Fish 7 Ward 0

Edit: Picture added.

Interesting is the best way to describe it. Had a great fish with Malcolm on Monday but the story goes simply, 7 lost fish and non landed! The story was good in that of the seven, three were probably Spanish mackerel, one was a tiger shark, and three were probably Nannygai! All the fish were hooked upon a basic white fly and my 12wt rod so you would think power was not a problem, but all lost to the fish (bite offs or shredded) and the environment. I will let Malcolm finish the story but he did well! Just to make sure that I could still land fish I went for a quite paddle on my ski. Happily 7 Trevelly and 2 sea pike decided to play. In the hour from 7.30 am to 8.30am 9 fish were landed on my new 8wt. It is nice when a plan comes together. So the story goes if you look hard enough and work hard enough there are fish about. It would seem that time on the water is by far the best way to catch fish, up sizing your gear helps but be prepared to get blown away!

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NQ Flyfishers Inc

EDIT: Pictures added.

Well the weather changed the location but not the effort.

The NQ Flyfishers decided to change from Alva Beach to the Lakes near Castletown Shopping Centre for the monthly fishing activity. The weather was the main reason for the change. When the meeting decided to change we ended up with 10 members fishing well done. Even with this number fishing it was still difficult to land a fish. The only fish landed was a nice Tarpon by Richard, other members present included Harvey, Malcolm, David, Jeff, Terry, Helen, Steve, Raymond and myself. We enjoyed the outing and all members are looking forward to the next trip.

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One Doggie for the morning!

I fished Saturday as part of the Baptist Church Fishing Club monthly competition. I am currently leading the senior male devision, and with only a few trips left I was determined to fish hard and keep my lead! Just a couple of fish is all I wanted. We even left the kids at home so we could get 'serious'! Besides, the weather was never going to be crash hot, and I wanted to get as far onto the blue stuff as I could.

We hit the ramp at 5.30am. Plan was to work the channel markers out to the North Cardinal, then head around the back of the Island to West Point. But we didn't pound much more than 500m before I asked Tania if she wanted to put up with this all the way out. We jointly decided it wasn't worth it. So a slight direction change to West Point made the ride much more comfortable. And once we reached the Island it was and easy 25knot run across the front. At West Point itself it was great. Almost a glass off in the wind shadow the island. But a little lump wrapping around the seaward side.

We anchored on a mark there and collected plenty of live bait. We put them back down on the heavy gear, and floated some pilchards out the back. The sounder was typically covered with activity. But no action could be found. I did miss one good fish. It hit the live bait hard and headed for cover. Lasted all of about 5 seconds. When I pulled it in I tested the drag to see how much pressure I had on the fish. I showed Tania, "look at this" I said as I tied to pull line from the reel with my hand. I could barely budge it, and this fish pealed it if like it was in free spool! But that was it for this spot.

Next we headed about 5nm wide to try another couple of marks. The weather at this stage was 'ok'. We tried drifting live baits, floating pilchards and spinning high speed metal. The only luck we had was a 54cm very unlucky Doggie that hit the metal slice on the drop. But that was finally a fish to weigh. Fingers crossed others were doing it as tough as us! Wind soon came up and it was a bumpy ride back to the island.

I tried about 6 or 7 more West Point marks before heading inside the island to my 'honey pot' mark. There we caugh many under size Nannygai to JUST under 40cm. And a couple of screeming Catfish that we were hoping were Cobia.

Back home and my 40 point Doggie scored me 3rd place for the day, and 1st in the lure division. Don had an amazing day at Morrisies catching some Horse Bream. Great point scores he ended up with well over 100pts for the day. Good job Don.

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Freshwater how sweet it is!

Liam and I decided to fish the fresh before the weekend finished. Off we went to our spot North of Townsville. We fished our normal spot but nothing was really happening. We kept moving upstream and like our previous trip there were fish about in the shallows but they did not want to play the game. As we approached our last spot near the trees we managed some nice fish.

The little beasties did a great job at making us work hard. The fish used the current well. I was using a 7wt set up while Liam is still using his 9wt. Even though Liams rod is a little heavy for the fish, it does the job. A fair drive to get to the spot but again well worth while.

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Barracuda on fly

The weather looked Ok, the tides looked perfect with a high tide around 7.30am. We left to catch the tide on the inshore bays of Magnetic Island. Liam and I fished the wreck looking for some pelagic action. First fly down and a bite off for Liam! This looked good! After a few casts the probably culprit appeared, a nice barracuda. We thought, as you do, this should be a good fish.

Alas, the fishing dried to a trickle. We each landed 2 barracuda from this spot and Liam landed a small grunter trevelly. Off we went to try a wreck, but after finding it, and seeing the bait schools we thought it should be good. We cast and no luck at all! Ok, one more stop, off we went to Middle Reef. After a nice drift across the reef and one small trevelly to me, we finished for the day. So at the end of the session a couple of barracudas and a trevelly each. All in all a slow day but still we landed fish. Maybe next week!

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Lagoon Barramundi on fly and soft plastics

I have been very busy around the house the last couple of weeks. And topped with the bad weather I have not been fishing. But I now have an extension on my patio and a cement slab for the boat. Fortunately, Ward has kept things rolling around here! Thanks Ward.

Well yesterday afternoon I managed to get in a quick trip to one of the freshwater lagoons. Ward and Liam came along too. We didn't leave Townsville until late, and were not fishing until just after 5pm. But it turned out to be perfect timing, and for the next hour managed 10 nice little Barramundi and 1 Spangled Perch. The Barramundi ranged from 30cm to 44cm. 5 of the Barra were caught my myself on Soft Plastics, Ward claimed 3 (including the biggest) and Liam 2. Ward and Liam were fishing fly.

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What a week, Dunk Island, Tarpon and Toolakia beach

A busy week. We had our annual school camp to Dunk Island. This is a week of boating, Marine Biology and some fishing for the students. A nice place, great to stay at the National Park including hot showers. The students learnt a lot and completed there boating activities. I managed a fish each morning from the jetty before the kids got up. Usually I manage a few sea pike and trevelly each day but not this year. There were some trevelly around though which was good. I also meet a chap from the Australian fly fishing team! He had caught a nice queenfish from the point. Amazing who you can meet, if he reads this I would like to contact him.

On the Sunday we had our monthly fly fishing meet. This month the club went to Toolakia Beach. Members present included Bob, Caradoc, Steve, Jeff, Malcolm, and guest David. When we arrived it did not look too bad. The water was moving but it was a bit cloudy. There were some locals around which usually suggests there might be some fish. But we tried for 2 hours and no fish were landed! Still a great day as we had a good fish together and finished with a nice cuppa.

To finish the weekend I had a fish at my local Tarpon spot. Again the signs were good. The fish were moving the humidity was rising and the water temperature was up (23 degrees). But still no fish. Thats they way it happens sometimes. It doesn't not matter how hard you work, there are days when there are no fish. A good thing another weekend is on its way!

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