A great day out for
TROY Chatfield and father Robert found doggie or Queensland school mackerel plentiful and hungry when they chanced their casts within the shipping channel late last week.
Thirty-gram metal jigs cloaked in pink and gold tones were allowed to sink to the bottom in about 30-oldfashioned feet of water where baitfish were detected schooling along the shoulder of the channel.
The father and son fishing team used a high-speed retrieve to hook a procession of mackerel, mostly in the 55-60cm range, double hook-ups relatively common.
Of about 20 fish caught between them, the pair limited their catch to 10 of the largest mackerel landed, while the rest swam free.
Robert was unlucky pulling hooks free of a large cobia and modest size trevally while Troy was fortunate to remain tied to a thumping GT or giant trevally.
The younger Chatfield described the encounter as unforgettable, the fight at least 20-minutes of chaos before the big fish could be heaved aboard.
“I’m pumped … I’m buzzing. That was incredible,” Troy said of his largest fish to date.
“I’ll let my mates tell me their fishing stories and then I’ll just show them this photo,” he quipped.
Young Kobi Ryznar is on his way to fishing stardom, the keenest angler guided by well-known fisher and hunter dad Rick Ryznar.
“Kobi asked me today if I can send through the pic of him with his first saltwater barra that he’s caught on lure to put in the paper?” Rick proudly messaged.
Rick, an experienced campaigner, was clever enough not to divulge where they fished – or indeed the lure that it was caught on – but described how happy his son was when he landed his barra.
“Man, he was over the moon when he got it … and then just after dark Kobi had one spit his hook.”
Rick said he and Kobi mixed up their fishing techniques when also using live baits to fool barras at a fav
ourite local hotspot. And to make a great day even more memorable, Kobi extracted a couple a couple of monster-size mudcrabs from pots set earlier in the day.
Just days after a ‘problem’ croc was removed from the Saunders Beach area, another crocodile north of Townsville has gained plenty of social media attention, but the big lizard is only a problem for anglers who don’t like their catch stolen by the dinosaurian reptiles.
Former Townsville Bulletin editor Rory Gibson posted a video on Facebook showing a large estuarine crocodile attacking and stealing a hooked barramundi in the Herbert River – 100km inland within the Herbert River Gorge area.
Gibson, a gorge regular, and mates might have caught a swag of sooty grunter, barramundi and even jungle perch, but it will be a yarn of the croc catch that will be retold for years to come.
The encounter reinforces that very few North Queensland waterways are safe within to swim and frolic, the chances of crocodile encounters even a few hundred kilometres inland always a chance, no matter how slim.
Several large crocodiles have been spotted within several hundred metres below the Burdekin Falls Dam, one animal I saw 10 or so years ago that might have pushed 4m in length.
That’s about 160km by river to the mouth of the mighty Burdekin.
“I’m chasing greys on Thursday. The Magnetic Island boys reckon the northerly winds bring the bait in and the greys will be following.”
That’s Vince Mcglone talking about grey or broad barred mackerel.
Mcglone is something of a grey mackerel specialist and he loves the spring and summer months when the popular table species arrives inshore among local waters.
The well-known and affable electrician takes his cue from nature in