Fishin’ Maggie
What’s Happing on Maggie
Janie and I we were on one of the 227 boats sitting in the Townsville duck pond Saturday watching the T-150 Air show in the 20 knot wind chop and swell. Even the boat we were on, TH’s 95 foot Voyager was rocking and rolling, although much less than the smaller boats. Fantasy Arcadia dragged anchor in the soft mud and strong wind several times, and had to reposition itself.
Air shows are good people watching events. F16 AND FA18’s and the Colossal Globemasters, mean’t cheers and clapping, earplugs and standing up, everything else meant talk a lot and refill your drinks. (With the exception of the speedy old Mustang) Even with wall to wall boats, keen boaties still managed to wet a line or 6 on their boats while watching the show, even through there were boats crammed all around them. I only saw one catfish pulled out in the whole time we were anchored, and it circumnavigated another boats anchor line first, causing some yelling and carry on.
Does anyone have a lead on all the dead fish that were reported all across Radical and Balding Bay last week? Maybe it was bycatch from a trawler?
If you are on Facebook you would have caught up with the Arcadia Guesthouse 4WD which met its salty demise in the soft sticky mud at Cockle Bay. The luckless visitors decided to have a close-up look at the City of Adelaide shipwreck without getting out of the car. No traction plus thick mud plus tide coming in = uh oh. I bet their credit card took a huge hit.
Lake Tinaroo had their annual Barra Bash 10k comp last weekend. I was up there Thursday night for a look. The lake is down to 47%, and they were hosting 250 boats and capping registrations at 1000 anglers. Holy Crap, that’s a lot of anglers. Apparently according to one local participant, it was quite the spectacle having so many boats fishing in the critically low waters. Even the main boat ramp ended about 3m above the water line. For the first time this year though, the comp was catch and release, a gret leap forward in an impound lake.
Thanks to Grant and Island Taxis who are going to help put some seating on the Picnic Bay Jetty, we will keep you all in the loop with this project.
The new underwater camera has arrived, and I have been testing by looking under some of the harbour pontoons. There is some amazing growth and fish life hiding under there, right next to your rods. I’ll chuck some video on Facebook shortly
Fishing Maggie
Congratulations to Roger for his hard fought 6 kg plus Golden Trevally caught on a cheap old Mack spoon off Horseshoe Bay. The guys also found Red Emperor Juveniles (not undersize by much) inhabiting the weed beds in the area. The area used to be one of Barnacle Bill’s favourite catch and release spots, with lots of colourful tropical fish to look at and release.
That couple of day gap in the wind early in the week allowed some boats to get out deeper, and the fish seemed very cooperative. The big fat Trout are certainly still very active. One of the local cats bagged out in Spaniards and Trout on their day reef trip, and another had their Trout boat limit in only 2 hours. Slab baits, Pillies and heavy jigs worked equally well as the very competitive fish slammed all offerings. Productive reefs were Keeper, Hopkinson and Grub with Trout everywhere
John and Blake went out on trip to Myrmidon and and bagged a big dolly, plus went 2-1-0 with big Marlin. The Reef bottom bouncing this year has been spectacular although I still see everyone complaining about sharks taking so many of their fish before it gets to the boat.
The Lions Park beach has been harbouring Herring and with it Grunter and good size squid, a favourite food in our house. High tide on the big moon is great with strip baits and squid jigs.
A 1.6 kg Flathead off the block on Saturday in high winds, the 2nd caught in the area in a week, hopefully heralds the return of decent flathead to the inner shore area after a noticeable winter absence.
New Stuff
GlobalFishingWatch.org
This innovative web platform allows all of us to track and watch the activities of all the trawlers in the world (I’m interested) and report illegal fishing. Started by the Leonardo DiCaprio foundation, the object is to allow all of us to watch over and protect our fishing grounds, and report transgressions. Set up a free account and check it out. I looked at our area and you can watch and check trawlers in our waters with a slider bar to look in the past as well. An interesting website, check it out.
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.