Page 42 - Bush 'n Beach Fishing mag

A nice trout to add to the box.
This is where I had commenced my recon- naissance mission four years prior and had not – mainly due to weather conditions – been able to return to fish the area since.
Page 42 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, July 2020
This new spot pro- duced nice emperor, red
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Investing time pays off
FINALLY had the opportunity to head offshore to fish an
Bundaberg Region
by BRAD YOUNG
area around the Bunker Group I had been want- ing to revisit.
features in one area in particular.
emperor, a great pearl perch and several nice tuskfish as well as a few moses perch and our bag of big hussar.
The tides were around the neap period and the seas were calm – the perfect opportunity to head offshore and target a few reef species.
After an hour had passed, it was time to head back towards the area we had been fishing earlier for a quick drop before heading home.
The highlight for me was the fact that we didn’t lose any fish to sharks.
This trip provided the chance to fish new marks that I had gath- ered on a previous trip around four years earlier but hadn’t had the oppor- tunity to actually fish.
That was four years ago.
With the need to vary the components of our bag, I was tossing up whether to head to an ar- ea where I was confident we could add some red- throat emperor or an ar- ea I had wanted to target for coral trout but hadn’t had the opportunity to do so.
The fantastic looking weather map, a public holiday and easing of travel distance restric- tions provided the per- fect opportunity to head offshore for a day of fishing.
As we left Round Hill Creek and headed in a general eastward direc- tion, I punched in the mark that was named ‘Start point’.
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The trip four years ago was under similar con- ditions and it was in the middle of a slow bite period that we decided to invest some time.
Fate would have it that we headed to the pro- posed trout spot to try our luck.
After having a quick cook-up for lunch, I made the decision to do some prospecting.
To give an indica- tion as to the quality of weather conditions, we were able to easily hold a speed of 30 knots as we headed towards the Bunker Group, reaching the ‘Start point’ mark in near record time.
That was not to be the story on this occasion, with some nice trout coming over the side in relatively short time around the change in tide.
That is, to invest time searching for some new marks to target at a lat- er date, and hopefully a couple that weren’t known to others.
On arrival, after adding sinkers and hooks to our terminal tackle and pre- paring pilchards, squid, cuttlefish and mullet for bait, I started to work around the marks iden- tified four years earlier – and it didn’t take long to see the sounder light up a nice bommie with a good fish show.
This had been the pat- tern.
I had picked an area around the 60m contour and used this line as a starting point.
For me, the successes of this trip reinforced the value of doing your own prospecting to locate your own marks.
After a bit of time, the sounder started to show some small bumps and bommies that I marked as the boat passed over them.
A couple of early drifts helped me get a handle on the direction of the tidal stream before drop- ping the pick.
On most occasions it is possible to get a mark for a general area, but it’s often the exploration around the nominated mark that might find that special spot.
As the grid grew in size, there appeared to be a pattern building, with an apparent line of marks forming, indicat- ing some good bottom
For the most part this was the way things stayed, apart from repo- sitioning the anchor on a couple of occasions due to tide changes.
As I did four years earlier, spending time searching while drag- ging a lure behind to maybe hook-up a stray
This day was to be our starting point.
I hadn’t fished the trout spot before but had pre- viously had a terrible session nearby where every trout hook-up was shared.
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This decision saw us spending around an hour working through a one-kilometre grid pat- tern, trolling a couple of lures behind at the same time.
Slow bite until the tide slowed and then a good bite period.