The unofficial Fraser Island Tailor tracking thread.

[ben_460]

I just got back from a week long trip, beaches are shite but thinking back they improved throught the week a bit. went around hook today at 11am no prob. fished south with best session at miday low tide. most fish around 35cm with a few 50cm to 60cm in the mix

[Peter Gerke]

Kev, fellas, although I'm not up there until 30 Sept, I'm gearing up with the essentials. Last visit the fisheries were working the beaches which was good to see and I guess with all the hype around this time of year, it's the best time to see them there. Can anyone advise if the pippis are around. I hear it's been a little hit and miss - maybe they were just pulling my leg? Another question is about the fuel, may seem like a crazy question but does any one know what the price of diesel and if I could use a fuel card BP, SHELL, CALTEX anywhere on the island ?. Enough talk about everything other than fishing, I read the tailor have been smashing a quick retrieve slug if you can get them waaaay out there. A mate of mine returned on Sunday and he casts a good 80 mtrs with 15lb braid and reckons just north of the 400m mark blokes were hooking into them lasts week... But they are waaaay out as he suggests.
I'll pick his brain some more tomorrow.
Pete

[dartman]

Wasted Wages,
I too was on the beach there at Ocean Lake when you landed that monster, top effort man, I could see how thoroughly stuffed you were but the smile said it all! To add to all the others, yep we too managed to catch about half a million small tailor, they were taking pillies, flesh baits, worms, nuke chicken (managed to get 5 on one nuke chicken before they destroyed it!), squid, slugs from 10gm to 50gm and probably would have taken a fly if I had one! I got a sore arm from hauling them in! Awesome fun on 6lb spin gear. Keepers were about one in every 8 or 9 fish for us. It was good to see the vast majority of people doing the right thing and releasing the under sized fish. Having fished the beach up there for the last 20 years, I can see a real change in the attitude of fisho's, less of the rape and pillage mentality and a lot more people fishing for the sheer joy of fishing - wether you keep em or not, it's still bloody good fun! Unfortunately only managed to find a few big dart during the week, they are serious fun on light gear and great eating if you treat them right.

The beach run up was the worst I can remember and Indian is quite soft, ok if you're not towing but if you are then snatch up before you go over. Ngkala track was very powdery up the top too so tires down and give it some boot. Fantastic week had by our crew again and we'll be back next year - I might have to investigate this swimming live baits out thing though, that looked like real fun!

Enjoy!
Dartman

[Peter Gerke]

Hey Dartman, were the dart 5 spotters? There has been quite a lot of discussion re where to measure them from.... The fork of the tail or from the tip of the tail. Any advice would be valued. I also agree that when prepared well the taste great. bled instantly, a little salt, wrapped in alfoil and over the flames for a few minutes Mmmm. Ever caught a dart on a lure? I did at Straddie in '10, took a 35g Bishop! Looking forward to eating a few dart at Fraser in Oct. thanks for the sand reports, it looks like it might get some rain in the coming days.
Pete

[jackash]

Peter Gerke, got a bunch of pippis up towards indian, just south of the 400m sign. All in the wash as didnt do much travel on the beach south of indian at low tide so didnt get a chance to look for bumps. We got plenty but. Never seem to be many north of waddy these days....

Up at Orchid beach the diesel was a tick over $2/L.

We were getting fish on 85g raiders, can throw these a fair way also.

[Just_chips]

Hey Pete, The orchid shop won't accept your fuel cards mate. You'll just have to pay for the time your on the island or take some jerry cans. Fuel costs have traditionally been at least 50-60c more than mainland prices for as long as I can remember.

I might see you up there, we are staying in Orchid Gums, same street as you I think (did you say Orchid House earlier?). I will put an update on here whilst I'm up there as I get 3G on the mobile with telstra. We have a silver Nissan pathfinder with a big roof basket on the lid, esky lives in the back and is always stocked, so don't be shy.

I'm confident of chucking a slug those sort of distances and have always managed to find a better class of fish at the backs of the gutters so would have been fishing this way regardless.

Pipis get raped at this time of year and by the second week of the school holidays they will be getting harder to find. I fish with worms we catch ourselves anyway. Too many people take too many pipis and then let them die in buckets, so I do my little bit by not using them.

Agree on the dart also, eaten the day they are caught and they are fantastic but degrade rapidly so something that can only really be taken for immediate consumption. To minimise your fuss with filleting dart, simply fillet the fish normally and then cut length ways down the fillet on the top half of the blood line and discard the bottom half of the fillet with all the bones, rib cage etc. skin the remaining fillet and you're good to go. This gives nice sized skinless strips of white flesh with no dodgy brown blood line, flour egg and breadcrumb and bon appetit.

Kev

[Slider]

Some of the chopper schools we found last week were only 5 metres out with small metals and hardbodies the go. Saw quite a number of small schools coming down the eastern beach that were hugging sand banks about 30 metres out. Not sure why nobody was targeting these visible schools between the cape lighthouse and Maheno, but we stopped for a couple of quick sessions on the way home - though the tailor everywhere were small. Had a fun morning session of good queenies at the cape on Sunday, gt at Browns before the south easter. Was individual spaniards cruising in close along the northern end but couldn't entice them with slugs.

[hungry6]

Just got back, yep they are mighty thick atm. No sizes to them at all. We did pull up some larger ones, but in the dark only on pillies. Dont waste your money using pillies or soft plastic. They're happy to chew anything that is moving around. We kept 4, 60cm odd fish. That was enough. However we did manage heaps of extremely large whiting up the cape on beach worm, just have to put up with the dart.
Will be back over in Oct again if I still got the 4by.

[Peter Gerke]

.Never seem to be many north of waddy these days....

Up at Orchid beach the diesel was a tick over $2/L.

We were getting fish on 85g raiders, can throw these a fair way also.

Thanks Jackash,
I guess with 85g raiders your using more than 15lb ?
Pete

[jackash]

Yeah 20 or 25lb. Cant remember exactly. Need something a bit thicker so you dont cut your finger off every cast anyway. I prefer the bigger slugs. Get them get deeper, arent swung around so quickly by a current which can be mayhew in a tailor line, and the smaller tailor still have no problem eating them.

[dartman]

Peter
I honestly didn't take any notice of the number of spots. I measure mine to the tail tip rather than the fork (DPI website shows that is the legal requirement), anything under about 40cm usually goes back as the filleting effort vs return ratio is not so good. I just fillet them, bone them then skin them and find that the bigger dart return a really nice size fillet, about 2 fillets is a good meal. I've never taken a dart on a spinner but have manage a few of the larger models on gulps and even on the old mr twisters many years ago.
Hope you have a great trip in October!
Dartman

[Peter Gerke]

Thanks Dartman, Chips, and Jackash for your responses. Yes I'm usually at Orchid House but this time up the beach camping. I'll skoot up past the nkagla if he time and tides are right and may chase some of those horse like whiting up the cape if he wind is kind. I'm not too sure about the SE that is suggested to increase over the next week or so and really hope there is NO WEED, nothing worse. I'm going to try out my new addition to the camping gear, PowerFilm, a 90w solar sheet that folds up compact to the size of a manilla folder. Bought it through Engel and can't wait to see it run the fridge. Lay it out on the kids tramp ths morning without direct sunlight and it was pushing 15.2 in the shade!
I'm getting excited about the trip and am still contemplating on wether to tow up the tinnie? What are your thoughts? (nothing worse than sitting behind a bogged boat in a narrow track)!
Pete

[ben_460]

this thread needs a few more fish photos, one of the fish I caught on sunday

[Peter Gerke]

Hey Ben, nice fish, good to see the little fella thinking "That's not a fish... "(Crocodile Dundee style) what was that caught on pillies ? At dawn?
Pete

[ben_460]

yes pillies but at midday low tide, got about 9 or 10 bigger ones then tide started comming in and they went off. we were south of Eurong.