Advice on fishing Four Beacons

[jm82]

Try the beacons leading north fom tangalooma, chasing cobia or the occasionall yt king or jew that have been showing up of late id be fishing 50lb main and at least 60lb leaders,
Try driving up current and drifting past either side of the pole using 10ball sinker above a good 80cm leader, generally a 9 or 10/0 live bait pattern hook will be needed fishing that line class, also drop a few live baits into that back eddy you get on the poles alot of fish hang htere waiting for a bait to come past, if you do hook a solid fish such as a Cobia or YT king they will head straight back for the structure so be prepared and hang on,

Hope this little bit helps

Good luck

Josh

[netmaker]

couldn't reply to your pm. your inbox is full.

[nathan089]

So went out early this morning and managed a couple of just legal schoolies. I put out a livie and it got smashed by something that took off nearly 200m before coming undone. both schoolies where brought up on 20g TT jigs, the 40g ones didnt get used as much but didnt get any attention. I didnt have any luck with the pilchards, they got destroyed by pickers before they even hit the bottom.

When jigging for livies i had a couple of problems with something quite large (well over a Kilo) smashing them then cutting the line of. Would this be macs attacking the bait fish as they get hooked? I never got one close enough to the surface to see what it was.

As a query, on the second schoolie i brought up it took the lure during a pause while picked up a knife that had fallen on the floor, when i put my attention back onto the line i could feel tapping so i struck and hooked up. is this normal? would it be beneficial to use an erratic retrieve rather than an all out bat out of hell non stop retrieve.

[Jeremy]

Very typical for schoolies to attack baitfish hooked on a bait jig. Can be very annoying when trying to jig up some baits, but at least you know the macks are there. What happened to the fish that took your livie? Busted you off or hook pulled? If you are anchored and hook a big fish, you will almost certainly need to chase it as it is very difficult trying to pull them back against 2-3 knots of current. Tie a poly ball on the end of your anchor rope so you can untie it quickly and toss the rope over the side and come back and collect it later.

Congrats on your first pelagics anyway. They are good eating and you will have more success as you learn from your experience.

[michael_mad_fisho]

hey nath totally normal to get hit on the pause or drop, many a time have i had the bail open dropping to the bottom only to see the line completely stop well short of the bottom or start stripping line off a hundred miles an hour.Ii love using raiders for this cause they have a really nice flutter on the drop when u get the weight right. There are some big fish that travel along the shipping channels, uncle scored a 22.25kg longtail on a live whiptail going back a few years now but they are still out there. Mix up your retreives on the day to see what works but what your doing is spot on, time on the water is all i takes.
cheers mike

[nathan089]

Hey all,

So I've been doing a lot of thinking about how to improve my catch rate and wanted to bounce the following ideas of all you guys out there.

Firstly I am thinking of doing some trolling, mainly between beacons as I want to explore the beacons and channels further north up the bay. I would like to try trolling lives (as slow as possible) but would also like to know if I should troll pillies, maybe on a weighted gang with a skirt.

To cover more ground though is worth investing in some high speed lures? If so any tips on which ones work?

I also was recommended to use soft plastics by the fella at the tackle store he put me on to some 3.75 inch Zman smokey shads with 3/8 jigs said to drift past and jig them up through the column, should I use a fast retrieve like slugs or a normal SP retrieve. Or leave them for the reefy areas.

Thanks again for any advice

[cobiaman]

The current really roars through there mate, id be thinking more like 1 or 2 ounce jig heads with 7" plastics

[tunaticer]

You could try trolling small livies behind a Yamashita trolling board instead of the spoon, will be just as effective.

[shaman]

try this next time you go..... 3 or 4 pillies through the eyes on a 10/0 tarpon with prawns in between the pillies.... cobes love prawns...

[webby]

Try the MM beacons as they can be just as productive as the 4's or further north, and often the
current isnt as strong.

[PixieAU]

on the water at 4.30am this morning, from Spinnaker Sound, and tried to get across to the beacons (and Moreton Island) for my very first time but half way across the surf at Western Banks put me off. it was a very low tide and some parts of the bay were less than 1.0m deep.

I watched a couple of other boats go through, one heading right up north before cutting back. Not being familiar with the territory I ended up fishing back closer to Bribie rather than get into any difficulty so early in the day. will have another crack at it soon.

is this type of chop/surf at the banks all the time or just because such a low tide when i was there this morning? loos like i might be better heading south from Bribie before east, instead of up in front of bribie and across all the banks.

[nathan089]

Very typical for schoolies to attack baitfish hooked on a bait jig. Can be very annoying when trying to jig up some baits, but at least you know the macks are there. What happened to the fish that took your livie? Busted you off or hook pulled? If you are anchored and hook a big fish, you will almost certainly need to chase it as it is very difficult trying to pull them back against 2-3 knots of current. Tie a poly ball on the end of your anchor rope so you can untie it quickly and toss the rope over the side and come back and collect it later.

Congrats on your first pelagics anyway. They are good eating and you will have more success as you learn from your experience.

pulled all my braid off and came apart when i hit the 15 pound mono backing. So the poor fish will be towing around 200 metres of braid for a while.

[nathan089]

Try the MM beacons as they can be just as productive as the 4's or further north, and often the
current isnt as strong.

just to confirm they are the messured mile beacons that are just outside the main shipping channel? I thought about having a go at them but decided not to because my charts say the waters only 10m around that area and thought that pelagics didnt like not being near deeper water.

[nathan089]

The current really roars through there mate, id be thinking more like 1 or 2 ounce jig heads with 7" plastics

thats what i thought as well. but ill give it a try with what he suggested. Ill cast way upcurrent and let is sink down on its drift back. TV presenters are always going on about how to fish the smallest jig head you can get to teh bottom even if it takes 5 minutes. He suggested the the shads more for the tuna side of things i think.