Peel Island....any tips greatly appreciated

[milo__]

Hi all,

I was at Peel yesterday (beautiful day), but no fish of size - fished for about 8hrs from 6am. Went from south west tip to the top of the western side and could not catch anything that was size. I have looked at the forums on Peel and people are saying that you can catch anything from shark to whiting......but where??

I know I might be asking too much, but to get the missus off my back about always not bringing anything home and spending heaps on fuel etc, can anybody give me some general directions on where to go, what depth, bait and what time of the day is best around Peel Island? A GPS mark would be great too if that is not too much to ask??

I know there must be fish over there to brag about, but just do not know how/when to catch them without some local knowledge.......any help would be muchly appreciated!!!

Sorry but I am just getting sick and tired of not catching anything of size?

[SummerTrance]

Hey Milo,

Firstly what are you chasing? snapper/squire? and what method are you using? bait or plastics? Have you been catching lots of undersize squire?

[Leighton]

I was at peel from 4am to 8am. Managed a decent feed of Squire and Tailor
Any of the reef drop offs produce fish, you just have to find the bait.
Did you see the Rooster who hit the reef?

[littletoe]

Hello,

You should be able to catch whiting, snapper, moses perch, bream and some reef fish around Peel. I personally find that I have most success when I fish off the Northern reef, in water 6-8m. Note that in some locations it does drop off fairly quickly. If you fish the reef edges where the drop off is say 3m to 6m over a 20 metres strip, then you'll get plenty of moses perch and bream. If you head a little towards the East, then you can find some drop offs from about 3m to 8m. These fish better for snapper and not so good for the other varieties. This of course is just my opinion. Lot of people fish around the green marker (North West), but I find it to be hit and miss.

Cheerio.

[milo__]

Thanks heaps all on your replies.

Summertrance - I am chasing anything basically but Snapper/Squire would be great. I caught a fair few undersize squire on Sunday on Squid. Tried a few plastics with not a hit.

Leighton - When you say "find the bait", what do you mean? Are you talking about live bait?

Littletoe - Thanks for your reply. Do you have any GPS points of where you are talking about?

[_brendan_]

g'day.
i haven't fished peel much but the last time i did, i fished to the south of peel and managed to catch a 40cm grassie.

[littletoe]

Hi Milo___,

I have some GPS coords at home, not here with me at work. I just had a look at google earth. I meant the reef line sort of between 27deg24min56.96sec and 153deg14min17.63sec. This is only rough, because I am taking the coords from googleearth and I don't have a good grasp on water depth. Nevertheless, between these two points you'll find good drop offs. There are actually two dropoffs in some parts, one further out and one closer in. The inside one comes up to 3m quickly, and the outside one comes up to 5m in places.

Note that the inner reef line is not straight and sticks out in places, so careful, because it gets shallow quickly, especially at low tide. Also, you cannot fish in water less than 2m below low mark.

There are always people lingering around in this area. I usually try and avoid people, so that the area where I fish is little distrurbed.

Cheerio.

[Leighton]

Find the bait...on your sounder, or you can often see the bait skipping across the surface. Its a safe bet thay are being chased by Snaps
You will see the Reef drop offs, some are exposed at low tide and others are marked by cardinal beacons or Turtle signs

[milo__]

Hi again,

Littletoe - thanks again for your advice and location directions. Would I be able to ask for the GPS marks you have at home for the reef markings because I just looked up the area you said on google earth and it is showing an area near Green Island and not near Peel? If you want to PM me with the marks then that is OK......Thanks again for your help.

Leighton - I will definately look for the markings you are talking about. Cheers

[littletoe]

Sorry, I was in a rush, such a rush that I looked at the wrong island on google earth lol. Pretty funny actually. I'm just out at a friend's place, but I will get a gps coord for you later.

I'll get you a good one, to make up for misleading you. It wasn't intentional, sorry.

Cheerio.

[whatscracken]

I fish Peel a fair bit and theres plenty of decent fish getting around once you get a few areas sussed.

The boys who have posted have the right idea and Leighton is spot on with finding the bait and finding the fish. Try having a drift along some of the reef edges as it drops of and keep trying different baits and plastics until you get them chewing and you can have a red hot session once you know what their feeding on.

Its a real shame that most of Peel is going to be hit hard by the closures coming up in november, not too sure how often I'll get to bring home any decent feeds.

Good Luck

[SummerTrance]

Hey Milo,

You need to choose a species to target (snapper is prob what ur after) and learn how to fish for that species. (Use the search function on this site)

Listen to the above advice, especially from Leighton as he is an expert on catching snapper at Peel.

Also I tried to send ya a PM, but your inbox was full. clear some space in there.

[littletoe]

Hi Milo__,

I normally fish East of S27deg29.671min E153deg19.819min over a stretch of about 1km. I find the edge of the reef to be well defined in this region. I use my electric motor cruising about 30m-50m off the reef edge in the Westerly direction. From my personal experience it seems that the current is favourable if you head towards mainland and cast ahead of the boat into the reef at a 45 degree angle. I suggest you only aim for water that is about 5m-6m deep, otherwise you'll start getting smaller fish. I repeat this process once I get past the above coordinate. For snapper I use plastics, and particularly Gulp 5" jerk shads are the go for me. Sometimes I use the 4" variety and sometimes even the 3", but I find that they don't have as good action as the softer tailed 5" versions. Colour can vary on the day, but I guess pink shine, camo, watermelon and similar are a good start. You can use nuclear chicken if that takes you fancy. In the morning (sunrise) I have most success with 5" camo jerk shads on a 2/0 or 3/0 1/8th or 1/6th TT hook, depending on wind. In the afternoon (sunset) I find that a bit of red or pink helps get that bite. If you cannot do this motoring along the reef edge, then you can do as stated by the others above, and look for bait.

I find that at this section of Peel the current pretty much runs along the reef, therefore you can always anchor and burley, which should bring on the fish. I have done this, and particularly at the above coordinate. If you investigate carefully, you'll find that at that coordinate the reef sticks out a little, and rapidly drops from 3m to 8m of water. I generally anchor right on the edge (about 20m East of the coordinate), say in 6m of water, and burley. That should bring on some good fish. You should at least bag out on moses perch and catch quite a few bream if you mostly fish daylight. You'll have a lot of bites in this area, and if using bait then you'll need a bit. After all, these fishes get hungry. For me 2kgs of paper packed squid from Tackle warehouse works the best and seems to last 3hrs. As a side note, you can also catch grassies at this spot, but they tend to be in about 4m of water and gets a little snaggy. If I use plastics for the grassies then I like to have a bit of green in it, and something that requires a constant, slow retrieve.

I'll be interested to know how you go.

Cheerio.

[castlemaine]

Milo
It's a bit difficult to give away hard earned GPS marks. Get yourself a marine map and look at the contours. Where you see the lines close together is where the bottom rises sharply. Try to find a spot where it also dips into the island. Like everyone said before 8-12m mark seems to be the magic depth.
Careful you're not fishing in the protestion zone or have your lines in it.
If you get little rat sweetlip or moses perch you fishing on the reef, you want to be just off it.
If you don't get any fish on one spot come back again to the same spot at a different day/tide. Makes a difference. Read what the guys above have said over and over again, as you fish on it'll all make sense.
Cheers

[milo__]

Hi SummerTrance,

I have cleared all my messages if you would like to PM me now.......thanks heaps in advance and for all your advice.

Hey Milo,

You need to choose a species to target (snapper is prob what ur after) and learn how to fish for that species. (Use the search function on this site)

Listen to the above advice, especially from Leighton as he is an expert on catching snapper at Peel.

Also I tried to send ya a PM, but your inbox was full. clear some space in there.