Barwon Banks again - Sun 21 Aug

[Anne-T-Dote]

How’dy folks,

Anne and I went out to the banks yesterday. The weather forecast was spot on – 10-12 SW’lys first up and glassed out at about 12:30 or so. A beautiful afternoon, but the little bath tub doesn’t handle any wind over about 8 knots too well, so it was an uncomfortable few hours in the morning for us. Just check out our classy wet weather gear – it’s a wonder people weren’t coming up to us and offering us a tow in – probably looks like a V-sheet from a distance.

We decided it was worth a trip anyway, coz if it was to glass out as predicted it'd be a sweet run home, and it was

Anyway – we arrived at our usual spot around the middle of the banks at a smidge before 5:30am. Last time we arrived there at that time of day things were hot from the first drop, so we had high hopes for the same this trip – but it wasn’t to be. In fact it was VERY quiet and we couldn’t even find fish on the sounder. So without wasting any time we went on a search for some better showings.

Not too far away we found what looked like it might produce something – but still didn’t look all that spectacular. Anyway, for the next hour or two all we could get were pearlies, mostly undersized with a few legal ones amongst them – but nothing over about 40cm really – things were not looking good. Not that I'm complaining about catching pearlies, but I wish they had a bit more size about them

Then at about 8’ish or maybe even a bit after, a few squire around the 1.5 - 2kg mark started coming aboard. At this stage I noticed that the screen on the sounder started to look a bit more impressive (solid arches/lines up off the bottom rather than just clouds of what must be small fish hugging the bottom).

Then Anne landed a nice 54cm Maori Cod. Not too far behind that I pulled a 6.5kg Snapper on one of the floaters, and shortly after that Anne pulled a snapper of about 4kg (guessed weight) – also on one of the floaters. Things were finally looking up, but then it went quiet again at about 10’ish – back to just the small pearlies

With 8 pearlies in the esky we decided to head up to the northern end for a look for some larger specimens - but it was even more quiet up there – couldn’t find any fish on the sounder and couldn’t even lose a bait. > So back down to another mark part way between the northern end and where we started. Only one more just legal pearly and two tuskies over the next hour or two, so we pulled the pin. What a sweet run home

Tally for the day:

9 Pearlies
7 Snapper (2 snapper, 5 squire)
2 Tuskies
1 Maori Cod
0 Rosy Jobfish (not even an undersized one – surprising..??)

Some pics to follow

Cheers,

Rob Mc.

[Anne-T-Dote]

Snapper

[Anne-T-Dote]

Same fish:

[Anne-T-Dote]

Anne's Snapper

[-spiro-]

Top effort there. The wife{ann} looks a tad green in the first pic.

[philip_thomson]

well done rob and anne. thats a nice days work. we hit murphys and failed miserably fun day though. those snappa are a decent size. any size to the tuskies?

cheers phil

[reeldreamer]

Good work some solid fish there! You guys did better than most, with the exception of Seasaw! Good effort!

Mitch

[chemmy]

i saw you out there it looked like you were coming over to say hello but then you left

nice fish we did crap i think we were to far south

[big_steve001]

nice catch there mate, those snapper are very nice and at leats u got a feed. cheers steve

[DALEPRICE]

nice going rob, got a good feed by the sounds of it.
looks like there are still a couple snappa's gettin around

[Anne-T-Dote]

Thanks guys.

Spiro, yeah mate - she was a bit green to start with and didn't feel 100% for most of the day - didn't stop her from fishing though - she loves it. Actually it's usually her with the biggest and best fish of the day, and I think she loves bein' able to stir me up about that just as much as actually catching the fish - yep - she really has the true fishin' spirit and she's a real top sport...

Phil, the tuskies were nothing huge mate - just the usual run-of-the-mill, average-sized fish.

Chemmy - Arrrggh dam!! - That WAS you we saw. I was coming over and when we got a bit closer I turned away coz I said, nah - that's not him. Sorry about that - ah well, I know your boat now, so I'll definitely come over next time.

Dale, yeah, there's still a few around, but not a patch on what it has been like during May/June/July - unless it just boils down to the fact that it wasn't a good day and maybe next time we get out they might be really on again?? One thing though - from memory I think only 1 of the fish had any roe(?)* or milt(?)* when we were filleting them, so does that mean that the spawning run is pretty much all over red-rover? And does that mean the fishing is only going to die off now until next season?

* - (forgive me if the spelling/terminology is incorrect).

[SeaSaw]

Rob, you almost sound like you are disappointed in the catch ... you shouldn't be, cause thats a bloody good haul [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]

The brilliant Snapper season was never going to last forever.

Well Done.

Mark

[Gummtree]

Just as well the wife can fish. Good haul bloke.

[DaveSue_Fishos_Two]

Hey you Barwon Fishers!!

I have never fished the Banks, in fact I don't even really know where they are. But I do know that there are so many posts in this part of the forum that relate to Barwon Banks. It must really be one hell of a hot spot and must have been for years and years. Where do all the fish come from??? What keeps them coming???? How big are the banks??? Sorry for all of the questions but it just astounds me the fish continually pulled from this area. I really am intrigued.

Cheers and thanks
Dave

[SeaSaw]

Dave,

The Barwon Banks is a great fishing spot and is 40km+ east of mooloolaba. Being a fair way out it has not been overfished in the past although in the last couple of years the number of boats going out there has increased a lot.

The central area of the Banks is about 20km long and 4km wide, but the good fishing extends much further east than that as well.

Where do all the fish come from???? .... when I work that out I will be fishing there and forgetting the Banks.

There is plenty of country to explore aound the Banks with great bottom shows, big drop offs and ridges. Really worth a look if you ever get the chance.

Cheers,

Mark