Monkey Mia April / May 2013
Submitted by randall df223 on Wed, 2013-05-08 21:38
Just enjoyed three weeks at Monkey Mia
Started windy so spent time on the beach with the kids:
But when there wasn't any wind caught some great fish:
But the fishing stops for special occasions:
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
Lest we forget.
Great holiday.
Every fishing family should experience it.
____________________________________________________________________________
Fish! HARD!
_0.thumbnail.jpg "First Black")
grantarctic1
Posts: 2546
Date Joined: 03/03/11
Some nice fish
Some nice fish caught Randall. A couple new species for you too. Well done sounds like a great trip for the family.
PS : that flathead looks huge ..
randall df223
Posts: 6454
Date Joined: 08/08/11
Just thought I would add this
Just thought I would add this in.... a cut/paste of a FB post I made...
I am doing a fisheries survey, so I can tell you all we have caught and kept or released over those 12 days.
Species (kept/released)
Blue lined emperor (6/55)
Pink snapper (6/72)
Black spot tuskfish (3/6)
Sand whiting (2/0)
Flathead (3/4)
School mackerel (5/0)
Stripey seaperch (0/2)
Estuary cod (10/1)
Rankin cod (1/0)
Cobia (1/0)
Diamond trevally (0/1)
Baldchin (0/2)
Total - 37 kept, 143 released.
(you can add there spanish mackerel 2/0, as it was after the above post was made)
Most significant point of note, is that the pink snapper are increasing in size. Six years ago we were releasing juveniles only inches long, this year we have released a lot between 40 and 50 cms. I think this is promising for the eastern gulf snapper stocks as they live their entire lives in the gulf and don't interbreed with ocean stock. That is why it is important the fishery is well managed because if it goes, it goes for good.
All the fishing was between 2 and 8 nautical miles from monkey mia. i used soft plastics and (for trolling) lures, the missus used bait. the SPs generally resulted in fewer fish, but a higher 'put in the esky' rate. I wish I had taken more squidgey glow wrigglers, phosphorous shads, and white lightening shads. other colours that produced fish were the pearl pink paddle tails, and hot orange and pearl bullhead minnows (smallers size on lighter gear). lures - the trusty pink chrome halco laserpro. other boats had a lot of success on the gold / black giant tremblers.
Fisheries were great. Got inspected three days in a row, at the end of the pink snapper season. One was very quick because there wasn't anything in the esky, Doh!
Fish! HARD!
Ian Macca
Posts: 133
Date Joined: 08/05/12
Great report cheers! Heading
Great report cheers!
Heading up there in August CANT WAIT!!