The whales are gone and it's time to breathe a sigh of relief when it comes to those pre-dawn runs out to your favourite spot. Plenty of stable weather this month saw the boat ramp car parks filled to capacity on numerous occasions. With all that traffic on the water it's no surprise there's been lots of great fish caught this month.
For those with a taste for fresh calamari, there's still large numbers of squid around. The weed beds at Tangalooma are choc-a-bloc and the crystal clear water can make for quite a visually pleasing little session. You can often clearly see the squid rise from the weed to charge down the jig. It's certainly a great one for the kids! Squid have excellent eyesight so it's essential to use a very light leader, around 6 – 10lb. The secret weapon for me lately I've found has been the new Sephia Flash jigs from Shimano. The flickering little mirror inside the body seems to be irresistible to most squid and little to no action is required to get a bite. Often just casting toward a patch of weed and letting the jig sink is enough to rouse any squid lurking nearby. The combined bag limit of 50 Squid and Cuttlefish (20 for Tiger Squid) is more than generous, so only take what you can eat, or plan to use for bait, then leave the rest for next time. Large live squid make excellent baits for big Kingfish and Cobia.
The Spanish are completely gone now and the Kingfish have moved in and in big numbers too! While the water temperature is still a little on the cool side, they're not feeding aggressively just yet, meaning they're still a bit “lure shy” but they're readily smashing livebaits fished at mid-depth. Kingies are a schooling fish and often school up with other King's of the same size. There's plenty of rats around but there are schools of trophy, plus-sized, fish out there to be found. Because they’re a schooling fish, where you find one, you'll find more. Kingfish are very powerful fish! A 20kg GT would tow a 20kg King backwards for about 30seconds before the Kingy would tow the GT backwards for the rest of the day. Their brutish nature means they're often targeted for catch and release as they're an incredible sportfish. If you're targeting them to keep for the table then it's worth mentioning that the slimmer looking fish usually have poor quality flesh that goes mushy when cooked. Look for healthy fish in good condition with a fat, round, bulging mid section. The fatter fish, I've found, generally have much firmer flesh and are excellent eating. The bag limit of two fish over 60cm might seem tight but when you consider how much flesh comes off just one fish and the fact that it doesn't freeze well means that two fish per person is more than adequate.
I briefly mentioned the Yellowfin Tuna last month that will be migrating past us at the moment. Thanks to a hot tip from one of the commercial long liners on social media, us local recreational anglers were made aware of a “finger” of warm water protruding, in our direction, from the East Australian Current. A very small handful of keen locals made the trek out over the shelf and were well-rewarded for their efforts with a couple of big barrels of Yellowfin Tuna. They're there! It's great to see the barrier between rec's and pro's being broken down due to the mutual respect and sharing of knowledge that's developed over recent times through social media.
This month was highlighted by one of the biggest events on the SEQ fishing tournament calendar, and that's the SCF Fishing Research and Sustainability Tournament. This year's tournament saw great participation numbers and dished out over $60,000 in prizes. It coincided with a nice little window of calm weather which made for an exciting and competitive tournament. For those who were in with a real shot at the bickies, there were quite a lot of nail biting moments as the live leader board regularly chopped and changed throughout the tournament. It was one of our own, a local Bribie angler, Ashlee Morris, who took out greatest honours, being crowned Champion Female Angler for the tournament. Ash's bag of 45 fish made up of 24 different species was enough for her to claim two cheques this year: Champion Female Angler, and she also took out the Giant Herring category. This saw Ash continue her legacy from previous years as a formidable force on the SEQ tournament scene. The annual SCF Research tournament is very professionally run and is a great cause to get behind as it's all in the name of science and sustainability. Hope to see you there next year! Tight lines folks,
Pelagic Hunter
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