S. What sort of boat did you say you had? ;D

[foggy]

Nice work Neil. Have to try some more of that ground eh. Still not in the club but. Keep working ;)

[Jim_Byrne]

Nice feed!
Interesting about the knob....but it doesn't matter cause they dont taste any different!

[aquarius]

Nice catch of squire you got so close to home Neil.
10 litres of fuel for a good feed of fresh fish you can't complain about that.
Still trying to join the 5 kilo+ club myself.
62cm is a beaut fish for the shallow reef area's of Moreton bay.
My theory about bay snapper is they don't develope that knob on the head because there's plenty of bait to chase in Moreton bay where as the offshore speciemen has to bash into reef to break up shell fish etc.
I have caught tagged squire from around Macleay island only to find out that this particular fish stayed in this same spot for almost 18 months.
Must be heaps of bait for the fish not to stray further afield.
Cheers Brent. :)

[Wyoming]

Brent - I have never ever caught a tagged fish! What plastics do you use to catch these suckers?

I'm in Darwin this week, so I may try to catch a bit of fishing while I'm here.

Cheers
Neil

[Herm]

#
G-day Wyoming. theres some nice little bumps around Cleveland point and Ormiston reefs if you have a look for them. Nice fish at 62cm for that area. Well done


Cheers Whytey

P.S. What sort of boat did you say you had?

Hey Whytey

This is exactly what my husband was asking!!!! ;D #If we hang around the mouth of the canals, do you think that we could pick the boat and follow Wyoming out? ;)

Janine #

[aquarius]

G,Day Neil, Gee Darwin sounds nice this time of year.
Hope you have time for a few casts at a Barra or 2.
Mate the tagged fish went for a gulp in pumpkinseed.
Once you report the catch you recieve in the mail info regarding tag and release dates , length etc.
Looks like you might have to look both ways before you leave the canals from now on...lol.
Cheers #Brent ;)

[T1]

'Googling' Neil as we speak.... ;)

Take Care T

[Fish_Seeker]

Nice catch Wyoming, good to see quailty fish in so close, and even leaving some for another day :)

[Wyoming]

Sorry guys, I got distracted and haven't been back to Ausfish until now.

Whytey & Herm- I have a 575 Cruisecraft Explorer with Ausfish stickers and usually seen with an elderly piss-tank aboard who insists on using rotton old smelly bait and smoking a cigar (only while he is awake). I was out there today and the best I could do was to land some prize grinners, they were everywhere. A fairly ordinary day where we were drifting along at 1.5+ Kts, so I really didn't expect much. I'm putting up a seperate post Re Darwin although I didn't angle, I saw the world's most amazing boat.....
Neil