Crabs have been a little slow this year but a good feed can still be had
Fishing this week has been pretty good. Plenty of barra about and on the bite and the size of the fish has improved. Plenty of fish in the high seventies and a few bigger ones. Fish of the week goes to Wayne Brennan-jesson. Wayne fished with me today on the neap tide and landed a great 101cm fish on a small mullet fished on the bottom. he lost a similar fish a short time later.
Crabs have been a little slow this year but a good feed can still be had Yesterday I wrote the barra were all small, well just to prove me wrong the bigger fish turned up on yesterdays twilight tour. After catching some cracking 15inch mullet for bait we tempted some good fish. Gary Schipanski boated his first barra and at a metre you could say it was a good one. Dave landed a 80cm fish and several other good fish were lost in the trees including one big girl that smashed a popper
While the fishing hasnt been at its best there are still fish to be caught. We have been averaging three to four fish a trip. The disapointing part has been the size of the fish. Most are between 60 & 65cm with the biggest coming in at the high seventies. Still good fish but no sign of any big girls. Live baiting has been by far the best option but poppers at dusk have been getting hit by the bigger fish.
Crabs have dropped off over the neaps but should pick up over the spring tides. Just returned from a twilight high tide tour with Kiwi anglers Wayne, Vince John. Having fished last night as well the boy had enough mud crabs and just wanted to concentrate on the barra. After gathering the live bait we headed up the Little Howard and the action begun. We boated eleven fish, even catching them on dead baits after most of our liveys died. We finished up two hours early so the boys could catch there flight home.
The fishing this week has been steady and should really go off over the Easter weekend with the big tides. High tide fishing will be the order of the day Plenty of crabs to had but still a few empty ones among them Fished the neap tide yesterday with local girls Lida & Suzzie. I set the girls up with a couple of live baits while I was catching more bait and Suzzie landed the first fish of the day almost immediately. After catching the bait we pulled the pots we had set earlier and bagged six nice buck crabs and headed up the Little Howard. Fishing tight in the snags we boated another six barra up to the high tide when they went of the bite. we moved over to King Creek for the outgoing tide and Suzzie landed the biggest fish of the day a nice 76cm barra. Eight barra in all for the day a good effort.
Had a bust month doing plenty of tours. Started back in mid March and have done high and low tide tours as well as a couple of trips to the Vernon Islands. The Vernon Island trips have both been good with plenty of solid Mangroves Jacks and other assorted species to be had, although the trevaly and queenies have been a little quiet.
The barra fishing started a little slow with the exception of the 21st of March which was the day of the equinox, We bagged 13 fish on a low tide tour in Hope Inlet. Other trips have only been producing a few fish until this week. With the run down off the springs the mullet and scats finally turned up in numbers and the barra a there to take advantage of it. The last three days have produced eight, eight and ten fish. The fish have not been huge but they are in really good condition. The big fish are there as you can see them boofing the bait schools but we have not hooked onto them yet but I am working on a plan. mud crabs have been at there awesome best with some of the best size crabs I have seen in Shoal Bay but there are still a few empty ones among them but his will improve over the next month. Fished the high tide today with Mark and Carol Carr The day started well bagging 14 mud crabs while we catching our bait. The day got a bit harder from then on with a couple of monsoonal down pours putting a dampener on things and keeping the fish from biting. Right at the end of the session after about and hour with no rain the fish finally came on the bite, First Mark boated a cracking meter chromie and Carol followed it up minutes later with a solid 85cm fish
Fished the high tide twice this week for similar results. Friday we got three barra and on sunday we got the same but bigger. We fished the upper reaches of the Little Howard and all is looking promising for some pre christmas barra. Mullet are finally starting to show up and the barra are there to feed on them. Fish of the week went to Warren May, a healthy chrome plated 94cm fish pulled from from some tight snags and he also landed a fat 85cm fish from the same snag.
Crabs have made a early showing. At this time of year we are usually struggling to get a feed for Christmas but the last few days have produced good numbers of nice size bucks, some are a little empty but there are some nice full ones a Had a big week this week doing five days of low tide fishing. The first four days I fished with Darren Sage, Dave & Jordan Brown from NSW. Monday we fished the Little Howard for a average result, we boated two barra but lost another five. Darren dropped a good fish at spot six early in the day. Tuesday we fished the Howard River with a far better conversion rate, we landed six fish with the biggest being in the high seventies. Wednesday saw us fishing over in Hope Inlet where the average size of the fish was bigger. We landed seven barra to 88cm.
Thursday we headed to the Vernon Islands, Jordan bailed so I just fished with Darren & Dave. We tied for mackeral, trevally & queen fish outside the islands first up but the results were poor just landing one small trevally. The day was generally quiet but once inside the island we started to boat some quality fish and a couple of very interesting fish. When we first went inside we jigged some soft plastics on the edges of the coral in the lagoon. Dave hooked up and landed a beautiful Barramundi Cod and then he jigged up two little rock flathead both species that I have not encountered at the Islands before. We landed seven jacks with a couple of nice fish among them, cod were on the bite all day giving the boys some frustrating moments with the bigger ones usually getting the better of them. Dave hooked into a solid QLD Groper and got him to the boat only to have the hook fall out at the last minute. Both Darren and Dave landed a coral trout with Darrens being the biggest and unusual in that he caught it inside the creek. Friday i fished with Rob and Matt Holman from Brisbane as well as their friend lesley. Because the fish had been a better size earlier in the week I opted to fish Hope Inlet again. The fishing was a little slow but Rob landed the fish of the week, a fat 102 cm barra. She put up a huge fight in a big wide open hole with plenty of aerial work to add to to the memories. At one stage I could see the spool through the braid so she had taken some long runs. We landed two other fish for the day and lost one but nothing too big. Crabs a still a little quiet with most being small but full, The big bucks should start turning up next month but they will be a bit empty, it will take another mont before t Fishing this week has been tough with bait and fish a little hard to find. Fished sunday for a nil result wich was only made more frustrating by the fish that we saw jumping and boofing in front of us but would not take any of our offerings.. Wednesday i fished with cousins Nick and Carl Scott for a bit more action. Nick landed a nice 85cm fish only to be out done later in the day by his 14year old cousin Carl who landed a great 100cm fish which is just enough to get him into the metre club. Carl also landed a nice 70cm theady to top his Darwin fishing trip off.
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June 2021
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