Author: Top Catch

It has been blowing again fresh to strong south to south easterlies most of the week with a bit of swell around as well. I can’t wait for the cyclone season to pass! Sunday just gone was the only trip for the week and it was a cracker! A 3/4 day spent on murphy’s reef with glass out conditions from 9am. The fish were chewing too we had a mixed bag which included squire, spangled emperor, moses perch, pearl perch, kingfish, hussar, golden trevally, tea leaf trevally, sweetlips, tusk fish and morwong. We did get busted up a few times but no really big fish were boated however 55 fish made the esky look good. Looks like a good winter season coming up for reef fishing out off Mooloolaba. The good news is the weather is going to be quite good for the weekend.  It will be a wait and see approach hopefully the south easterlys hold off for a while (fingers crossed). The photo below shows a 4kg spangled emperor which was probably the biggest fish of the day.

Below shows a king fish and these have been plentiful over the past 2 months on the gneerings and murphy’s reef. Most, like this one, are in the 60-75cm range but there is the odd one getting caught over a metre or about 6kg’s. First timer Charles thought this one fought plenty hard enough for him and was stoked when it came over the side of the boat. Well done mate!

If you would like to wet a line with us please head over to our contacts page or give us a call on     0429 013 012. Until then happy hunting!!!

The weather, overall, has been a little rough for what feels like a couple of months. The cyclone season has certainly been felt across Queensland this year and our thoughts go out to everyone affected. However it has not all been bad news as in between weather systems we have had 2 and 3 day windows which have fished quite well in close and out wide.
Last weekend was spent in close on the inner reefs. We had 1/2days booked and both mornings’ and afternoons’ were fished with Sunday afternoon fishing the best. Good to see online casino some numbers of squire put in the esky this early in the year. It looks like a good snapper season ahead!!!
Here’s what has been happening:
Murphy’s and the gneerings– tusk fish, moses perch, hussar, sweetlip, pearl perch and lots of squire
Currimundi wide– sweetlip, squire, school mackerel and cobia
Caloundra 9nm– school mackerel, squire, tusk fish, moses perch, pearl perch, maori cod and big estuary cod
Caloundra 12nm– sweetlip, squire, spotted and Spanish mackerel, tusk fish, pearl perch and moses perch
Barwon banks– some good size snapper, pearl perch, moses perch, tusk fish, fusilier, job fish and red throat emperor
Good signs- Great numbers of squire in the 35-45cm range have shown up on the inshore reefs.

The sunshine coast forecast for the weekend looks a bit blowy again; maybe the bigger boats might get a chance offshore on Sunday (Fingers crossed). We can’t wait to get back out there and if you would like to join us give us a call or email.
Until then HAPPY HUNTING!!!

HI all,

After a couple of ordinary weeks’ weather wise the Sunshine Coast fishing scene is back in full swing.  A glorious weekend on the water and the next few days all look the same. We had done trips from Thursday through to Sunday with a mixture of ¾ day trips fishing the inner reefs and full day trips to the Barwon banks. Tusk fish seemed to be chewing baits everywhere and were the most prevalent species, weighing in the 1-2kg range and the bigger ones up to 3kg.

We fished the bottom end of the banks on both Thursday and Saturday for our full day charters.  Species bagged were king fish, squire, pearl perch 2-3kg, rosy job fish, moses perch, hussar and of course all those tasty tusk fish.  We stuck in the 45 to 60m depth range as the shallower areas have been a little quiet for the last month or so. The crabbing out wide has been excellent!  Since November we have been consistently getting hauls of 50-60 keepers and the last couple of days were no different. I thought after all the swell they might stay buried for while but that did not happen; to everyone’s delight there has been plenty to go around. The photo below shows the biggest fish of the weekend coming from the banks. It’s a hard fighting 8kg tea leaf trevally – Dan was stoked, he had been telling everyone all morning he wasn’t going to catch the most fish just the biggest and he pulled it off.  Well done

Our ¾ days were spent between Currimundi reef and the Caloundra 9nm and 12nm reefs. Species caught were school mackerel, moses perch, hussar, squire, amberjack, morwong, lots of grassy sweetlip around the 40cm’s, big cod and plenty of tusk fish. The mackerel were caught on live yakkas while the sweetlip were taking flesh strips.  All three reefs seemed to fish the same, while there was no hot bite for an hour with everything going crazy there was just fish consistently going in the esky every 10min or so.  The crabbing was good in close too good hauls of 40 keepers. Everyone got a mixed bag of fish and a few crabs to take home. The picture below shows a gold spot estuary cod caught by Dusty on the 9nm, it took a big live yakka in 39m of water.

Hi all,

Most years February is a month of constant wind and swell and offshore fishing seldom happens. This year is true to form, we have had only a few opportunities to get out and some of them have been a little sloppy. But those who have come along have been rewarded. We have had mainly full day trips (to the Barwon banks) this week and the bottom fishing has been quite reasonable with quality table fish being boated. The top of most peoples’ list is the pearl perch and we have seen some decent specimens reaching 64cm and about 4kg which are excellent for this area. The picture below is from Thursdays’ trip caught by Greg well done mate!

Along with the pearlies we have boated plenty of rosy job fish and tusk fish up to 3kg and a few amberjack, squire, fusilier, moses perch, hussar, gold spot wrasse and spangled emperor have topped esky with a bit of colour.

Our only shorter trip for the week was a ¾ day on murphys reef which is still producing lots of sweetlip and king fish up to 4kg. With those there has been moses perch, hussar, spotted mackerel, tusk fish, spangled emperor and tusk fish. This picture below shows James holding up a 4kg spangled emperor which took a whole squid on a gang sitting mid water with a small ball sinker. Well done!

The next week looks very unstable and it looks like we won’t be getting out until Sunday. A low is headed our way and we are going to get some massive swell and strong winds especially Thursday and Friday. However once this passes we will be straight back into fishing.

If you would like to join us for a trip head over to our contacts page and flick us an e-mail or feel free to call. Until then Happy Hunting

Hi fish followers,
After an awesome spell of weather over the holiday period, the past couple of weeks have been a bit blowy to say the least not to mention the huge swell pushed in by cyclone Ola last week. Its not all bad news however!!! It has given our reefs a much earned rest and the stir up will attract bait schools to the area to feed on the plankton and vegetation pulled from the sand and washed out of our rivers and bays. And we all know where there is bait there are big fish! We look forward for this next two week period of fishing over the new moon phase.
We did manage to get out for a fish in the window of good weather on Sunday and Monday and both days fished really well. Sunday was a full day and we fished the southern end of the barwon banks for the bottom dwelling species. There was plenty of action – lots of rosy jobfish in the 2-3kg range, a great eating fish, as well as plenty of fusilier, tusk fish to 3kg, and decent pearl perch to 2kg. Also boated were big maori cod, gold spot wrasse, moses perch and hussar. Nothing massive but a big mixed bag of great eating reefies. Everyone onboard was kept very busy and extremely happy. The photo is of a 3kg rosy jobfish and a 4kg maori cod. Good work Aaron!

Monday we had a half day trip to murphys reef. It didn’t disappoint either, the punters got into some nice grassy sweetlip to 3kg, heaps of moses perch and king fish to 4kg and a few squire and hussar off the bottom. A couple of 5kg spotted mackerel from the surface topped of the trip nicely. A quick but exciting trip and getting it all done before the weather picked up again in the afternoon. The picture below is Steve holding a 5kg spotted mackerel. Well done mate!

So bring on the next 2 weeks, the signs are good and we can’t wait. Our next trip is on Thursday and the weather looks just ok but for the fisho’s in the smaller boats keep an eye on the weather forecasts and maybe leave it until Sunday when those winds are forecast to drop below that 15 knot mark. If you would like to join us for a trip flick us an email or give us a call –
until then Happy Hunting!!!!!

Here is what has been caught this week;

The Gneerings and Murphy’s – Spanish mackerel, kingfish, cobia, sweetlip, hussar and moses perch

Caloundra 9 mile – tuskfish, squire, moses perch and pearl perch

Caloundra 12 mile – Some big estuary cod, snapper, tuskfish, hussar, moses perch, morwong, spotted and Spanish mackerel.

Barwon Banks – red throat emperor, fusilier, tuskfish, trevally, Spanish mackerel, spangled emperor and rosy job fish

Caloundra wide – pearl perch, squire and cobia

Low tide was at 9am this morning.  We have had a S/E wind change yesterday which is supposed to drop off Thursday afternoon just in time for another cracker weekend.

Perfect conditions for offshore fishing today, wind 10-15knots and swell 1-1.5m.  Here is what has been caught this week;

The Gneerings and Murphy’s – Spanish and spotted mackerel, squire, pearl perch, sweetlip, king fish and amberjack.

Caloundra 9 mile – Tuskfish, moses perch, spotted mackerel and squire

Caloundra 12 mile – Spanish and spotted mackerel, cobia, maori cod, pearl perch and moses perch

Barwon Banks – fusilier, spangled emperor, red throat emperor, tuskfish, moses perch, squire and Spanish mackerel

Noosa Sunshine reef – snapper, tuskfish, moses perch, spotted and Spanish mackerel

High tide is 8:39am at 2.12metres. We still have a couple of spots left on Sunday’s full day if you’re interested in wetting a line give us a call.

Hi all hope you are getting out today (Wednesday 10 Dec. 14) as the weather is stunning. Today has window of 10 knot s/e to n/e winds and swell around the 1m before the northerlies pick up again tomorrow and a strong s/e change on Friday may keep us at home for the weekend. The past week has been a little unpredictable, the stormy weather forecast for the weekend didn’t really come through until Monday and Tuesday so the few that headed out early and came home early got some nice conditions for fishing. We however played things safe, we enjoyed an awesome full day on Friday and done an early half day on Saturday before the rain set in. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were all cancelled.

So not a whole lot of fishing for us in the past week but we did get some in and it was well worth it!! The best fish this week was this massive bull mahi mahi weighing in at 21kg. He was caught while trolling just inside the banks and put in a great scrap leaping out of the water and diving deep at times all the while flaring those awesome electric blue, green and yellow colours. It measured 1.58m long and is the biggest mahi mahi i’ve seen. A real top catch!!!!

Here’s what else has been getting caught

The gneerings and murphy’s- squire, tuskfish, cod, sweetlip and stripey sea perch

Coolum reef- school and Spanish mackerel, cobia and tuskfish

Barwon banks- tuskfish, snapper, red throat emperor, pearl perch, hussar, moses perch and mahi mahi

Caloundra 9nm- tuskfish, squire, moses perch, pearl perch and sweetlip

Caloundra 12nm- tuskfish, squire, sweetlip, cobia and moses perch

Currimundi reef- squire, sweetlip and school mackerel

North reef- Spanish mackerel, cobia, tuskfish, jewfish, snapper and tuskfish

Sunshine reef- Spanish and spotted mackerel

There have been plenty of sweetlip around latetly this one came from currimundi reef, weighing in at 4.5kg – great fish

If you would like to come along on a trip drop us a line at bookings@topcatchcharters.com.au or give us a call on 0429013012 and we will make it happen until then happy hunting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is what was caught last week;

Currimundi – school and spotted mackerel, sweetlip and stripey sea perch

Caloundra 9 mile – squire, sweetlip, pearl perch, moses perch and maori cod

Caloundra wide – trag dew, tuskfish, hussar and kingfish

Barwon Banks – snapper, tuskfish, moses perch, hussar, cobia,and  mahi mahi from the surface

Murphy”s and the Gneerings – sweetlip, casino online tuskfish, squire, cod and trevally

Noosa – sweetlip, squire, moses perch, cobia, tuskfish and mahi mahi

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Hi all,

Top catch charters are back in the water and ready to tackle the upcoming pelagic season. Apologies for being “off the radar” so to speak – unfortunately we had a setback just over 2 months ago. Our boat had run over an old net which was adrift at sea, it did a lot of damage to the gearbox and propeller but it’s now all fixed and we have been fishing a lot over the past 2 weeks.

The weekend just gone was a right off due to the strong northerlies but we fished nearly 10 days straight prior doing a mixture ½, 3/4 and full day trips. The shorter trips have gone really well considering we are in between our main snapper and mackerel seasons. Caloundra 9nm and 12nm reefs have been working well for sweetlip, snapper up to 4kg, pearl perch, tusk fish, moses perch and the odd king fish. We also had a bit of a look up to the north on Coolum reef to see if any mackerel had shown up. We got one so not a whole lot of numbers yet but we did hook a mahi mahi on the troll and bagged a couple of nice cobia, sweetlip and stripey sea perch as well.

The pics above are of a 6kg rainbow runner and a 2kg sweetlip which have thick of late.

The weather overall has been pretty special over the last few weeks and it certainly turned it on for us on the full day charters, with glassy conditions until late afternoon. We fished mainly the shallower area as the current was running really hard. Species caught included snapper to 4kg, red throat emperor, amberjack, tusk fish, moses perch, hussar, pearl perch, cobia to 7kg and fusilier. I’m really looking forward to bottom fishing out there this weekend as we approach the new moon phase, hopefully the current isn’t too bad and we can fish some deeper areas. We did see a free jumping marlin about 30kg and tried a little bit of trolling out there though we didn’t have success. It is a good time of year for mahi mahi and wahoo so we will be starting to target those species a lot over the next 6 weeks and look forward to some big schools’ of Spanish mackerel just after Christmas.

The weather is heating up and so is the pelagic fishing!!!!! If you would like to join in on the action flick us an email or simply phone to book your spot on a charter. Who knows the next fishing trip could land you your TOP CATCH.

Until then happy hunting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!