Lots of dolphins but not many fish

Beautiful Bribie Island

With a low tide at around midday I hit the water this afternoon just as it started to turn. Traveling into the current from Bongaree my plan was to head out into Moreton Bay and just explore the area for a bit. I was hoping to chance upon those resident Longtail Tuna that I've been hearing about, if not a Snapper or two perhaps.

Like clockwork, today's trip started off with the obligatory trolling of soft plastic lures: a 5” Berkley shad as well as a 4” Squidgy. The former was rigged in the hope of attracting either of my target species, the latter for my more probable catch (initially at least) of Flathead. That first and probable catch came within 100 meters of the launching ramp. At around 30cm he was released to fatten up in preparation for my next visit.

There's no shortage of dolphins at Bribie Island

The further I moved away from land the more various pods of dolphins I saw. It's hard to tell for sure but I think I encountered 4 different pods today, all of them in a siesta-like mood, moving gracefully through the water at leisurely speeds. I don't know if their presence had any effect on the fishing today but if so, it wasn't positive. Despite covering quite some distance (almost 20km for the entire trip) that first Flathead was the only fish I managed to bring to the boat all day.

I did get a few more bites and a couple of lures came to a premature demise but sadly, dinner was not accounted for. There was, however, a bit of a heart pumping moment when just as I was about to turn back for the day I spotted a large flock of birds in the distance. I couldn't be sure from where I was, but I figured they were about 2km away and I guessed that they were there due to the presence of bait fish. Putting 2 and 2 together, I figured this may be due to an attacking school of Longtail Tuna. There was only one way to find out.

This flock of birds attracted me like sirens. Priomise forever and never deliver!

Why is that every time I see something on the water that interests me, it's moving in the opposite direction? That 2km distance became more like 3 but eventually I did indeed catch up to them. If there were fish underneath them, I couldn't see them, nor could I catch them. The birds weren't crashing the surface, merely congregating and flying around in circles... no dice for me!

The journey back to launch was reasonably long and eventless. Tomorrow I change strategy completely and will fish the ocean side of the Island, launching from Woorim. AKFF member pcsolutionman has had some good success here recently, as evidenced in this report.

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