Coral Bay water depths and distance to get there?
Submitted by steve434 on Sun, 2016-06-12 05:28
Hello FW crew,
I'm heading up to Coral Bay in a couple of days with the family and boat, I've never been before but I think I've got a rough idea on how it works just reading the FW posts. One question I do have though;
I see a lot of people talking about fishing at different depths outside the reef ie 40m, 60m, 70m and so on. Roughly how far do you need to travel west to reach these depths?
Rob H
Posts: 5745
Date Joined: 18/01/12
itd be a lot easier to get
itd be a lot easier to get Navionics on your phone if you dont have a plotter as its different depending which passage you go out of.
40m not far from the back of the reef
60-70 about 5 mile or so but goes for a long way in places
Give a man a mask, and he'll show you his true face...
The older you get the more you realize that no one has a f++king clue what they're doing.
Everyone's just winging it.
Paj man
Posts: 359
Date Joined: 16/09/12
8 mile
Most of the ground I productively fished last year was in 70m about 8 mile off the back of the reef. Although I did have some success closer too. As Rob said the distance to these depths fluctuates a fair bit.
aka Nick
Tom M
Posts: 662
Date Joined: 22/09/15
Government to review shark fishing impact.
Interesting article in todays Sunday Times. Former Labour minister that introduced the ban on shark fishing commented on Barnet's plan to review the impact of shark fishing. The former minister believes that a consequence of shark fishing is the byproduct of catching other fish that may in turn force bigger sharks in closer to shore to fgeed. You have to wonder who advises these people at times. Using his logic then if more sharks were caught then there would be less fish eaten by them alternatively more feed source for other larger fish?
As for future studies and gathering facts, you don't have to go any further than our crayfishermen or fishing charter boat owners for their observations on the increase number of sharks. If you want facts then more innocent people died from shark attacks in the past 20 years than the 50 years before. Yes it maybe because more people are in the water but you can't dismiss this fact.
Used to dive for 40 years one close encouner is enough, no matter what happens with action to address shark attacks I will not dive again, as for fishing from a boat many of my favourite fishing spots up north just are not worth the effort to go to anymore just to be sharked when pulling fish in, will put my tourist dollars into somewhere else.
Tom M
Rob H
Posts: 5745
Date Joined: 18/01/12
much of what you say may be
much of what you say may be true, but I think you posted it in the wrong place mate
Give a man a mask, and he'll show you his true face...
The older you get the more you realize that no one has a f++king clue what they're doing.
Everyone's just winging it.
crano
Posts: 695
Date Joined: 04/11/09
c bay sharks
Just done my tenth year straight up there and in the past we used to catch all the fish we wanted [mostly reds] within 5 miles of the north and south passage.This year it was hopeless fishing these spot as the sharks would get you every time. A lot of times there would be sharks swimming around under the boat within minutes of stopping.
In past years we would have occasional problems with them and if you did see or catch them they were mostly sandbar sharks. This year just about all the ones we saw were big whalers,dusky whalers I think and when we hooked sharks they were unstopable.We did not get any heads back and they seem to love reds.I had a big bludger trevally inhaled by a 3 metre shark just under the boat.
We took to travelling long distances this year to give ourselves a chance of avoiding them.
ranmar850
Posts: 2702
Date Joined: 12/08/12
definitely related to fishing pressure
Sound of a boat is a dinner gong.Unfortunately, as we are compressed into much smaller fishing areas due to "sanctuaries", aka shark free zones, the problem has exploded. And the deep water is so close in north of Norwegian bay that you fish a very narrow zone. I don't think it is a coincidence that I know of one very productive bit I have never been sharked on--might fish it briefly once or twice a year within a few metres of a zone line (legal, had Fisheries sitting alongside confirming it) Nothing else outside the zone in the vicinity. Shark numbers are very low, not an easy place to pick up a feed for them , they have to predate as they were meant to, before we changed their behaviours by serving it up predictably and frequently.