queensland Stanage Bay fishing report 1/2010

[rumrunner]

Stanage Bay Report Jan2010

As moast of you might know i now do an annual trip to stanage bay, thirsty sound area 2 hrs north of Rockhampton.

I stay at a nice little place run by Bevan and Maree at the plumbtree store in town! Called the beach house its only $90 per nite and sleeps 8 very nice litte house with cable tv and woodfire bbq etc...

This is my second time to the area now after visiting last yr with Gazza and having a blast and wanting more!

We only had 3 days there last time and definitly had to go back asap to check out just a bit more!

The plan was this yr to go for 10 days but ended up with only 6 days because of work duties.

I had a diff crew this yr of 2 local teenagers from my area and my old mate Dan.

Ambition was high at the start for a great trip and we left Tamborine a little earlier then planned at 5:30pm and started the 12hr/900klm trip.

Preporatin for the dirt road was a bit over the top and took alot of my time before the trip so it was good to finally be on the road!

[rumrunner]

Day 1

After a faultless 12 hr drive through the nite we arrived at the start of the 100km dirt road at 3 am and began our adventure off the beaten track,

We managed an average speed of 50kph to avoid damage to the boat, trailor and car due to the horrendess pot holes and corrigated sections!

We drove into town at 5:30am and the sun had just come up, not much happening in the town and the store doesn't open until 7am so we had a bit of time to check out the town.

We pulled up at the end of aligator bay for a bit of a walk to streach the legs and I came across a good little inlet that i could see fish swimming in as i walked past! (bingo)!

I headed back to the car and told the boys and we grabbed the cast net and livie bucket, after a few throws i had whiting, mullet and bony bream filling my bucket within 10min so i gave the boys a turn and a bit of a lesson in the process! They got a few more mullet.

We then headed to another inlet a few kms away and tried to fish for a bit but the tide was running out way to hard and made for very hard lure fishing! Threw a few slugs for no luv and ended up getting a 15cm eastury cod on a std bait rig using good old squid put in a section of offcurrent in the shallows! (1 down many more to come).

Decided the tide was all wrong and pull the plug.

We headed down to the boat ramp on dark for the last of the incoming tide and the plan was to fish 1 hr of the runnout! Conditions were awesome and we put out a few assorted baits and livies (but kind of dead/dying due to a dodgy air pump!), turned out to be a great nite on the rods with a few good fish lost and a few good ones landed as well!

I spent approx 30-40min on my 10kg settup fighting what i thaught was a huge thready or jew but turned out to be a 100kg+ turtle with nitros fittend! Got it close enough to get the torch onto it to work out it was a turtle and rubbed the line off on the rocks as soon as we saw it! I was quite disapointed but the boys had a good laugh!

We also ended up getting a 60cm cod caught by Aden and a 35 cm cod caught by James and Dan got a 30cm model.

I also got a pb bream but silly me didnt mesure it! I will put up a pic see what u think? I reckon about 40-43cm! I was swearing black and blue on the nite it was 45 but we only had two tackle boxes put together to measure it and I was way over the limit.

We all had good fish on our lines at times throughout the nite and most of the time had to grab the spool and bust them off because they were running at such speed and power and would have spooled us in 30sec! We all had our draggs set before leaving and I was running the same tention as when I faught the turtle and these things were still pulling at 100mph? We let a few run only to lose about 30mtrs of braid!

We were all using 30lb braid on 10kg rods with 40 and 60lb fluro carbon! ( thready set-ups).

That was about it, headed home for some rest and filleting before dinner!

pb bream! not sure of the size now? was soo intoxicated! Aden with a Cod

dans Gong

James Cod

[rumrunner]

Day 2

Started off dropping crab pots throughout the sound and in crab bay with high hopes of getting a big buck for dinner.

We then headed nth into braud sound to the Marble Islands to do a bit of bait drifting through a few spots that produced last yr and see if we can jig up some livies aswell, we decided not to troll lures because the boys were iching to get a fish so we headed there flat out to conditions!

We did find alot of bait balls on the sunder through the islands but dropped bait jigs down without a touch, we also tried jigging slugs but had no luck gathering live bait out there at all!

The same spots as last yr produced pretty good numbers but no real big fish! Although we had a ball with plate size tuskies all day around the 40cm mark.

We tried a few new spots which looked good on google earth and got a few more venus tusk fish and also a striped sea pearch on a doubble hook up with a little grassy sweetlip!

Total fish caught for the day was 17 but only kept 7 for the eski as some were undersized and others were right on 38cm.

We seen the weather was starting to turn nasty and the sea was whitecapping on top of a 1.5mtr swell so I new it was going to be a slow trip home and pulled the plug for the day and headed sth towards home.

Half way back with 15kms to go the sea got a fair bit nastyer and the boys were a little worried to say the least but put on brave faces and kept their cool through the rough section and were both glad to return to the safety of the sound!

Checked the pots on the way back to the ramp and one had bait missing but nothing in all of them??? Rebaited and droped them for the nite!

The eticate at the boat ramp was very low when we got back and i had to keep my cool after being cut in front of about 5 times while trying to drop Dan and Aden out to get the truck and then retrieve the boat!

Oh well I'm thirsty lets go fillet some wrass!

We had salt n pepper wrass and wagu sassages and steak for dinner! mmm Meat!

One of the boys had to have a bath later that nite not sure why but the rest of us blamed it on the rough trip home? lol

dan's doubble hook up

Dinner yum yum

[rumrunner]

Day 3

Woke to a rather bad weather report saying a 1.6mtr swell with an afternoon 15-20k wind, i was not happy!

My strategic plan was to hit the reefs/shoals 30-40kms sth/est around ten pin rock with livies and sp's.

But the tides only allowed for a mid day to afternoon session! so it was decided to head down the sound to another area i seen on google and have a good look around in the process.

We checked the pots on the way with no luck again?? and droped a few more in further down the sound at the bottom of Quail island.

We pulled anchor on the west tip of Mangrove island on some healthy looking structure not knowing what we would find?

We began to bearly with pilchard and with in 10 mins we were having a ball with little sharks!

Put out some heavyer gear with some heavyer wire on it and kept on bearlying for a good hr or so to try and lure a big one to the boat but only got the good sized ones on the light gear and cept getting busted!

We had a ball with the little fellas for a few hrs and taught the boys how or how not to hold a shark!

Took few sharks home for a feed but landed 13 in the boat and lost a few good ones.

Headed home for the nite to fillet some flake and rehidrate!

Had llot of trouble with the filleting but got it down to a fine art after the second one! i worked out i need d the knife sharpner next to me so i can run it through after every cut through the skin!

Sat down to salt n pepper wrass and flake for dinner.

the shark spot!

one of Aden's

one of mine

he he one of Dan's

and James's

love this pic

[rumrunner]

day 4

Woke to another bad weather report and decided to try the local jew hole witch is only a few hundred mtrs from the boat ramp in the safty of the sound

although i was highly dissapointed we couldnt get to the shoals again we were quite confident on having some fun at the jew hole

put the boat in 2 hrs after the low and made the plan to return 2hrs after the high and get the runn in and out

the locals had told us that the fish can only be caught there on the flat of the tide and wont bite when its running! so i was out to prove them wrong after mastering the fast undercurrent of our local curtain artificial reef i thaught it shouldnt be too hard?

we started off our day on the wet stuff checking all the empty crab potts and rebaiting them and trying a few anti crab theft devices (zipties)

then moved on to our location and started sounding out the area, the reports ive heard were correct and the drop off does go from 8-10mtrs and dropps straight down to 30mtrs!

if you make a line from the homestead on Quail island straight towards the boat ramp on the mainland the jew hole is 50mtrs from the bank of Quail island on the imaginary line (and 100mtrs from Quail on high tide)

the locals were wrong about it only fishing on the flat of the tide as we had the oppisite conditionds! they would bite on the last hr of the runn in and stop biting on the flat! then start biting again on the 1hr runn out

in the 2-3hrs we fished we boated 8 fish, I got a shark and a 39cm cod, Dan got 3 cod, Aden got 2 cod and a shark and James ended up with a donut! he he

the tide started to runn out to fast so we decided to try the local rock bar approx the same distance from the ramp just outside Crab Bay

anchord up and threw lures slugs and dropped baits aswell with out a touch!

headed home with a few cod to fillet but the boy's wernt too impressed so we dropped them back down the boat ramp for a nite session!

picked the boys up 2 hrs or so later after filleting and eating and rehidrating and they were still not happy after not getting a touch all nite?

reflected on the day that had been and still came to the conclusion that it was an awsome day!!

hopefully the weather will improve tomorrow and we can hitt the shoals? but no such luck! my wife phoned that nite and gave me the great news that the weather was getting worse by the day and the best day to head out was the first day we got there!

doh

another doubble

my Cod

[rumrunner]

day 5

woke to pooring rain at 3am and went back to bed, woke again at 7 with it still pooring cats and dogs!

decided to stay in and clean the house till we gett bored! got a little bored so went for a tiki ture up to the look out to check where the weather was going

weather looked sett in for the day so we went back home like grumpy old men kicking our feet!

deffinatly not a good place to be in a house with 4 frustrated fisherman so i said cummon boys letts go get wet!

we headed to the Jew hole and anchored up on the same mark we made priviosly

the trip paid off tremensly with me landing my first ever Jew at 77 cm and Dan also getting one as soon as mine hit the deck!

we called it the 2 hrs of power as I proceded to get another Jew and aden got a beauty of a fingermark mesuring 50cm ,Dan got another 2 cod and Aden also got another 2 cod

porrr old James was in with yet another donut! and not a happy camper!

tally was Dan 2cod and 1 Jew, I got 2 Jew, Aden got 2 Cod and 1 Fingermark Bream, James O .

headed home soaking wet with grins ear to ear to fillet some Jew and Cod and rehidrate!

was raining but we said it was the best day yet?

my pb Jewfish

2 on the mat

dan's first Jewfish!

Aden's Fingermark Bream

Awsome fish

my other Jewfish

[rumrunner]

Day 6 last day

woke again to the exact same conditions as the day before! wet with more wet comming!

decided we had a god day yesterday so why not do it again? letts go get wet and see if James can get a Jew before we leve!

headed to the Jew hole again on a bad tide this time and was wondering what was going on as the tide said 2.0 but looked like a 0.5!

started to wonder how i was going to get the potts back in this low of a tide?

we fished the jew hole for an hr and a half while waiting for the tide to rise so we could get the potts back but the tide wasnt rising?

Dan and i were the only ones to land fish in the session with Dan geting a good little Cod and I got another little Jew! still not bad for a last min dash!

poor old James was going home with yet another Donut!

we thaught it was now or never with the potts so we headed down the sound on the low tide crossing our fingers we didnt get stranded or hit the prop ect

2 potts were empty with no supprise and the other two from that area were lost/gone! headed back up to Crab Bay to retrieve the last 3 but could only reach one of them!

we had a little fun getting out in 0.4mtrs with 0.4mtr wind waves! once out of the Bay we were met by 2mtr pressure waves and a 15-20k head wind!

told all the boys to get up the front and hold on and after a short but interesting ride we were back at the ramp for the last time.

home for dinner and rehidrating and the process of clean up and rubbish removal for the early trip out in the morning!

happy to say the least!

Dan's Cod

here is a short movie made by Dan's wife Tammy!

enjoy its pretty awsome!
/>http://www.australianfishing.com.au/community/videos/95-Stanage+Bay+Fishing+Trip+2010?userid=2317&Itemid=127

[rumrunner]

Day 7

woke to pooring rain again and was glad to be hitting the 100km dirt road towards Brisvages

the trip home took 14hrs but the trip there was only 12hrs figure that?

thats it till next year!

stay tuned!

headdin home

Just a few random pics now

Aligator Bay

Aligator Bay

check the Ramp now ya see it!

and now ya dont!

through the sound

cant get better

shovelnose Ray

Threadfin salmon

smoked Jewfish?

filleting duties

shh dont tell Dan's wife

my beautiful boat! :laugh:

too ezy says chugington (the truck)

the gear used

cant wait for next yr!

[straddiebrad]

mate where does the time go it seems like yesterday i was chatting to you and your back,what a trip you boys had ,seems funny you got no crabs but sounds like the fishing made up for it and a great report to boot what a great read cant wait for the pic, well done.brad

[Keen-as-fisho]

Sux about the weahter mate but drinkin in paradise beats drinkin at home. Congrates on the first jewwy too

[Feral]

Great report mate, some nice fish there. It always takes longer to get home, your never as keen to get going after a stop

[Gazza]

Great place and shame I couldn;t join you but shit happens

Gaz

[fergie]

great report mate and some good pics.

congrats on your first jewy, it's a beauty.

[Lozzel]

Sounds like a fun trip, shame about the weather but that the way it goes sometimes.

Good Jew, thought you would have got a few more out of there.

Next year maybe.

[bootyinblue]

Great report and loved some of the pics! You would think a crab or 2 would be a certanty out of 'Crab Bay'.

I was waiting for the mud and clay report on the last day heading home after doing 100km of dirt on the way in and then 2 days of rain!

[rumrunner]

thanks for all the congrats fellas its one of those trips i wont forget till i get a better one!

it was a bit of a pitty about the crabs but oh well thats fishin i guess!

it looks like the place is crabbed out by the pro's and the pot raiders dont help matters at all!

was the moast busey ive seen it there but ive only been twice now but the locals said it was pretty packed!

thanks for the tipps on the jew hole lozz! there were big ones and alot more there but i think they wanted livies? i could see big arches on the sounder holding on the bottom.

the dirt road on the way out was not much worse then the way in and the excess water sometimes made the trailor aquaplane over the pot holes witch made a softer ride!

cheers Ian

[Do$tylz]

Looks like a beaut place to holiday at. Pity bout the sharefarmers though, but I guess you get that everywhere.

Fantastic Jewie haul too.

[benno573]

Looks like a good trip there. The salmon photo is a steelback salmon as opposed to a threadfin, reasonably common up there. Fight hard!

[rumrunner]

oh cheers for that Benno!

i will edit it soon!

i was intending on posting in your thread aswell last nite mate but was pretty well spent after posting this!

so congrats on the great haul aswell man! looks like the macs are out in force and the grassies are looking good aswell! might have to try a bit of a troll around there before they scoot off again!

thanks Henry (chook) it was one of those places where you new they were there but had to do a little work to get them! thats how it worked for me anyway!

cheers Ian

[werewolf]

Wow great report rummy!

ROTM!

[meldrum1]

Great report. I've been there a couple of times, stayed at Thirsty views, great place. I have never done very well with the crabs, think there's to many pro's

[ellicat]

Looks like it made the lead blisters all worthwhile for the young fellas :laugh:

Good to see ya make the most of it with the poor weather.

Congrats on the jew and a good trip :woohoo:

[dassa]

Hi rummy that's a great report mate a bit of bad on the weather scene but looks like you did make the most of it and cograts on your jew.A mate of mine is up that way 4or 5 time a year and gets out wide and gets into those big trout,spangles and red emperor,so good with the weather on your next trip

cheers dassa

[tacklebox]

wow what a report! love all the pics.

i'd be happy with just one of those jewies!

[mangler]

Sweet report mate, definitely won't be forgetting that trip in a while! Sounds like a top little spot.

[fisherdan]

Good report mate really does the trip justice. Reading it takes me right back there!I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone it's awful

[fisherdan]

As you can see it didn't take me long to put my first jewwy photo up still pretty proud of it definitely one of my highlights from the trip good company was a plus as well.

[dan25]

Awesome report mate. some great fish, well done on the Jewy, looks like great fun!! :cheer:

[rumrunner]

fisherdan wrote:

As you can see it didn't take me long to put my first jewwy photo up still pretty proud of it definitely one of my highlights from the trip good company was a plus as well.

and a beauty of a pic it is man! awsome picture taking skills on my behalf! lol

[ozlad]

I also traveled to stanage over this Christmas break to be greated with stormy weather I stayed at plumtree views the house was awesome and would recommend it to anyone, but the lady in the shop who is also the landlord is a nasty piece of work. We visited Stanage from 27th-3/01/2010 and for a place so secluded its was a major disappointment. We managed similar fish Finger mark (70cm) and a few salmon (blue and threadfin). I was running 16 crab pots for the first 4 days and didn’t manage one legal crab nor did I catch a jenny of significant size. I crabbed the western side of long island, the bottom of quail and nearly down to the Herbert 40km + round trips for little return.

I was talking with a friend who lives at Stange and he informed me that 6 professional crabbers plus numerous amateure professional reside there and legally they are aloud 50 pots, however due to the lack of fisheries and government authority some are running 150+ pots. The professional crabbers were running all the way down to the Herbert and down to shoalwater bay when I was there doing 12hrs in the boat. I personally would not take the crab pots again as it was a waste of time.

Given my time again as I’m originally from Mackay I wouldn’t bother with Stanage, West Hill or Proserpine are far better locations and have given greater dividens. Proserpoine and west hill and much easier to access and from my experience better fishing and crabbing.

I don’t want to take anything away from your trip just sharing my experiences there . I think a greater presence from DPI would pay dividends at stanage as it is surprising how such a remote place could be so flogged.

Cheers,

[rumrunner]

thank you to all who have congatulated me on the trip and my Jewwy and this Report!

it makes it a little more worth while doing a report this big when people show their apprishiation!

so cheers To:

Dan25, fisherdan, mangler, Tackle box, Dassa, Brian E, Meldrum1 and Warewolf

greatly apprishiated!

cheers Ian

[rumrunner]

ozlad wrote:

I also traveled to stanage over this Christmas break to be greated with stormy weather I stayed at plumtree views the house was awesome and would recommend it to anyone, but the lady in the shop who is also the landlord is a nasty piece of work. We visited Stanage from 27th-3/01/2010 and for a place so secluded its was a major disappointment. We managed similar fish Finger mark (70cm) and a few salmon (blue and threadfin). I was running 16 crab pots for the first 4 days and didn’t manage one legal crab nor did I catch a jenny of significant size. I crabbed the western side of long island, the bottom of quail and nearly down to the Herbert 40km + round trips for little return.

I was talking with a friend who lives at Stange and he informed me that 6 professional crabbers plus numerous amateure professional reside there and legally they are aloud 50 pots, however due to the lack of fisheries and government authority some are running 150+ pots. The professional crabbers were running all the way down to the Herbert and down to shoalwater bay when I was there doing 12hrs in the boat. I personally would not take the crab pots again as it was a waste of time.

Given my time again as I’m originally from Mackay I wouldn’t bother with Stanage, West Hill or Proserpine are far better locations and have given greater dividens. Proserpoine and west hill and much easier to access and from my experience better fishing and crabbing.

I don’t want to take anything away from your trip just sharing my experiences there . I think a greater presence from DPI would pay dividends at stanage as it is surprising how such a remote place could be so flogged.

Cheers,

wow sorry to hear you had a bad trip mate!

i also wont bother with the potts next time but found the fishing was bloody awsome and would have only been better if we made it to the shoals!

not sure about being flogged either? the crabs are deffinatly but the fish are thick and ezy to catch!

i havent heard of any other places i can go and catch Jew within a few hundred mtrs from the ramp! if there is can ya tell me where?

i mainly go there becase of the close by shoals and islands (if you can get to them?)

you must have been leaving just as i was arriving! did you see my boat?

cheers Ian

[ozlad]

Yeah we caught plenty of fish for a feed and can’t really complain, but being originally from Mackay I’d probably stay a little closer to home. I think I may have seen you coming in, there were a few boats on the rd. I was in a blue cruiser ute with hornet on the back. We took in two tinnies and had arranged to go out on a 8m cat with a family friend to shoal water bay during the week, but the weather gods didn’t want to play friendly. Did you have any experiences with the lady at the plum tree shop? New yrs night was pretty wild at Stanage lol. There was a massive divide in the community and some politics going on, quite funny for an outsider.

Planning a trip again this year to west hill as we did the previous year. I may return to stanage not sure.

Cheers,

[novrain]

good read and you gotta be happy with those jewies!

well done

[rumrunner]

ozlad wrote:

Yeah we caught plenty of fish for a feed and can’t really complain, but being originally from Mackay I’d probably stay a little closer to home. I think I may have seen you coming in, there were a few boats on the rd. I was in a blue cruiser ute with hornet on the back. We took in two tinnies and had arranged to go out on a 8m cat with a family friend to shoal water bay during the week, but the weather gods didn’t want to play friendly. Did you have any experiences with the lady at the plum tree shop? New yrs night was pretty wild at Stanage lol. There was a massive divide in the community and some politics going on, quite funny for an outsider.

Planning a trip again this year to west hill as we did the previous year. I may return to stanage not sure.

Cheers,

yes you could say we had a bit of a problem with Maree on the first trip but this time was allot diff!

Gazza gave her the name of Gina hard face bi a ch on the first trip and we were planning to keep calling her that this yr but were supprised to say the least when she welcomed us politly this yr!

we even got a no worries luv out of her!

i think she is one of those people who only respect others after she has felt the same!

what happend on new yrs?

cheers Ian

[Brian D]

Well done there Rummy, great report, thanks.

[rumrunner]

Brian D wrote:

Well done there Rummy, great report, thanks.

thanks Brian!

when are we doing another albert sesh mate? or an Albert bully sesh on the salt side?

Ian.

[ozlad]

Oh half the community held a seperate party due as they were sick of the polictics etc etc, this resulted in a few argument hahahaha and both sides trying to get our support. It got really interesting come mid night when everyone was full as a boot arguing etc etc. We ended up drinking with a few of the guys who regularly visit there but don't reside there full time as the true locals apart from Von didn't want to know us.

Just read the part about the boat ramp. I had to bite my lip the 6 days we were there. I lost count the amnount of times the locals zoomed straight by my boat and pushed in the line and blatently drove in front of us while waiting in line to reverse the boat. On the last day the boys got sick of it and confronted one of the guys as he was a repeat offender - the reply was your not from here so F***k off........ thank god it was the last day.

cheers,

[Bommie]

great read and pics Rummy, well done on your jewies

[wesfish]

:woohoo: fantastic report of a great trip rummy!!!