Tin Can Bay turns it on

G’day crew, as always, I hope you’re keeping well and warm. At the time of writing, it was a chilly day, so the Uggies were well and truly on.

The past couple of weeks have felt like it’s winter, particularly in the evening and first thing in the morning, though during the day was warm and sunny.

Let’s hope the winter weather patterns settle in and we can all get out to enjoy the beautiful Great Sandy Strait.

As some of you may or may not be aware, the new zoning for the Great Sandy Strait came into effect on May 21 and there have been a number of changes to do with zoning in the marine park.

 

In short, there are some more green zones that have been added, extensions of ‘go slow zones’ and ‘no motorised traversing’, changes to the number of rods and reels you can use at any one time, along with some changes for the commercial sector.

If you require more information, you can log on to the DPI website.

Alternatively, pop into the shop, grab an information brochure and have a chat about it with our friendly staff.

What I will say is that everyone using our waterways should download the new Marine Parks Southern Qld app.

It’s simple to use and will notify you if you come within 10m of a new zone.

 

The old signage has been removed and is not going to be reinstated, so as the skipper, you are responsible for your vessel.

Anyway, let’s talk about the fun stuff… fishing and what was caught over the past few weeks.

With the weather starting to show signs of settling down, offshore fishos have made the most of any windows and sent it out wide.

Snapper and pearl perch filled Eskies pre-closure, along with good catches of tuskfish, stripies, cobia, tuna and dolphinfish off the fish aggregating device, and a few spanish mackerel came from trolled lures or slow trolled bait.

We had a great overnight trip there a few weeks back and came home with a good feed of all of the above, as well as a nice coral trout and a couple of red emperor.

 

We had an insane session on the northern FAD, tossing stickbaits at dollies.

There were three-way hook ups, fish jumping over lines, lures thrown as they got airborne and then those same lures being smashed by other fish.

It was total and utter chaos – like macrame gone wrong – so much fun!

Back inshore at Tin Can Bay and nice grass sweetlip were caught in and around the moored boats from Norman Point to Crab Creek, together with a few legal snapper.

Nothing big on the snapper front, yet it’s good to see some legal 40cm sized fish being caught in the bay.

 

Fresh squid bait and pillies have worked exceptionally well, as have lightly weighted grub tail soft plastics.

A standout for us was our new favourite, the 3.5” Biwaa TailGunR Curly.

This lure has been accounting for many fish over the past few months and is a must have in the tacklebox.

Rigged on a 3/0 TT Fishing ChinlockZ at whatever weight you need and it’s game on.

On the flats and around the drop-off, flathead are in good numbers, with many fish in the 40-50cm range and some high 60cm sizes hitting the deck.

 

I’ve been doing a lot of flatty fishing recently and my son has been frothing it.

I’ve not spent this much time chasing flatties in years and had forgotten how much fun it was.

We’ve been giving the new Samaki 70mm Live Shrimps a good run and they’ve made some good waves, and not only on our boat – plenty of customers have raved about them.

You get two in a pack for $15.95 – that’s a pair of pre-rigged 1/4oz prawn lures that are tough as and last fish after fish.

It’s a sweet deal and knowing they catch fish is an added bonus.

 

Lizards are easily accessible, in fact prolific in our waterways.

They readily woof down your offering and would have to be the easiest fish to target on lures.

They also taste great.

For me though, seeing my child out there having a ball – and potentially finding a passion for the thing I’m so obsessed and fervent about that I’ve made a career out of it – is just awesome.

Mud crabs were about in decent numbers, though from all accounts you need to pick through the B and C-grade stuff to find the quality.

 

Meanwhile, sand crabs have been in very good condition and quantities, with fishos crabbing around Carlo Point and the surrounding water, picking up plenty of quality crabs.

As a thank you for sorting out their sounder issues, one of our lovely customers dropped a couple off the other day.

How yummy are sandies?

Well, that’s enough from me this month.

Take it easy, stay warm and we will see you in the shop or out on the water.

Take care and tight lines.

The Chandlery Bait and Tackle for all your boating and fishing needs.