A few Cape snapper on plastics.

[Short Fuse]

With the weather being so good during the week, we decided to head out on Wednesday afternoon to chase a few snapper on the shallow reefs off Cape Moreton on plastics.

Just after 4pm we found a patch of snapper schooled up in front of a 17 metre pinnacle on Brennans Shoal and they were on the chew. First fish to the boat however turned out to be a golden trevally which belted my brothers plastic and put up a great fight before coming to the boat. Ray released the fish and I set the boat up for another drift across the area. Once again, Rays rod was the first to get hit and he boated a nice 64cm snapper.


I dropped my rod in the rod holder and grabbed the camera to take a photo. While about to take the photo, my rod slammed over, unloaded a couple of metres of line and then straightened up again. How a fish can hit a plastic like that without hooking up is a mystery to me. On the next drift, we both hooked up and added two more fish to the ice box with my fish going in the mid 50cm range.


The remainder of the afternoon was at least one fish boated on each drift across the pinnacle and by dark we had 5 good fish in the ice box with many more released due to being either just legal or undersized. On dark it went very quiet so after trying an anchor up and floating a few baits back without success we retired to inside North Point for a feed and a good nights sleep. We tried underneath Cape Moreton just on daylight but it was fairly quiet with only a couple of small fish responding to the plastics. I headed out to Roberts Shoal, anchored up and got some berley into the water and we topped off our bag limit and also caught and released a number of smaller snapper and spangled emperor. We called it a day just after 10 o'clock and headed back to Scarborough on a glassed out sea. Overall, conditions were about as good as you could ask for. Its a shame the weekend is not going to be anywhere near as good.

cheers

Jeff

[Scalem]

Nice going Jeff, you know how to fish that area! I've only been to Brennan's and was amazed at how many fish can show on the sounder but not catch a scale. Was out tagging along with Another boat who had Eric Grell on board many years ago. It was a rare treat to watch Eric pull snapper there when nobody else was. Keen to learn more of Brennan's secrets.

Scalem


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[Te Whiti]

Good report Jeff and thanks for posting. No doubt you and Ray will be slaying them again off Fraser soon.

Mark

[Short Fuse]

Thanks Brian. Brennans can be a frustrating area to fish at times. One of the problems with watching the sounder is that there can be some huge schools of surgeon fish and batfish there and you get great shows, but no bites. I have a good number of the pinnacles and ledges marked in my GPS and just keep working around them until I find a patch of fish that want to play. If there are lots of boats in the area, it quickly shuts down. Being there in the important first or last light periods help as well as that is when the fish are more likely to be on the bite.

Hi Mark. We are keen to get the boats up off Fraser again soon. Hopefully the important stuff will be all finished by the end of the month, and that will leave July open for any patches of good weather. I will keep in touch and see if we can get that trip all set up.

cheers

Jeff

[fisho8]

Well done fellas you are dead on Brennans fishes best early morning. I have found the eastern ledges fish best as they hold a fair bit of bait on the at times but as you said if it is busy then you don't bother. Best Spangled emperor we got out there went about 7.0kg and we have got some good size rainbow runners of that shoal aswell. I love that cat of yours guys. It is a weapon of a boat.

[Back In Black]

Hey Shortfuse, what sort of cat have you got??

Tony

[Short Fuse]

Hi Tony. The boat is a Sea-Trek 5900 Supersport. They are made by Al Broughton in Caloundra. Running a pair of counter rotating 115 Suzukis. I did a post on it back when it was being built at the beginning of last year. Probably buried a long way back in the boating section by now. Here is a photo of the boat from its maiden run playing around in Deception Bay.


Thanks Fisho. Brennans does fish exceptionally well if you are there at the right times, but I have seen it shut down really quickly if there are a heap of boats running around. It has a lot of good country in the 17 - 20 metre depth range that is just perfect to work lightly weighted soft plastics. I am very happy with the boat. It is a great boat to fish out of, handles the rough stuff with ease and is still very economical to use. It does get lots of positive comments from people at the various ramps.

cheers

Jeff

[fisho8]

Yeah Jeff it would mate I saw you guys up there not long ago at Scarby I was up there with my young bloke. Might see you out there one day as I fish out on the eastern side of Brennans when I am outside. My boat is 6.1 surtees and the boat name is REEL MENTAL.

[Short Fuse]

If you see me at the ramp, or on the water, come and say g'day. I will keep an eye out for your boat as well. Always happy to catch up with any of the members on this site. Those I have come into contact with have all been great people.

Did a bit of prawning this season with Mark (Te Whiti) and caught up with Brian (Scalem) recently at a Power Boat Anglers Club meeting. There are also a few members of the PBA who are also on this site fairly regularly.

Cheers

Jeff

[fisho8]

Yeah mate will do..