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Wayne was definitely a happy fisherman this weekend.

He was on a three quarter day charter with us on Sunday where we started at the Caloundra 12 Mile but when it didn’t fire – a lot of small fish kept stealing baits – we changed tactics and headed to Caloundra 9 Mile.

While the bait thieves were still around a few big keepers were going into the esky, starting with Wayne’s seven-kilogram snapper, which swallowed a soft plastic and gave him a great scrap. We also got a spotted mackerel at the same mark.

But when the bite slowed down we headed in closer again and tried Currimundi Reef, a well known hunting ground for all types of mackerel. We lucked out on catching another one but we bagged some squire, sweetlip, moses perch and a four kilogram cod on a live bait. Once again Wayne was dropping his bit at the right place and the right time. Well done mate!

The weather held up reasonably well for us over the past week with mostly northerly winds, which keeps the swell small. We had a mixture of fishing charters, with the full days and maxi days producing the most fish.

Some nice snapper – up to six kilograms – were bagged, along with pearl perch, tuskfish, red throat emperor, jobfish and moses perch. These are a few nice sized snapper from Friday’s fishing charter.

The next few days are looking a bit windy as the south-east change comes through. Wednesday afternoon or Thursday look like the next opportunity to get offshore.

If you’d like to come out for a fish, give us a call or flick us an email. We’d love to have you along.

Hi all,

Apologies for being off the radar the past 2 weeks, we were enjoying a much earned holiday on the north coast of NSW. We are refreshed and back in full swing and have been fishing the last week. Inshore there are some tuna and mackerel about but the outer reefs have been the go producing a good mix of species from wahoo and mahi on the surface to snapper, pearlies and other reefies from the bottom.

Above is a 6kg snapper caught at the top end of the Barwon Banks on Monday.

Here is what been getting caught over the past few days

Murphy’s and the gneerings– tuskfish, sweetlip and squire

Caloundra 9nm- snapper and sweetlip

Caloundra 12nm- tuskfish, maori cod, pearl perch and the odd cobia

Currimundi reef- spotted and school mackerel and some small long tail tuna

Barwon banks– snapper, pearl perch, amberjack, tuskfish, hussar and trevally

Noosa- cod and long tail tuna from north reef and coral trout and sweetlip from sunshine reef

S/E winds around 25knots for today and tomorrow, easing on Thursday so best left till then for offshore fishing. The next tide change at Mooloolaba is a high of 1.48m at 4:56pm. Our next post will be Friday.

Happy hunting!!!!!

Mackerel are one of the most popular pelagic species targeted by recreational and commercial fishermen in South East Queensland. They are fast with razor sharp teeth and provide great sport and quality eating for those that actively target them off the Sunshine Coast. Species available include spanish mackerel, spotted mackerel and school mackerel. The Sunshine Coast gets a reasonable run of all three species between January and May every year.

Mackerel generally frequent areas close to shore. Shallow reefs with raised pinnacles and/or drop offs that have bait holding such as yellowtail scad, slimy mackerel or pilchards are prime places to locate Mackerel. They also love current lines, look for areas where warmer water meets cooler water and you will find mackerel.

Mackerel once hooked will peel off line fast, so a reel with reasonable line capacity is required, a main line of 10-15kilos will be more than adequate for stopping even the bigger spaniards. An overhead reel, if you are trolling or a spin reel if you are chasing the bait schools busting up on the surface. Wire trace is almost essential when fishing for mackerel, a 6-12 inch trace is adequate. Your tackle should include a variety of larger size snap swivels, assorted hooks of 5/0-9/0 size, gang hooks, and lures, good lures to try are hard bodies such as Rapala magnums and Halco laser pros. Chrome slugs and skirted lures also account for their fair share of quality mackerel.

Mackerel will take both live and dead baits, the trick is to use same bait that is prevalent in the area at the time. Usually off Mooloolaba we use live yellowtail or slimy mackerel rigged on a single hook and set below a balloon in a burley trail, but they will also happily take a lightly weight floating pilchard. Fusilier and bonito will attract the bigger Spanish mackerel. Try to present baits so they appear as natural as possible and be sure to set baits along way behind the boat. Mackerel have excellent eye sight and can be boat shy. Once the fish is netted or gaffed extreme car needs to be taken when handling the fish. Mackerel have razor sharp teeth and can leave a nasty wound. The fish should be bled out and placed on ice as quickly as possible.

Spanish mackerel are definitely the most sought after for the table, they have white to pinkish flesh and a strong fishy flavour. They produce an attractive cutlet or a boneless fillet that can be baked, fried, poached, grilled, smoked, barbequed and is even eaten raw. The lesser spotted and school mackerel are pretty good chewing as well provided they are eaten fresh.

The common dolphin fish or mahi-mahi is one of the most acrobatic and colourful fish I have ever caught and they will call the waters off the Sunshine Coast home for the next five months.

The common English name of dolphin fish causes much confusion. This fish is not related to the marine mammals known as dolphins.

Commercial fishermen had so much trouble selling this delicious table fish that they are now commonly marketed by their Pacific name, mahi-mahi and are among the most popular eating fish in restaurants and fish and chip shops.

Mahi-mahi are found in waters in the top half of Australia as well as the Caribbean Sea, the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic coast of Florida and West Africa, South China Sea, Southeast Asia, Hawaii and many other places worldwide.

Sport fishermen seek them due to their beauty, size, food quality and healthy population.

When searching for mahi-mahi fishing charters often look for floating debris near the edge of a reef in 40-80m of water. Mahi-mahi (and many other fish) often swim near debris such as floating wood, palm trees and fronds, weed lines and around buoys. Sometimes fish aggregating devices (FADS) can hold hundreds of these fish.

Thirty to fifty-pound gear is more than adequate when trolling for mahi-mahi. The best lures to catch them include Halco swimmers tremblers, shallow divers, metal slugs and skirts and they will take live baits such as slimy mackerel and yakkas.

They are a fish that responds well to burley so drifting pilchards or squid down through your burley trail will work well too. Basically if you find a patch of them you are going to have some fun.

Once on a line, mahi-mahi are fast, flashy and acrobatic with beautiful blue, yellow, green and even red dots of colour. Often when you get them close to the boat they will have mates swimming with them so it pays to have a rod ready with a pilchard on a gang or a metal slug to throw at them.

The average size caught off Mooloolaba is 10-12kg but they grow to 18kg.They are a fast growing fish that only live for about 5 years. Legal size limit in Queensland is 50cm and the bag limit is five per person.

Hopefully this helps you get in on the action. If you would like to come along on a charter and see how we fish for them flick us an email or give us a call.

Happy Hunting!

We’ve had a mixed bag in the fishing haul this week, which keeps everything interesting and provides some variety for the punters.

The wind picked up for the first week of the school holidays and strong wind warnings issued most days last week kept us tied up at the wharf. Fortunately the swell was small and the wind dropped off to make for a beautiful weekend. We did a couple of half day and a three quarter day charter fishing the inshore reefs.

Saturday was the longer trip and we started at Currimundi Reef in the hope of catching a few mackerel. They generally show up later in the year but due to the mild winter and the northerly winds they won’t be far away. We found a lot of bait schools and jigged some nice live baits bud didn’t hook one. We caught a little tuna and some squire then headed out to the Caloundra Nine Mile where we caught snapper, moses perch and tuskfish. No massive fish but plenty of good snapper weighing in between one and three kilograms.

The crabbing went really well over the weekend. Saturday was the best day with 114 keepers, which got everyone excited.

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We headed out to the Caloundra Nine Mile reef with half-day charters on Sunday and Monday. We got in plenty of fishing but the whales also put on a real show for us. Lots of mothers and some calves were breaching along with the odd big bull male making his presence felt.

We caught snapper, pearl perch, moses perch, tuskfish and plenty of crabs. Once again the snapper were in the one to three kilogram range.

We reeled in the biggest fish for the weekend on Sunday – a 4.5 kilogram snapper, caught by Dusty. He also got the biggest pearly, weighing 2.5 kilograms. He certainly picked the right spot on the boat to fish from. Well done mate!

With perfect weather, fishing, crabbing and bonus whale watching, the Sunshine Coast, at this time of the year, is amazing. It doesn’t get better than this.

Here’s hoping we get more great weather for the second half of the holidays. The last few mornings have been amazing.

If you’d like to come out on a trip with us give us a call or flick us an email.

Happy Hunting!

Amazing weather saw the school holidays get off to a great start last weekend.

We mixed things up a bit for Friday’s charter and instead of heading out early we ran the full day trip from 10am to 7pm. It worked really well on that day. We fished mainly in the deep water – between 75 and 80 metres, targeting pearl perch, which are sensational eating.

We caught a lot – some of the bigger ones were up around 2.5 to 3 kilograms – and we also caught squire and moses perch. The boys from Shipley Smash Repairs had a great day and there was some healthy competition and the novices caught as many fish as the more experienced fishermen. Well done boys!

 One of the things I love about running a fishing charter business and being out on the water is that no two days are the same. This weekend was a classic example. Mother Nature turned on her charm on Friday then hit us with challenges on Saturday.

We had a half-day and 3/4 day fishing trip on Saturday. The current was very strong and setting the opposite way to the wind, which made things very difficult for fishing and also for my deckhand. We had to keep moving around to find some fish, which meant the decky had to keep pulling in that big anchor. Not too many fish were biting in those conditions but luckily the crabs were hungry, which saved the day and everyone still had something to take home.

On the afternoon charter we headed to the Caloundra 12 Mile and while the current was still very strong, it did fish better. We caught, squire, tuskfish, pearl perch and moses perch. It looks like the afternoons are the time to be fishing at the moment – until Mother Nature plays her next trick. But the unpredictability is part of the fun and what keeps us going back out there day after day.

 The weather turns a bit sour until the end of the week so offshore fishing might be best left until Friday and the weekend. As we get further away from the full moon the current will drop off so we are really looking forward to this weekend.

Give us a call if you want to join us on a charter.

 Happy Hunting!

Caloundra 12nm- squire and tusk fish

Caloundra wide- amberjack, cobia, pearl perch and snapper

Barwon banks- trevally, fusilier, squire, tusk fish and hussar

Murphy’s and the gneerings- squire, morwong

Caloundra 9nm- squire, tusk fish and moses perch

The weather looks very ordinary for the next few days, hopefully Friday the winds will ease off.  There is a low tide early this morning and a high tide of 1.48m at 11:51am.

It was a mixed bag when it came to the weekend weather and it resulted in a mixed catch, including a couple of whoppers and some late season snapper.

We had trips three quarter day fishing charters on Friday and Saturday and a full day charter on Sunday. The mint weather on Friday resulted in a great day and the best fishing for the weekend. We headed to the Caloundra Nine Mile on Friday and Saturday and caught mostly snapper between two to three kilograms. Friday’s charter also resulted in tusk fish, moses perch and a nice blue-barred parrot. Everyone enjoyed the trip and it is great to still be seeing good sized snapper this late in the year.

We mixed things up on Sunday to try and dodge the ordinary weather and started the charter in the afternoon to let the sea settle a little. It paid off for us. While it started out a little choppy, it calmed through the afternoon and the customers wound in a nice variety including some squire weighing up to three kilograms, moses perch and amberjack up to 4.5 kilograms. The catch of the day went to young Jake, who reeled in an eight-kilogram cobia by himself and showed up his dad. I believe they had a bet on the best fish and Jake scored himself $5. Well done mate!

Tomorrow is looking like a good day for offshore fishing and it should fish well in the lead up to Saturday’s full moon. It was certainly good in the lead up to the full moon last month. Head to our contact page and get in touch if you’d like to come out and share in the action.

Happy hunting!

We get an extra treat on our charter trips now the warm spring weather is here – crabs. The weather change is increasing our yields making an added bonus for those on board.

Spanner crabs are the target species and can be caught from around Coffs Harbour in the south up to Bundaberg and roughly the same latitudes over on the west coast of Australia. You’ll find them in water from 10 metres to 60 metres.

The gear we run out is the same set up as the commercial crab fishermen use. It’s called a trot line and the crab traps are called lay-flats or dillies. Basically, it is a really long rope to which the dillies are clipped. It has a flag or float attached to each end and the traps in between them lay flat on the sand on the bottom of the ocean. We use pilchards for bait but any oily fish will work. Tuna and mullet are also good crab baits.

The commercial fishermen will leave their dillies soak for about 40 mins before hauling and resetting. The reason for this is to cut down the loss to predators such as turtles, sharks and cobia, which love to eat these delicacies.

We usually set ours on the way out, do our fishing and pick them up on the way home. Some catches through spring have seen upwards of 200 legal crabs for our punters to enjoy but an average haul is around 20-30 keepers.

Legal size limit for spanner crabs is 10cm and they are measured front to back not side to side like other crabs. We are allowed to keep male and female crabs as long as the female crabs aren’t bearing any eggs. In Queensland we have a closure from November 20 to December 20 when no crabs can be caught. During this time the crabs are spawning and this is how the stocks are preserved.

If you want to catch spanner crabs recreationally you are allowed four dillies per person and must have a rope and float attached to each one with labels stating your name and address.

We find the deeper you drop your crab traps the less trouble you will have with predators. Hopefully this helps you get a feed or two over the next few months or if you want to come out and have a look flick us an email or give us a call.

Happy hunting!

Caloundra 12nm- Snapper, pearl perch, hussar and moses perch

Caloundra wide- Snapper, pearl perch, fusilier, tuskfish and gold spot wrasse

Barwon banks-  Fusilier, red throat emperor, tuskfish, gold spot wrasse, moses perch, squire and a monster wahoo 30kg

Murphy’s and the gneerings- Snapper, blue barr parrot, sweetlip

Caloundra 9nm- Squire, pearl perch, hussar and moses perch

 There is light to moderate northerly winds forecast for the next couple of days with minimal swell, so the early mornings should be fine for offshore fishing.