Middle Reef Sat 15/12

[Scott nthQld]

Nonibbles agreed to take me out in his boat yesterday, but he needed a tow, I was quick to take up the offer. We headed out and were on the water by 3.30pm, earlier hoping to get in some beacon bashing for a few macks, but the weather gods didn't want us to.

So we headed over to maggie island, and had a drift along picnic bay for nothing. There was some surface action, but what ever it was, didn't like the look of my slugs I ws throwing at it. Afetr this non event we cruised down to middle reef in search of some live squid and fingermark ans the sun went down. In the meantime, pillies were chopped up and sent over the side fr burley ad larger pieces were drifted down the burley trail.

It wasn't long until WHACK zzzzzzzz....reefed, damn, bloody fish, left him some slack and he got himself out and when boated was revealed to be a small grassy, so back he went. Back to the cubing and WHACK, zzzzzz...ping! Bite off, bastard. meanwhile paul pulled a small cod aboard and went back. one goes another hook, and anoth 1/2 pilly, I better tighten the drag a bit, I thick I'm making too easy for the fish to get back to the safety of the reef. So with 14lb fireline, 20lb fluro leader and 4kg drag, I though surely I could raise a good fish. The actin went quiet for a while, and I was getting a little dozy, and put the rd in the holder for a rest and a drink. No soner was I sitting down, came WHACK, zzzzzzzzzzzz.... brick, man these were some good fish.

I should taken the hint to upgrade to some heavier gear, but no, I stuck with the 14lb stick thinking I would get the better of one soon. All up I got smoked about 4-5 times, with the fish just steaming straight to the reef, nothing stopping them. After aother bite off, and an upgrade to a heavier leader, the big fish stopped and we pulled aboard a few small grassy's and cod, as well as a couple of stripey's. I picked up 2 leopard sharks, one about 60cm, the other would've been pushing a metre, both of these went back.

The smokers without a doubt would've been some sizeable fingermark, and next time I will use the heavier gear to find out for sure. No keepers came aboard, but the constant tension of waiting for another of those freight trains kept us in suspense almost the whole night. Pillies were doing the damage by daylight, and squid was the bait of choice during the twilight and darkness hours. Paul was flicking some plastic around with a few bumps and hits, but no hook ups. Plastic neve crossed my mind, I was busy keeping the burley trail going and trying to stop the monsters of the deep.

Headed for home, as the wind wa relentless, and kept getting stronger as the night went on, we started the arvo with 15-20kn NE and finished up with about 15-25kn NE. Headed in with no fish in the esky, but still had a good night out, and can't wait to hit that spot again for some of those bigguns.

Cheers,

Scott

[PBass]

Time to get out the heavier gear I think mate.. Better luck next time.. Cheers PBass

[Fisher4life]

i reckon drifting some SP's over that reef would produce some quality fish, as they do south in moreton bay.

Might be a thought for the new year. Good to hear you had a bit of fun out there nonetheless.

Cheers
Josh

[Dr_Dan]

Sounds like an ok trip mate. Was tempted to try drifting the reef with paul when was out there last weekend, but bit scary cruising up to a bommie within a foot of the surface in the middle of the night! Reckon there shoudl be some decent fish out there

[nonibbles]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzping!

Unfortunately as Scott said, once he beefed it up the bite died.

Again, couldn't attract the squid even though very likely country. My squid light gave out after about 10mins in the water - bulb wasn't blown. Battery not holding charge again. Gonna have to get a little rechargeable AGM battery I guess. How long would 2 6v dolphin torch batteries in series drive a 12v 4w globe? Might try it out and see.

Dan most of the night we anchored up about 300m from where we fished water stayed between 5.5 to 4.5 m all the time we were there and it was pretty clear.

I'm glad the swells stayed apart a fair distance because coming into port surfing is ok but once ya get turned abit you don't want that next one hitting ya side on! Was all good fun though and the moon gave enough visibility not to be too scared to put the pace on a bit (yeah the whole 12kn all the way )

[Scott nthQld]

Those grassy's were a surprise for me, didn't realise reefies like them would come in so close, but them again Brian did catch that samll trout for the rockwalls a few weeks back.

Next time, I'll have 20 or 30lb mainline out with a 40lb fluro leader, that might help a bit.

Thats a good idea too Josh, wouldn't mind giving it a drift with the sp's, and since it so close to home, its nice and easy to get to, and I'd hardly use 5L of fuel to get out there. Might have to get the sea anchor out though, the wind would push you along nice and quick.

When I take the boat out, I'm gonna have to down grade the reef pick, Paul's was hard enough to get off, and mine's a much thicker gauge than his, nearly 3 times thicker prongs, and being a similar sized boat (mine's a little smaller), a smaller pick shouldn't pose a problem.

[Fishin_Dan]

Nice spot from the sounds of it boys You'll have to go back and get into em next time!

[horseboy]

I was gonna hit middle reef on sat night to but my old boy came down from ingham and his back is rooted so we stayed in the creek and around the rockwalls only a couple of cod all small.

[Taipan]

Good catches from middle are far and few between. Because it's so easy to get to it does get smashed. I have heard of Trout being caught out there but only little tackers.
Get a nice day and hit Rattlesnake and Herald Islands. Fish the reef edges out there. A mate and I found a nice hole last time we were out. We usually come home with a feed, be it Cray or a nice trout.
Or if your after something a little closer try Bay rock, Josh got a nice Cobia out there one night with me. I was getting cleaned up on live squid to, but I wasn't paying full attention so it was my own fault.