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March-15, 2004
Opal Mining Update - No 32 Plenty of small fish and some big ones this time. |
 Went out to the Damper Creek again today, but not much was on the bite the only decent sized fish was a another of these Brown SweetLips, it is also called the Mother-in-Law fish, as it is as ugly as hell with big rubbery lips.  |
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Pat had no luck today, which is unusual for her, if there is anything sniffing around it will find her hook for sure, there was about a 1 meter swell on the way out this morning and we was going right into it and on the way home it was about a meter and a half, the wind is supposed to be the same tomorrow, so we will be back here again to try our luck.
Tuesday, Got up this morning at 5.30 Pat was not happy, but I wanted to get there before high tide which was at 7.23 am and was there fishing 7 o'clock, but again there was not much activity on the sounder or in the water, for bigger fish anyway, but there was small stuff keep taking the bait, so at 9.15 we decided to go home at 10.30, but as the dead line got close I decided to put a couple of rigs on with smaller whiting hooks that I had already made up (have a lot of different rigs ready to put on) to see what was biting and taking the bait, if possible. Well we had a ball catching fish and we managed to come home with a feed, as we caught or should say we ended up with 5 Whiting and 1 Grunter, small but legal size, so as we are having a fillet of the Mother-in-Law tonight for the first time so I hope it tastes alright, if not we have some of what we caught today and will be able to put a feed into the freezer for a change, below are some of the species that we caught today, all were put back except for the legal whiting and the one Grunter that Pat caught, but we caught 3 or 4 dozen of these small fish all of which we return back to the water. This is a Northern Whiting, we keep five of these, excellent eating.  |
A Japanese Trevally, small and went back in the water after the photo. |
A Black Bream or Spiky Bream a the locals call it, excellent eating if big enough, would have to be twice this size to keep, so back in the water.
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A Black-Spot Sea Perch, again excellent eating if big enough, but again back in the water. |
A Dark-Tailed Sea Perch, excellent eating if big enough and back into the water, must be on a nursery here hard to get a good sized fish. |
A Pink Eared Emperor again really excellent eating but this is just a a baby, so back in the water. |
A Diamond Fish, for looking at only.
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Wednesday,
Did not go out today as the forecast was for very strong winds, high seas and rain, but as it turned out we could have gone out fishing, would have got a wet a bit as there was showers that went through, but the day was not as bad as they made it out to be, the forecast for tomorrow is the same so I will play it by ear and see what it like when I get up in the morning. Thursday, Got up at 5.30 this morning and had a look out side the door, the sky was dark and overcast, the wind was also up so I went back to bed, I work up again at 6.30 by chance so I had another look outside and decided that we would go out fishing as it looked not bad, the wind was up from the south east which means that we will head straight into the chop but that is not a worry for us, so we will give it a go. We got there just before high tide which was at 8.05 and was disappointed as the fish were not on the bite straight away, after the tide had turned and the boat had turned around with the flow of water going out the fish came on the bite, again we caught a few small ones, Pat caught 2 Whiting and 1 Grunter (legal) we both caught undersize that had to go back. Pat caught one big Grunter but it got off the hook just as I was leaning over the side with the net and I also had a big fish on but it brook the line, which is my fault as I was using an old rig made with 15 lb line, I lost a big one last week using another of there rigs, then as the run out tide was to strong and the fish had stopped biting some 2 and a bit hours ago we decided to come home, as we were bringing in the rods one of Pats rods had caught another rig when it got close to the boat I saw that the line was yellow and it was not one of mine, so as Pat keep winding in the line I saw a rod come to the surface, she had caught someone's lost fishing rod. I did not mention it earlier, but at the end of these rooms to the right, there is a Farther and Son fishing team and last Saturday they had a bad day as the Farther broke the tip off a rod and the Son lost a rod overboard when he got a bite on it and he had left it unattended, this is the rod Pat caught don't know if this is the rod until they come back from fishing this afternoon as I don't know where they were when they lost it, but how would you be hooking this rod in 23 foot of water in the middle of a wide creek in dirty water, in the middle of nowhere and we cannot get a win in the lottery. Turns out this rod did belong to the Farther and Son couple, it was the son that lost the rod, they could not believe Pat had caught it on the bottom with her hook and no need to tell you they were very happy to get it back, they also had a good day today there last day here, they caught a couple of big grunter and a few other fish that they threw back.  |
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Friday,
Today was a bit better between the tides about a foot and a bit, so we went back to the creek early this time, we had baits in the water by 7.40 and straight away we started getting bites over the next hour and a half I had caught one of the grunters, just over legal size and this one which is called a Fingermark Bream, (also excellent eating) I also caught another of the Coach Whip Stingray, Pat caught 2 of the small Estuary Cod and a Bat fish which was all put back, we the stayed there until low tide which was at 13.55 plus another 1/2 hour for nothing, might as well come home at 9.30 as after that is was dead.  |
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Saturday,
Up again at 5.30 and in the water at 6.45, we are going out to Goold Island for a change and the weather forecast is great for today and tomorrow, the creek we had been fishing has a lot of rubbish in it and the water is dirty and not that salty, they have had some rain again run into the creeks again and the fish don't seem to be there in any great numbers judging by the bites we had been getting over the last two days, so it is time for a move and change of scenery. First we went over to the point of Cape Richards (J on the map above) looking for a deep hole again, by the way the sea was great this morning took us about 35 minutes to get there, looked for the hole for about 10 minutes or so, but could not find it again for the third time and the last I think, so we then went over to the deep hole at the eastern end of Mona Rock (H on the map, that little round circle) I went up and down this hole as it is quite long and there was not a fish to be seen on the fish finder. So we went back towards the middle of Goold Island to another fishing hole we know and there was fish everywhere, so we anchored and started fishing, you will never guess what we caught first, yep, a bloody shark Pat and caught 2 each and a bunch of small good for nothing fish, we got that sick of catching these small fish we pulled up anchor and went looking for another spot we had been told about, near a sand spit on the west side of Garden Island, they said it was a good spot for these Grunter on a outgoing tide as they swim around the point going I don't know where. When we got there, 5 boats were already fishing around that area, 3 were near the sand spit so I went in between them and dropped anchor and we started fishing with small hooks on, as we was on sand for a change I thought there might have been some sand whiting around, but I was wrong, none at all, there was a fellow to the left of us that was having a ball catching fish on a regular basis, but he was using live bait which we did not have, this is the feller below, here it turns out he had a sting ray on and in the end broke it off.  |
So I changed my rig and put on a single 5/0 hook with a small herring on but as dead as a door nail and threw it out, within 10 I had a fish and a nice size at that, a Grunter, they are called this because they make a noise with there grinding plates in the back of there throat that sounds like it is grunting, hence the name, but as I said before there are called a Spotted Javelin fish and are good eating, so this is so far a good day.
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Then after I had changed all 3 rods over to the single hook rig, I got another hit on the same rod again this time it was a bigger fish by the fighting it was putting up and it turned out to be a Golden Trevally, another great eating fish, boy was this my day, at last we were catching some decent size eating fish, all I wanted now was for Pat to get one as she was felling left out by now, as you can behind me the sea is nice with a slight chop.
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Pat was next to get one, a Grunter and also a good size, but as we are completive to see who is lucky enough to catch fish also who can catch the biggest, now we know the Trevally is the biggest so far, but as we have both caught grunters mine was the biggest, mine was 53 centimeters and Pats was 51.5, nice to win now and again as she normally beats me hands down, I also caught another small one and I got a hit that hard on the same rod I had caught the 2 big fish on it broke the line before I could pick it up from the rod holder, so it was a big fish that was moving fast, not a shark that's for sure as they don't strike as speed, but these Grunters and Trevally do.
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These fellers were fishing behind us and the bloke at the back was doing very well, here he is pulling another one in, the bloke at the front did not catch any that we saw, there were a couple of boats to our right that also did not catch anything that we saw before they pulled anchor and went and moored on the island and went ashore, but we did alright and will be back there tomorrow.
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This is the catch for today, very pleased with it and we have got some fillets in the freezer to bring back, so we might just finish up alright after all, we will be back in the same spot tomorrow, but will be there straight away and may be the first, but will be fishing before the full tide so we may or may not catch some tomorrow, fishing is a funny game, we may catch one or two before high tide and then we may not, we will see.
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Forgot to mention that on the way home from the fishing spot we were pulled over by the police and I mean the water police in a boat, they check our registration and the safety gear we had on board and of course I did not have the paddles on board that I am supposed to carry at all times, I had just that morning took them out as I was sick of them rattling around at the back of the boat, so I do not know if I will a infringement notice about it, will have to wait and see, just never know when you will get pulled over by a cop no matter where you are.
Sunday, Was up again at 5.30 (last time for a while) and again we went back to the spot that we were fishing yesterday and Pat was the first to catch a fish today in fact her 2 rods went off almost at the same time, this is the first to come in a Golden Trevally and you can see the sea behind her is very calm and there was no breeze at this time so the humidity was very high, the breeze did start up about a hour later, felt like the A/C had been turned on.  |
This was Pats second fish, a Grunter, this is what we came here to catch.
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I caught 3 of these, this is a baby and is a Trevally, but I do not know what kind as my book does not have this one in it, there are over 30 different species of this fish.
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This our catch for today, another nice haul we will be back at the same spot tomorrow as the weather forecast for the next few days is good, nearly time to have a day off.
 Now we are down to 16 left to get our fish and things are starting to look good, but there is no guarantee that we will do good every time we go out so we will take every day as it comes and just hope we do good on the day. We will keep trying and perhaps we will have some photos of bigger fish next week, but don't hold your breath to long. Hope you have enjoyed this issue and look forward to the next one, hopefully I will have some more good photos to show you in the next issue and maybe some of Good Looking Opal and lots of it, I am still hoping that this will be a good year for us in mining, so stay with us over the next few months and find out what goes on in our part of the world as far as Opal Mining goes. Stay Tuned for the next Issue, who knows what I will have to report. Until the next issue.........  and wish me lots of LUCK.
Cya Later, Stuart Bird. To return back to the Archived Page for more Updates click, Here! |
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