mud island

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so after seeking some advice, I finally got the courage to venture into the open water. With the conditions looking good I launched my 4.4m runabout from nudgee at 10am and headed towards mud island with my girlfriend. The trip didnt take long at all and i was surprised at how quickly I arrived. This being my first time fishing outside of an estuary or away from a beach I was not to sure what to use out on the reef. I used mullet and squid as well as some pilchards on gangs and some soft plastics. My girlfriend was able to catch a bunch of small reef fish and on a jig i was able to catch what I believe to be slimy mackeral (not sure tho please find attached photo) and was able to catch about a bucket full before i decided that I had no idea how to use them as bait so I released them. Overall I was pleased and the girlfriend was happy she caught a fish. I fished on the north east side of mud just saw about 10 boats and headed for them. Anyone care to share any advice on how to catch someone big enough for the table?

by that way thanks everyone for the advice and helping me get out there :)

That fish in your photo is a yellowtail pike. Good live baits for mackerel, jewies etc. Flesh can be a bit mushy so often, not the best baits as fillets, but OK IMO.

The main things on bay reefy areas is to fish as light as you can, both in respect of line weight, and sinkers. 10lb braid with maybe 10-12lb flourocarbon leaders, or, if fishing using mono, 12-15lb line. Sinkers just small enough to allow your bait to waft gently down, have to adjust this according to current and depths.

Better fish often caught up off the bottom, and the bottom usually holds more of the pickers and vermin such as stingrays, wobbygongs, shovelies and the like.

if youve got a sounder, look for structure - a dropoff, lumps of rock that stand out even a bit from surrounding areas.

Mud still holds the record for the most number of XOS snapper in the bay for me, about 8 weeks ago was my last attempt ( been on holidays for 6 weeks) and it was very tough going. Most here know I am a plastics fantastics diehard, and many would scough that's half my problem.:-X My only approach to try entice SOMETHING was to throw all caution and sanity out the window and fish light... real light using my bream 1-4kg Shimano raider and Shimano Sedonna 2500 reel, 6lb braid and 4lb flurocarbon leader. I took home a feed of legal Sweetlip x 2 and had a ball catching others too small to keep. My normal 15lb and 12lb trace on straddic 4000, 2-5kg rod didnt get a touch.

Hope this helps, don't be afraid to go this light, check your line for damage regularly, and if you lose a fish at least staying connected for 1 or two seconds beats not getting anything at all IMHO.

Scalem

hey,

I do believe that might have been my problem I was fishing with 15lb braid, I think next time i'll go i'll stick with the 15lb braid and chuck and pike on there with gangs and fish my other two rods with 6lb and we will see how that goes. It's such a shame I cant get out there more often I had been waiting weeks for my work and the weather to line up so i could make it out there safely. Boy this is exciting I was just hoping to catch a squire I've only ever caught bream and flathead in the creeks. Now that i've finally got a boat hearing how i can go out and possible catch snapper, sweetlip and jews. Just makes me wish I could take the boat out right now.


cheerys guys

mate try fishing the east /south-east cnr for squid and pan size snapper .. try trolling 3-4m divers slowly around this area
most of my 60-85cm snapper have come this way from mud.... then whilst trolling look for shows on your sounder and com back after you have found a few spots...hope this helps a bit
cheers scott