Cordelia Mixed Bag

When Anna told me that her Dad Phil was visiting from Harvey Bay last week and that he was also a mad keen fisherman, plans was quickly made to ensure he got a taste of Townsville’s great fishing while he was here. The plan was to chase trout, nannygai and mackerel at a spot near Cordelia Rock. We had 2m of tidal run with a high tide at am.

Live greenback herring were collected from the northern Middle Reef channel marker and by 6am we had arrived at my spot near Cordelia Rock. I was disappointed to find a massive orange buoy anchored to the bottom, dead on my spot. Connecting the dots I quickly realised that it was probably the anchor of a commercial line fishing boat we past sitting in behind West Point – looks like he had fished the spot all night and got his anchor stuck.

My philosophy is that you work with what you have got, so we commenced fishing around this added obstruction. Despite a large swell and a solid ESE breeze we still managed a few fish. The lack of larger reds was evident, with Anna catching the only legal nannygai’s for the day. Plenty of undersize specimens were released. Phil got smoked by a few monsters that were impossible to drag away from our mate’s anchor chain, even using 30lb braid. Other fish included a little GT taken on a 45g Bumpa Bar lure in green and Anna’s big batfish. Best baits were squid and live greenback herring fishing on dropper rigs off the bottom. With the wind picking up and the fishing slowing down at the top of the tide, we called it a day and headed for home.