Photos: Spero Kartanos.
BY SPERO KARTANOS
Christmas is getting very close, and the festive season is approaching, which means school holidays and family days out on the bay, so please keep an eye on the weather warnings and predictions. It’s safer to say, “We are not going out on the bay today” than having an accident on the water in bad weather. BOM forecasts are fantastic most of the time for the bay, and they are the ones that I follow.
Fishing is pretty good this time of year, even with all the extra traffic on the water. There should be whiting and squid over the banks in the bay, and hopefully, the spotty mackerel will make an appearance. My favourite thing this time of year is fishing for Moreton Bay squire/snapper, and you don’t have to go far to catch really nice fish (one of the best-tasting fish in the ocean). They don’t have to be giants; to me, a 35cm to 40cm squire is as good as it gets! Yes, catching the 65cm and 80cm fish is fun, but I prefer the 40 to 60cm squire for a good table-eating fish.
The fun is also catching these fish on fairly light lines, and as for baits, I have never mastered the plastics for squire. I use a 5.0 to 6.0 red snapper hook on a running rig with a ball sinker (just to get to the bottom), which for me is heaven, and my preferred bait is whole small whiting, garfish, and any small fish and whiting heads. Grinner, mullet and bonito fillets are always worth a try, too – I suggest you burley while fishing for squire, it always helps.
I have always used Alvey reels in the past, but my fingers and thumb always got a pounding, so these days I find bait runner reels fantastic. Penn, Shimano and Daiwa are my favourites; the best size for the bay is the 4000 to 5000 range, with 15lb to 20lb lines, and I prefer any green colour for bay fishing. Tortue and Penn are my favourites. As for mono lines, I don’t like the new rope lines at all – there’s no stretch.
The areas I tend to fish close to home are near Green Island on the eastern side in around 18 to 20-ft depth, St Helena on the eastern side (just out from the dredging zones of the past and Mud Island outside the sunken reef), and Peel Island of course – especially when the weather forecasters can’t make up their minds. So then you can fish the Lazaret Gutter side, the hole in the wall on the eastern corner at south-west rocks, or the western side on the sunken rock wall – and you can easily get out of any kind of wind. You just need a run in the tide, and I prefer the run out, but I have also caught plenty of fish with the incoming tide. The incoming tide tends to make the water a little clearer, which saves you catching catfish and sharks when the water is on the dirty side, and there are plenty of sharks in the bay this time of year.
I hope you all get a fresh fish for dinner over the holidays! Enjoy the holidays, keep safe, and thank you for all the feedback throughout the year. Merry Christmas to you all, and a safe New Year.
