Great weather this weekend, I hope everyone is out there today enjoying it! I picked my boat Friday afternoon after having a set of rod lockers installed by Chris at Fibre Finish. So a quick call to an old friend and trip was arranged for Saturday morning. I hadn't seen Ward for a long time, and it had been even longer since we had a fish together. So this was more about catching up and giving the boat a test out than actually catching a fish. Just as well too, cus we didn't do very well! The plan was to fish the big outgoing tide on Maggie island flats for some Golden Trevalley. I even put the fly rod in to give a go! The top of the tide wasn't until 10.30am, so a sleep in was on the cards. But I woke up early and quick text saw Ward was up too, so we met at the ramp about 7am and headed off.
A quick chat to North Queensland Fishing Show presenter Gary Powis at the ramp and we were on our way. We ran down the side of the island and out the back to Horseshoe Bay. There are a couple of rocks out there that I have done ok on with Fingermark. But a couple of other boats were fishing the area. I sounded around elsewhere and found some bait, but nothing big was showing and nothing was hitting the lures.
From here we moved around to West Point to try some marks. Despite the good weather there was only a handfull of boats in the area, although there looked to be a lot more over at Bay Rock. We found fish marking on most of the spots, but again nothing was biting. The big incoming tide was still racing in, and I don't usually like big run for Fingermark.
We finally found some fish biting on a hard patch closer in to West Point. The tide was dropping back and we had a small bite period before it turned. With nothing hitting the larger GULP plastic, I dropped back to the smaller Thready Buster plastic vibe. But as it happened, I had the Thready rigged on the 8lb Stella! And rather than re-rig the heavier line, I just put it down on the light rod. All was good as a handfull of smaller Nannygai began to come over the side, but a cast wide of the Nannygai soon saw a more solid run. Against the light drag setting I am not sure the fish even knew it was hooked, but as soon as solid pressure was applied the hooks pulled. I'm pretty sure it was a Fingermark, and I'm pretty sure ne went and dobbed! That was the last of the bite.
We moved up onto the flats for what we anticipated would be a good afternoon session. But as soon as we did a stiff Northerly breeze came in. It chopped up the water and made sight casting to fish impossible. With few options left we made a quick call into the Cockle Bay wreck. We pulled off a handful of small Trevalley before deciding to give the Picknick Bay jetty a look in before home.
There was no wind in Picknick Bay, and it was nice to see the old jetty. But we couldn't attract a bite and it looked very quite on the Humminbird. Time for home. The fishing may not have been too crash hot for us, but the boat went well and it was great to catch up again with an old mate. Thanks for the morning Ward.
