Gday Guys,
Heading up to Woodgate to see family for Xmas. Does anywone know if any Mackeral have been caught off the artificial reef at Woodgate?
Or any other suggestions of what is being caught at the moment? I guess it's largely dependant on the weather, which always seems to blow at Xmas !
Cheers.
Rob
G'day Rob - I was there about 6 weeks ago and caught this nice trevally of the beach....another bloke I was chatting to said he caught a couple mackeral of the boat ramp near the pub.....if the water is clear enough you can see them in the water.....be sure to use a wire trace - I got busted off a few times using a fluro leader with ganged hooks......
Yeah - your right when it is blown it can get pretty bumpy - I hope you can get some calm water to get out to the artificial.....
Cheers,
Brendan
Hi Robsie, i didnt know what/where woodgate was so i googled it. This copy paste is 2 yrs old, Nov 2007 never know might be something in it. In any case i thought Beau's response was worth a giggle...........................
THE WOODGATE ARTIFICIAL REEF
Jason Medcalf.
THIS month we'll have a look at the Woodgate Artificial Reef. Woodgate is a small beachside town 50km south of Bundaberg. It is a very pretty place with white sandy beaches and clean clear water. It has excellent barbecue facilities, a caravan park and a couple of shops and a tavern which is located in front of the beach boat ramp.
The reef itself was started over twenty years ago. Local fishermen dropped car bodies, cane bins, washing machines, concrete pipes and nearly anything they could find. Lately, with restrictions now in place for this style of reef, there has been tyres dropped. These tyres are strapped together to make excellent cover for the fish. I have scuba dived this area and it is quite an amazing dive. The water depth at high tide only gets to about 30 feet, so you usually see fish as soon as you hop in.
Bottom species I've seen here include cod, coral trout, red emperor, sweetlip, squire, plus the small fish you would see on a natural reef. Pelagic fishing is the most popular style on the reef and is also the most productive. On one dive I saw school mackerel, Spanish mackerel, giant trevally, golden trevally and tailor. These fish would cruise around from one part of the reef to the next in a clear pattern patrolling and feeding on the schools of bait fish the reef attracts.
Using pilchards first thing in the morning around this area is by far the biggest fish producing method. Floating pilchards or livies under a float also gets the mackerel's attention. As well, whole squid fished on the bottom works well. There are a lot of pickers (small fish), so pilchards tend not to last too long.
Anchoring can be difficult because it's all on sand, so a small reef pick is advised. Try to use a small pick because I've seen what happens to the tyres when a large reef pick gets stuck. They are very hard to get out and break the straps that hold the tyres together.
This month tailor will be the main target as well as squire. Night fishing here at this time of year will produce squire, sweetlip, cod and sharks. I have spent many a still peaceful night at Woodgate and have caught a number of good snapper. These fish do come in here but are very hard to stop in the shallow water around the structures on the bottom.
Because Woodgate is protected from south easterly swells by Fraser Island you can spend more time on the water than further up the coast. The boat ramp is mainly a beach access ramp and can be difficult to use in a bit of a swell. Most of the locals use tractors but the sand at the bottom of the ramp is usually pretty hard so a 4WD will launch your boat at low tide.
Around the rest of our area tailor should be showing up very soon. Cochrane Artificial Reef the Four-Mile and Burnett Heads usually produce fish in May.
Last year at this time there were some great Spanish mackerel caught by trolling both live and dead tailor. There are some great ways to rig these fish in Geoff Wilson's ?Knots ?n? Rigs? book. I have used this book to great effect not only on my rigging technique but also on my knots. If you haven't got a copy you should get this and add it to your collection.
Working in a tackle shop you get to hear some pretty good stories. Well, this time I have a story of my own.
On a recent trip to Middle Creek the weather was very good which enabled us to take the tinnie up to Bustard Head. In addition to some bottom bouncing and lure casting around the rock bommies in the area, we decided to chase bluefin tuna that were feeding in closer to shore. Our first tuna was relatively easy to land then after I hooked the second it was absolute mayhem. Tuna were breaking all around the boat while mine took about 180 yards of backing off my reel. About 20 minutes later I had a tuna on the surface about 30 feet from the boat when from under my tinnie came a tiger shark. It was about 12-13 feet long. I hit my tuna flat out exploding in a violent mess of water and blood. The amazing thing was I stayed hooked up and as the shark cruised away I slowly I could feel the large powerful kicks of his tail through the rod. What happened next amazed me even more. Another school of tuna broke the surface about 100 metres away and the shark hit turbo and headed straight for it. A few minutes later it was all over. It was quite an experience.
Keep your hooks sharp.
Woodgate Artificial Bundaberg. Pelagic, Parrot Fish, 25.05.546 152.34.405 WGS84
Squire, Cod. Water depth 8 - 10m.
25.05.30 152.34.25
2k from beach.....easy kayak
Mat.:
Good little reef,pity you can't spear there!!!
beau the brave:
i told you David, you can't spear there, I'm not going. Guna stay home and slam the chick down the road.
beau the brave:
How sure are you that you can not spearfish there? I just talked to my mate and he said he was fishing there the other day and people were spearfishing there.
hahaha.. Beu the Brave's response is hilarious !!
Thanks guys.. Yeh this time last year we got into some mackeral, and landed a couple of big sladey bream ( kept the small one to see if they had improved in taste but they are still rubbish) ! Haven't had any luck on other reef fish , so i guess pelagic s are the go.. In 4 years of going up we have only managed to get out off the beach ramp twice.. As soon as a bit of swell gets up its a difficult ramp to use .
Otherwise we might hit up the gregory. Devil's elbow always produces somoe bream and sharks, and bound to catch at least 30 crabs... Which will no doubt all be under size and have to go back :-(
Cheers.
Rob
Give the swirls a go too mate. Head to walkers point ramp in the burrum. The swirls is basically straight out from the ramp, and quite noticable at time why its called the swirls. Have a bit of a sound around, is a few good fish to be had in the area, have caught Slatey's through to sweetlip in there. If you fancy a feed of bream then the black banks may be a go. Again head to walkers point ramp, head up the woodgate side of the river and will see a creek opening, around this area can be a good place to fish, plus the prawns are often on in the creek if there at the right times.
Cheers,
Mitch
Cheers Mitch for the tips.
Would the swirls be between the ramp at walkers point and the sand bank straight out from there about 400 metres? Making the swirls about 250 metres or so from the ramp? we have often caught some good flatties and bream drifting over the bank waiting for the ramp to clear. Now i know where the black banks are ( i think we have been fishing at the wrong spot ) !
Thanks mate
i'm heading to Burrum Heads at xmas i was wondering how would u go about fishing the swirls? i've been past it heaps of times and the current can really rip throught there?
Thanks Mark
Theres a couple of reefs further out than the artificial. Taylors and Pohlmans reef. they used to give a few spanos and cobes during Xmas. got to get out of the sack early though. From memory they are about 6 miles out.There are also a heap of small man made reefs not far off the shore from woodgate. Have a look out front of the A frame and also a bit further up the beach towards the north on the sameline.
The father in law used to always go on about the swirls and the big cod he got there but that was years ago. i've dropped a heap of small moses down there over the years but I've never really pulled a lot out of there. That was back in the days when it was legal to use small moses
THE POOR MAN ALWAYS PAYS TWICE
Yes thats the swirls mate. Easy enough to anchor, go up current. We normally only use sand anchor, though have had to drive it off some pretty serious stuff at times, came close to cutting lose oneday! Last time we were down there (bout 2 years ago?? maybe even one? )pulled a nice 54cm sweetlip out of them, they fish well
I just spent a week at woodgate over xmas. Plenty of fish to be had if you do some searching. Plastics in theodilite will give you plenty of flathead and some bream as long as you fish the right places at the right time of the tide. Your best bet with this wind though is to head up the burrum. Put in at walkers point. I got onto some good jacks, trevs and cod throwing shallow and deep diving slash baits. If you get out early enough on a good day you may get a few macks on the artificials. A guy a few houses down from me was pulling a few small ones out of his esky one morning. Also if you are going to fish the burrum head up on low tide during the day and plot out a route as there are some damn nasty rock and sand bars that would make mince meat of your prop in no time. PM me if you want any other specific info.
cheers,
Rob
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