Gladstone Blog

This past weekend wasn’t real flash for sneaking out the front and it’s only these past few days where we have seen the wind drop out again but coupled with the New moon last Tuesday evening the timing couldn’t have been better.

Those who managed to get out late last week though certainly had a great time with some really excellent Reds being caught and one or two had some big numbers of trout ending up in the esky.

Inshore though last weekend was all about Grunter and how big these things can get.

Young Joel Harley nabbed a couple of beauties around the 61cm mark on live mullet, of which his Mum was pretty pleased as there were a few feeds on each of them.

Darren Box also bagged a rather big one as well around the 71cm mark caught on live herring in Colosseum inlet after he and most of his family decided to chase some Barra in water around Mann’s Weir in the Boyne, but many others had thought the same and the area was rather crowded, hence slipped over to Collo.

In this instance being around 4pm catching the last half of the run-in tide with his trusty 7’ rod, 15lb line 20lb leader and 6/0 wide mouth hook it did the trick.

It’s quite obvious that the live bait has great success as well, plus they will hang around those areas with a gravel bottom more so than just a muddie floor.

I have to say the sunset in the background is stunning as well.

Out the front the Mackeral are still chasing live and dead baits as well as lures.

Queensland fisheries have also been publishing nice warnings about bag limits and the fines which could be applied to those caught breaking the rules which could range from $504 up to a whopping $126,150!

To prevent that become familiar with the size and bag limits as they are there for a reason and that’s to have a sustainable fishery for many years to come.

If you reach your limits on certain species make sure you handle those fish you are returning to the water correctly, and having wet hands to start off with will prevent the protective slime on the fish from being removed.

We live in an amazing region with some many options of different systems and locations to choose from so we need to look after them.

This weekend the weather for slipping out the front isn’t flash with some 15 – 20 knot Southerlies and South Easterlies being predicted from today through the weekend and maybe, just maybe abating on Monday morning.

The swell will also pick up tomorrow so be aware of that as well as the tide and wind when exiting the rivers and creeks into the open.

For those who don’t have a boat the likes of lake Awoonga does have options not only for hiring a boat of Nudge for the day but also the water temp is still not that cold being around the 22 deg mark (and it’ll only get better) which will certainly encourage those Barra which have been chilly to gather on the verges of the weed beds in the sunny bays.

Nudge also tells me that there have been some solid Sooty grunter being caught too.

Finally, the new Wild Adventure dvd from Johnny Mitchell is out soon and if you have seen the promo clip on Face book I’m sure your appetite will certainly be stirred up.

Until next week Hooroo Dags