Gladstone Blog

Lachlan Allan holds up a nice Grunter he caught recently

 

Keen Anglers Head Out In Our Own Backyard For Some Big Catches

Wow, didn’t the weather change dramatically come Wednesday night as many of us would’ve gone to bed with a beautiful night outside only to wake up with a gale the next morning.  Right up until that point this week has been an absolute dream to be out on the water.

Last weekend and the start of the week had been incredible for those chasing fish inshore and up the harbour.

James Nicol landed himself a very solid 67cm Fingermark, and others are still getting a good feed of Barra even though the water temp is cooling rapidly.

Young 10 year old, Lachlan Allen, slipped up to Grahams creek with his Dad Craig, this week, and as you can see by the photo this lad is super dooper keen, landing this snodger of a grunter using a Squidgy “Mongrel” soft plastic (paddle-tail) slowly retrieving it rolling across the bottom.

This was one of 4 Lachlan caught with the smallest going 54cm.  Well done Lachlan and judging by that big grin I reckon we might be seeing more of you in the fishing pages for years to come.

Mark Patton also slipped out to his favourite spot on Tuesday, initially heading to chase some Spaniards but the bigger bottom fish caught his attention. It wasn’t til right on dark though that the fish came on the chew, which coincided with the approaching top of the tide, and even though they only brought home 6 fish, their esky was full without even chasing a Spanish.

Excellent mixed bag with Red Emperor, Nannygai, Cod and Black Jew.  Last weekend I decide to give this fish smoking a bash as I’d bought some Diamond Scaled Mullet off Brenda down at Smithy’s Seafood at Boyne Industrial Estate.

She’s said to me that cut right, it’s hard to tell the difference when battered or crumbed from Sweetlip and I’d have to agree with her but on this occasion with friends coming around I wanted to do something different.  Over the Darren Box’s Boyne Island Bait n Tackle, to buy some saw dust, and Hickory saw dust I chose.

Having a wee box for the saw dust or wood chips I thought I’d use the BBQ to smoke it in with the lid down and to be honest it was a bit slow as the volume is big under the hood and you lose a lot of smoke, when I should’ve got the spider out of my pocket, and spent 60, or so, bucks, on the actual smoker box, which Boxy had on special at the counter.

Never the less, after coating the fish fillets in raw sugar, and salt mix, for an hour or two, prior to smoking it, the fish turned out rather nice, maybe on the dry side because it was in so long, but never the less very nice, and the leftover went into a fish pie the next night.

Food for thought but very worthy of a try and even if you have a bash at some of those other species like Diamond Scaled Mullet from off your local supplier they are very rewarding.

This weekend doesn’t look all that flash and to be honest strong cold and wet southerlies turns me into a sook wanting to cook up lamb shanks atop butter garlic potatoes.

The 20th Boyne Tannum HookUp is rapidly approaching with only 21 days til the opening morning!!

It’s time to get serious about entering this awesome event.

Yours truly will be endeavouring to help out and I would love to hear your name called out for one of the $300,000 worth of cash and prizes.

The world famous Ernie Dingo will be there, and he is an absolute crack up with some excellent stories from his travels not only across this incredible country but also the world.

Sponsors like Engel are responsible for getting this treasure up here and without the likes of those ones and many many others events like this just don’t happen.

Make sure you are entered. www.boynetannumhookup.com.au or at Pat’s tackle World or Boyne Island Bait n Tackle.

Hooroo Dags