Fishin’ Maggie
What’s Happening on Maggie
Big tides were hampering fishing last week, with the huge run making finding the fish a reel challenge.( Old Pun) Barra was the preferred target and finding Mullet was the big mission, believe me they were tough to find. Barra were on the chew an hour before the high and there were plenty around near creek outlets boat ramps and rocks. Nelly Bay Harbour Cockle Bay, and Horseshoe Bay were all hotspots but having live Mullet was definitely an advantage. Congratulations to all those who scored a Barra. Andy was the first with a Picture, a golden healthy 70cm Barra. Patience and live bait always get rewarded so get out there. We had a ball fishing the high Saturday morning in a blistering short session. After we ran out of live Mullet we had to use live Gar. If you haven’t seen Queenies chasing live gar you should give it a go. The water boils, the Gar gets hit over and over again all the way to shore and then they finally hook up and you get the classic leaping Queenie display. Live Gar are the 2nd best island Bait, and quite often easier to get than Mullet.
Several boaties arrived super early with their boats at the Nelly Bay boat ramp at 4 am and 4.30 am Sunday morning, only to realise the tide was way too low to launch, at 0.68m. The bottom of the ramp is just too slippery to hold the car. Imagine getting out of bed at 3am to go fishing, and having to sit and watch the tide come up when you are keen as mustard to get out to the reef.
JC got more action than he bargained for when he was spearing for Trout out near WestPoint. His dad was in the boat nearby watching out for him when a 3.5m Hammerhead decided it was breakfast time. The massive and hungry shark launched out of the water chasing a large stingray, and JC was caught away from the boat and unable to swim towards it as the carnage occurred. In this battle of nature Hammerhead won and Stingray became breakfast. JC had a chance then to get back to the boat and as you can imagine he moved fairly quickly, his adrenalin flooded body having no problems with the short swim. Nature can be awesome and also scary when you share the venue.
Sunday there was half a dozen local spear boats out around the island, all chasing Trout and Crays in the murky waters. Crays were hard to come by with 2 crays being a morning average.
Powerray Drone – New Technology
Release Date 27/2/2017
Check out the new hi-tech fisherman’s friend: PowerRay. ( just google the name) This drone can track fish underwater – and even drag your hook or lure to them. It uses a sonar system and blue LED lures to bring fish to you. The underwater drones sonar system detects fish up to 40m below the swimming robot and it can dive up to 30m. It has a remotely operated precision remote bait drop to deliver the users bait to the desired location, which they can then monitor and control the entire fishing experience via the smartphone app. The drone includes 4K UHD camera functions for underwater photography and videography.
The development firm claims its sonar system can detect fish up to 131 feet (40 meters) below the swimming robot – making the total diving depth up to 230 feet (70 meters) with precision up to 3.9 inches (10 centimetres). For Maggie Island that means you can take it in your boat head out to the shoals, drop the done, find the fish and drop our jig or bait. Where’s the fun? On the other hand looking for Crays becomes was less work, Powerdrone can search all the Island Bommies for you. It also hooks up to VR Glasses so you can be immersed in your camera vision.
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.