Newby fishing at Mud

[top_deck69]

Hi Guys,

I've recently just purchased my first boat (Dec) and have been starting to venture out to mud island.

Can anyone give me a few pointers as to where around mud to fish, i.e. north, south, east, west?? near cardinal marker x. I don't mind putting in the time sounding out to find my own spot x but I don't even know where to start at the moment. I have searched back through the achieves on this site and can't seem to find anything. my apologies if I have missed and obvious post on this topic.

Also do people prefer(have better luck with) plastics or pillys/bait when after snapper? As someone who has never caught a decent snapper any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks in advance to anyone that can provide some pointers

cheers
Ben

[Dantren]

Hey Ben.

The Eastern side in 4-8 metres is a good start. Plenty of info on the net if you do a search. Or you could just look for the flotilla of boats on a weekend. That's where the structure will be.

Whatever technique you use, a stealth approach will help.

Dan

[top_deck69]

Thanks Dan,

Will sound out along there

Cheers
Ben

[charleville]

Dantren's advice is good.

Also, I catch most of my fish at Mud when everyone else is going home. ie sunset. If you can get a high or low tide coinciding roughly with sunset, you are in with a good chance.

Plenty of fish are caught in the day time but the chances are better when the sun goes down.

I will actually be out there tomorrow morning before 3 am but I have to admit that my experience with dawn fishing is nowhere as good as evening fishing so this trip is just speculative, in my view.

I am a bait fisho and pillies, prawns and squid all work well there for me.


(PS Just for encouragement, note that the 15 kg jewfish shown below my signature was caught after dark in the area that Dantren is referring to.)
.

[SummerTrance]

Also try between the two fixed cardinal markers on the west side in about 10 metres of water. Im a plastics fan myself, and I have caught all my fish at Mud on plastics. If using plastics drifting is the way to go. If using bait, anchor and burley up.

[Scalem]

The thing I hated about fishing Mud was that there are XOS catfish there if fished with bait - don't know if that is still the case, I have enjoyed fishing plastics there for the last 8 years or so. I am usually fishing the 6 or 7 Meter mark on the NW side where you can find a bit of paradise all to yourself. If you want to catch a decent snapper there, stealth is the key. My PB at mud stands at 83cm a few years ago, but you certainly will find it tough going to get a quality fish of more recent times.

Scalem

[Adam Profish]

HI Top Deck.
Nothing wrong with the info you been sent so far. But as an added advantage i do my fishing at Mud during the week and be over there about 2 in the morning. Good burly brings the Snapper in and if you bring in big snapper heads nock the burly off for about 20 minutes. The sharks will leave pretty quickly but the snapper seem to stay.

[Axl]

Some good advice comming through in this thread keep it up please guys as I am reading what is being posted with intrest and I am sure there are a few more out there doing the same.

I have only been to Mud a couple of times with only one keeper (Snapper)coming from the western side in between the cardinals as SummerTrance said.

[Sarge06]

I've generally found anywhere down the eastern side from north to south can be good for snapper, again like most guys are saying here, during the week or when there are less people out there is your pick-being so shallow they spook off easily when there's a lot of boats around. And as anyone who has fished mud regularly or at least a couple of times knows, most people heading out there on the week ends don't particularly give a sh!t about anyone else fishing there and just go screaming through at 20kts and anchor up in the middle of everyone.

The north west side is alright for rat kings around this time of year to...

Best of luck!