Peel Island Squire/Crab Population

[dipster]

G'Day Guys,
after sitting there at the Boat show devouring Webby's every word, I had an epiphany . The only reason I know I had one is because one of my brainy friends (who knows what an epiphany means) told me so!!
He spoke about trying to figure out where fish will be able to have a ready source of food and also cover to keep away from bigger biteys, and that these factors should influence your decision as to where a line should be wet.
It was with this in mind that I looked back at my recent poor success rate during a winter where it seems most people are getting plenty of snapper/squire.

Just before Christmas, I started to fish near the green channel marker on the SW corner of Peel (there is a nice little reef/rubble outcrop that many of you may be familiar with). So therefore they should have plenty of cover I thought to myself. Up until May/June, I thought I had finally cracked the moreton code as every trip would produce 4-5 quality squire and plenty of just under's that were still as much of a joy to catch. It was at that point I decided to ditch exploring anywhere else in lieu of the easy option of a quick trip ou to Peel, have a feed by 1000 and be home for a fish lunch. This proved to be a big mistake!

What always struck me was that whenever I would gut and clean my catch, they would have a full stomach of small sand crabs ( so much so that I even bought some berkely gulp peeler crabs...they actually worked..and I hate plastics ).

At the same time I noticed that a pro crabber (Yellow topsides, white hull with a steel plate for dragging in the pots, the regulars around peel would probably remember him) would religiously have around 20 pots in the water which always required some fancy drift estimation to avoid getting snagged up on. But didnt think anything of it.

Anyway, at around late May till this day, the crabber is nowhere to be seen, the reason I can pretty well figure out....no more crabs. And what do you know, ever since then, the squire schools seem to have moved on also. Same baits, rigs, all moon/tide phases, times of day/night.....nothing.
I have noticed a big dropoff in the number of boats that now fish that area. Has anyone else noticed this??? I wouldnt have thought that what was once a very healthy population of fish could dissappear so quickly, but then again they have a lot of water to choose from in the bay. It all seems so obvious now that I think about it , just a shame that I took about 5-6 trips for no success to figure it out

Oh well, time to find another spot X.


Regards to all

[straddie]

"I had an epiphany" I think you can get medication now to help with that problem

Some nice observations you made there dipster, now you have more questions to answer. Were the squire only there to eat the crabs and left when the crabs did? Did the pros pots create a mini system, eg bait attracts the crabs, crabs attract fish, pro changing baits throws the old ones over the side creating an easy feed? The cooler water conditions of May onwards were less favorable for both crabs and fish so they moved to a more suitable area and should return as the weather/water warms up a bit more?