It was a rare occurrence but it did happen …I actually got out for a fish!!!!!!
I managed to hitch a ride on a bigger boat and tried my hand at trolling. This was my first serious try at game fishing as I have joined Bribie Island Game Fishing Club. This is something new for me as I am mainly a bait fisher. We left Pacific Harbour at 4.30am steamed out to Cape Moreton and started to troll. Just after we rounded the Cape and headed south towards Brennan’s Shoal the rod out the furthest went off and the owner of the boat Alex yelled the words I wanted to hear FISH ON. After a few tense moments trying to keep this fish away from the propellers we managed to land a 10kg yellow tail king fish. As this was early in the day we thought we were in for a huge day, but we were mistaken. Several hours later still with still only the one fish in the esky our spirits were waning then we came across an awesome sight. One of the boats that we were in contact with told us of a free jumping marlin not far away so we headed into what we thought was a feeding frenzy but it turned out to be a mega pod of dolphins that were feeding on a huge bait school. There were tuna and marlin in there as well so we trolled through the middle of the pod and the dolphins started to put on a show for us. I did manage to get some video of this and if you want to see it go to the Gateway Bait and Tackle Facebook page and have a look. It was an awesome sight but we didn’t manage to hook up any fish so we left the dolphins to do their thing and trolled north. With Alex driving and me watching the rods, (and occasionally nodding off ) I heard a splash beside me and saw a couple of tuna and at that same moment an 8 kg tuna hit the lures and I got to yell the words FISH ON. After an all too brief fight we landed the fish and headed back in. (for information on Bribie Game Fishing Club contact me at the shop)
On the way back in we tried to throw a couple of metal lures at the shipping channel markers as we knew there were school mackerel feeding off them. We hooked up twice but couldn’t land these hard fighting fish and the wind had picked up so home we went after a long day on the water.
Just as a quick guide to the passage, healthy bream all through the passage with good size to them as well. Flathead on all the weed banks so drifting unweighted baits over the top is a good method to catch them. Whiting on the surf in good numbers but the bigger fish are up the passage in all the creek mouths.
Bribie Island 4×4 report:
With all the Brisbane residents escaping the G20 this weekend camping is all booked up. After the little rain we got the track have improved slightly but after the first onslaught of cars on Friday this will go back to normal soft and chopped up. So remember to drop your tyre pressures to 18-20 PSI and you won’t have a problem.