Fishing Noosa River early morning, 12Jan13

TR by Eyetag


I launched from Noosa Heads Lions Park around 12.30 am and headed straight to the Woods Bays trolling a Gold Bomber.

A couple of laps around the Inner Bay and then to the Outer Bay which was where I got my first strike, a bloody Hairtail. I trolled the current line out from Ricky's and I got another Hairtail.

The wind was still up a bit so I decided to head up to Weyba Hole. Things were pretty quiet there but I did manage another Hairtail. This one was a big specimen but unfortunately was missing about 400mm of tail (no record claim). The wind was starting to drop so back to Ricky's.

By now it was quite pleasant with a lot of bust ups. I did a slow drift casting a small Gladiator Prawn and retrieving it with a slow roll across the bottom. This was producing small Big Eye Trevally which were still fun on 3lb gear but I wanted something bigger. I could hear more fish busting up a little further down stream. Again the small Gladiator worked well with small Grunter Bream and some good sized Tarpon. I was bitten off twice.

With the Prawns being so easy for the fish to swallow whole I thought a bigger lure might stop them biting me off, so I started slow rolling a Gladiator "Slim Jim". This also worked well on the Grunter and I landed a nice Mangrove Jack but I was bitten off again. Thinking there was Tailor around I decided to troll the Gold Bomber up to Ricky's and back. On my second lap 50 metres out from Ricky's it got smashed by a monster with the first run taking me toward the river mouth and with some serious drag on an 8kg rod he was still taking line. When we got past the sand bags, I was in serious trouble. I fought the fish for 10 minutes then the hooks pulled. BUGGER, big Jew I think.

The fish were still there in numbers so I went back to the Prawn and was getting Tarpon after Tarpon. I must have hooked at least 30 but only landed 4, with their acrobatics and bony mouths they are hard to hook well. With the tide slowing so did the bite and after hooking Mr. Hairtail again I headed in without a touch on the way back.



Tarpon, a great sportfish, but not very good on the tooth



Mangrove Jack after being on ice.



The two Gladiator Slim Jims used.



Small Gladiator Prawn rigged on 1/8 oz 1/0 heavy hook.

Eyetag.