Fishin’ Maggie
What’s Happening On Maggie
Whales are finally back, the fast-moving early pods are currently cruising past our reefs with the main mass soon to follow. I was chatting to the boys on Adrenaline Dive on Saturday afternoon and they were still buzzing from their experience. The boat was moored at Yongala with divers down and one other charter dive boat on another mooring. The boys on board were treated to an energetic and extremely curious fully-grown Humpback, who circled their boat for a good look right up close, then went and checked out the other boat. Then this majestic beast dived down to the Yongala wreck and visited the astounded divers. What a rush that was for all on the trip. Check out their Facebook for some of the cool pics.
The monthly competition for the Game Fishing Comp was on last weekend and what a big weekend it was. Black Marlin have moved into the Northern and Southern Marlin grounds off the cape en-masse, and finally after many challenging Marlin fishing years, the season started with a bang, not a whisper. Black Marlin are great sport and our small blacks are feisty and hard to keep hooked up. I was happy to get out with John and Brent on the weekend to chase a few. We finished Saturday with 5-5-2 a great day in rough challenging conditions. The last 2 Marlin came in a double hook-up at the end of the day, a real challenge for the skipper John. The two Marlin came in to the boat at the same time and John did an amazing job controlling the boat, organising the deck and then tagging two lively fish in 20 seconds. We just got to play with leaping Marlin, leaving the hard work in his capable hands, thanks John and good job Brent.
There are plenty of hungry Doggie Mac’s hanging around the pylons and right in the middle of the channel, not huge but great sporting fun. They are aggressive and eat sinkers on jigs to the frustration of anglers. One solution I was using is a dropper sub, a sinker with a hook attached, used for soft plastics. Jig them with no bait and you clean up. Last Monday for something different I jigged up a 62cm Grey Mac on and decided I’d drop it back down on an 8/0 hook and see what happened. There are some big Finger-mark to be had along the channel wall so dropping a big livie can be a good move. The Mac lasted about 15 seconds before it got taken by something huge. My rod peeled meters of line off per second as the unknown creature took off. Very quickly it decided to breach, and the line started to straighten towards the surface. I wasn’t looking in the right direction when it breached and suddenly there was this massive splash and Ray said, “Holy …. Look at that” I turned my head I just saw the end of this massive shark dropping back into the water. Immediately it went below and breached again doing a full half twist with the whole body out of the water. It was a two-meter plus whaler but it leapt nearly as high as my boat canopy. The manoeuvre worked perfectly for the shark and dislodged the hook. All I got back was a badly chomped mackerel tail, time to move the boat.
While I’m on the subject of big sharks, I had this story come to me last week. An angler with a Haines Hunter Patriot 6.5 meter boat was spending the night fishing at Chicken Reef on his own. Now I prefer company, and don’t really like night trips on my own in case something happens. (Ever seen the movie where the guy falls from the boat and there is no one to save him?)
This guy was out doing a bit of hand net squiding when his whole sounder screen lit up with colour and shapes. He was netting the squid hanging over the side of the boat. Just in time he saw this massive dark shape coming up at him from the deep and jumped back into the boat. This massive bull shark leaped out of the water and part way into the boat, landing hard on the gunnels, pulling the boat down on that side to the edge of the water. Old mate reckoned if he had of been slightly slower the massive Noah would’ve cleaned him up. As it was the weight of the shark landing on the side, nearly swamped the boat. Now that’s a scary moment.
A reminder now to check your flare dates. I got pulled up on the weekend out at the channel markers and unfortunately my flares were out of date. I thought they were 2018 but I think belatedly that that was the ones in my other boat. An expensive lesson and a wopping $243 fine. As Wayne said when he checked, “Dale you sell them you should be current.” True and I thought I was. It did look like he was enjoying his new job on the Police boats, the weather was perfect in shore but he doesn’t get to run troll lines.
If you get a chance, have a fish around White Lady Bay. The structures are holding good Coral Trout, Trevally and Queenies and unweighted Pillie is producing good hauls for a small area. Im going to use the windy days to fish the Jetty this week, something different and relaxing.
Until next time gone Fishin’…. be back at dark-thirty
Cheers Dale
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