Making Do - Redcliffe reefs

[kingtin]

Ever had one of those days? Well, it started badly but didn't end up a total disaster.

Decky put me in the water at DWB and took the trailer home (study day) and I set off for a solo at Woody Point at 6.45 aiming for the turn of the tide. I had taken the pillies out of the freezer earlier and on arrival, they had turned to mush (Anaconda). Couldn't get 'em to stay on the hook reached into the esky for the bag of frozen herring and discovered two nice pork chops! Oh well! placcies it is. Reaches into the tackle tray for a swivel and was just tying it on when SHIT! What the hell was that! A bang and the boat shook! Looks up to see an eagle ray bouncing off the engine whilst at the same time I dumped the tackle tray upside down on the deck. Of course, all the weights managed to roll under the floor so there's a job for later

Anyway, worked the placcies (4'' chatreuse shad) for an hour resulting in a few nibbled tails and 2 Taylor at 32 and 35. Switched to Gulp ragworm after a while and pulled one small cod around 25cm.

Decided to move, found a show, dropped anchor and commenced filleting the Taylor and cutting into strips. dropped the bait and was hit before it hit bottom........size 1 gamakatsu to 10lb leader and 6lb main and it's taking me for a run..........finally got it to the boat and my PB bream at 35 cms........somehow it lost near 2cms between catching and photo so there's a dire warning for those who keep fish bang on the size limit

I0 minutes later........a bar tail followed in quick succession by another 3, all about the same size at around 40 and all returned. I was hoping they were males and I was waiting for the big girl but it didn't happen.

The next couple of hours saw 6 more bream around 25 and countless under and another nice one at 30. Also had about a dozen squire all under and a sole. I was kept really busy and I put it down to the berley pot as there was a couple of rigs withing shouting distance and they seemed to be doing nothing. All fish fell to Taylor and I did have a float out with the shitty pillies on but no go.............they must've been bad as on several occasions I saw the sharks actually nudging the float but not once did I get a run.

Returned to the Pine when I ran out of bait and it started blowing. Had an hour in the vicinity of the hopper for 7 catfish 2 to ragworm and 5 to chatreuse shad and then called it a day.

The 3 keepers

kev

[2iar]

Doesn't sound like a disaster at all Kev - I was expecting you to say the thump was you hitting a reef!

Sounds like a reasonable day, and at least you were out on the water - I assume you were in the little boat.

I'd have been tempted to give the pork chops a go - they couldn't have been worse then the pillies

Good luck,
Mike

[kingtin]

Doesn't sound like a disaster at all Kev - I was expecting you to say the thump was you hitting a reef!

Sounds like a reasonable day, and at least you were out on the water - I assume you were in the little boat.

I'd have been tempted to give the pork chops a go - they couldn't have been worse then the pillies

Good luck,
Mike

Yeah, snap decision to go mate (hence the crap preparation) so I had no deckie for the big tub. I was tempted to use the chops but then I'd have to have herring for my dinner

Nearly ventured further when it was such a good day but then I realised I wasn't carrying appropriate safety gear to go further out. Probably just as well, as it did blow up a little later and an under 4 m boat ain't the place to be when that happens.

kev

[Synful]

Ever had one of those days? Well, it started badly but didn't end up a total disaster.

Decky put me in the water at DWB and took the trailer home (study day) and I set off for a solo at Woody Point at 6.45 aiming for the turn of the tide. I had taken the pillies out of the freezer earlier and on arrival, they had turned to mush (Anaconda). Couldn't get 'em to stay on the hook reached into the esky for the bag of frozen herring and discovered two nice pork chops! Oh well! placcies it is. Reaches into the tackle tray for a swivel and was just tying it on when SHIT! What the hell was that! A bang and the boat shook! Looks up to see an eagle ray bouncing off the engine whilst at the same time I dumped the tackle tray upside down on the deck. Of course, all the weights managed to roll under the floor so there's a job for later

Geez Kev,

Good to see that I'm not the only one who well and truly stuffs up things every now and then

You must have felt like you were cursed at that stage - still, sounds like you got a feed though so it worked out well in the end.

[sarg]

Sounds like a good day i'm heading out tomorrow but wasn't sure about the weather. Bet that ray scared you.

Andrew

[kingtin]

Sounds like a good day i'm heading out tomorrow but wasn't sure about the weather. Bet that ray scared you.

Andrew

Yeah Andrew. With all the sharks in the area lately I fair cacked myself. I was at anchor so I knew I hadn't bumped a reef or anything. Just one of those moments when your mind's on one thing and you're not prepared for a sudden shock of something else.

If you haven't already gone...........all the fish were taken over some reef in only 7ft of water. I normally try to anchor uptide of the reef and fish down towards it to prevent snagging of gear.I try to draw 'em out with berley. I tried something different yesterday and lost heaps of tackle and kept getting bricked, but that's part of the game I suppose.

kev

[Mattg68]

sounds like it started off a bit 'Faulty Towers' for you Kev, good to see you managed to redeem yourself though. I can see the pic now of you holding up some massive cod with a ganged up pork chop hangin' out its mouth, LMAO.

Have you started on the retrival of the 'dead' weights down below.

Well done mate, if only we had tape of all these happenings.

Matt

[kingtin]

Have you started on the retrival of the 'dead' weights down below.

Well done mate, if only we had tape of all these happenings.

Matt

Yeah Matt, Ausfish funniest home vids............there's been some real catastrophes reported here........bunngs forgotten, boats dropping off trailers and onto ramps etc

Not even got round to cleaning the boat yet as the back was buggered last night and the floor takes some juggling to remove. About to start any minute..........looking at the tackle box there's a lot more than weights down there. Unhitched the electrics as soon as I got home............I've seen a nice neat hole in someone's tinny where they left a lead under the floor

kev

[spelchek]

Your ‘ray scare’ reminds me of heading to Mackay for the first time with two mates at the ripe old age of 20 or so - 1989-90. We’d been talking up the ‘southern limit of crocs’ thing all the way. “Oh yeah hope we see a few “ etc etc. Anyhoo we get there around mid arvo and get to the place,say gday to another mate(his place) unpack etc and (because we’re 20) we HAVE to get out on the water (14 foot old de javelin) tinny) so by around 530 we’re in the boat (it’s July btw so just on dark). Anyway we blast out, then have to slow down because we’ve never been here before and it’s pitch ####ing black. So we’re putting along at idle in a mangrove creek all of us dead quiet thinking of the croc menace we’ve all talked ourselves into believing. All of a sudden there’s an almighty smash thump thump smash …IN THE BOAT! All three of us nearly excited the boat, throwin* each other behind us in the process before we realised that it was a mullet that had caused so many skid marks. I think we laughed for about an hour after that. It always gets bought up when we get together to this day.