Who else enjoys fishing ?

Off to Mayor Island for a couple of days....

1 1/2 hr run offshore from 1770 off the Queensland coast on the start of the Great Barrier Reef, the dates on the pics are wrong as my camera always put out that date, was a trip from last year of many trips on the reef, it was a good day as no sharks around , sometime by the time you get the fish to the boat only the head is left, bloody pesky sharks. Masthead Island was where we caught these lovelies, great eating.

Nice Catch ! What type of fish , nothing familiar to me ….

We prob have different names and spices here in Aus but the 2 I am holding are coral trout with a few red throat sweet lip which both are great eating, tusk fish down on the bottom right, hussies the small orange ones the 3 smaller fish are grassie sweet lip and the large fish we call mother in law fish, its ok to eat but not the best eating, we had more fish on the day with 3 of us fishing and have bag limits on each person of 20 each the ones in the pic are what I caught , depends on the season there are a lot more bigger spices to be had, we caught these just bottom bashing by drifting around.
Some more fish from the catch, we threw a lot more back that were legal size but didn't want to go over our limits as Fisheries might get you at the boat ramp on your return and big fines if you do the wrong thing, there are size and bag limits on all spices, some spices don't have bag limits like the hussies but they are not the most sort after fish but make great fish cakes.
Its a great day out and 1/2 way you got to cross the main shipping channel so always got to keep your eye open as then big ships come up pretty quick in open water and over night trips are great as you get the bigger fish, but I like the smaller sizes they taste a lot better I recond.

ashman said:

1 1/2 hr run offshore from 1770 off the Queensland coast on the start of the Great Barrier Reef, the dates on the pics are wrong as my camera always put out that date, was a trip from last year of many trips on the reef, it was a good day as no sharks around , sometime by the time you get the fish to the boat only the head is left, bloody pesky sharks. Masthead Island was where we caught these lovelies, great eating.View attachment 98897View attachment 98898View attachment 98899View attachment 98896

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I spent a few days on humpy island back in the 80s
We went out on the keppel island taxi
Had to be picked up a day early because a storm was coming in
On the way back we stopped for a yacht that had snapped it's mast
We couldn't get near it because of the swirls so we stayed close by until the coastguard came out
It's was bloody rough that day !!

baz said:

I spent a few days on humpy island back in the 80s
We went out on the keppel island taxi
Had to be picked up a day early because a storm was coming in
On the way back we stopped for a yacht that had snapped it's mast
We couldn't get near it because of the swirls so we stayed close by until the coastguard came out
It's was bloody rough that day !!

Click to expand...

Lady Elliot Island is the start of the Great Barrier Reef and goes all the way up the Queensland coast to the top of Cape York, Captain Cook landed at 1770 in 1770 lol he nearly lost his ship on the reef off Cooktown had to beach his ship the Endeavor and spent a few months repairing his ship, he had to climb the tallest hills to find a passage through the reef, inside the reef its pretty protected from the great ocean but still can be dangerous place in bad weather and of course in Cyclone season.
The Great Barrier Reef is one of the wonder of the world and the largest reef in the world.
All ships inside the reef must have a pilot on board as well it gets very shallow in some tight channels, the whole reef is protected.
History lesson over.

ashman said:

Lady Elliot Island is the start of the Great Barrier Reef and goes all the way up the Queensland coast to the top of Cape York, Captain Cook landed at 1770 in 1770 lol he nearly lost his ship on the reef off Cooktown had to beach his ship the Endeavor and spent a few months repairing his ship, he had to climb the tallest hills to find a passage through the reef, inside the reef its pretty protected from the great ocean but still can be dangerous place in bad weather and of course in Cyclone season.
The Great Barrier Reef is one of the wonder of the world and the largest reef in the world.
All ships inside the reef must have a pilot on board as well it gets very shallow in some tight channels, the whole reef is protected.
History lesson over.

Click to expand...

Yeah we had to get a permit to camp there
Most of the blokes on there were fisherman,they shared their catch with us
Great times

When I was a teenager a group of friends went down to Cornwall on our motorbikes for
a holiday. Before the pub opened each day (10.30am) we went out with a local fisherman
in a small boat to fish for mackerel. On the last day of 7 days we caught one mackerel.
On asking the fisherman why we had not caught lots of mackerel, he told us it was not
the mackerel season ..... he certainly caught us !

ashman said:

We prob have different names and spices here in Aus but the 2 I am holding are coral trout with a few red throat sweet lip which both are great eating, tusk fish down on the bottom right, hussies the small orange ones the 3 smaller fish are grassie sweet lip and the large fish we call mother in law fish, its ok to eat but not the best eating, we had more fish on the day with 3 of us fishing and have bag limits on each person of 20 each the ones in the pic are what I caught , depends on the season there are a lot more bigger spices to be had, we caught these just bottom bashing by drifting around.
Some more fish from the catch, we threw a lot more back that were legal size but didn't want to go over our limits as Fisheries might get you at the boat ramp on your return and big fines if you do the wrong thing, there are size and bag limits on all spices, some spices don't have bag limits like the hussies but they are not the most sort after fish but make great fish cakes.
Its a great day out and 1/2 way you got to cross the main shipping channel so always got to keep your eye open as then big ships come up pretty quick in open water and over night trips are great as you get the bigger fish, but I like the smaller sizes they taste a lot better I recond.
View attachment 98904View attachment 98905

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Mayor Island is 22 mile off the coast and is a great game fishing spot (marlin)...but also good for bottom fish like snapper etc....Great two days out caught our limit and was good to see the guys having a great time...just had fish for tea...yum

baz said:

I spent a few days on humpy island back in the 80s
We went out on the keppel island taxi
Had to be picked up a day early because a storm was coming in
On the way back we stopped for a yacht that had snapped it's mast
We couldn't get near it because of the swirls so we stayed close by until the coastguard came out
It's was bloody rough that day !!

Click to expand...

We had beautiful weather...about to start raining again tomorrow as usual lately...the not so nice part is maintenance and anifouling etc

baz said:

I spent a few days on humpy island back in the 80s
We went out on the keppel island taxi
Had to be picked up a day early because a storm was coming in
On the way back we stopped for a yacht that had snapped it's mast
We couldn't get near it because of the swirls so we stayed close by until the coastguard came out
It's was bloody rough that day !!

Click to expand...

Our East coast of New Zealand is the our calmest side of the country generally...The Tasman sea on our Western coast can be equally as nasty at times as the Northern Sea areas....up in your parts of the world....and Cold ta boot ....Your trawler men are hard out buggers ...Tuff seas....

ashman said:

Lady Elliot Island is the start of the Great Barrier Reef and goes all the way up the Queensland coast to the top of Cape York, Captain Cook landed at 1770 in 1770 lol he nearly lost his ship on the reef off Cooktown had to beach his ship the Endeavor and spent a few months repairing his ship, he had to climb the tallest hills to find a passage through the reef, inside the reef its pretty protected from the great ocean but still can be dangerous place in bad weather and of course in Cyclone season.
The Great Barrier Reef is one of the wonder of the world and the largest reef in the world.
All ships inside the reef must have a pilot on board as well it gets very shallow in some tight channels, the whole reef is protected.
History lesson over.

Click to expand...

I seen the ships come in from out at sea and veer close to the shore when i was up in the Caloundra coast area on the sun shine coast a few years back... dodging the reefs

KiwiShane said:

I seen the ships come in from out at sea and veer close to the shore when i was up in the Caloundra coast area on the sun shine coast a few years back... dodging the reefs

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Not dodging reefs but sand banks to get into Moreton bay to the port of Brisbane, they come close to Caloundra at the end of Bribie island then cross over to Moreton Island then they can then come through 2 different channels to get into the mouth of the Brisbane river at Fishermans island the main port of Brisbane all man made, Moreton Bay is 3/4 shallow sand banks, Bribie Island, Moreton Island and Stradbroke North and South Islands are all sand islands that stop ships coming straight into Brisbane, from Caloundra to the port of Brisbane all ships must have a pilot on board to navigate the channels between the sand banks, I live 1 km from the northern end of Moreton Bay and have own boats most of my life, Moreton Bay is my play ground and owned a 27' Norman Weller built Timber Bay Cruiser for many years cruising the islands of Moreton bay, know it at the back of my hands and all the sand banks are always moving and the main shipping channels are always being dredged to keep them open.
Hard to see but the right picture frame is my old boat on the slip and back in the water after a major over haul, will find a few better pics tomorrow, it was powered by a 4-236 Perkins marine motor and cruised on 7.5 knots in all sorts of conditions on the bay, because the bay is so shallow the sea could chop up very quickly, calm one minute and chop up the next, but I knew all the secret fishing spots on the bay and rivers and creeks that all run into Moreton Bay and from my front steps I can just see Mud Island near the mouth of Brisbane River and can see most of the bay from top of my house roof, I use to watch the yacht races on the bay on top of my roof when I was a kid.
Many years ago about 35 years or more now a container ship coming into the first channel marker at Caloundra, missed its turn and ran up onto the beach at the end of Bribie, its took about 2 weeks to get it off the beach the RAAF had to unload containers with 2 Chinook choppers to lighten the front of the ship to refloat it, I went up there to watch the action was a great show and one of the Chinooks lost a engine on one of its lifts, they replaced the engine on the beach on Bribie Island.

Now to seal in the freshness ...

KiwiShane said:

Mayor Island is 22 mile off the coast and is a great game fishing spot (marlin)...but also good for bottom fish like snapper etc....Great two days out caught our limit and was good to see the guys having a great time...just had fish for tea...yum

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So , are you Shane senior or junior? , also your new matchless, there are still a few kiwi plates that might suit like 51G80 52G80 can't remember the year sorry . Cheers

Shelby-Right said:

So , are you Shane senior or junior? , also your new matchless, there are still a few kiwi plates that might suit like 51G80 52G80 can't remember the year sorry . Cheers

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I owned the bike for less than a day
Walked away from the deal (issues with seller)
Senior decision

That was a shame , it looked tidy .

Shelby-Right said:

That was a shame , it looked tidy .

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Long story short...indeed a shame

Lineslinger, where are you?

Ladies and gennamen, we have a pro in our midst.

Just reading along. Fun thread and great tail's.

I have always loved fishing. Got caught skipping school with a line in the water when I was 7 or 8.
For the last 30+ years I have traveled the world fly fishing with the same tight knit group of guys. Patagonia to the Pocono's to Tanzania to the Amazon.
These days I will sometimes take on a photo assignment from a print or online publication depending on our destination. I have done a fair bit of scuba diving (certification at 16) and diving the Great Barrier Reef is still on my bucket list. Getting up there in years though, might have to snorkel instead.