Mud crabs are out in full force and are now pretty full.
Shoal Bay is officially going off. The last fortnight has been as good as it gets with good catches being taken at high and low tide. The bigger tides have been better for high tide fishing and the smaller tides have produced some exceptional low tide fishing. Double figure hauls along with a few good Theadies have been common. There have been some big fish lurking up on the floodplains at high tide. Two catches of merit are Dean Khoos 91cm fish pulled out of the trees up Joes Creek and Ross Lavernders massive 107 fish also taken from the tight confines of Joes.
Mud crabs are out in full force and are now pretty full. Have fished the last three days with Josh and Tristen from Sydney with some exciting results. Friday we fished the Little Howard River for a great result. We started the day fishing the mouth of Joes creek where Josh landed his first barra on a live mullet and at 82cm it was a good start to his barra fishing career. Once the tide dropped we moved to our chosen deep hole for the day. After collecting some live bait we settled in for the day. The live bait was proving fruitless only attracting sharks so we started to throw some lures around and thats when the action started. Over a two hour period we landed eight barra two threadiies and even a shark all on lures while the live baits still failed to produce a fish.
Saturday prooved to be a disaster. The day started with a bang after checking the crab pots we had left over night we had more crabs than we could handle, one pot had eight crabs in it and almost every other pot had two to four in them. After watching a floatilla of boats head up the Little Howard I decided to try Hope Inlet for the day. This proved to be a poor choice as we worked all day without a single bite from a barra just a got savaged by huge numbers of Bull Sharks. Sunday we had planned to fish the Vernon Islands. We headed of early at 6am but by the time we had reached Gunn Point the weather had turned bad. As we stuck our nose out of the Gunn Point blue holes we ran into a huge storm so the decision was made to return to Shoal bay and fish for barra. With the tide still up I headed up to the flood plains were I thought I might be able to get some bait. We parked out front of a little gutter that was pumping heaps of fresh water where I netted a good haul of Silver Scats. This is a pretty good sign that the run off fishing has started, with the barra attacking lures with gusto and Silver Scats staring to show. We headed down to our hole early so we could secure our spot among the floatilla of boats. The results were the same as Friday only getting attacked by sharks on the live baits but landing four barra and losing several others on lures. At the end of the day we headed back up with the tides to fish the flood plains. Just on dark we set up in the mouth of a very snag filled gutter where we put the Silver Scats to work. We had about ten bait and in a hour and a half period the boys managed to pull out three barra from the snags and lost the rest of the baits to fish that beat them. All good signs that the run off fishing is under way which is a few weeks early for Shoal bay lets hope we get some more rain so it continues through till May. Still early in the season but still a few barra about. Have done a couple of tours this month and have been managing a couple of barra a trip. Have been catching them at high and low tide. Fished today for a nil result, we had a few hits on baits but the fish we not going on with it they were simply slapping the mullet and moving on. Still a month away from the best run off fishing but the signs are good that there will be a few fish about.
The good news is crabs are on. Have been getting enough for clients while catching bait. Some of the bigger crabs are a bit empty but the mid size crabs are full to the brim and eat beautifully. With the big rains holding off the barra fishing in Shoal Bay is in full swing. Low tide fishing is by far the best way to fish at this time of year. Most days are producing six to eight fish but fishing with local girls Marian Taylor and Judy Ward we managed to land thirteen fish on Monday. The fish were all between 65cm & 76cm and put up a great show as you would expect from salt water barra at this time of year.
A few good Threadfin are also showing up along with a unusual amount of solid Golden Snapper. I have never seen so many Goldies in Shoal Bay but they are a welcome addition to the catch. A trip to the Vernon Islands on Sunday was a little quiet but did produce some quality fish including a 49cm Mangrove Jack and a solid 50cm Goldie in the creek. Crabs are still very patchy with bucks being hard to find. Well the build up fishing has now moved into full swing with quality barra about in good numbers. Most fish are well over the 70cm mark and plenty over 80cm. Low tide has proved the best fishing as is usual at this time of year but the high tide fishing has also improved. A meter plus fish was lost in the snags at high tide in the little Howard on Sunday.
There have also been some good Theadfin about, we landed four fish in the 70 to 80cm range in a low tide hole in the Howard River last week. Crabs have been patchy but there are a few good quality crabs about. Have fished nine of the last ten days and I think the constant wind has made fishing tough. Most of the fishing has been over the low tide and getting out of the wind has been hard. The wind has been keeping the temperatures down and the fish been hard to temp. While we have caught fish every trip numbers are low but there have been some good fish among them. We can see the fish are there and I think as the winds die off and the humidity rises in the next few weeks we are in for some great fishing.
A trip to the Vernon Islands proved to be worthwhile as we landed in excess of fifty fish with some Quality Jacks and Cod among them. Some good size Trevaly of different species were on hand including a very pretty Diamond Trevaly. Mud crabs have been patchy with some days struggling and some good days. With the days getting longer and the the weather warming up the water temperature is staring to get to a barra feeding level. Catches in the last week or so have been slowly improving with a few quality fish starting to show there heads as well. Water temp is now a consistent 26 degrees and some pockets of higher temps can be found at times. Yesterday showed the best signs of the fish starting to bite when fishing with one client over the low in Hope Inlet we bagged four barra and lost several others. Earlier in the week a client pulled the hooks at the boat on a meter plus fish and on Tuesday Dennis from Perth landed a healthy 87cm fish from a low tide hole in the Howard River showing the bigger fish are staring to move in with the water temp rising.
A recent trip to the Vernon Islands with mark and Tony Russo produced some good fish. While numbers of fish were not overly high some quality jacks and cod and a nice little coral trout made the trip worthwhile. We boated about forty fish and ten different species to make the day interesting. Crabbing has been a bit of a battle with a lot of small crabs about and the usual high amounts of jenny,s we see at this time of year but as usual you can always Its been a tough dry season with the fish proving very hard to temp. They have either just not been biting or being very tentative just mouthing the baits and spitting them back at you. There have been some good Theadfin about with most being in the 70 to 90 cm range. The best days during the dry have been producing up to three barra but there have been a unusual amount of no fish days. The good news is that the water temp is finaly starting to rise. Earlier this week temps hit 26 degrees but dropped a little with a bit of a cold snap this week. Temps earlier in the dry went below 21 degrees which I not seen before. The good news is that yesterday the signs improve. Fishing the neap tides we pushed up into the shallow water at the top o the Little Howard for the incoming and hooked onto four barra with one being in the 90cm range but unfortunately the skill level of the clients was not up to the challenge. For the outgoing tide we moved over to King Creek and fished the upper reaches for another three hook ups and landing a nice 70cm fish. This has been the best sign yet that the fish are starting to bite and it should be starting to crank up by the end of the month.
Another busy week has produced some more quality fish. Started this week with a trip to the Vernon Islands last Sunday and while the fishing wasnt outstanding we did bag some quality fish. Several 40cm plus mangrove jacks and a 80cm QLD groper were among them Barra have been pretty consistent all week but the good news for the dry is the number of quality Threadfin Salmon about. All the fish have been in the 80cm range and they are about in numbers I havnt seen for several years. Friday we landed four salmon all over 80cm and lost many more. Crabs have also turned up in big numbers b With the crocodiles starting to show themselves sunning on the banks its a sure sign that the water temp is staring to fall and with the arrival of some quality Threadfin Salmon the dry season is upon us. Despite the drop in temp the barra are still biting with some quality fish being taken and lost this week. The outstanding fish of the week goes to Nat Harrison who landed a stunning 105 cm barra on a low tide tour in Hope Inlet this morning. The mud crabs have also taken a turn for the better this week with some good quality bucks showing up in the creeks. |
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June 2021
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