Monthly Archives : June 2013

Burley, or chumming as its known in most other countries, has its origins in the tourism industry. It first came about in California in the early 19^th century when they used to throw fish guts and pigs’ heads off the pier to attract sharks for the tourists. It is now commonly used to attract fish and one fish that responds particularly well to burley is snapper. So, with snapper season in full swing here on the Sunshine Coast, I thought it would be fitting to let you know what we find works.

Burley is by far the best way to attract fish to your bait by scent and food particles. It is often used by offshore anglers but also gets results in the rivers and beaches provided it is done correctly. Current/tide and wave action are the determining factors as to where your burley will end up. To get the best results you want your burley trail to start up current from where your bait is. Positioning your burley pot so your bait is in the trail is a must.

You can buy burley pots from your local bait and tackle shop for around $15 or if you are pretty handy with tools you can make a budget version. Buy some PVC pipe and a couple of screw on caps, drill some hole in it and it will cost only a few dollars. You will need some rope to tie it to your boat or tree if fishing from the bank. If fishing in depths over 30m we often sink the burley pot on a rope or tie it off to the anchor to get a quick result.

This example retails for about $20.

Burley mixture

Any fishing scraps, off cuts or old left over bait can be used as burley. We combine all the left over bait from previous trips with chook pellets or old bread as well as tuna oil and mash it to a fine paste. We then freeze the mixture in milk bottles so it disperses slowly when we put it in our burley pot. Another method is to fill an old stocking with your burley mixture but be sure to check with the other half before cutting up her hosiery – and before freezing your burley next to tomorrow night’s steak!

If you haven’t tried using burley before give it a go. Even if it catches you just one or two more snapper it could change an average day’s fishing into an excellent one. Just be sure you don’t go overboard as fish will gorge themselves until full, so the finer the burley mix the better.

Head over to our facebook page and let us know about your success with burley. Or feel free to ask questions I can address in future blog posts. https://www.facebook.com/pages/TOP-Catch-Charters/340047046026078?fref=ts.

Happy hunting!



Barwon banks- snapper, pearl perch,  amberjack, fusilier, tusk fish and moses perch

Murphy’s and the gneerings- squire, pearl perch and estuary cod

Caloundra 9nm- squire, estuary cod, tusk fish and moses perch

Caloundra 12nm- snapper, estuary cod, moses perch, tuskfish and pearl perch

Caloundra wide- snapper, amberjack and pearl perch

The weather forecast is for moderate south westerly winds for the rest of the week so early morning trips on the inshore reefs will be the most comfortable.

High tide at Mooloolaba is 10:06 @ 1.48M

Hi all! I hope you’ve all had a good week.

What an awesome start to the school holidays here on the Sunshine Coast – great weather and great fishing. We’ve been really busy over the last few days and we’re loving it. We’ve done a lot half and three quarter day fishing trips on the Caloundra Nine Mile and Caloundra 12 Mile Reefs as well as Murphy’s Reef, which fished well during the afternoons.

Snapper season is upon us and catches have been good with some big three to five kilo snapper coming from the 12 and Nine Mile Reefs. We’ve also been getting good catches of Moses perch, tuskfish, some big estuary cod and sweetlip. Jess and her Darryl from Toowoomba joined us this week and Jess caught her first fish, a 2.5kg grassy sweetlip, on her second drop. Well done Jess.



The biggest fish over the weekend was an eight-kilo estuary cod. Dennis was pleased it took live bait and peeled off some line.

Overall the weather was pretty calm on the inshore reefs, despite some chilly winds and the next week is looking pretty good too.

Give us a call if you’d like to come out and share some of the action.

In the meantime, Happy hunting!

One of the great things about fishing is coming home and cooking up your catch.

I love to play in the kitchen and try new things but sometimes its good to refer to the cooking masters. Mark, one of our regular customers, recently recommended a Jamie Oliver recipe – Asian fish with miso noodles and crunchy veg.

I’m a fan of Jamie’s and I have tried this recipe – well, a portion of this recipe – myself, and it’s pretty tasty. Although, I have to admit I gave the vegetable dish a miss and replaced it with a simple salad.

This recipe calls for 300 grams of skinned and pin-boned salmon and 300 grams of white fish fillet, also with the skin and bones removed.

We don’t catch salmon in Sunshine Coast waters, so you’ll have to buy some from your fish supplier but snapper and pearl perch are both excellent choices for the white fish.

You’ll also need sesame oil, sesame seeds, lime, honey and fresh coriander for this dish.

Dry the fish lightly with paper towel or a tea towel and cut into strips about one centimetre thick. Lightly coat a baking dish with sesame oil and scatter the fish around the dish. One of the things I love about Jamie’s 15 Minute recipes is his rustic approach to presentation.

Once that’s done lightly rub some more sesame oil into the fish.

Then season the fish with salt and pepper and scatter about a tablespoon of sesame seeds over it. Grate the zest of a lime and sprinkle that over the top along with the juice of half the lime. Drizzle some honey over the top.

Bake it at 200 degrees for about seven minutes or until the fish is cooked. Then sprinkle the fish with the fresh coriander. Coriander has a dominant flavour so use as much as you are comfortable with.

We tried this dish and we loved it. It’s really easy and pretty quick to prepare and cook.

We Australianised the dish with a coleslaw, and added some crunchy noodles for texture. You can make any salad you like to go with this.

You’ll find the full recipe along with the crunchy veg dish in Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals, which you can pick up at most bookstores. Or you can check out Jamie’s website for more inspiration: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fish-recipes.

Head over to our facebook page to share some of your favourite fish dishes or feel free to post some fishing-related questions:https://www.facebook.com/pages/TOP-Catch-Charters/340047046026078?fref=ts.

Here’s what’s being caught this week:

Gneerings & Murphy’s Reef – snapper, morwong, tuskfish  and trevally

Caloundra 9 mile – snapper, pearl perch, tuskfish and estuary cod

Caloundra 12 mile –snapper, estuary cod and tuskfish

Barwon Banks –squire, red throat emperor, fusilier, hussar and tuskfish

Caloundra Wide –snapper, pearl perch, amberjack and trevally

Noosa –snapper and sweetlip from sunshine and chardons reefs

 There are plenty of fish about. Head over to our facebook page and hit like page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Top-Catch-Fishing-Charters/132542573455412 and we’ll keep you updated with what’s going on or you can share your fishing tales with us.

I love it when we get happy customers and there were a few pretty excited fishermen this weekend. Our best catch of the weekend was Steve’s 7kg snapper and he was a happy man. He reeled it in at the Caloundra 12 Mile. Well done mate – that’s the way to christen the new rod and reel.

The biggest fish caught was an 8kg gold spot estuary cod. John did well. The cod took a whole slimy mackerel and put up a good fight.

The offshore conditions were perfect most of the weekend, although a bit blowy on Saturday but mostly there were light winds and virtually no swell and it looks to continue that way for a few more days.

With our typical winter weather patterns plenty of big snapper and cod were caught on local reefs. We fished the Caloundra Nine Mile, Caloundra 12 Mile and Currimundi Reefs over the weekend. Currimundi Reef produced squire and sweetlip and we caught snapper, cod, moses perch, pearl perch and tusk fish on the Nine Mile and 12 Mile.

The crabbing was pretty good too and we are starting to see a few whales. It’s good fun. I really enjoy fishing at this time of year.

Let us know how you went this weekend.

Winter is officially here and we are finally being rewarded with the beautiful sunny days we’re known for at this time of year. When it’s like this it is great to be fishing on the Sunshine Coast.

In the cold weather lure fishing is often forgotten. But it is worth knowing some of the lure fanatics are still getting good results targeting snapper and most commonly they are using soft plastics.

If you want to try out a few lures I recommend anchoring up and starting a berley trail. Then cast whichever way your burley is drifting and let the lure slowly drift through the burley until it hits bottom.

Then lift the rod tip in a jerking motion and wind the slack. Let it sink and repeat this a couple of times. If you don’t get a strike, wind in and cast again, this time trying a slower retrieval or perhaps a different colour lure.

Your jig head size will vary with the depth you are fishing in. Usually, half to one ounce is enough along with heavy guage hooks – 3/0 to 5/0. I have had good results with four to five inch Gulp and Berkley PowerBaits in various colours including nuclear chicken, pilly and pumpkin seed. Flick baits, jerk shads and grubs designs all work well.

If you are not getting results you might want to try drifting – casting forward to your drift so that your lure gets to the bottom.

It is not unheard of to troll deep diving lures for snapper. The best places to hook a snapper are along rocky coastline and over structure or bait schools, showing up on the sounder. Halco has a range of deep diving hard bodies that dive to eight metres. So if you want to try something more sporting than the traditional snapper fishing methods, give this a go.

Happy hunting!

Here’s what is being caught deep sea  this week;

Murphy’s reef- squire, tuskfish, cobia

The gneerings- snapper, tuskfish, moses perch

Currimundi reef- snapper, estuary cod

Caloundra 9nm- squire, tuskfish, estuary cod

Caloundra- 12nm- snapper, estuary cod, pearl perch, tuskfish

Caloundra wide- snapper pearl perch, amberjack

Barwon banks- squire, tuskfish, hussar, jobfish, estuary cod, fusilier

Once again the weather has hampered offshore fishing. We did get out on Friday and Saturday, but Sunday and Monday winds were strong and rain areas forced us to cancel our trips. Sunday was the new moon phase and we were hoping fishing would improve on the past 10 days as catches had been slightly down on average. I guess we will have to wait and see hopefully we will get out on Wednesday.  One species that have been active are the venus tusk fish, which are just as good to look at as they are eat.  We did catch quite a few on Friday with Adams fish weighing 2kg.

Along with a couple of pearl perch, cod, some small red emperor and a few moses perch, everyone had a bit of fun. Unfortunately a turtle got to our crab gear before we hauled it in and we only got left with a few.  We decided to cook them for everyone to share on the way in.

Saturday was a bit slower fishing wise, however the crabbing was good and there was enough for everyone to take home a feed.  We headed for my favourite bait ground and jigged some live yakkas and slimey mackerel, then headed to the Caloundra 12nm in hope of some big snapper, coral trout or cod. We got a few hits on them but didn’t get a hook up however it gave us some fresh strips of flesh and when we found a patch of snapper it led to Wayne’s 3kg fish- well done mate. Along with snapper there were a few pearl perch, moses perch and moari cod.

Here’s what’s being caught this week:

Gneerings & Murphy’s Reef – Snapper, sweetlip and coral trout

Caloundra 9 mile & Caloundra 12 mile – Snapper, tusk fish, coral trout, sweetlip, blue-barr parrot fish

Barwon Banks – Tuskfish, redthroat, hussar, jobfish, cod, coral trout and the odd snapper

Caloundra Wide – Snapper and pearl perch

Noosa – Coral trout from Sunshine reef, snapper pearl perch, cod, tusk fish from Chardons reef.

There are plenty of fish about. Head over to our facebook page and hit like page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Top-Catch-Fishing-Charters/132542573455412 and we’ll keep you updated with what’s going on or you can share your fishing tales with us.