The Chandlery Bait & Tackle – The Chandlery Bait & Tackle

July Fishing Report

August 8, 2020August 8, 2020Chris RipponLeave a comment

G’day Crew I trust you have all been keeping well and enjoying the winter weather that is here and man have we had some stunning days! Besides the rain that is falling as I write this and has been falling for the last few days….

So what’s been on the bite the last few weeks? Well being winter we all know that the squid are on the chew along with the winter whiting and people have been making the most of them that’s for sure. The cooler water temps have also seen anglers getting into good numbers of Bream. This makes for good fun on a light spin combo flicking smaller lures in around the mangroves up the creeks or flicking the pylons in Snapper Creek should see you bag a few this time of the year. For the bait crew try fresh strips of mullet or small prawns lightly weighted and fished back into the structure.

**Jacko getting a good feed up the creeks**

Up the creeks this time of year there are good numbers of Golden Trevally to be caught. Using your sounder to sound up schools of fish and targeting them with small prawn lures, vibes and even micro jig makes for some good fun on 6lb braid and 14lb leader. If you have a side scan unit it will pay to use it up the creek as the school may not be under the boat. I recently sounded a school of fish that was 5m to my starboard side and the school was 20m wide and about 30m long. I managed to pull three nice 60cm fish out of the school before it moved on. I end up with 9 fish for the session and 6 of them were over 60cm and all caught on small metal jigs.

If I were not using my side scan, I would not have even known that they were there. Using your sounder and it’s side scan feature to mark schools of fish can save you time blind casting and improve your catch rate dramatically. If you want to have a chat about how side scan works pop down for a yarn and we will be happy to interpret and explain what we see on the screen.

The flathead have been pretty tricky the last few weeks with the clarity of the water being crystal clear. Fishing longer leaders and getting a good long cast combined with a stealthy approach are going to be needed to trick them into eating your offerings. One of the stand out plastics lately would have to be the 4’’ Biwaa Deus in Pearl White & Pink Ice, rigged on either a 2/0-3/0 TT 1/4oz jig head.

Sand Crabs are on the march in The Bay, so now is the time to get the drop dillies out and do a little prospecting for some Blue Swimmers in the channel. Whiting frames would be my pick of baits for these tasty guys. Mud Crabs are also around but a little doughy with the cooler water, they have been rather good quality though. Crabbing at the back of the bay, in the shallows, around the full moon has been producing the better Muddies.

**Mitch with a proper** **handful of TCB goodness!!**

We have seen masses of bait fish turning up in TCB the last couple of weeks and there have been some good schools of Mac Tuna & Watsons Leaping Bonito’s terrorising the bait ball. We’ve seen this action throughout The Bay from Inskip right down past the powerlines. There have also been some nice catches of School Mackerel in the mix.

**Wyatt Lee picking of the Mac Tuna in The Bay**

If you are keen to go hit the beach the reports are of good whiting, bream, and some thumper dart getting around. So now is the time to grab the rods get down there and get a feed. Why not try your hand at getting a few worms off the beach or if that’s too hard, pop and grab some of our locally caught and cured worms. The Tailor should be starting to fill the gutters too. Surprisingly, a couple of decent Mangrove Jacks were caught off Rainbow Beach by Whiting Fishos. I could not believe my eyes when I saw it on a Facebook post a few weeks ago

Offshore there were some great catches of Emperor, Snapper & Pearlies early in the month before the closure. Anyone that has been getting out since have said that the tuskies, moses, husser & RTE have all been on the chew and filling the icebox

***Amber Browning doing for the girls!***

Well that’s it from me this month Crew, stay safe & healthy, keep warm and get out and have a fish!!

Find us at the Tin Can Bay Marina, Emperor Street for all your boating and fishing needs.

Cheers & Tight Lines

Chris

Winner Winner!! Local yak angler Nathan Dennys with this months Fishing Photo Comp

June Fishing Report

August 8, 2020August 8, 2020Chris RipponLeave a comment

G’day Crew, hope you’ve all been keeping well and getting out and wetting a line over the last few weeks. How good is it to see lots of new faces in town since Queenslanders have been allowed to travel state wide. It’s so good for our little town, our region and our state. Our local retailers and industries are all benefitting from seeing tourists return.

Welcome back to The Bay guys!!

Now, let’s have a look at what has been getting caught in our local area the last few weeks.

Customers have been reporting some solid catches of Sand Crabs in The Bay, in the deeper water. The Mud Crabs are also around all though they are starting to slow up a little but the crabs we have seen have be of quality. Crabbing at the back of the bay, in the shallows, around full moon has been producing. We have weighed a few here in the shop during the month that were getting up around the 1.7kg mark.

**Neil Moy with a nice couple of Muddies**

Schools of Choppers are about in The Bay, nothing of size really, just big enough to cut a soft plastic in half. A few legal fish up around the Power Lines and even in Browns a couple of weeks ago. The bigger fish should be showing up along the beaches now. Speaking of fishing the beaches, Jew fish have been showing up, though only a handful of smaller specimens so far. Slide baiting a live Tailor, Whiting or Squid into a good gutter is a good place to start with a good measure of patience added in the mix. Surprisingly, a couple of decent Mangrove Jacks were caught off Rainbow Beach by a few Whiting Fishos last week! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it on Facebook…

***Chase Matthews with his 1st ever squid!!***

Offshore Fishos had a few opportunities to get over the WBB. We spent night out wide at the start of the month but were plagued with NW winds from daybreak. We did manage to scratch up a good feed of Tuskfish, Coronation Trout, Lippers and some nice Jobfish. Didn’t see a Pearly a Snapper or a legal Red for all our efforts but that’s fine, our families still got a good feed of fresh local reef fish!

**Josh with a 13.kg Red that ate a Zerek Live Shrimp**

On that note, Snapper & Pearl Perch are off the menu!

DO NOT FORGET, closed season starts this month and runs from the 15^th of July to the 15^th of August. They will be NO TAKE and no target species, just like Barra are in their closed season.

Winter Whiting are still being caught in good numbers with Fishos reporting good size fish being bagged. The Bream will now be on the chew and targeting these guys with a small hardbody lure or small plastics and some light line is sure to make for some good fun. Strips of fresh Mullet on a 3/0 suicide hook fished back into the structure should also see you bag a feed. The Squid are not disappointing this year either and have been copping a pounding the last few week.

There are a few Spotted Mackerel getting around in The Bay around the yachts now, so keep your eyes out as the bust-ups are quick. A light spin rod or a 7wt flyrod would make for some good fun on these guys.

***The Boss with a solid creek Dimond caught on a Zerek Fish Trap***

Golden and Dimond Trevally have been making an appearance along the drop-offs on the runout tide and the first couple of hours of the flood. Using vibes in a 65mm to 95mm sizes have been working well. It may pay to go heavier with your choice of vibe so you can spend more time in the strike zone. Even trolling small deep divers along the drop offs will work and you have a good chance of pulling a Flathead or two. If all that sounds like a bit of hard work you can always pup a few Yabbies and soak a bait for them.

***Rubee and brother Jack Walton took out this months Fishing Photo Comp***

***Jack looking very impressed with his capture***

Well that’s it from me this month Crew. Stay safe and healthy and if you haven’t popped in and seen the new layout of the shop lately, well you should 😉

Find us at the Tin Can Bay Marina, Emperor Street for all your boating and fishing needs.

Cheers & Tight Lines

Chris

May Fishing Report

August 8, 2020August 8, 2020Chris RipponLeave a comment

G’day Guys & Gals hope you are keeping warm? Looks like It is time to breakout the uggies & beanies, crank the fire pit and bust out the hot toddies, man It’s cold today!! As I write this it has gone from 23c yesterday to 14c today and personally I think that is dam cold. Well it is when you’ve spent the best part of the last decade living in FNQ & the NT. I guess the cooler weather should bring a stabilisation in weather pattens, although I hear from the BOM that it’s meant to be a pretty wet winter, but we will see what comes our way over the next couple of months.

With the relaxation in the COVID 19 restriction we are bound to start to see a few more boats on the local waterways as people are now allowed to travel further afield. Our local population of fish seem to have been thankful for the break also. Many locals have been saying that the fishing the last few weeks has been the best in a long time. This is partly due to less traffic on the water but personally I think it has more to do with the good down pours and the good flushing out that the creeks got at the end of summer.

The Winter Whiting have been getting caught in good numbers and have been of good size with mid 20cm fish being common. The mouth of Kauri has been the hot spot, also drifting around the Lady Woodward & the powerlines.

The squid are still around in good numbers and the YamashitA Sutte R Jigs in NEB have been popular with most of the TCB Fishing Club members. Pink & orange colours have also been working a treat on the local Cephalopods, no surprises there. Still haven’t seen any good tigers yet but they can’t be too far away.

***Ron Cox with mnaged to put the breaks on this slob of a Blackspot Tuskie!!***

On the squid jig front, keep an eye out on our Facebook page for a YamashitA promo this month. We have teamed up with our good friends and supplier of the YamashitA jigs, E.J.Todd and will be running a comp to promote the release of one of their new jigs! Logon to our FB page to find out more www.facebook.com/thechandlerybaitandtackle

A few Squire have started to show up in The Bay the last couple of weeks, fresh squid baits & divers being the bait of choice for most anglers. There are also some good Blackall being caught and a few Grassies in the mix. The 40’ has been fishing well the last couple of weeks for those guys. We have also seen some solid Blackspot Tuskies being caught on crabs along Teebar ledge. There have been some solid Golden Trevally being caught on also. Vibing the drop offs on the runout tide has seen some good fish being caught.

There were a few nice Jacks still being caught in the creeks midmonth before this cold spell really kicked in. A few of the young lads that had been using the Madeyes Paddle Prawns rigged weedless and slow rolled out of the snags hunting Bream also got a few nice Jack. This cold snap is sure to quieten them down but the Bream fisho’s will be happy to see this cold weather kick in. Flathead are also out in force now. Some of the local guns have been getting some great fish stalking the shallows on a rising tide with 60 & 90mm hardbodies. A steady retrieve & making sure your lures are smacking into the mud and kicking up a puff of dust is key. I am sure you all know how much fun the old Flatskulls are in shallow water on light line.

The Pelagics have still been hunting up around Inskip and there have been some big Spanish being caught. Slow trolled live baits and the trusty Laserpro in 160DD & XDD doing the job up there for the fishos into trolling. The guys casting slugs at the bait schools have been getting Mac & Longtail Tuna but the big Spanish have been holding deeper under the schools and picking off the scraps. So sinking a Halco Twisty down through the bait schools a good 10/15m will work if you are targeting a feed of Mackerel. Again, try retro fitting your slugs with a single hook for a better hook up. I like to use the Mustad Tarpon hooks in 5/0 & 6/0 as they are an inline hook.

We have been getting great reports of Sand Crabs on the march in The Bay so now is the time to get the drop dillies out and do a little prospecting for some Blue Swimmers. Whiting frames would be my pick of baits for these tasty guys.

Well that is it from me this month Crew, but one last thing from myself, Emma and the whole Crew at The Chandlery Bait & Tackle, we would like to say a
MASSIVE THANK YOU for the ongoing support you have shown us especially in these trying times. Thank you all for shopping local and helping us keep the doors open.

Cheers & Tight Lines

Chris

**Winner Winner Brett North took out the May Fishing Photo Comp with a nice Green Jobfish**

January Fishing Report

March 4, 2020March 4, 2020Chris RipponLeave a comment

G’day Crew hope you have all been getting out and wetting line this past month. How good was the rain we got mid month, saved me washing the car for another six months.

I know I said it last month but to say the Mangrove Jack are on fire at the moment would be an understatement!! Now if you thought December’s catches were up there with the numbers and quality, January is giving it a touch up that’s for sure. Kauri has been producing the goods and fishos have been catching fish from just under legal size to the well and truly legal high 40s. It’s great to see such a range of fish being caught in out system. It shows that they are breading well and there is a healthy population in our local water ways. Carlo & Bullock Point boat ramps have also been hot spots especially for the land based fishers. Mixed in with the Jacks there have been some pretty impressive Barra bycatch and the fish that we were shown looked to be all over a meter mark (fish were all reported to have been release.)

**Wyatt Lee with an** **entry into the 2020 Mangrove Jack Comp**

Speaking of Barra as of the 1^st of February Barra are now back on the cards for a target species. Here’s hoping that we see some good catches in The Bay this year. There are more Barra here than most people know. If you actively target them & fish for them in their prime bite times and put in the hard yards I’m sure you will be rewarded in the long run. Feel free to pop in and have a chat if want to get out and chase a few Barra this season.

Besides the very welcome rain we had in January we also got some cracker days on the water and the fishing didn’t disappoint. Mackerel made an appearance offshore in numbers and everyone capitalised on them. Spanish and Spotties were all on the menu. While in good numbers the average sizes of Spanish were around the 8kg mark with a few bigger models in the mix also. The trick has been to get them past the Shark which seem to be in plagues at present. Good catches of mixed reef fish filled the eskies with Tuskies, Trout, Pearlies, Grass Emperor and some solid Reds all coming home for dinner.

**Megan With a nice Snapper from a recent trip on Keely Rose**

We had a lot of holiday makers come through the shop the last couple of months reporting good catches of Squid. Not in the numbers that we see in Winter but most days consisted of double figures. Most of the action was from around the Carlo cardinal marker when the tide had some movement to it. The ever loved YamashitA jigs were again a popular choice with the punters.

Mud Crabs are also on the menu now. The quality of the crabs we have been seeing in the last few weeks are A grade. The better crabs have been coming from up on the flats. The catches in the creeks seem to be smaller empty C grade crabs. If you are unsure on how to tell the difference between an A grade crab & an empty crab swing in and see us and we can run you through a few pointers to get the crabs with the best yield.

We have not had too many reports of flathead and whiting this month, maybe it’s because everyone seems to be out hunting Jacks while the going is good…

On that note, our Mangrove Jack competition is in full swing now and the race to the top is tight. 1^st & 2^nd place is likely to come down to the time the fish was registered. So sit tight and we will announce the winners next month as the comp runs till the 29^th of February.

That’s about it for now Crew so till next time take it easy and get outside and wet a line.

Find us at the Tin Can Bay Marina, Emperor St for all your boating and fishing needs.

Cheers & Tight Lines

Chris

Australia, Bait, Cooloola Coast, EjTodd, Fishing, Fishing Tin Can Bay, Fraser Coast, Fraser Island, Molix, Tin Can Bay — ***WINNER WINNER!!!!! Lester Cross took out the January Photo Comp with the cracker of a photo!!***

***Rae has been getting a few the last few weeks also***

**Karl on board Keely Rose with a beautiful Red Emperor**

September Fishing Report

October 6, 2019October 6, 2019Chris RipponLeave a comment

Man has the year flown by!! September 18^th marked our one year anniversary of running the shop. Emma and I would like to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to everyone that has shopped with us, supported us and accepted us into the TCB community. We are humbled and proud to say that we work and live here in this beautiful part of the world.

Any way enough of that lets talk fishing!! So we have been blessed with a good run of back to back days of good weather this month. Warm days and cool night have been welcomed and the fishing has been heating up too. The weed has been painful to say the least, would love a good 200ml to clear it out. But those who have persisted have been rewarded.

Up the creeks have been producing some thumper Summer Whiting on fresh Yabbies or some of our local Beach Worm sourced from the island & DI. We’ve had good reports of Fisho’s also getting a good feed of Whiting on top water lures like the Noman Drawings and Sugarpen’s. Try fishing a flooding tide on the flats where you’ve pumped Yabbies in the past would be a good start. Keeping your leader shorter than normal will help to get a better action out of these lures as you crank them over that flats & with such small hooks back the drag off a little.

Jacks are starting to pop up and I’m sure as it gets hotter, we are going to see a few Barra turn up for the dialled in angler.

Flathead are well and truly fare game in The Bay now and the Biwaa Deus 4’’ in Kaleido & Star & Neon Scale Minnow proving to be winners.

*The Flatties love the new Biwaa Deus 4’’ in Kaleido*

We have also been seeing some of the topwater Whiting Crew catching some good fish in the mid 60’s also. Flathead on surface lures can be a long day sometimes but well worth it when you see that first hit of a croc rising up and engulfing your lure.

September saw the offshore Guys & Gals getting out and catching a good feed. While reports of Pearlies were a little hard to find, the Snapper, Moses, Hussar, Tuskie & Grassies were playing the game & don’t forget the AJ’s. Yes they are still out there in good numbers so why not drop a jig down and get stretched!!

*Good customer Sandra getting done on an overnighter.*

Rumour has it that there have been a few nice size Kingies getting around in The Bay. A well presented live Squid is going to be like a lolly to these guys. Personally, I don’t mind a little sashimi Kingy. There has been a good run of early season Queenfish showing up around the Inskip area. These guys have been partial to live Pike or Herring floated out the back but they are way more fun on a popper or a stickbait if you can find them schooled up. Personally, I’m also partial to a little sashimi Queeny or even better, done Nummus style.

That’s all for now Crew & don’t forget our monthly photo competition is running on our Facebook page. There is a $100.00 voucher up for grabs each month and the winner will be announced on the 1^st of every month on our FB Page

WINNER WINNER!!!
*September Fishing Photo Comp “Winners” are the father son team Daniel & Casey Bates With their 105cm King Threadfin Salmon caught in the Mary River. Well done Men!*

Find us at the Tin Can Bay Marina, Emperor St for all your boating and fishing needs.

Once again from Emma & myself thank you all for your ongoing support

Cheers & Tight Lines

Chris