Tailor and Trevs at Teewah

[Slider]

It's been a while since I've seen the surf here anything other than algaed, but yesterday it finally cleared enough to be able to see the much needed coffee rock patches to spin slugs over.

And with a 4pm storm that had cleared by 4.30 leaving a gentle north wester on a 3.30 low tide, conditions couldn't be better for tailor to come on the chew. Tailor seem to love stormy conditions and I've had great success in these circumstances plenty of times before.

The writing was on the wall when the first retrieve was taken quickly by a good chopper of around 50cm and the 2nd had lots of similar sized fish fighting to get to the slug. The next 2 hours or so was the same for each retrieve - it was impossible to get a lure back to the beach unmolested irrespective of what direction I cast.

A couple of 2.5 - 3kg tailor and gts of around the same weight helped to break the monotony of the choppers and made the flaring tennis elbows a little more bearable.

Hard to say how many tailor were beached, but more than 30 would be a safe figure. All fish took Sliders retrieved at absolute maximum pace on a tss4 and were usually visible attacking the lure and breaking the surface at hook up.

This morning at first light in the same location, the tailor were chewing just as hard, but the quality was better with most fish around 2kg with several around 3kg. The better tailor went off the chew after the sun came up, but the gts replaced them more than adequately with several 3kg and one that would have gone 5kg.

A spectacular morning with no breeze and glassy conditions made for excellent fun as all fish broke the surface on hook up and were very energetic with the tailor leaping repeatedly.

Not sure how long the surf will remain clear, but it would be safe to say that it is only a matter of days unless another south easter turns up soon.

Lindsay

[caster226]

comment deleted

[wags on the water]

Thanks for your report Lindsay. It sounds like a sight to see watching Tailor break the surface chasing lures.

Cheers,
Wags

[Creek Vermin]

Sounds like a coupla good sessions lyndsay. Some quality trevs mate. Might be headin up that way ina few weeks, so you can expect shit conditions then.
Cheers. Keith

[Pistol_P]

Hey Lindsay,

Mate I heard a spaniard was spun up from the beach up there....?

Good to hear the tailor and trevs are around in numbers.

Give me a yell if you want to have a spin up at DI one day.

Pete

[Just_chips]

Another good information filled report Lindsay.

When are you gonna get a camera, so you can compliment your reports with pictures also? I love reading your informative posts and would really like to see a couple of pics of fish, conditions, lures etc accompany them.

Kev

[Pistol_P]

Another good information filled report Lindsay.

When are you gonna get a camera, so you can compliment your reports with pictures also? I love reading your informative posts and would really like to see a couple of pics of fish, conditions, lures etc accompany them.

Kev

Yeah Lindsay.....and dont wear ya budgie smugglers..!!!

Pete

[bondy99]

Slider,

Thanks for the lures you sent me some time ago, never had the chance to use them yet, I'm waiting for these to come down towards Gold Coast.

Peter

[Slider]

Fellow Teewahrian Dan and I met up with Cam who had driven up from Narangba for the occasion, at the same rocks just before bottom of the tide yesterday afternoon. Joe from the Beach Front Caravan Park had also found the rocks and was occupying valuable space in front of and was chasing tarwhine and grassies. The surf by this stage had taken on a green tinge that wasn't there in the morning or previous day which didn't impress. Fish were buzzing in the gutter tho, but not eager to take lures. Dan beached one decent fish of around 2.5kg with just average choppers otherwise being caught before the bottom of the tide slowed things up totally.

Some VB's in the shade of the truck to help pass the the hour or so until it started to run in were strangely hitting the spot when they don't usually. But what is usual and always seems to happen when you invite a couple of blokes to join in the fun, is the fish not playing the game and had mostly moved on. A dozen or so average choppers total for 3 of us with no trevs was all we could muster. The boys were quite happy with that, but I had been spoilt with a fish per cast the last 2 sessions and didn't enjoy the work load for meagre results. Did enjoy watching Joe getting smashed by waves as he walked out to cast though - lost sight of him altogether a couple of times as he went under waves. So home for a tailor cook up with Dan, Cam and Bettsy from the Mullet Mansion and more green cans til too late as preparation for an early start this morning.

Woke up feeling decidedly green - what the hell is it with VB that makes you feel so absolutely crap when you can drink twice as many xxxx and wake up feeling 10 times better?? Anyway, full of enthusiasm, we went down before 5am to find an increased swell and greener water, but still looking pretty good. It was obvious early that the fish weren't plentiful, but we managed 10 or 15 choppers before Cam went to work before 6am and I just wanted to get back to my box of Disprin that I'd forgotten to take with me.

I would anticipate that if anyone wanted to put the work in, that there would be some more fish to be had over these rocks. But with the tides from today being fairly ordinary and the surf getting greener, it would take a fair bit of work to put a decent catch together. And I'll need to find some energy from somewhere and overcome this headache and the shakes before I'm up for another run.

There have been a few other species being caught here lately with good dart and tarwhine, the occasional bream and whiting have been consistent even in algaed surf.

Pete, I heard that the spaniard was taken on bait, but doesn't matter how, would have been a thrill for the guy.
I'm sure I'd look good in dp's too - just the footy short tan line that would need some working on.

The camera is always in the glove box Kev and I did actually take a pic of Dan with his tailor yesterday. But every 3kg tailor I've caught looks pretty much the same as every other 3kg tailor I've caught and I see the time taken for pics to be time that could be better spent chasing the 5kg+ tailor that I would take pics of. And apart from that I only kept a few choppers for a feed with all other fish released - not ideal to take a tailor up to the truck, take a pic and hope to return it alive. I also haven't got around to finding a programme that allows me to resize the pics for posting - suggestions would be welcomed.

Bondy, I'd say there would be tailor on the Goldy now, just need to find where the anchovy are and they'll be nearby. I notice in recent surf reports from down that way that the surf is nice and blue again - was green for a while there before christmas.

For me Wags there is nothing better in fishing than good tailor breaking the surface as they hit your slug. Except maybe big queenies and gts, or mackerel, goldens or even tarpon. And I don't mind when coral trout hit surface lures either just quietly. Doesn't matter what it is really when you can get a visual of the fish - adds an extra dimension to the game. Have even had fun with catfish on poppers intended for bass in the South and North Pine Rivers. I forgot to mention in my previous post the choppers I caught on a sliding popper on monday arv. Had only 2 sliders (metal) with me and lost both to bite offs from choppers hitting the line where it enters the water creating a ripple. The only other lure on board was the sliding popper which was a bugger to cast any distance with the breeze by that stage having swung back around to the north east. But really only had to land it past the break and the tailor were all over it in an instant. Not quite as good as the gts we played with at Boulders at Cape Moreton before christmas on the poppers, but fun nevertheless.

I wish there was some cricket on the box today.

[Just_chips]

Hey Lindsay, try this for resizing your photos mate. http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/showthread.php?t=54112

Kev

[Slider]

Good suggestion Kev - seems to be very user friendly.

Worth noting that Dan is around 6'4" and makes the fish look small.

[Just_chips]

You can still see that it is at least a decent sized fish even if a bit skinny.

[sams_fish]

lindsay,
i was up there last weekend, no pics either but same part of the tide last 3rd of run down got some noice fish, no trevs but. took home 8 fish 600+, 2 of us probably caught 30 in an hour on bait, no one else was fishing, we were much further north than you though. same sort of conditions as well low tide was about 2 o'clock i think fish came and went between 12:30 & 2:00 nothing after low tide but we had enough fish anyway, they may have come back on the bite later.
regards
graeme

[Slider]

Kind of nice when you have the fish to yourselves Graeme. Is back to being like that for us now with Aus Day out of the way.

We kept getting a few choppers leading up to the weekend, but by saturday afternoon there was none left where we were spinning - whether due to beach traffic, neap tides or both.

Wednesday morning with tides beginning to improve and the beach traffic gone, Dan and I felt it was worth going looking again, but couldn't get a strike in perfectly calm conditions around the high tide at first light - which isn't surprising with a dolphin feeding over our rocks. On revisiting these rocks south of Teewah before a 10.30 ish low, we found a few choppers with a bit of hard work in a 15 knot northerly with 65g Sliders being the lure most likely to get strikes. Same again yesterday morning with no strikes in the morning and old mate dolphin present again and choppers available around the low tide on 65g slugs. A bronzy decided it was his turn to spook the fish just after the tide started running in, so we didn't get long at them.
I've been using the 45g mostly to compare results with Dan who is using a 65g and there is a trend becoming apparent. Initially, both sizes get strikes, but after a couple of fish the tailor become focused on the 65g only and it doesn't matter what you do with the 45g, it comes in untouched every time. This isn't a new phenomenon and I've written about it before, but interesting to assess these things every now and then. The same thing can happen in reverse also with the fish becoming focused on the smaller slug. Some Teehwarians are happy to suggest that Dan is simply outfishing me, and with the way he's going, there's no reason why he can't. Which is rewarding for me in itself as Dan hadn't done any spinning in the surf until a couple of months ago and now has it totally sussed in all departments. He has set himself up with a Shakespeare Sigma which cost him $140 and a 12.5 foot surf rod that he already had and would have cost about $80 - just changed first stripper guide to a larger stainless job. His access to Sliders has kept his lure costs down, but when slugs are as little as $3 each, there isn't too much pain there.

This morning we went down near 5am and both hooked up first cast on decent choppers. We found a few more before calling it quits before 6 with a dolphin again feeding over the rocks and spooking any potential fish.

Plan is to head down again between 8.30 and 9 to see if the run out works.

I'll try to get a pic of the rocks in the gutter we're fishing, but is still overcast and may not be possible.

[Slider]

Did ok on the run out yesterday, but only choppers around the 40 - 45cm. Played with the 45g for a while without joy while Dan was getting them one after the other on his 65g. So I decided that a point had been proven and changed to a 65g which had us going fish for fish til the tide stopped running.
Have been going through some Sliders with choppers on the edge of the gutter chewing at the ripple caused by the line entering the water. And of course that's what happened when I finally found a good tailor that leapt straight away at hookup - was thrilled to lose a 10 pounder to a cheeky chopper and another valuable Slider down in the process.
This morning the surf was completely flat and glassy, but no tailor were hanging over our rocks. Went for a cruise down the beach looking for schools and found several mac tuna and bonito schools between 3rd and 1st cut which stayed just out of range.
Lots of dolphins and manta ray active this morning with many of them putting on spectacular leaping preformances. Also found 2 large eagle rays in 12 inches of water that didn't seem interested in feeding, but seemed to have other things on their mind.
Camper from the beach front caravan park had just beached a reasonable golden as we went past, but nobody else seemed to be doing any good.
Big tide is just starting to run out, so we'll wander back down and see what the run out does today.