Fishin’ Maggie

What’s Happening On Maggie

These strong winds just will not abate. The school holidays finished last weekend and it was a lean time for snorkelers, as well as fishing and sightseeing charters, with so many grounded for nearly the full 3 weeks. It’s the longest consistent strong winds I’ve seen in the Easter holidays ever.

On the positive side of life the Island was incredibly busy and the humidity drop has cheered up many. The water temperature has dropped 3° plus, and is now sitting about 27 degrees around the island. That temperature drop has brought in some big schools of GT’s and Spaniards. For the Barra anglers, the cooler temps mean more lethargic fish and choosing live bait over lures. Wednesday Thursday might see the winds finally abating for a while. Fingers crossed boaties.

Barra are still getting caught in Horseshoe Bay, although you need to take a number for a spot some afternoons.

WestPoint is producing quality Grunter to 3kg. One angler had to do a fast swim to save his little Shimano rig after it was pulled in the water with a big fish attached. He managed to get the rod but the fish was long gone by the time he swam back to shore. No rod holder in can make fishing difficult. On top of that I wouldn’t have swum 20 m out at WestPoint, ever.
A Father and son team, from Brisbane and Ayr respectively, spent a few days here fishing on the jetty with live Herring. They had an absolute ball despite the blustery conditions, and vowed to return soon. Floating Herring off the end of the jetty, they saw action aplenty each morning. Day one started with a run of hard fighting GT’s, a thumping Spaniard, School Mack, and Queenies Galore, these guys couldn’t believe how good our fishing is. Day 2 Saturday morning there were more GT’s and legal size Coral Trout, Golden Trevally, along with some massive runs and snap offs. There were plenty of hungry sharks as well, and it is obvious that the Jetty has come back to life as a quality fishing destination.
With the Greenbacks back in fashion and plentiful, I and others have been trying a new baiting tactic. We head to the jetty, net up some of those big Herring, and take them elsewhere on the island for a fish. Talk about good results, tossing those fish unweighted where there are none has worked well for all of us. Barra seem to love them, as do any other predators in the vicinity including Reds and big Trout.  West Point has been fun if you can take Herring down there after dark. Big Barra equals top action. Personally I’ve been struggling with Lures for a week or two, so I have got back into live bait fishing while the Greenbacks, Yakka’s And Sardines are plentiful.

Death Adder Warning

Death Adders (Acanthophis antarcticus) are reportedly pretty active at the moment. Chris who got bitten at Nelly Bay this week can attest to the fact that the resulting hospital time is not fun at all. In another adder encounter Ray helped a neighbour remove a huge active adult from near the porch, and yet another was on the road at Mandalay heading north on Tuesday.

Fun Facts and the Bizarre

Talking about Herring, Did you know, that Herring communicate by farts? I promise it is true. They keep that amazing school formation is by using farts to coordinate their spacing. The scientific name is FRT (Fast Representative Tick). Basically they squeeze their sphincters, fart and create super high pitched sound (22 kHz) that predators can’t hear. The fart patterns allow communication in keeping the distance between fish the exact distance that predators cannot discern a difference in fish. They squeeze out 60 farts in 6 seconds in patterns. They also use farts to fool predators and try to escape in the bubbles.

While talking about the Bizarre, a visitor to the island called James had read my spider story last week, and told me his weird tale. I thought it was on the urban myth side of fishing stories, but he had his wife with him and they swore it was true. He was down in Noosaville fishing recently, and things were very quiet so he and his wife decided to have a sneaky skinny-dip in the river together, hidden behind the pier. As he started swimming he suddenly yelled as a hungry Bream attached itself to his appendage. Apparently his wife was laughing so hard that she was no help at all, and another Bream was showing some interest as well. A wack in the head to scare the fish off and he made it back to shore, Needless to say I didn’t agree to see the scarring as proof.

Welcome Back Pilgrim Sailing

Pilgrim sailing have sailed into town, back from their very busy summer charter stint in Sydney. The team is ready to start sailing from Nelly Bay from the fifth of March. The Island needs quality offers, and this one fits the bill. Cruising the coast of Maggie in the afternoon with a cold beverage, great company and spectacular scenery is not to be missed. We went out last year and had a ball.  Whale season is nearly here again, and the chance to see whales in the afternoon on a relaxing cruise can be as spectacular as the hand selected cheese and wine and of course great the great company. Glad to have you back Paul and Clare.

Blinking Ballista’s

I had trouble sleeping recently and decided to go down to Horseshoe Bay and flick a Lure at the stupid hour of 4 AM. Yep I’m crazy I Should have had a shot of coffee first because I only made about 10 casts trying a new Ballista  LED flashing lure before stupidly snagging up on the far end of the boat ramp too far underwater to retrieve.
Last week I was down at the HB boat ramp talking to Jason, and he was telling me about this new Lure he had found snagged on the ramp, and subsequently lost further down the beach. I said was it a flashing one. Sure enough it was my flashing Ballista he had found, still flashing merrily away underwater, days later. Now he has unintentionally donated my lure to the next lucky angler. I wonder who has it now; recycling lures is part of fishing life.

The other question is if anyone catches a fish on it. I don’t want it back but if anyone found the lure again, can you drop in and tell me where you found it and whether you caught a fish please?

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, bike hire and ELECTRIC BIKE HIRE, SEGWAY TOURS, car hire and convenience supplies. Check out Kooler 24 hour Ice 7kg $4.