Noosa North Shore, with a (not so?) rare catch!

[Freeeedom]

Spent a week camped on the Noosa North shore fishing the beach mostly from First Cutting to the Shire boundary. The weather was fabulous, the fishing a bit patchy. There were tailor at times at both dawn and dusk (dusk better) but no great numbers. Best I did at any session was 3. The dart were likelwise patchy with some good sessions and others when you couldn't find one. I caught some nice tarwhine, and a few bream, but there were quite a few undersized ones there as well. There were also a few nice golden trevally around those gutters containing a few rocks, mostly about 1.5kg. Those chasing the whiting were doing OK up along the Teewah sand mass. The worming was difficult early but improved as the tides got lower later in the week.
The unusual catch was my first bonefish, taken on worm on my first full day there (Thursday). Grant describes this as a rare catch in Queensland, but I'm wondering how rare they really are, because I got 2 more on Monday. Unfortunately there was no pelagic action within casting range of the beach although I spent quite a bit of time cruising the beach looking for some.
All in all it was another great week in a special part of Queensland, although the nights were a bit chilly at times
Cheers Freeeedom

[Freeeedom]

Some of the tarwhine were quite solid

[Freeeedom]

Nice eating size tailor, but there weren't enough of them!

[fish2eat]

Nice tailor John, but I can understand the lack of fish now that it was explained on here that the beach netting started on 1st May and that virtually shuts down the fishing.

[fish2eat]

By the way, did you cook up the bonefish ??? what are they like ??

[Freeeedom]

No I didn't eat it. Apparently they are called bonefish because they are full of bones. Grant says they are not good eating. I only kept that one because I left the camera back at camp and I wanted a picture of a new species. The other two I released. They are supposed to be legendary fighters, but they came in pretty easily on the surf gear I was using chasing dart out wide. I guess they fought like a whiting twice their size. They were certainly strong little fish while you were trying to get the hook out and let them go
Cheers Freeeedom

[Slider]

Pleased that you caught some fish Freedom and with the weather the way it has been it would have been great just being here. That's a nice clean looking tailor - bet he went down well. Have seen heaps of bonefish here over the years and in the days when I used to fish with baits caught quite a number while fishing for dart. Oyster cracker would definitely be a more rare catch and I'd love to see any photos members might have of these. It's not all doom and gloom here yet with still quite a few dart being caught at the southern end of the beach around Teewah. The netters so far have shot the net twice - once at D.I. and the other time near red canyon, so until the rest of the netters arrive and the mullet start coming out of the river there might still be a few fish to be caught. There doesn't seem to be any tailor from reports I've been getting and there is no surface action offshore, but there is still heaps of bait schools floating around. Also pleased to hear about the goldens - those gutters between 1st and 3rd cut are always the ones where they come from and a friend took one 3.5kg from there last week on a slug.. Should mention also that flathead don't seem to be affected by the netters - must get under the nets cause rarely see them in their haul.
Well done

Lindsay

[Freeeedom]

Thanks Slider - I read your posts with interest. In the seven days that I was there I only saw the netters on the beach twice, and never running the nets. On Thursday they sat for a long time watching a big school of fish near the camp site, but they must have been a bit too far off the beach because in the end they gave up and left without running the net at all. I saw several other schools of fish just outside the break and there were lots of small groups of mullet visible in the shore break every day. There were also a few monsters about. Quite a few tailor fisherman got monstered by something big and fast that took off at a hundred miles an hour and never stopped. I got hit once when I had hooked a nice tarwhine and was bringin it in when something large ate it and headed for New Zealand at a great rate of knots. I doubt that it was a shovel nose since it was splashing on the surface as it went. What a great place! I loved every minute of it.
Cheers Freeeedom

[Slider]

Spanish mackerel. We used to fish for spaniards off the beach in the 70's and 80's using tarwhine flesh for bait. Whiting was nearly as good but tarwhine could be caught by the hundreds in those days and was the best for them. In fact other than tailor, spaniards are the only pelagic I've caught at night. Notice not too many replies to that post - has got us all stumped. The spaniards used to feed in some rediculously shallow gutters at times and even me mum would get into them. They'd leap out of the water often after hook up and then take 300 metres of 8kg out to sea - if they didn't bust us first. 61/2 inch alvey going backwards with a spaniard on gets the knees shaking. Many of these fish were over 5 foot long. Always on dusk or just after dark and sometimes we'd hook 12 - 15 fish in a session. Sometimes we'd even beach one. Found that unless we ran 9 - 12 inches of wire to the swivel and then another 2 feet of wire with a ball sinker running on it, then other fish would hit the sinker and get us above the trace. Once we discovered that we were laughing - landed about 20% of hooked fish. Tailor started doing the same thing in the mid 80's when they never did before that. So started using the same rig for them at times.
Mate there's just nothing moving down there at the moment except fishermen from 1 gutter to the next.

Lindsay

[land_based]

Nice catch freedom, I'd sure like to get on to one of those bone fish on the super light gear! Wish i had time to have a week up there!

[shut_up_and_fish]

top stuff freedom - have caught a bonefish myself down towards where the netters are probably camped up - about 12mths ago and around the 1.5-2kg mark approx?? boy did mine smack the rod........i thought it fought pretty well compared to other species in the surf. interesting reading sliders report on the spanish and goldens in that area - maybe 6mths ago i was fishing in that first rocky gutter in front of the wilderness park with pillie and something absolutely smashed me and was heading for new zealand aswell - it eventually busted but not before i let it have a fair few spins of the old alvey - it was running that hard that my rod was levelled to the water..........anyways top fish and i hope to be up there now and then but less now due to recent revelations about this time of year with the netters

[White_Steenbras]

Bonjour little Boney. Top session in a beautiful part of the world, love Noosa.

[jackash]

Good on ya mate. Yeah i saw a bonefish caught in a tailor line at Fraser 2 years ago. Maybe there are a few around