23/10/09
Morning Snapper Trip
Rob from Toowoomba wanted to chase flathead in the river but I am not an expert at bait in the estuaries, mostly lures but from small boats so I talked them into soft plasticing for snapper in close as they were worried about getting seasick. I would dearly love a little boat in survey for these sort of enquiries and for doing charters on windy days but repowering the Stabi and keeping the trailer on the road are my priorities at the moment. We pulled up and not 10minutes into fishing he was pretty sick so I ran him, his mum and son back in. At least we got to see some whales up close.
22/10/09
Graeme Full Day Trip
Ray and Shania were shouting Graeme a full day offshore for his 40th birthday today. This was our second attempt to get out due to weather but it was a couple of weeks too late it would seem. The fishing was tough and the current had moved in. Coming off the back side of a new moon is always my worst week of the month and throw in a NW wind and it was far from ideal for getting onto fish.
We started off soft plasticing with Graeme landing one squire on his home built rod to christen it. Everyone missed a couple of bites each and a few small fish were released.
We kept moving wider and wider, loading up on live bait on the way. Ray ended up being the gun for the day landing a cobia, some trag and some pearl perch. Don't know whether it was because he was the one on the mono line or not or if it was just his day. Shania also picked up a pearly on the floater but the current was racing and each drop we were only 20seconds in the strike zone and it was unfishable at anchor. At least the weather was as flat as a tack.
21/10/09
Jason Peart Full Day Trip
Jason was shouting his son Tristan out for his birthday and Ben, Jason's brother was tagging along. We started out soft plasticing but it didn't happen though it is looking good with plenty of bait showing up on my northern soft plastic areas. We were also looking for a school of cobia that were balling up bait and feeding on the surface in the same area.
We went chasing live bait and grabbed a good amount to take to the kingfish spot. The kingies were tentative with around 5 bites for only one to the boat. A couple of well hooked ones dropped off half way up.
It wasn't really happening on the kingy front at a couple of spots so we went to a reef fishing spot. This was a good move with a nice trag jew on the floater for Tristan.
The action came pretty quick and fast from then on with pearlies, trag, a nice brown maori cod and some samson fish playing the game.
The boys released the sambos but we had to use a shot release weight and then set a self imposed 38cm size on the pearl perch as they were happy with the nice feed they got.
16/10/09
Luke Carter Full Day on His Boat
Today I went out on Luke's 6.2m Kevlacat to give him a few pointers about how to use his electonics and how to anchor offshore as well as showing him a few offshore rigs, how to jig for AJs and also soft plastic for snapper.
We did no good on the soft plastics but achoring on one of my bait spots we loaded up on live baits. We headed out wide and scored a few undersize amberjack and bits and pieces as well a gold spot wrasse.
We headed wider to an amberjack spot and tried to jig them but they only wanted livies. We kept a couple and let a little fella go but after a couple of reefings we decided to head in and go bottom bashing again instead of re-tieing.
Sounding around we finally found a good show and dropped the anchor in the perfect spot. We were upcurrent of a good show of pearl perch it turned out. They kept coming on the floaters and bottom bashers but the quality fish came on the Baitrunners and plastics rods floating down.
We had to do a count to make sure we weren't over our 15 we were allowed so we finished the day with a bag of pearlies, a few squire, 2xAJs, a parrot and a gold spot wrasse. Luke cranked up the KC and we came home at 30knots in great conditions.
15/10/09
2xDaves and Jeff Full Day Trip
This was my first mixed charter in a while and with good weather forecast I rang around and got regulars Dave and Jeff organised to come out with Victorian visitor David who was up on holidays.
At the first spot we were plagued with undersize stuff but did end up with another cobia and a few bits and pieces. We headed a bit wider and landed on a school of small yellowtail kingfish and amberjack. The odd amberjack went legal and they all gave a good account of themselves on the plastics gear we ended up using for a bit of fun. The odd one was too good for us rubbing us out on the bottom. Mixed in were some squire and other reef fish. Also saw my first full spooling when the Twinpower 4000 got monstered with nothing we could do as it was all over in the blink of an eye.
12/10/09
Mick Three Quarter Day Trip
Mick booked me for a full day and along with him were Des and Mitchell. We started out soft plasticing but did no good, only getting a few livies for the tank. We started heading north to head to the spot I wanted to fish and progressevily got slowed down as we started punching a 15-20knot NW wind. Eventually we got there and on the second hang we grabbed and were perfect for the current. The fish bit continuosly with undersize pearl perch and snapper the main culprits. First fish to the boat was a cobia to Mitchell and a while later a much bigger one came aboard to Des. Des dropped a second one while Mitchell kept pulling a steady procession of trag jew. Mick got a legal pearly and a trag in there and Des got a moses perch. With the wind swinging to the NE it moved us off the mark and freshening to 20knots plus it was an easy call to come in a bit earlier and call it a 3/4 day.
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Originally Posted by Frank OO
