GC 24s

[two dogs]

Hello fellow ausfishers

just a quick report from the gold coast. Went out yesterday with three generations on board, me being the youngest, and fished the 24s out from the seaway. Found it hard going with just the odd legal trag or squire coming on board now and again until dad landed a good sized cobe from the bottom. When the tide changed and started to noticeably run out the bite really started to hot up with legal trag and the odd squire coming on board with every drop. The trag fishing was like fishing for winter whiting at the sandhills. We left them biting with 8 nice pan sized squire and 15 trag on the ice. Also there seemed to be small bonito and mac tuna everywhere interminttently busting the surface from the seaway out a few kms, i spun one up of each for bait on the way out.

[Heath]

Good catch. If there are some bonnies & tuna about throw out a livie if you have some. usually some small blacks still hanging around this time of year. Weird I know.....

[two dogs]

Hi heath

yeah i was thinking the same, and the size of the bonnies/macs would have been perfect baits, i know i have caught big spanish on those size baits before on 4km reef off moreton. after the first cobe we had a live tailor and a few live yakkas out but didnt get any takers... still a form of fishing i need to work on i think. have been near a pro out there i think end of last year, early this year and we caught two for the day, i think he caught 20+. just must be one of those subtle differences that can make all the difference and often comes with experience.

they abundance of the macs/bonnies truely was amazing, they stretched from narrowneck to the seaway, probably even further and then out a few kms, whenever you looked over the side while moving you would see a few bust up

[rosco1974]

hey twodogs,how was the current down there..what was the swell like,sounds like you got a feed..good work,
cheers rosco

[Platitudinus]

Hi guys;
We were out on the GC 50's and 42's yesterday and wondered what it was like inshore. Our bite started around 7.15 am and went through until the wind dropped around 1.30pm. Had three AJ's, a Kingie and heaps of trag, snapper and pearl perch. One pearlie would have gone 5kg and took a livie. Most of the snapper came to floatlined pillies as did the kingie and one AJ. The trag were murdering any fresh fish bait we put down and coming up 2 at a time.

The wind was against the small current on the 50's and the drifts were almost perfect. Plenty of time to get a small ball weighted floater to the bottom.

Few whales way out as well and dolphins on the 36's - must be plenty of food around.

Well done on your catch.
Plato

[two dogs]

hi rosco

there wasnt much run at all, minimal swell but i think its on the rise? we left for home a bit after 1 and it was glassed out.

hey plato we had plenty of dolphins around too, and a whale put on a great show. float lining is something ive been wanting to try for a while now down there, what sort of rig do you use? and do you use a specialist reel or will a ordinary spin reel do the trick with the bail arm open

[Platitudinus]

Hi Two dogs
We float line pillies or on a double hook rig usually 4/0 to 7/0 hooks or livies on a single 6/0 to 9/0. Use smaller sizes for snapper on the 24's and big hooks out past the 36's as you can always get the AJ's, cod and other more sizeable fish.
I use a 2 metre leader to my braid and then a short 60cm trace off the leader swivel with a running ball down to the hooks. The weight of the ball needs to be sufficient to get the bait SLOWLY down through the layers of feeding fish after two or three minutes to the bottom. Sometimes much longer with no bullet at all - it all depends on the current. The key thing is that it should float down naturally. Feed the line out until you see it peel off faster or hold it back to see if it has been picked up. Let the snapper have the first run then strike on the second run. I use an 8-10kg jelly tip 2.07m long and a size 6500 or 8000 spinning reel with 20 or 30lb braid line depending on the target species and how far out we are.
If you use a cheap reel you may strip the gears on an AJ or kingie so gently pump and wind if you get a big hook up to reduce pressure on the reel.

Hope that helps.
Good luck
Plato
PS: I use a similar rig/set up at the coby hole with large squid or pillie for the cobes.