Pearl Channel

[kingcray]

Just curious to know if anybody is still fishing the pearl channel. Its hard to find any recent reports other than crabs and whiting from the sand banks.
We had fished it over the last 5 years most weekends for everything from grassys, slateys, cod and snapper to mackerel and tailor even a small king and a few nannygai.
The last pics i have are from one night in september last yr, headed out in rather horrendous conditions but managed to boat 6 squire around 40-50cm til anchor came loose and we drifted almost into moreton.
We went back once since and sounding over the same reef to find a completely flat bottom and found it very hard to hook up anywhere nearby although conditions were hardly ideal.
some rumours getting round that all the decent patches of reef there are completely sanded up.
the pearl was always a lucky dip for us, with a nice depth of around 17-18mtrs and some serious currents.
im keen to give it a crack next weekend to try for a tailor or some early schoolies.
wouldnt mind having a bit of a bottom bash too... i hope theres still some good reef there? ?

Dean

[Horse]

I think the currents move the sand around a fair bit. One year you will have coffee rock then the next just sand. Plenty of good fish come from there but I have never been able to crack the pattern

[kingcray]

thanks for the reply Horse. yea its a hard place to crack i agree. We were getting different species on each trip fishing the same spot. A fair few surprise catches too!
well one thing i doubt will change is the mackerel fishing. They always seem to be there in season, so lets hope they turn up early.

Dean