mackerel

It had been a long time since I’d caught decent size pelagic fish and I’d forgotten just how much fun it is to have your line-burning retrieve stopped in its tracks as a super-fast sportfish takes off in the other direction with your lure in its mouth. Having not previously caught mackerel on anything heavier than 10lb gear, I was …

Some of the fishing from the deck of the Capricorn Star was very good. Everyone was fishing braid, and with an experienced crew tangles were at a minimum. On a number of occasions the quality of fish was much better than I had expected, and it was surprising how quickly a good catch could be put together. Ivan Mapp landed …

THE past month’s fishing has been pretty good and we have captured all sorts of species from cod to mackerel and flathead. I couldn’t ask for a better start to winter. The mackerel we’ve caught have been an assortment of schoolies and spotties. We have hooked them from the top end of Moreton Bay right down to the southern bay …

Some good pearl perch were caught on the new moon in May, so definitely give them a go on the same moon in June if the weather allows. Pearlies really are one of the delicacies of the reef. The 50-fathom line is also holding a lot of squire but they are so small it’s not worth the effort and half of them …

This works extremely well when the fish are competing for food. By chopping and changing these techniques to see what is working on the day you can tune in to the bite and almost anticipate when the fish are going to eat the lure. It is important to have good-quality electronics on your boat to ensure you are jigging where you …

I landed a couple and had several wipe-outs when I hooked what I initially thought was just another small kingfish. But then I looked over the side and saw something orange coming up. Perplexed, I gave the handle a few more turns and saw a mangrove jack of 4-5kg nearing the surface. In that split second when I recognised what the fish …

In the distance I could see a small flock of birds diving into the water, so I slowly trolled north towards them. The Garmin sounder turned red and just as we drove over a large school of bait, two of the reels started screaming. I love the way that when a Shimano Tiagra goes off, the sound vibrates through the …

With this in mind, we decided to also use a couple of Rapala X-Rap 20+ lures in Red Head colour because the latest Grubbsta skirts are a lot lighter so you can troll them at a much lower speed, which gives you the opportunity to use a combination of hard-bodies and skirts. We were lucky we decided to troll the …

Graham comes up a few times a year, so he was also a deserving winner of the Baysport Boats longest coral trout comp last year after landing a 69cm barcheek trout. He was here in time for the early spaniards this month but didn’t catch a big one, so will be back again in July to try his luck.” Sweers Island …