Troy's report
18 May 2009
Well with recent weather having a major impact on weekend sojourns out into the wider areas of SE Queensland, I decided to head back to my old haunt; Skringville. Skringville is owned by Bundaberg Sugar and is the old river mouth of the Burnett River that runs through Bundaberg. It is a place where you can get an immense diversity of piscatorial delights at different times of the year and due to its relative inaccessibility it is normally productive. the beam trawlers hit it when the prawns are running but as there is a lot of little feeder creeks it tends to regenerate quite quickly. A few weekends ago my mates up there caught 2 - 3 kilos of good sized prawns every throw in one hole for hours and that was after the 'beamies' had been through.. A word of caution, if you are planning a trip to Bundaberg seek out some expert advice from the local tackle guys as you will have to brave some treacherous water to get into this amazing place. There is lots of sunken snags in the ocean river mouths which can ruin your trip before it is started and you will have to travel about 4 nautical miles from the Burnett river mouth (north) to get into the entrance. Once there you have a million places to camp and fish so it is well worth the trip. As you can see from the attached picture we caught 19 legal muddies over 2 nights. There was not a skeric wasted I can tell you, they are amazing eating but just be sure to avoid the claws as you can lose a digit in no time. We tie out crabs to prevent mistakes from occurring but it is an art in itself.
The fishing was off as the wind was up and in the southern waters they got rained out so only prawn captures were relayed to me from the bay. A few Jewfish and bigger flathead were caught on live prawns and plastics but there was no real snapper catches to speak of, Moreton Bay should start to fire up on the Snapper front as the cooler weather sets in as well as the bigger flathead and Tailor run start. in Brisbane River working the drop offs and rock walls should yield you some Threadfin Salmon over the next few months as well. I am doing all my servicing now on the electric motor, trailer and outboard as there is nothing worse than being stuck out in a rain squall with no motor to take you home. The VMR do a great job but when the weather gets cold they get very busy with flat batteries. Do your checks and servicing regularly and before you go out to avoid any nasty surprises!
Tight lines