Fishin’ Maggie
First of all congratulations to Ray, Isaac, Joel, and the other boys who went out to WestPoint and scored big time , with 8 odd Barra’s in a single night session during the week. The boys told me the banana prawns were going ape out there on the tide rise, and the Barra were actively smashing big prawns and anything else that they could find. Those powerhouse Barra sessions are top fun, awesome to watch, and it was great to see some of the big Barra thrown back for another day as well. Great job boys.
Ethan has also scored his 1st and 2nd ever Barra in the same week, inside the harbour at night. The first (and most important) Barra stayed on the line, despite some top acrobatic attempts to dislodge the hooks. Ethan, it’s been a long time coming, congrats from Magnetic Adventure & Hire and more to come. Now you have to catch one on lure.
The Easter break has had some fine fishing moments, and quality catches, as many boats took advantage of the great weather.
One of Cliffs “Get around Island” group got more than they bargained for when they hooked a massive 6 foot Hammerhead shark. There will be memories and pics in the holiday album of the moment they got it to the side of the boat and released it.
In other shark stories a 4m plus tiger shark was filmed off Nelly bay cruising the shallows before taking a drum line bait in the afternoon on Sunday. Shane B took some extraordinary pics of this behemoth, check it out on Magnetic Adventure & Hire or Shanes facebook.
This coming weekend will be much more windy, and lumpy for boating, so I suggest you get out now while the weather is perfect.
Onshore Fishing
For those of you that like fishing for quality Grunter, (like most northern anglers because they rate high in the super tasty range), then you had better get out to the west side of Maggie. With the bigger banana prawns making an appearance, so are the Grunter. The beach at WestPoint still has good numbers and they are active in the morning, and on the neap tides. Live bait is a great option for these superb fish, but if you can’t get any with the net, make sure you have some good squid or prawns in the esky. Grunter to 65cm range have been landed in the rocky shoaly areas, and up at the far northern rocky point. A number of anglers have spotted bigger prawn schools than usual in the small bay before the rocks and also found squid and prawns in the stomachs some of the Grunter.
Flathead has been taking baits or lures at Horseshoe Bay and in the harbour at Nelly Bay These fish are excellent eating and should be bleed and put on ice straight away if you are going to keep it. I usually catch and release a couple at Nelly on soft plastics, fish the shoaly areas mid beach, or off the culvert.
That big Barra (or more than one?) is causing much cursing at the jetty as it breaks lines just on or after dark. This bugger knows how to use the pylons and is still scoring wins against the light gear anglers. Hand lining with live bait may be an option but if the Barra hits, you want to be hanging on to that hand reel.
Those big Trevally are back in the harbour, sitting on top of the thousands of HardyHead congregating around the terminal lights at night. These big Trevors take some stirring up, but once in a frenzy, will hit lures one after another. I call this the best fun you can have in Nelly between 6.30 and 8.30pm, and as they are regular harbour visitors, we always welcome their arrival.
Offshore Fishing
Decent Cobia and some 6kg plus Largemouth Nannygai have been some of the haul out at the Maggie shoals in a very sharky set of fish tales. Hungry sharks have been very actively targeting line catches at the shoals for weeks and some reports have had up to half the hooked fish sharked before reaching the boat. It is a frustrating time and requires multiple moves in an attempt to keep your fish.
Maggies spear fishing population have reported the largest population increase in big Coral Trout around Nelly for years. The reasons are unknown, but the bommies are again populated with plenty of small and many large Trout. Fishing with pilchards or soft plastics in Nelly Bay evening and night in a small tinny, kayak, old bathtub, or whatever floats is a great way to get one of these top table fish.
Remember, “To the world it may be just one fish but to me it is the World”
Until next time gone Fishin’…. be back dark-thirty
Cheers Dale
Fish’n N Fuel’n
36 Mandalay Ave, Nelly Bay 4778-5126
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