Photo: Barry Meredith from Bribie Game Fishing Club with his massive mahi mahi (dolphinfish)
This week the passage fishing is a case of steady as she goes, as most of the action has been offshore, as you will see by this week’s picture.
To summarise the passage, we have reports of whiting from the bottom of the island (Red beach and Skirmish Point) and around all the inflows into the passage. Bream will also be caught around the mouths of both canals and the coffee rock structures all through the passage. Flathead are coming from all the usual areas but by far the best spot is the mainland bank south of the bridge between the green markers in the shallows. Moses perch are being boated from the Ripples and the nearby ledges. Mackerel are starting to make an appearance south of the bridge and if you are fishing off the bank at Red Beach don’t be surprised if the bait fish bust up in front of you as the macks are there as well.
Now for the offshore side of things:
Floyd and Barry from the Bribie Island Game fishing went on a trip and had a ball on the pelagics that are smashing trolled baits at the moment. The terrible twosome managed to tag two black marlin and three dolphin fish with one male dolphin fish a pending Queensland record on 10kg line class. Other reports from offshore include tuna from inside the bay with two of our three species that we get here caught. Those species are mackerel tuna, longtail tuna and yellowfin tuna. The fish are also ranked in the same order in their eating quality as well. Mackerel tuna are more of a bait species as the eating quality is poor. Longtails are the first of the tunas that are a good feed and are also the biggest tuna we get here in the northern waters, they are also known as northern bluefin tuna. Yellowfin tuna is the pick of the tuna as that is what is used in the sushi market. They are not normally found inside the bay but are a common catch out on the trolling grounds. It is important with all the tuna species to bleed them if you intend to keep them as they build up lactic acid after being caught and if you don’t get all the blood out of them the meat has an ammonia taste to it.
Bribie Island 4×4 report;
There is some works going on to get the tracks and camp grounds ready for the silly season so if you are travelling up the beach you may come across some machinery so take care when driving. This work is on both the beach and the inland track. Camping is all but gone here on Bribie for the Christmas and New Year period with only the Poverty Creek camper trailer area with any room left but this is filling fast. There are other options available so call me on 54975253 or pop in to discuss.