# QLD: Aquatic Paradise (Birkdale) - Tailor Time



## Danw (Jul 9, 2009)

Myself, my good mate, and his younger brother decided to go for a fish (landbased unfortunately, still persuading them to get Yaks  ), with high-tide at 5:50pm, it was a frantic rush too the servo for a 1kg block of Pilchards. Didn't even have time to grab some tackle, paid and bailed... By now it was around 6:10pm and we arrived at the rockwall at the mouth of Aquatic Paradise (along Commodore Drive) and set up our weapons of choice (which i must add is a pain in the &!"@" to do in the pitch black  ).

We were all soaking lines by 6:20pm and it took seconds for the bites to commence  We all pulled in plenty of bream and some reallllllly spikey suckers which we couldnt identify? (can anyone help? They are somewhat similar to a bream although not as "dish-shaped", have black stripes down their flanks and have a really nasty spine on their gill-cover). All 3 of us caught around 5-7 bream each 

Then it happened, there was a hugeeee bust up probably 30 feet from the rock-wall and im talking big! :lol: The bait ball with jumping bait fish must have been atleast 20 feet in diameter and was truely an amazing sight in such close and shallow water which i had never experienced before... My first reaction was "shark!" considering i know most sharks hunt just after sun-set. Instinctivly i launched half a pillie on a small set of ganged hooks and it got smashhheddd as soon as it hit the surface! Obviously the adrenaline kicked in instantly as i was expecting my first shark!  The line absolutely screamed off my 1-3kg bream stick (dont ask me what i was doing targeting this "shark" with a bream stick) but at one stage i thought i was gonna lose all the line on my tiny reel... As it stopped its first blistering run, i tried to recover some long-lost line. By now it was wayyy into the dredged channel slugging it out in deep water. I managed to recover enough line to get it up over the drop-off and had it almost in eye shot (thanks to the big street light on the rockwall) when it took off on another insane run which i tried to stop by applying a little preasure on the spool which turned out to be a mistake as the rod buckled from the power of the fish! "Woahh not making THAT mistake again!" as i let go of the spool as it continued its power run. Almost made it back to the drop-off but stopped just short.

Finally gained some line back as the still unidentified fish tired and managed to get a glimpse of the beast! Shiney and Long! hmm?!? At first i thought Tarpon or Queenfish (even though they dont come this far south right haha?) when it finally gave in and surfaced to say "hey!".... BIG Tailor! Biggest ive seen caught! AND ITS ON MY ROD!!

Clamber down the rockwall and grab the 30lb wire trace and haul him up. First thing that hit me was the size of this thing! I gained a perspective by placing him against my chest... It overhung past both my arms making it atleast 50-55cm   Second thing that hit me was the weight of this beast! It was thickkk! I estimated at atleast 1.5kg 

Absolutely stoked at my first night-fishing expedition and will be sure to do it again...SOON! 

Oh and you thought it was all over with right  ? Wrong... 5 more Taylor were caught but slightly smaller, all on Ganged Pillies, 1-3kg bream stick, 2kg braid with 30lb wire trace.

Unfortunately. I didnt expect the first beastt so i didnt have a camera ready  So this is a photo of one of the smaller, 45-46cm ones 

Thanks for reading 

Dan.

Ps. Sorry for the no shirt haha, the big beast required something to grab it with haha - Had to improvise at the time...I was PUMPED haha (so my shir became to fish holding rag for the night)


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## Feral (Oct 18, 2008)

Sounds like a fun session!


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## AdrianK (May 30, 2006)

Danw said:


> We all pulled in plenty of bream and some reallllllly spikey suckers which we couldnt identify? (can anyone help? They are somewhat similar to a bream although not as "dish-shaped", have black stripes down their flanks and have a really nasty spine on their gill-cover).


Sounds like Happy Moments (aka black trevally - aka spiny blackfoot). Got lanced in the foot by one of these suckers two years ago - I didn't think it was a happy moment at all - had trouble breathing and the pain was pretty special.


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## slider65 (Feb 9, 2007)

Nice chopper. And tarpon are available in most of the creeks to just south of the border and so to are queenfish which are regular visitors to the southport seaway.


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## pelicanyak (Dec 2, 2009)

Mate... great report and a great catch. Well done. Fishing the nights - while a pain in the ass - is generally a very rewarding experience.


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