I love Quobba, what a land based fishing mecca. Helium fishing is great there but I’d suggest it’s a knack to be shown. I’ve caught almost everything off the rocks there that I’ve caught off my boat. Patinoster rigs will work fine if you find a patch without snags- which snags are everywhere. If weather permits, try floating a Mullie on a set of good 6/0 gangs. But have gear ready to fight that big fish out of the reef. A good surf rod with 40lb mono does the trick for me. Most importantly, stay safe and don’t take chances. I’ve been there annually for 10 years and seen some dangerous waves and swell wash over where I would normally stand. Have a backup plan, look for the life floats they have at most spots and always keep one eye on the water. Don’t want to scare you; but just about every spot has a plaque up with those unlucky fishos who didn’t make it.

 And wear a life jacket. Can be a real exciting place.

Save yourself some dollars and use a ball sinker straight to circle hook. I tried paternoster and learnt the hard way $$$ are you going to give ballooning a go?

Thanks for the info.

We are up there for 3 days so i am hoping to give everything a try, including balloning.

Was thinking of a running sinker up to a few drop hooks as well.

i brought a new 10” penn warfare carbon beach rod just for the trip

i am coupling it to my old shimano bait caster with 50lb mono all spooled up ready to go.  

I am thinking that this will hopefully do me well. 

Thanks for the warning on the waves. Im not olanning on going close enough to tephe waves to need a life jacket though, or is that just inexperiance talking?

Just don't go on the lower ledges and always watch the waves. Watch  a while before fishing if you haven't been there before. Hope you get good weather! Do you have a reasonable Length gaff?

 If you dont know the place, then you need a life jacket even more.  A Crewsafe or similar self-inflating life jacket is cheap insurance.  You wont even know you have it on.  Guys have fallen or been washed off the high ledges.  The rocks are rough and its easy to trip when chasing a fish around.  Play safe, wear a jacket.

 The Blue Shed tackle shop has life jackets available for those wishing to travel up Quobba way, not sure how much deposit though.

If you are bottom fishing then be prepared  to lose sinkers on 5 out of 6 casts so do what we used to do, collect rocks with knobs on them that allows you to tie them on as sinkers and use a lot lighter line as sinker trace.

Took a drive up that way last weekend, blue water and birds working right in close near the shore, made me wish I'd brought a rod along

 Check out the tides for that weekend and if low at first light you could try the 2 mile. Had great success catching snapper, Mangrove Jacks and bladies. Occassionally hook up to golden trevally as well. As mentioned before check the swell for about 20 - 30 minutes whilst setting up to ensure all OK. If tide and swell down it is quite safe. We also fished late afternoon if conditions OK.

Rig is basically 6-8/0 circle hooks with small ball sinker less chance of hooking the reef. Just cast out about 40 mtrs and let it sink water depth from memory about 20 mtrs but most time hooked up on the way down. Lock drag and hold on.

If mainly bait fishing also have spinning rod ready with metal or hard bodiy lures as occassionally we would have schools of pelagics go past within easy casting distance.

Thanks every one for helpfull advice.

i think i might lookinto the jacket  

We have a cliff gaff we are planning to use, so hopefully that will be enough. 

I will let you all know how i went. 

Thanks again for the help. 

Well we went, we saw, we got blown away by the wind.

Got 1 shark, and 1 cobia that we didnt managed to land from the cliffs.

An awesome spot though.

Thanks everyone for the help amd advise.

Thinking next year we may try again

Thanks for the advice.

We started at the Korean Star, and once we where blown off that we went to caves.

Thats where we hooked the cobia.

if Garths is where i seen everyone absailing down the rocks, i think im fine.

That looked like way to much excersize for me