Atkinsons Reef

[myangle]

Can anyone give me some advice on Atkinsons Reef in Moreton Bay. I am planning on an overnighter out there on the weekend, weather permitting.

Target fish? Bait?

Or should I just not bother and stay at home?

[Duckfish]

Hi There,
Saturday night should be ok. Take the usual baits like mullett, prawns, white bait, pilchards. Use a size1 - 1/0 hook and rig up like you are bream fishing. Then rig up a ganged 3 hook with a pilchard for the big fish. Lots of luck
Duck

[Ozie_3]

bit like a boat sale yard on the weekend mate.... but ....
targets would be squire and grassy sweetlip

by catch would be bream, shark and anything else....hungry

cheers

[uglyfish]

one things for sure mate you wont be there on ya own,there will be loads of ppl with you

[Horse]

Diver Whiting or Pike for bait asnd the target would be Snapper this time of year . There are better spots to try but it still produces some good fish. At least you won't get lonely there

[Angla]

Try not to anchor in the reef unless you have a release mechanism on the anchor like cable ties.

Cheers
Chris

[Scalem]

Do tuskies still show up in any reasonable numbers there? Used to catch them on fresh squid years ago during the daytime, I have never fished an overnighter there if I did I would target the same area that I get snaps - downstream a little from other boats and in the 4.5 - 5 mtre drop off along the sand bank on the eastern side. Fishing 18 mtrs is not a lot of fun in current and heaps of lead to combat it.

Scalem

[myangle]

Thanks Guys.
That gives me a bit of an idea anyway. I hear what you are saying about crowds but I am still hopeful. Most nights when I head out on the bay I have the place pretty much to myself. Plus it looks like it will be frickin cold on Saturday night.
Sounds like I might need some heavy lead for the deeper stuff.

[honda900]

myangle,

hour before the top or bottom of the tide is the best time to fish. 6, or 8 snapper lead is the most you will need to hold bottom in 20 mtrs at harries.

I usually run a paternoster rig, with a single 5/0 on the top and an 3/0 octopus circle on the bottom, works a treat, pillies and mullet work well.

Only had one night session out there got sharked a couple of times and caught a catfish in the 5kg range, hardly caught a decent fish at all. you will quite often catch whiting, bream,sweetlip, snapper, pike and tailor out there. Live pike and whiting seem to bring the sharks in though.

Yes a lot of people fish the place, but suprisingly good fish come out of there as well and quite regularly for us..

regards
HOnda.

[bushweek]

the only advice i could give is fish big baits for the big fish such as snapper, if you muck around with 3/4 pillies youle jus feed a ton of undersized squire, fish baits that the little pickers wont be able to destroy which will give the big brutes time to find the bait and hook into it. i know of people that have fished hole diver whiting and pike and come up with the goods, or even jus a couple of whiting heads on a 8/0 hook, baits that the litlle pickers wont destroy, worth getting a good berley trail going aswell. hope all goes well for you mate look forward to seeing a few pics
troy

[Swindells]

How did you go out there mate. I fished atkinsons for a couple of hours on sunday and didn't turn up much on whole pillies, just some squire which the dolphins had fun chasing back down to the reef.

Launched the new boat for its first fish since mike got it last week and the sounder packed it in almost immediatly, just for a bit more fun when we pulled it out we discovered a crack in the hull that was just painted over for sale we took on about 15 ltrs of water.... luckily for Mike i'm in boatbuilding so shouldn't be too rough to fix.

[myangle]

Well I caught one decent squire. 40cm. That waas dinner in the bag and from a casual lok around, I was the envy of the other fishermen anchored up. No one else seemed to be catching anything.
A school of dolphins came through at around 5pm and hung around till after dark. While they were around I didn't get one single bite.
I packed it up and went home around 6.30.
Ate grilled squire for dinner.

[Ozie_3]

well done, i think its a good spot midweek and needs more investigation....

nice to be envied eh

cheers chris