Mackay Fishing Report November 2009
November 30, 2009 by Ron · 28 Comments · Follow Reefari Charters on Twitter
Reefari Mackay Fishing Charters Report — November 2009
This month’s fishing report is brought to you by fishing writer and photographer Lee Brake. Lee is an avid angler, born in Mackay who has cut his teeth working in tackle shops from the age of 15.
He now spends his time fishing and writing in six national publications and writes as a columnist for the popular local publication North Queensland Fish and Boat monthly. Lee also did the interview with Greg Reynolds that you will find on the hompage.
G’day all from Lee Brake!
This month Mackay has seen some absolutely chaotic fishing. On the blue water, I’ve had the privilege of accompanying the team from Reefari Charters on one of their salt water sojourns. The boys have been having a cracker month with some truly impressive hauls of large and small mouth nannygai and several heart thumping, big reds.
Also worth mentioning were some rare and exciting captures including a passionfruit trout, barramundi cod and a thumping great bluespot trout!
My trip with the crew was somewhat of a specialty charter. The idea was to chase pelagics like monster GTs and Spanish Mackerel because the reef fin fish closure meant that those tasty bottom dwellers in red, orange and pink were off limits.
The plan was to use large soft plastic jigs to work bottom structure and cup-faced poppers to work the surface.
The plastics were of the 7” Jerk Shad variety in a Nuclear Chicken colour, rigged with a 1.5ounce jig head. These went off like prawns in the sun and we found that we couldn’t even get them to the bottom before the rods bent over like wilting leaves and the drags screamed.
The big head shakes that ensued made me hopeful for a GT but once off the bottom the fight left the fish and the crystal clear water revealed a trophy sized cod with the plastic firmly imbedded in its mouth.
This was quickly released and after two more drops for several more bucket-mouthed cod we decided to avoid further undue stress to these fish (which were released) and moved on to chase some shallow water species.
These came in the form of giant trevally; big dark shouldered, hulking brutes that would appear under our poppers, explode like a depth charge and inevitably drive us into rocky structure and into a sudden, brutal demise.
On the upside, I did enjoy seeing a quality flowery cod explode upon a beer can-sized, Cultiva cup-faced popper and dive around a rocky point.
I had to literally grab the spool in desperation, let me tell you!
On the blue water front, the tuna are thicker than pea and ham soup and are as prolific as I’ve ever seen them. They are, however, a little finicky and this is normally a result of boat traffic and bait size.
They tend to feed on schools of whitebait and hardyheads that can be as small as an unhusked peanut so don’t waste your time with giant metal slugs and surface lures, instead, try small white featherhead jigs and whitebait imitation slugs.
Gillies, silver Baitfish slugs in a 25grm are a good choice. Also worth noting if you want to target the school-calibre mackerel is a little trick when spinning – simply cast at a boil of tuna and allow the lure to sink under the school before employing a quick rip-and-pause retrieve.
Inshore, the barramundi are now off the take list, but that doesn’t mean they’re off the target list completely, with the local impoundments fishing unbelievably well. Kinchant is still producing barra of gargantuan proportion with many anglers taking fish well over the metre mark.
Mick Rethus from Pioneer Valley Fishing Tours has noted that Teemburra Dam has been producing plenty of quality barra in the high 70cm range but very few smaller fish, though as the water temperature rises into December, these should start biting as well.
For the best results, Mick recommends working soft plastics as slowly as humanly possible. Try bays and points that have the wind pushing warm water and bait onto them.
The estuaries are once again coming alive with the start of the wet weather causing an explosion of prawns in the creeks, especially around Seaforth. The size is still average, but expect some quality in time for Christmas.
Bream, salmon and small pelagics are providing entertainment for land-based enthusiasts and mangrove jack are biting hard on the night tides with live bait and fresh, dead bait being the most successful.
That’s it from me for this month, but I’ll be back after Christmas with more of what’s biting. In the mean time, for fishing fix check out Reefari’s channel on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/user/Reefari) or maybe even follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/reefari or for more information on the latest in tackle and toys, check out my Tackle Rat column in NQ Fish and Boat.
Cheers, Lee Brake
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Wow, I was just going to ask if those fish were real! Every time my husband and his friends go fishing, they come home with nothing and we have to buy dinner! I’ll be passing on some tips from your experiences, see if he can do any better
Hi Stacie and welcome…
Yes all these fish are real… We are very lucky in Australia having the Great Barrier Reef right on our doorstep. The fishing here is fantastic especially up off the coast of Mackay Australia.
How on earth do you catch fish like that! All i get is the tiniest fish that there could possibly exist in the sea! What bait do you use! amazing stuff, seriously! cheers..
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I grew up In Papua New Guinea right above Australia and we went fishing off Madang. All we caught was sharks though! got a nice 7 foot tiger shark but no groupers or anything like you. Great looking fish you guys caught. Very jealous. Wish i could go back!
Have never been fishing in Australia. It seem like you have alot of large mouth ocean fish. Great photos, looks like tons of fun.
I haven’t seen fish like that before! They almost look surreal.
Great photos too! I have always loved the synergy of water and sun.
Hi Ron, your post is really amazing. I can’t imagine myself just holding these giant fish you are privileged to catch. Your place is really blessed with such a bountiful resources. How i wish to experience this adventurous and exciting fishing.
And I thought Mackay was just a mining town. Next time I’m up there I’ll be sure to bring my rod! Those are mosters
Great pics guys.
Amazingly big fishes. I’ve been looking for places good for fishing. Now I you gave me an idea. That must be fun with family.
Whoaw! those fishes are huge. Aren’t you gonna eat them? I guess not. That’s not part of a “fishing” hobby…
What a huge catch! It seems Australia is a great spot to go fishing. I just wish I could get one like yours.
This is truly amazing, i just cant believe that you guys caught such big fishes, i always had a hard time catching those big ones and i always returned home with lots of smaller ones.,anyway i like the photos and hope that you had a great time there.
Great pictures! I never have pictures to back up my stories
Someday I’d like to make it to Austrialia to go fishing, it looks like a great time!
Really big fishes i have never seen before. Very nice Pictures
Greets
The fishing here is fantastic especially up off the coast of Mackay Australia. How i wish to experience this adventurous and exciting fishing.
Superb images and really nice that you shared all this here with us. Your post made me open eye dream for few minutes and i simply just want to get out of this office and go fishing. Also i think that i was born in the wrong hemisphere. Cheers.
Wow! We get nothing like that here in Scoltand. A decent size salmon is about the pinnacle!
Seem like you have a lot of large mouth ocean fish. Great photos, looks like tons of fun. I just cant believe that you guys caught such big fishes, i always had a hard time catching those big ones and i always returned home with lots of smaller ones.
It seem like you have a lot of large mouth ocean fish. I like the photos and hope that you had a great time there. Great photos.
It seem like you have a lot of large mouth ocean fish. Your post made me open eye dream for few minutes and i simply just want to get out of this office and go fishing. Great photos, looks like tons of fun.
Awesome – beautiful big cod . I’ve seen those grow really big – sometimes 2-3 ft long! (I think that species of cod is commonly referred to as a Potato Cod our here).
They’re aggressive predators – bite hard and usually put up a strong fight.
Great pictures! Now all I need to do is use my photoshop skills and show my friends the fish I caught on my recent fishing trip!
j/k of course. I’m getting excited for fishing season to open up soon and thought I’d scour the internet for what lays in wait for me this season. I love fishing the Great Lakes.
Great pics! I wish we did not have to go so far offshore here in Maui to get fish that size.
Awesome catch! My husband has been trying to get me to like fishing too. He’s been at it with hus buddies since college. But somehow, I just cannot seem to find too much pleasure in combining nasty sunburn with fishy smells.
I’d rather wait on the beach for my fresh meal of tuna!
Oh my god those fish are huge….. hmmmm maybe i need a bigger fishing rod.
the last fish i caught was a 25cm mackeral in cornwall
tips? i need tips? where to buy cheap rods?
Fishing in Australia looks very promising. With my luck, I’d be happy to catch even just one of these bad boys.
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Wow! Superb pictures and some amazing fish you got there!
Very impressive indeed.
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WOW those fish are huge!
is it possible to catch fish that large off land in Mackay? or do have to a boat?