The age old question.

[Pete90]

Hey guys,

For the last few years i have been fishing in and around the gold coast and jumping pin chasing anything from whiting to jigging for kingies on the sand pipe.
I have spent a little bit of time on the close bait reefs out the front of the gold coast seaway and have done a little bit trolling around the seaway to no prevail.
Then two weeks ago i decided enough was enough and size does matter so i began the process to Upgrade my boat this week from a 435 horizon easyfisher pro with a 60hp yamaha and all the fruit, to a 610 Quintrex trident with a 150 and all the gear picking it up in two weeks and cant wait.


So The question.

I plan on doing a lot of offshore fishing in the future both bottom bashing & trolling and its a bloody big ocean i am just curious on where and the best way to start.
I generally try to fish during the week and the days where i have headed out the front in my current boat i have looked on the horizon and been unable to spot any boats at all except some of the charter boats, i've motored over to them and sounded around them covering a couple of hundred meter square and they just seem to be fishing a sand bottom i spent a good 40 minutes sounding around one of them two weeks ago i couldn't find anything of interest and no one on the charter caught a thing bar the other lines on the boat talk about tangles.

Normally have room for 1 or 2 when i fish if anyone is interested in heading out in the future.

An help or advise will be greatly appreciated

[liltuffy]

Welcome to the school of fishing mate. If you are expecting people to send you marks etc then think again, join a club, find a buddy but most of all burn the fuel and go searching to find your own spots to brag about. Moreover there are a huge amount of threads on old posts for you to look at on this forum.

best of British to you mate.

Cheers

[airlock]

I've found the only ways to do it are to find a local fishing buddy, i'm lucky my new labour is into it in a big way and knows the local structure like his own backyard. The other option is to get your hands on some detailed charts and look for areas of structure and general reef locations, these can then be sounded out to find the best places. its a damn slog and makes you want to give up the game for the first few trips but at least in that boat you won't be getting hammered when the wind changes and you will be able to carry enough fuel to give each area a through search. also worth talking to your local fishing shop, they won't hold your hand but you should be able to get some general advice and locations then you just have to fine tune it all.

[Scalem]

At least you admit to buzzing around charter guys, it has to be said, try and be a little discrete and make some friends while you are out there...
Some of my marks for goldy were given to me, origins unknown, but the two biggest fish to hit my deck were from experimenting and it really wasn't that hard. My pb snapper was in 24s territory s/e of the seaway, and we trolled up a hoo on an x rap about 15 mins straight out the front of the seaway. Doug Burt from tackle world southport runs occasional seminars, but you will find the guys down there very helpful in getting you started and will give you an A4 sheet of popular marks in the area and what species to expect there. It will take me years to visit all of them especially with all this wind changing my best plans.

Good fishing with the new rig!

Scalem


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[The Black Unicorn]

I was in the same boat..... well.... not the same boat... but you know what I mean. I moved to QLD from down south about 7 years ago. Had no idea where or how to fish this area. Within the first few months I joined a fishing club. Went on trips away with them and met some great people. Some of these guys taught me heaps. Eventually I got to go out with them and became great friends. Win , win really. Now I can get out and get a feed fairly consistently and have caught a lot of PBs.
M&Gs on this site are also good to go on although there doesn't seem to be as many these days.
Failing that, its nearly Mackeral time down there! Wait till you see the reports then join in. Mermaid Reef and Palm Beach reef are the go to spots. The marks for these are readily available and there are good fish to be had when they are on. Just roll up to the other 100 boats and plonk the anchor down at the end of the queue. Float out pillies and throw slugs around. Great fun when they are there.
Good luck

[stinkyfinger]

Hey mate.
I'm keen for fish when you want to go out.
I recently moved here from Newcastle, I had a fishing buddy down there & its great to have a regular deckie.
I have a 27ft Riviera Flybridge but its still down south atm till I find a place to keep it here.
I have a 3.8m tin hull tinny here that I take outside & have already found some great marks & pinnacles that have produced some really good fish on only 2 trips out there.
I have marked out about 40 - 50 Marks of the Gold Coast & Tweed that are worth investigating in the near future.
So if your keen for a regular deckie then give me a call. Then when I get my boat up here we can start doing a few 2-3 day trips up n down the coast.

I've been stuck taking out here that need baby sitting & there is nothing worse than having to tie rigs & bait people up when you just want to fish also