The Autumn fishing has been loads of good fun, with plenty of different species, in all the usual places. Not all of the fish being hooked are legal-size, in fact there are heaps of tiddlers about, but it all makes for some good family fishing in the Passage.
Bribie Island Fishing Club also had a good day out today, catching more than 40 fish - mostly undersized, but some nice-sized venus tuskfish among them. There were some bullseyes in their tally, too - odd-looking fish, which like to come into shallow sections of the Passage over winter.Top of Form
As the wind has been turning from one direction to another, the best fishing has swung from one side of the passage to the other. There have been some impressive Venus tusk-fish caught near Turner’s Camp – this has been particularly at or near the top of the tide, on a light wind. Just coming into the next new moon, conditions should be excellent for targeting this excellent table-fish, even if it is almost too pretty to eat! Try some mullet fillet on a smallish hook, with a nice strong leader.
The other side of the Passage has been the most consistent fishing ground over the past couple of weeks. From the second red marker north of the bridge, up past the entrance to Pacific Harbour and Banksia Beach, right to the top end of White Patch – there is almost always something on the bite, lately. Moses perch and grassy sweetlips have been fairly common finds over that way; some of the sweetlips, in particular, have been well and truly dinner-sized. There have also been plenty of good bream, in the canals of Pacific Harbour, as well as along the side of Banksia Beach. Terence and his mates brought a couple of nice ones home; caught with mullet on a falling tide, just off the Avon wreck.
Some bigger snapper have been showing up in the same spots as the sweetlip and moses perch. It’s always good to see them back; there have been reports of some very impressive snapper at the ripples near Pacific Harbour. The south-easterly breezes have been encouraging the snapper- try to get started early in the day, using soft-plastic lures or fresh fillets.
Probably the most plentiful fish in the past week have been whiptails – a pretty, slender fish with three bluish stripes across the snout, and yellow stripes from behind the eye to below the pectoral fin. The upper tail-fin is often stretched into a very long filament.
Although the cool snap at the start of June might spell an end to the best of the crabbing, there have been plenty in the pots lately. Evan, who has a boat in Spinnaker Sound Marina, showed us a mud crab he picked up on the weekend. It was nice and full, trapped just south of Poverty Creek, using mullet - of course. Chris showed me some great photos of his catches this past couple of weeks, including a heap of sand crabs. The saying goes that crabbing takes place in the months of the year with "R" in them but many locals believe that the best months are from about March through to June.
Chris also had some big snapper for dinner the other night – he tells me the best way to cook them are whole, stuffed with onion, brown rice and apple. Try it!
Outside the Passage, Cook’s Rocks has been fishing well, for whiting especially but the wind has been a little changeable and not always good for a pleasant day’s fishing.
There has been a fair bit of weed outside the Passage (often called blanket weed, because that’s what it does – it blankets your anchor line, your fishing line and your bait!). The ocean beach, south of Woorim, has been hit from time to time, making the whiting fishing quite tricky.
There have been some reports of tailor – both surfside and in the Passage. Soon they’ll be running, and that means even more fun!