Fishin’ Maggie
What’s Happening On Maggie
The TGFC had their Ladies day on Saturday with 27 boats registered. Magnetic Adventure & Hire had one of our own Belinda registered in the Comp and the fishing was as tough as it’s ever been, with windy rough conditions and Marlin tough to catch. Consolation Spaniards were everywhere so most boats came home with dinner for all, not many tagged Billies though. As stated before this seems to be a huge run of rough weather out deeper, and with the holidays now here we would all love a break.
How cute is our newest resident duck in the Marina. Nicknamed Duncan (Dunkin?) by some schoolkids, he spends most of his time sitting stationary on the rock and a little time fishing. Reported last week was a decent size toothy Barracuda floating stationary nearby. How the duck feet kicking in the water don’t entice a strike I’ll never know. (I’m still amazed that all those big Booby Birds (Sula nebouxii) way out deep in the clear water don’t get eaten by sharks…or do they?)
The run of Doggie Mackerel is continuing as these fine eating fish congregate around the Island and the shipping channel, (in fact they are everywhere.) The trick with these fish at the moment is not to troll for them, they are working deep and eating tiny baitfish. Drifting pilchard baits is a technique that works best for these fish and with the strong currents on the dropping tide you can get these baits out away from the shore and if angling from a boat, away from the boat. Setting up a berley trail off will entice the mackerel into your fishing area resulting in a much higher catch rate. As mentioned last week I still like dropping a small jig or sinker with jig assist hook attached.
A great land based and under fished spot is Rocky Bay and the reports of lots winter Whiting and flathead from those that venture down there make it worth the walk. Take it easy I heard a boat got swamped last week sith the big waves, whilst fishing the area. From the land setting sand spikes, and using small prawns on the run out tide should see some fish in the bag. When targeting whiting Yabbies are excellent bait and spending a few hours sifting them at low tide is defiantly worth the effort. Cockle Bay is a great spot to collect Yabbies.
For the holidays get down the Picnic Bay Jetty where the Queenies GT’s and Mac’s are still smashing Herring jigged up and dropped live away from their friends. (Remember the Herring fart story?, get the fish away in the open and you can’t lose.) Try to drag the big fish all the way to the beach to reduce losses and snap offs.
Barra should be targeted now before the water cools too much more, (23 degrees and they are getting lazy.) It is against the norm for this time of year but lures are working great, both on the Island and in town. (Top effort to Luke, with 18 Barra in a single day session on the Houghton.) Normally livie’s would be the way to go to get these sportfish firing in the cooler waters. Barra are in Horseshoe Bay, the Harbour and out in the western mangroves.
WestPoint has seen big Grunter fishing towards the shoals and rocks on slab baits or big fresh prawns. (Peeled Endeavours.) Just after dark works well, after the sunset crowd have gone home. For boaties, this week heading around to WestPoint, anchoring up on the edge of the sand drop offs or any area rubble (like at Young Bay) with the first hour of the run in and out, great times to get into a good Grunter patch. You will often encounter nice size Jacks and Pikey Bream as well which are great sport on lighter tackle. The head of Retreat Creek and Ned Lees Creek has these hard fighting fish hanging close to the structure. Last time I was there on the northern side of NLC there was a large shopping trolley turned into a crab pot, dangerous for losing gear and the tricky fish sit inside for safety.
For the avid lure fisherman there is one lure that should be in every tackle box particularly in the winter time and that is the Zerek Prawn. Anglers using these have caught Trevally and Barra and there is literally not a fish these lures won’t catch.
In our tidal creeks, at WestPoint and and off the rock wall near the harbour, the crabbing has been very consistent with some nice bucks showing up. Thanks Graham for bringing me one last week, I’ve been a little too busy to put pots in.Fresh bait is always the key to a good feed of crabs, and for long life add a can of slightly punctured cat food. I’m pretty sure the new moon was the key to good crabbing last week so we will see what this week holds.
Until next time gone Fishin’…. be back at dark-thirty
Cheers Dale
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