Bush 'n Beach Fishing Magazine Location reports & tips for fishing, boating, camping, kayaking, 4WDing in Queensland and Northern NSW
Easter is a time to overindulge in chocolate, to have a great time outside with family and friends, and to lose tackle… that’s right, go fishing!
Our waterways have seen some incredible changes over the past 12 months.
After the flooding last year, we had so much debris wash into the creeks and rivers, it fed the system with much needed nutrients, and we are now seeing the system flourish with life.
So far this year, we have had an incredible amount of flathead, bream, whiting and other species being caught from Bribie Island to the Brisbane River.
Big longtail tuna were seen and caught around Woody Point to Shorncliffe Pier and beside them, mackerel have been taken.
If you want to have a crack at these machines while they are hanging around, try to match the hatch with what they are eating.
Lures about the same size as a good hardyhead with upgraded trebles would be a great place to start.
You can try the same with mackerel, though you’ll still get their interest with a pillie being floated out too.
Some regular fishos use a standard two or three-hook gang rig, with only the bottom hook used with live bait under a float.
In most cases, this is going to reduce the requirement for a wire trace.
Any advantage you can get over the razor gang – read sharks – is a welcome advantage!
Now is the time to gear up for the upcoming squid season.
With the fishing being so good over the past few months, I can’t wait to see what the squid season is going to produce!
In the bay, great catches of snapper and grass sweetlip are also being recorded.
Mud Island has been mentioned by our regulars the most and photos of their Eskies tell the story.
Ryan ventured out into Moreton Bay with a friend during a great weather window and it paid dividends, with a great result.
Ryan nailed a cracking little bay squire, along with a few other species.
Well done Ryan – all you must do is teach your dad to fish and your job is done!
Every morning we open, put the signage out, sit down with a brew and watch the world go by while finding solutions to the world’s issues – it has been the same routine for years.
We get to meet regular walkers, coffee drinkers and such and, most times, we end up having a chat or simply giving a passing wave.
Where is this going? Well, we struck up a morning friendship with a mum who regularly walked while pushing a pram that carried her son Theodore.
Theodore was usually chilling in the pram, wearing his traditional sunnies, so we nicknamed him ‘cool dude’. Theodore is now at school and greets us with a very pronounced “G’day”, which makes our morning!
In the shop, Theodore has also become a regular when fishing with his dad and always has a tale of his latest adventure at the ready. I told Theodore that I needed a photo of him with a fish so I could put it in this article and, in a very cool manner, he gave me the thumbs up and said “Sure!”
I’m sure Theodore is an old soul in a young body. So, Theodore went out and nailed a grunter just for us – we felt privileged.
I would have been happy with only a bream but no, a grunter it was.
Thank you Theodore for making our day!
Why do we open the doors eight days a week? Well, it’s simple… we have an array of awesome clients who come in, some daily.
But when you have a client called Joe who comes in and leaves everybody speechless – even the seasoned fishos – there’s the reason. Joe came in with his dad Justin to grab some bait.
While at the counter, he saw some very well-placed prawn lures at kids’ eye height and started to pick out the one he liked.
He showed his dad the one he’d picked and was super keen to have it.
I jumped in and told Joe that I would make him a deal.
The deal was… go out fishing with dad, catch a fish, get a photo of the fish while holding it, with a cracker smile and doing the Tackle Land ‘thumbs up’ pose and I would give him the prawn lure.
He said it was a deal and we shook hands – the deal was sealed.
Well, Joe went to walk away with his dad but stopped, looked back at me and said, “Nah, this is worth a pinkie promise.”
And with that, he produced his pinkie and asked if I knew what that meant.
I assured him that I knew a pinkie promise was very serious and you can’t break one when you make it. It was at that moment everyone in the shop went quiet – no one said a thing.
Joe and his dad left, leaving looks of disbelief on the faces of those remaining in the shop. Joe rang a few hours later, though we struggled to make out what was being said.
All we heard was, “pinkie promise,” “fish,” and “photo.” We then received a photo.
This is what drives us to open our doors every day. There are so many ‘Joes’ out there – we hope we get to meet yours!
If you need ideas for taking your kids fishing, jump onto our website and have a read of the articles written by our customers – these could save you a headache, tackleland.com.au/posts/
Enjoy the time spent together and maintain the passion!
