Fishin’ Maggie

What’s Happening aound Maggie

Come in and Register for the Kids Fishing Comp Sunday, 13 September.
We had a full week of wonderful light breeze weather, finally. It has been a long time since that’s happened. Our new Residents, the mother and baby whale, (Maggie and Aztec) are still swimming around the island, and the baby is now estimated to be 5-7weeks old. As the baby is still learning, the mother is staying in close and shallow, and sightings from the beaches have been regular. Many sightings are in Arthur Bay, Florence Bay Horseshoe Bay Nelly Bay, and on Sunday morning on our kids trip, these magnificent creatures were right outside Nelly Bay harbour 20 m from the Rock wall. Imagine the excitement from the 8 and 9 year old kids to be heading off for an Island circumnavigate, starting with a massive whale tail rising out of the water right next to the boat.
It looks like my heat exchanger has blown out again, after my last inshore fishing trip I noticed a puff of steam and upon investigation, found coolant through my salt water intake. It is time to take it out of the water again, and spend another thousand bucks.
Pete Adrenalin took a Marine Biologist around the top end on Jet ski and they were privaledged to have a sighting of a Snub Fin Dolphin, a very rare Dolphin Species. Until 2005 these dolphins were not even known to exist, being mistakenly identified as the cousin the “Irrawaddy Dolphin.’
How amazing is the Program Navionics. Not only does it give you sonar charts of the whole of Australia for $21.99 per year, but they are adding new functions all the time. Check this out. Navionics will WiFi connect with the new Ray Marine sounder units to live chart the bottom of the ocean as you travel. Imagine all the boats rewriting the charts constantly, structure, depths, wrecks etc. That’s pretty crazy stuff. No more waiting years after a cyclone to get a picture of changes to the ocean floor. Will that also mean nowhere for the fish to hide as structures become general knowledge?

Boating

As I said earlier, myself, James and Graham took 5 9/10 year olds on one of Cliff’s boats for a trip around the island. Combined with our whale adventure we saw lots of turtles, caught dozens of Wolf Herring, and Doggy Mack, Trevally, Fingermark and a had a top day out. My fish of the week Pic goes to Madeline, with a 64 cm doggy Mack. Maddie’s comments were classic as her Doggy was pronounced legal; size, she let out an excited scream and said “yay we are eating tonight.” Great Job Maddie, and I hope it tasted great. Having that many kids on the boat is a challenge and my grandson nearly gave G and I some new piercings a few times, chucking lures around.
Most of the local boats were out on Sunday, and there were some top fish to be caught out there. Josh landed meter plus Long tail Tuna and Mac Tuna off Liver Point.
Large schools of Trevally off WestPoint provided the fun light tackle battles that can make a great fishing trip.
White rock was relatively quiet, but one 4kg Coral Trout hammered a chunk of squid to end up on Johnno’s dinner table.
Adrenaline Pete got a cracking 4kg Fingermark on the troll over the Argo wreck, trolling a red and white diver.
Barra? , yes they are getting active again. 3 Barra were caught on soft plastics right off Young and Bolger Bays on the drop off. The colour choice for last week was blue in the clear water and gold in the murky water on the full tide run. It’s great to see the Barra warming up. I’m off on a Barra Trip on Thursday to see how active they are, and a Rainbow Trout outing at Lithgow Monday week. Freezing cold kayaking, for the chance of a catch and release Trout, I must be crazy.

Fishing Maggie on Land

Wayne landed another Cracker of a Mangrove Jack, in the harbour, along with a Dusky Flathead and Trevally in a great session on the morning high Wednesday. This Jack missed several chances to get Wayne under a rock and was landed fairly quickly on light gear.
The huge tides made for challenging land based fishing. (Try finding somewhere to fish on a 03 tide.) Crays were the main target off Picnic all weekend with more than 20 reported off Cockle Bay and Picnic Bay alone on the big low tides.
I used the opportunity to remap the structures on the low that produce fish on the high tide. This is a great tactic for all lure Anglers as that’s where the predator fish hang in wait for unsuspecting bait fish to swim by.
Queenies moved into HB midway down the beach on the weekend following the massive Gar schools and provided those high leaping moments. 2-4kg are a fun size Queenie.

Until next time gone Fishin’…. be back at dark-thirty
Cheers Dale
Fish’n N Fuel’n
36 Mandalay Ave, Nelly Bay 4778-5126

For all of your fishing and sports hire gear. We hire and sell fishing rods, and snorkel equipment, plus sell bait, tackle, ice spear fishing equipment, toys, party, pool toys, and BIKE HIRE, SEGWAY TOURS and convenience supplies. Check out Kooler 24 hour Ice 7kg plus $4. New BIKE section. Rod and reel repair available.