Monthly Archives : October 2013

Hi all,

Apologies for being off the radar the past 2 weeks, we were enjoying a much earned holiday on the north coast of NSW. We are refreshed and back in full swing and have been fishing the last week. Inshore there are some tuna and mackerel about but the outer reefs have been the go producing a good mix of species from wahoo and mahi on the surface to snapper, pearlies and other reefies from the bottom.

Above is a 6kg snapper caught at the top end of the Barwon Banks on Monday.

Here is what been getting caught over the past few days

Murphy’s and the gneerings– tuskfish, sweetlip and squire

Caloundra 9nm- snapper and sweetlip

Caloundra 12nm- tuskfish, maori cod, pearl perch and the odd cobia

Currimundi reef- spotted and school mackerel and some small long tail tuna

Barwon banks– snapper, pearl perch, amberjack, tuskfish, hussar and trevally

Noosa- cod and long tail tuna from north reef and coral trout and sweetlip from sunshine reef

S/E winds around 25knots for today and tomorrow, easing on Thursday so best left till then for offshore fishing. The next tide change at Mooloolaba is a high of 1.48m at 4:56pm. Our next post will be Friday.

Happy hunting!!!!!

Mackerel are one of the most popular pelagic species targeted by recreational and commercial fishermen in South East Queensland. They are fast with razor sharp teeth and provide great sport and quality eating for those that actively target them off the Sunshine Coast. Species available include spanish mackerel, spotted mackerel and school mackerel. The Sunshine Coast gets a reasonable run of all three species between January and May every year.

Mackerel generally frequent areas close to shore. Shallow reefs with raised pinnacles and/or drop offs that have bait holding such as yellowtail scad, slimy mackerel or pilchards are prime places to locate Mackerel. They also love current lines, look for areas where warmer water meets cooler water and you will find mackerel.

Mackerel once hooked will peel off line fast, so a reel with reasonable line capacity is required, a main line of 10-15kilos will be more than adequate for stopping even the bigger spaniards. An overhead reel, if you are trolling or a spin reel if you are chasing the bait schools busting up on the surface. Wire trace is almost essential when fishing for mackerel, a 6-12 inch trace is adequate. Your tackle should include a variety of larger size snap swivels, assorted hooks of 5/0-9/0 size, gang hooks, and lures, good lures to try are hard bodies such as Rapala magnums and Halco laser pros. Chrome slugs and skirted lures also account for their fair share of quality mackerel.

Mackerel will take both live and dead baits, the trick is to use same bait that is prevalent in the area at the time. Usually off Mooloolaba we use live yellowtail or slimy mackerel rigged on a single hook and set below a balloon in a burley trail, but they will also happily take a lightly weight floating pilchard. Fusilier and bonito will attract the bigger Spanish mackerel. Try to present baits so they appear as natural as possible and be sure to set baits along way behind the boat. Mackerel have excellent eye sight and can be boat shy. Once the fish is netted or gaffed extreme car needs to be taken when handling the fish. Mackerel have razor sharp teeth and can leave a nasty wound. The fish should be bled out and placed on ice as quickly as possible.

Spanish mackerel are definitely the most sought after for the table, they have white to pinkish flesh and a strong fishy flavour. They produce an attractive cutlet or a boneless fillet that can be baked, fried, poached, grilled, smoked, barbequed and is even eaten raw. The lesser spotted and school mackerel are pretty good chewing as well provided they are eaten fresh.

The common dolphin fish or mahi-mahi is one of the most acrobatic and colourful fish I have ever caught and they will call the waters off the Sunshine Coast home for the next five months.

The common English name of dolphin fish causes much confusion. This fish is not related to the marine mammals known as dolphins.

Commercial fishermen had so much trouble selling this delicious table fish that they are now commonly marketed by their Pacific name, mahi-mahi and are among the most popular eating fish in restaurants and fish and chip shops.

Mahi-mahi are found in waters in the top half of Australia as well as the Caribbean Sea, the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic coast of Florida and West Africa, South China Sea, Southeast Asia, Hawaii and many other places worldwide.

Sport fishermen seek them due to their beauty, size, food quality and healthy population.

When searching for mahi-mahi fishing charters often look for floating debris near the edge of a reef in 40-80m of water. Mahi-mahi (and many other fish) often swim near debris such as floating wood, palm trees and fronds, weed lines and around buoys. Sometimes fish aggregating devices (FADS) can hold hundreds of these fish.

Thirty to fifty-pound gear is more than adequate when trolling for mahi-mahi. The best lures to catch them include Halco swimmers tremblers, shallow divers, metal slugs and skirts and they will take live baits such as slimy mackerel and yakkas.

They are a fish that responds well to burley so drifting pilchards or squid down through your burley trail will work well too. Basically if you find a patch of them you are going to have some fun.

Once on a line, mahi-mahi are fast, flashy and acrobatic with beautiful blue, yellow, green and even red dots of colour. Often when you get them close to the boat they will have mates swimming with them so it pays to have a rod ready with a pilchard on a gang or a metal slug to throw at them.

The average size caught off Mooloolaba is 10-12kg but they grow to 18kg.They are a fast growing fish that only live for about 5 years. Legal size limit in Queensland is 50cm and the bag limit is five per person.

Hopefully this helps you get in on the action. If you would like to come along on a charter and see how we fish for them flick us an email or give us a call.

Happy Hunting!

We’ve had a mixed bag in the fishing haul this week, which keeps everything interesting and provides some variety for the punters.

The wind picked up for the first week of the school holidays and strong wind warnings issued most days last week kept us tied up at the wharf. Fortunately the swell was small and the wind dropped off to make for a beautiful weekend. We did a couple of half day and a three quarter day charter fishing the inshore reefs.

Saturday was the longer trip and we started at Currimundi Reef in the hope of catching a few mackerel. They generally show up later in the year but due to the mild winter and the northerly winds they won’t be far away. We found a lot of bait schools and jigged some nice live baits bud didn’t hook one. We caught a little tuna and some squire then headed out to the Caloundra Nine Mile where we caught snapper, moses perch and tuskfish. No massive fish but plenty of good snapper weighing in between one and three kilograms.

The crabbing went really well over the weekend. Saturday was the best day with 114 keepers, which got everyone excited.

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We headed out to the Caloundra Nine Mile reef with half-day charters on Sunday and Monday. We got in plenty of fishing but the whales also put on a real show for us. Lots of mothers and some calves were breaching along with the odd big bull male making his presence felt.

We caught snapper, pearl perch, moses perch, tuskfish and plenty of crabs. Once again the snapper were in the one to three kilogram range.

We reeled in the biggest fish for the weekend on Sunday – a 4.5 kilogram snapper, caught by Dusty. He also got the biggest pearly, weighing 2.5 kilograms. He certainly picked the right spot on the boat to fish from. Well done mate!

With perfect weather, fishing, crabbing and bonus whale watching, the Sunshine Coast, at this time of the year, is amazing. It doesn’t get better than this.

Here’s hoping we get more great weather for the second half of the holidays. The last few mornings have been amazing.

If you’d like to come out on a trip with us give us a call or flick us an email.

Happy Hunting!