Who's been offshore fishing but not catching?

[scoota]

Don't know about anyone else but fishing offshore from the banks to tempest has been a real hit and miss this winter season for us.
The weather conditions have been ideal many times but finding fish on the chew is another story.
A few times the shows on the sounder have them stacked up on top of each other and jumping in the boat but most of the time some of our best grounds have virtually no show or a good show and nothing interested.

WHERE ARE THE SNAPPER!!!!!

Not to many reports this year of snapper bag outs or even pearly bags!!
Maybe those that do are playing their cards close to their chest?
Those that are posting seem to be working hard and do some miles to achieve a good catch and generally only one or two big snapper in the kitty.
Might be a later season this year compared to last year for the 6-10kg knobbies but I hope I get the chance to tackle these tasty reel screamers soon!!!

Scoota...

[Baithoven]

Scoota - glad someone owned up to not catching much! We thought it was just us Monday 10th and Tues 11th August out of Mooloolaba - covered all our marks from Murphys to Curramundi, 12Mile, Wide Cal., struth we covered some ocean! Picked up 30-odd fish from Parrot, Squire, Pearlies, Wrasse, Cod, Sea Bream - threw all but 6 back due to undersize. Conditions perfect, bugger all to show for it!

Beats workin'

[DALEPRICE]

gday scotta,

most of our fishing is out at cal wide as we live on bribie and it has been hot and cold like the click of the fingers. we are also not having a lot of luck in finding the snapper with only the odd good one showing up and not wanting to play the game????

see what the back end of winter brings but its starting to get pretty hot so ??

i am about to try my luck and slip out for a hit shortly.
cheers dale

last thursday nights catch

[Swindells]

Same boat, a lot of work with little results.

[martinies]

Had a few of those sessions lately

I still can remember a perfect day, almost no wind and mild current but we didnt get any bites. We even had a hard time getting live bait in the morning.

[snapperbasher]

Yep im hearing ya!!

Last 2 trips offshore for one squire about 1.5kgs.

I thought it may have just been the run down from the full moon. Haven't fished since the new but it seems it is still quite.

Cheers Lochie

[f.t.r.]

definately has been a very slow winter.

the spots that have always produced snapper for us, even out of season, have given up next to nothing.

some of the shows on the sounder have been better than ever which always get everyone excited. no amount of changing bait/ stratergies could make anything bite.

last trip out we spent 13 hours on water for 12 snapper/squire between 3 anglers. not much size either, one at 4, two over three and other assorted sizes.

pearlies have been even more elusive, didnt catch one last trip, and only two the trip before. very strange.

i suppose when i look at how many we have caught in the last few seasons, it had to come to an end sooner or later.

hopefully it is a drawn out season or it picks up next year.


matty

[skipalong]

gday scotta,

most of our fishing is out at cal wide as we live on bribie and it has been hot and cold like the click of the fingers. we are also not having a lot of luck in finding the snapper with only the odd good one showing up and not wanting to play the game????

see what the back end of winter brings but its starting to get pretty hot so ??

i am about to try my luck and slip out for a hit shortly.
cheers dale

last thursday nights catch

those snapps are packed neatly dale

[FISHAWN]

Hasn't been too bad off the goldie, mind you nothing extraordinary but been getting our bag of avg squire up to 55cm.
Still a bit hit and miss and only really picking them up on very light tackle.
Looking forward to tomorrow!

[trymyluck]

Are you saying that we should be going fishing AND catching fish???

[DigitalSI]

Went out to Barwon Banks South yesterday. No Snapper but brought home a good catch of Parrot, Pearl Perch, Moses Perch & Flathead. Took a photo of one of the Parrots we caught on my iphone so apoligies for the crap definition of image quality.

[DALEPRICE]

well, the back of the new moon has been a fizzer. gee wiz we tried some tactics
yesterday and be darned if we could put pen to paper. Put it down to experience and a good day on the water. the snapper are safe for a while

cheers dale

[scoota]

Yep, with ya there Dale.
Went for an arvo fish to Wide Caloundra yesterday and searched high and low for the big snapper but manged only tiddlers
Got a dozen nice size pearlies which made it all worth while but didn,t get the arms stretched at all.
Even had a quick look at the cobia spot on the way out but there was bugger all bait around.
Was a cracker of an arvo for fishing weather wise again.
Heard a bloke on 21 yesterday talking up getting good snapper in deeper water so maybe they might come in a bit later this year.
September to October have always been the fill your esky months for us on the big snapper!

DigitalSI
Ther have been some good tuskies around this year and some quality moses!

Trymyluck
Love fishing, catching is the byproduct.......hopefully

FISHAWN
Have noticed some good reports from the goldie compared to last year

Eveyone else
Thanks for your posts here and I hope the wind changes or the tide turns for the better for all of us.

PS
The SP's caught all the good fish the other night!!!



Scoota...

[Goldfinch]

Hey Scoota,
I could have asked the same question late last year coming into the summer months. Wasn't catching much at all and it was getting very frustrating. I then decided to stop fishing the usual spots and explored for new ground and it started to pay off. From March onwards this year it's been awesome and have only had one dud session (4 keepers). Have made it a rule to keep finding new ground locally and switch between live baits, dead baits and hard and soft plastics constantly. All are getting results at different times. Also fishing a lot of ground that doesn't look really good, but is giving great results. The other thing I have noticed is that all the best bites have been when the Barometric pressure has been above 1020+ as the high is moving across. Been getting Pearlies in 25m which I found very odd. This may just be a fluke.

I am hoping this strategy works over the coming months and that summer brings good results unlike last year.

I hope it picks up for you on your future trips.

Cheers
Dave

[BigE]

I think the sea suface temp has been playin games with this season. Old fishing buddy tells me were on the wrong side of an east coast eddy, which has affect the weather as well. signs are good for a pelargic run this year.

BigE