Mackay Offshore

[FishHunter]

Had a RDO due and after consulting the weather gods I decided to head out on Friday.
I left the harbour to be greeted by more chop than I was expecting given the light winds we had all week.


I forgot my camera at home so had to make do with my phones camera.

Decided to head out to the 4 mile and 6 mile shoals and encountered some birds working and tuna busting up, cut the motor and waited and they reappeared within casting distance, 1st cast with a small Spanyid and a few winds and I was on to a fish which made a couple of runs before the hook pulled.

Anchored up at 6 mile and dropped some baits and threw pilly chunks out for an hour so with no reward before I upped anchor and decided to visit Bailey Islet about 35km offshore.
Couldnt manage more than 30km/h or so due to the chop but it wasnt too long and I was greeted by a small rocky island sticking out of 30m of the bluest water I have seen short of a advert.



I trolled a few hard body's around while I marked some spots and dropped anchor.


I dropped the 1st rig with 2 pilly's and felt tugging as it touched bottom a strike and I reeled up my 1st Coral Trout a tiddler at about 25cm, The next 2 drops had the same result with the biggest running about 35cm or so.


I was hoping for the daddy of the tiddlers to appear but after a while i must have fed the whole population so I moved spots and tried some soft plastics to no avail so I took in the scenery while I had some lunch
Scawfell Island, probably 20 km or so from where I was


Keswick Island, about 10km or so from there.


The wind started to pick up after that so I called it a day and headed off, at least I actually had some fish on my line this time and had a good day out.

[FISHAWN]

/ drool !
Could kill for conditions like that at the moment.. cant even go lizard hunting at the mo.
Is that a tcurve 5-10kg in pic 1 ?

[pickers]

for Mackay....thats bloody good weather....it's a pitty the area out from there is fished so hard and you have to travel so far for some decent fishing.
look on the charts for "vernon rocks"...it's out near hotspur and pine peak if I remember right...a long haul but allways worth it.....sometimes we would go there for a bash on the way out to the hardline.
Paul

[FishHunter]

FH its a Shimano Nexave 15 to 24kg.

Pickers there have been better days and I didnt try the closer islands because of the coffee coming out of the creeks and river. Thanks for the tip I will check it out

[jtpython]

Mate great day out anyways and top pics
JT

[captain red beard]

I trekked out to Snare rocks and Penrith island for only a few trout and a shark. Lot of fuel for little results. Good weather but, had to go even though I didn't get to leave the harbour until 11.30.

[Redrocks]

It was a slow day on the fishing front, that's for sure. I went out to Tern for zip, not even a decent bite, I tried everything. We came back to near Derwent and managed a 15kg cod.

Two guys at the ramp said they got bugger all also. I was persisting on some spots and boats were moving around us everywhere - obviously nothing biting.

Great pics by the way.

[Mick]

Nice report and pics. I did concider your deckie wanted add a few days. The north end of the whitsundays is fishing much the same. Nice blue water but lots or too many juveniles...