Fishin’ Maggie
What’s New on the Rock
Last week was another wonderful week on the island, with a good boating weekend, and a little rain to start greening things up for Christmas. The rush is on to get some fresh fish and big Mud crabs for Christmas, so I have seen lots of the small tinnie’s out and around.
Pop Sullivan has his big ex charter boat “Kathleen Mary” berthed in the harbour now. It will be interesting to see what becomes of her.
Some fish deaths were reported in the upper Gustav Creek area near the MI school. The incoming tides allow the fish to swim up past the bridge chasing food, and some fish always stay in the shallow pool on the receding tide. Unfortunately the recent 40mm downpour several weeks ago had pushed lots of vegetation down Gustav Creek to the pool area before the drain pipes. Without water flow the vegetation break down process caused the loss of oxygen in the water, and the fish remaining in the pool died.
Thankfully most of the vegetation is cleared now; we don’t want to lose our Baby Barra and other species too often.
Crabbing has improved, after a very lean Island crabbing season. For some reason though, only Bucks are finding their way into the crab pots. Maybe the Jenny’s are still tucked up in the mud while the Frisky Bucks are out looking for a mate.
JK picked up an absolute stonker by hand just walking along mangroves on Sunday.
The asbestos removal team is approaching completion of the clean-up at White Lady Bay. They will be finished just in time for Christmas, and the area should be perfect for that special picnic. More than 4 Tonnes of Asbestos has been removed from depths of up to 10m. JCU have land there now and they will be doing ongoing research.
I heard Jay managed to hit a possum near base on the Scooter and spent a few hours in the clinic. Night biking is hazardous on the Island. The old Red bull Scooter needs repairs, and may be off the road for a while.
Fishing Maggie by Land
JK had a blinder session on Sunday catching 15 (no lie ) Flathead in 1 single beach session. There were 2 of them throwing soft plastics around, but that still rates as a huge session.
The smaller Jetty GT’s have been joined by a couple of big 10kg plus monsters. They feed with the others but have so far refused to take a lure, but it takes just one of them feeding to fire up all the rest.
Off the beach the Whiting are small, but hungry, taking small peeled prawns. It’s surprising how many Whiting Anglers are here on Maggie. On the concrete block at Nelly Bay Fridayday I watched a school large Queenfish tear into the bait schools. I had no rod unfortunately, but they were big fish. Small schools of Queenies are also smashing baitfish on the Jetty. Wayne landed a respectable 81cm Queenie on super light 8lb gear with a kids Rod. The Queenie took off for the wild blue, and had to be played for longer than normal to prevent a bust off.
Fishing Maggie by Boat
WT was one of many that reported Coral Trout on the bite. WT went for a quick fish over at Bay Rock, and within 30 minutes had 3 3-5kg Trout in the Esky. After spawning, Coral Trout are supposed to be a bit lethargic but not this time. They are taking lures on the troll, and are superb whole baked.
I took my 2 grandkids for a run on my Tinny Saturday morning before work, as we babysat Friday night. I took off around to Cockle Bay and worked some soft plastics on the incoming tide looking for Jacks and Flathead. Jacks were smashing Gulp Quid Vicious as they tracked through the water. Unfortunately so were Barra. You could watch the gold shapes under the water as they followed the lures, just before they attacked. 70cm Barra fight very hard, particularly for a 9 year old. Congratulations to Kyahn on his first Barra and we had fun filming safe releases as closed season is on. It was easier to move on as we did not want to catch Barra and it was obvious they were on the chew.
Greys on the other hand have become very scarce already. Some were caught last week with roe, and the final fishing reports in suggest that they might have left the area, apart from just a few stragglers.
Brewer Reef has been very productive. It is never my favourite reef, as it gets heavily fished, but it has been producing good quantities of large Trout consistently for weeks now, but alas no Spaniards.
An Old Joke
A man phones his wife from work. “Honey I have a chance to go for a weekend reef fishing trip. It’s an awesome opportunity. Can you please pack my clothes, my fishing gear and my blue PJ’s. I’ll be home in an hour to pick them up.”
“ Sure sweetie I can do that”
Monday morning the man comes home. His wife asks: “Did you have a good trip, dear?.”
He says “Oh yes it was great. But you forgot to pack my blue PJ’s.”
His wife looks at him quizzically and says, “Oh no I didn’t. I packed them in your tackle box.”
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.