Estuary Cod 9/2/2015

TR by tunny
Trip date: 9/2/2015
Participants: tunny
Launch Site: Lions Park
Conditions: Wind very light SW; Run out tide (low at 6.20 am at Munna Point)
Keen Angler Program: Nothing donated

Following Eyetag's success on the river early Sunday morning I decided to head out on a similar route.  I arrived in the car park at 3.15 am and was on the water by 3.30 am, trolling a Gold Bomber past the Sheraton and across the Woods Bays to Ricky's.  I then turned to follow the current line towards the river mouth.  I repeated the route from Ricky's to the mouth for over an hour without any success, probably because Eyetag had caught all the fish the day before.  So I returned to Woods Bays and trolled the line where I had recently had success with Mangrove Jacks.

Sunrise in Woods Bay
After half an hour of trolling the bays from the Sheraton to Ricky's and back I finally had a strike.  The fish moved straight towards a boat which made me think it could be a Jack.  But after a short tussle I had the fish on board, a beautiful 41 cm Cod.  I was not sure if it was an Estuary Cod (size limit 38 cm) or a Flowery Cod (size limit 50 cm) so after quickly taking a photo on the brag mat I released the fish unharmed.  I later compared my photo with those in Grants Guide to Fishes and confirmed it was an Estuary Cod.

By now the boats were arriving so I did one last trip following the back route to the car park and on the way picked up a Big-eye Trevally around 30 cm long.

Estuary Cod, confirmed by comparing with the photo below from Grant's Guide
Photo from Grant's Guide to Fishes

A Nice Mixed Bag 08Feb15

TR by eyetag

Wind: light S/W
Rain: light showers
Current: Run out tide
Launch Point: Noosa Heads Lions Park
Participants: Eyetag

I had a quick troll in the river early this morning, launching around 1.30 and the plan was to do laps from Ricky's to the river mouth. I was almost at the mouth on my first run when the trusty Gold Bomber was smashed by what I first thought may have been a stingray but turned out being a Mangrove Jack that had made it back home. I paddled up past the snag managing to get him out then luckily he headed up stream and after a good tussle he was on board. Between the action and current I only managed doing 5 laps, all of them being productive. I ended up landing 3 Bigeye Trevally 2 small and one around 45cm, 2 Tailor 30cm and 68cm, a nice Flathead and the 2 Jacks which both managed to get back to their snags. Once first light hit there was a bit of boat activity so I headed, doing a few laps of the Inner Woods bay on the way back. The only action in the bay was several schools of Tarpon feeding on the surface but they weren't interested in my offerings.