Choppers at Victoria Point

[Daryl McPhee]

Greetings.

I had a quick land-based look around Victoria Point at dusk on low tide yesterday. There are a few spots there that can produce some choppers, although they are hit and miss. The wind dropped off nicely, and it was a bit slow to begin with. The first fish was a good quality grinner. So were the next two. The grinners then stopped biting, to be replaced with the first tell-tale whack of a tailor. The next fish was a bream and then four more tailor followed in quick succession. Then just as quickly as they had started, they stopped as some bream and squire moved in. The best bream ended up being 33 cm, and while the squire were fun, none were close to legal with the best being about 30 cm. It was a short session but a productive one, as the tide turned and pushed me off where I was fishing. I waited around and tried a few other spots on the flood tide and got a couple more bream, although no fish over 30 cm.

So in the hour or so around dusk, I finished with 5 tailor (up to 42 cm) and 3 bream, and added a few more bream later on.

While I enjoy surf fishing for tailor, I also love catching choppers in the bay on light line, light rods and no big plonkers. The aerial display that some of the fish can put on is superb. And again, it shows that you don’t need a boat to catch a feed of fish in Moreton Bay.

[Almako]

Impressive mate well done

[scottar]

If you got them where I think you got them, they show up fairly regularly at this time of year. They have a nasty habit of not giving my expensive ecogear poppers back.

[Daryl McPhee]

Yes Scottar. They do turn up around there every year in April/May, but they can be there one day and gone the next - the nature of the beast.

[Still_Dreamin]

We were fishing off peel a week ago and every second plastic was coming back chopped in half. Biggest we landed only went 32 so they all went back. Interesting on the sounder there was a massive bait ball. If you managed to get your plastic past the choppers we got snapper. Three were just under 40 with biggest 52cm. The tuna were also joining in. Only managed a bonito but there were some big long tail busting the surface.

[Scott Ashe]

Well done Darryl, that's a good feed.

[Goodoo haven]

Well done Darryl.

[Daryl McPhee]

Yes. It was a tasty feed that has now been completely consumed. Nothing like fresh tailor.

[Funchy]

That's a pretty impressive effort mate. Well done

[cuzzamundi]

Great result, Darryl. What rig do you use for this type of fishing? I have never targeted tailor, but I am starting to gain interest. Thanks, and great result once again.

Cuzza

[Daryl McPhee]

Hi Cuzza,

For choppers off the shore in the Bay I use a 3 gang of 1/0 hooks and baby blue pilchards with a sinker for the conditions which is usually no more than a 2 Ball and if there is a good westerly, often no sinker at all. I use the small pilchards as I have found over the years is that it increases the catch of other species (e.g. bream, flounder, flathead) at the same time. You can use whitebait or forgmouth pichards as well, and you can also use a standard pilchard on a four gang rig, but I find that latter a bit "clunky". I have used this general approach over the years on the northside and the southside.

Daryl

[cuzzamundi]

Thanks, Darryl. Are the 1/0 the short shank bream variety, or long shanks? Also, how do you go with casting with no lead? I saw a fella once using what looked to be a piece of cyclinder-shaped wood (about the diameter of a broom stick), as both a float and to gain casting distance. Very clever DIY design, which made me think there was a need to get some distance in your casts when targeting them, especially along flats like Sandgate. Thanks again for the advice, mate.

Cuzza

[Daryl McPhee]

Hi Cuzza,

The three gangs are the short shank variety, the sMustad 4202D pattern which is the same as the larger gangs. With a light line and a good actioned light surf rod I can get the casting distance provided the wind is behind me, otherwise a small sinker is necessary. It was just a 1 Ball sinker to get to the fish on friday, I could probably have gone to a 0 Ball, but I was getting bites so I didn't change.

Daryl