Reply With QuoteThere are some good ones there and a keen effort as well.
What do you do when you are wide awake at 2am?
While standing on the front verandah, I noticed that there was not a breath of wind here at Redcliffe. A quick check on Seabreeze showed that the Cape still had a steady south-easterly blowing, but there was only a gentle breeze around 5 knots up on the Sunshine Coast, so a quick grab of gear and I was soon on my way to Mooloolaba.
When I arrived at the Coast Guard ramp, I was surprised to find there were no vehicles and trailers in the car park. Being the night of the full moon, I was surprised as I reckoned there would have been plenty of boats spending the night on the Barwons. I got out of the car to find it blowing about 10 knots from the South West and the roar of the surf breaking on the nearby beach had me rethinking my decision to go out, and helped explain the absence of fellow fishos.
It was still dark when I got to the entrance, but with the moon in the sky, visibility was pretty good and there was no wave breaking across the entrance so I scooted out and headed for my squid spot. By the time I was half way there, I realised that there were some really big swells coming through and with the wind blowing into them, I was receiving a regular dose of cold salt spray. I'm glad it was dark - I may have not been quite as keen if I had have been able to clearly see what I was driving into.
Once at my spot, I cast out the first jig and almost immediately felt the take from a big squid. With conditions being so sloppy, I tried to lift the squid in by the leader and accidentally let it touch the gunwhale on the way into the boat. The squid reacted in the way they always do and tried its best to cover the inside of the boat in black goo. First drift resulted in 3 squid in the boat, and 1 other lost on the way in, and by the time it was getting light. I had 6 good ones in the ice box.
The breeze had the boat drifting pretty quickly and made it fairly difficult to fish effectively with the jig drifting with the boat. Best results came from casting the jig out in front of the boat and working it back, but made it hard to work out when the jig was close to the bottom and I ended up with a few snag ups as a result and lost 1 good jig to the bottom. By 8 o'clock, tiredness was settling in, and with the prospect of having to drive home ahead of me I called it a morning and headed in just as conditions were starting to settle down a bit.
Final tally was 14 large tiger squid, and 1 smaller model. They are all packed down in the freezer, and will be coming along as bait for the PBA club trip to 1770 in October. I'm sure I will be able to turn them into something tasty.
cheers
Jeff
There are some good ones there and a keen effort as well.
I will let Darryl Burgess know you have some bait for him
Bloody awesome Jeff.
Thanks for a good report Jeff..... there's some terrific sized squid there. If you can't get offshore, that's a great alternative.
Man hate to think about all that black ink on the Cat mate. A re name to Black Cat maybe ?
Thanks all. It was a fun session in not so perfect conditions. I was out there in my Stessl 435 Angler so that made cresting a few of the bigger swells in the dark a little bit exciting.
I think Darryl will have to stand in line at 1770. There might be a few others who have put in a prior claim for their share of them as bait. Might need to put a lock on the freezer to make sure we get our share as well.
The cat has already received its share of inking. Last trip we did out of 1770, we had a school of squid come to the boat in Fitzroy lagoon attracted by the underwater blue lights. A few of them left their marks. As long as you get into it quickly with salt water, it does not stain the gel coat.
cheers
Jeff
"They are all packed down in the freezer, and will be coming along as bait for the PBA club trip to 1770 in October. I'm sure I will be able to turn them into something tasty"
They are something very tasty already, can't believe you would use this as bait are you for real?!
Would much prefer to eat these than any fish you can catch on them and you can then use the heads for bait anyway to catch a red fish!
Hi Watto. Yep - I am for real. Each person has (and is entitled to) their own tastes. As I have explained to a number of friends, I have tried to cook squid before, a number of ways and (in my opinion) it always ends up tasteless.
Not tough from overcooking, just no taste other than the spices or coverings I put on it.
On the other hand, using it as bait to catch coral trout, red emperor, venus tusk fish, pearl perch and a number of other tasty fish species is a much preferred end use as far as I am concerned. Also, I see plenty of fishos spend a huge amount of money buying kilo blocks of squid to use for bait whenever they head out off 1770. I just cut out the middle man and catch my own bait. Nothing wrong with that.
cheers
Jeff
Hey Jeff,
Always good to read your spontaneous decison making brings home the bacon. I think the only way I am going to make it to a second successful trip out with you is if I pitch a tent in your back yard and listen for the truck starting up, even at 2am!!
Even though you make your own rules about 1770 budget unlike me who is tied to apron strings, there is a self satisfaction in catching your own quality bait like these. It's one thing to catch a nice fish but on your own bait I see the point you make. Onya Jeff!
Scalem
G'day Brian. Mate there should be some nice snapper sitting in that country we fished last time. I reckon that any day over the next month or so would be worth a run out there.
Hoping for a couple of suitable days over the next week to do a 1770 or top of Fraser run.
cheers
Jeff
Originally Posted by Short Fuse
Hi Jeff,
Most certainly nothing wrong with what you are doing and each to their own as you say!
Nice catch by the way, I do alright on the tiger squid in the bay and you are right they do make very good baits (I only use the small models for this) but the quality of yours above is exceptional..
I may have to do some more sniffing around Mooloolaba, have caught a few big ones around the blinker over the years but never decent numbers of them unfortunately!
Thats a great haul, you can't buy quality bait like that and am sure what eats it will be quality also!
Even if you were available .... This Saturday is looking Gr8!!!!
That forecast makes it look perfect weather to be attending the ANSA Qld State Conference this weekend at the Moreton Bay Boat Club at Scarborough.
Ray and I shot out Sunday afternoon and threw a few plastics around and the snapper are there as I hoped. We got a few nice fish to the mid 60cms range and kept 5 and released a similar number. Lovely afternoon on the water, and only saw a couple other boats out there.
cheers
Jeff
hi jeff,
hoping to watertest the cat this weekend. give me a yell if your heading into the bay.cheers, the bandit.
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