Big snapper on the bite
FINGERMARK or golden snapper are starting to show in numbers within local waters and anglers are taking full advantage following the species’ noticeable winter hiatus.
Large fish to 90cm are bending rods with monotonous ease and regularity within Cleveland Bay and shipping channel waters. However plenty of hooked fish are making good their escape when they find the safety of a submerged structure.
Sydney visitor Andrew Keppie lost a large fish when 50- pound braid line was ripped from his reel despite an overtightened drag and frantic rod work.
He and partner Haley Smith were fishing with my Fish City Charters operation on Tuesday and boating conditions were ideal.
The fish, presumably a fingermark, found the safety of a nearby channel marker and shredded the heavy leader on the barnacle encrusted structure.
Keppie only momentarily licked his wounds before setting another bait nearby, the internet technology worker not having to wait long before he was engaged in another brutal tug of war.
His luck was in this time though, the big fish hanging tight to the pylon before tracing a path towards Magnetic Island’s Picnic Bay.
The fight remained a dour one for several minutes before Keppie steered his biggest fish ever into the landing net.
He and partner Haley Smith both beamed with the biggest grins when the first class table fish measured a whopping 86cm.
The pair added coral trout, cod, grassy emperor and golden trevally to claim a mixed bag – although most were released with the fingermark deemed large enough to feed their entire family.
Action fast and furious
MAGNETIC Island waters are teeming with fish and of those, coral trout are pleasing anglers most.
The striking bar- cheek trout are most prevalent and falling to anglers when baits are allowed to settle close to well- known structures including wrecks and isolated corals or lures are cast among any number of shallow bommies. Knobby Head and Cockle Bay reefs are giving up quality catches during the flood tides when soft plastic paddle- tail offerings are cast retrieved in a rolling fashion across and among the shallow corals where the trout lie.
The strikes are generally vicious and battles won or lost within the first seconds of the encounter, such is the treacherous terrain the tasty species inhabits.
Damien Lyon claimed a bag limit catch of seven trout when he drifted Cockle Bay waters on Wednesday.
He said the fish were hungry during the rising tide and the trout, among a catch of wire netting cod and lesser species, particularly liked a white 7 inch Berkley Hollowbelly sponsored by lure rigged in a weedless manner.
Meanwhile, Brett Smith had trouble keeping hooked fish from the sanctuary of line busting structures in deeper waters near Horseshoe Bay. Smith used herring baits to entice savage bites but only managed to pull smaller bar- cheek trout and an occasional common or leopard trout to 50cm into the boat.
Smith considered himself unlucky when the hooks either pulled free of some seriously large fish as he held them clear of the structure or, he had leader and lines shredded when the fish made it back to shelter.
Barra active in creeks
LOCAL creeks are also fishing well enough with midweek reports as diverse as the species encountered.
Barramundi have proven hungry in most local systems with the Bohle River fishing as well as any.
Fish to a metre long have been falling to anglers trolling large minnow- style lures near the rock bars near the mouth while more modest size fish were fooled by live baits set close to snags within the bowels of the river.
Similar catches were made in Cleveland Bay’s Crocodile Creek early this week while the Haughton River was well fished for good catches, barra among the most prevalent of species.
Queenies reign in river
ENGLISH lass Jennifer Sutton showed boyfriend Josh and mates a thing or two about fishing when they tested their luck near the Burdekin’s Plantation Creek recently.
Live prawn baits might have been intended to snare a barramundi and Jennifer might have thought she had pinned the target species when a big silver, slab- side fish took to the air.
A couple of more jumps throughout an exhausting 27- minute battle and Josh and his mates manhandled aboard a thumping 122cm fish – not a barra, but a queenfish!
“It’s the biggest fish I’d ever caught … Josh had to hold on to me so I didn’t fall out of the boat,” Jennifer said of her catch.
And the Ross Creek was kind to 10- year- old Nicola Hitchcock last weekend.
Fishing with well- known photographer dad Ian Hitchcock who described his daughter as ‘ fishing mad’, Nicola caught her first ever queenfish.
“It was 75cm and she got it on a handline, and it pulled so hard it nearly pulled her in,” said the proud dad.