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I'm just awaiting delivery of one of the new little 5 door Suzuki Jimny 4x4's. I've been looking at the upgrades I want to put on it and a car fridge is must for me, cold drinks, weekend meals and of course keeping fish cold on the way home. I was going to put an under seat 60ah lithium system in but while I was at the 4x4 shop today they showed me the Invicta range of under bonnet lithium hybrid batteries. It works as a normal starter battery but doubles as a deep cycle battery. It keeps a reserve amount so you never have to worry about running it flat. But I've got zero experience with something like this, and I'd love to know if someone has tried one or something similar before and what their experience has been like.

Went camping on a mates property over new years eve for a week. It's on a weir so we took the kayaks and everything else that floats. The weather along the east coast was bad with torrential rain and flooding but we missed it all to the west of Brisbane. Went fishing and got a few bass and a nice silver perch out of the yaks.

So I saw my old jaffle irons in the shed looking dusty and unloved. Geez that made me feel bad....my most treasured camping implement discarded and forgotten. I am a bastard for sure! So after a quick hose off they were heated and seasoned again waiting for a filling to cook once more. My old staple was Harvest Braised steak and vegetables from a can....so quick and easy. Ham and eggs was also a brekkie on the run. Two thick slabs of cheese either side of canned spaghetti with plenty of black pepper was heavenly too. What was your favourite filler? Time to introduce the grandkids to fine camping cuisine this April I think.

HI Guys, Was hoping the photo issue was solved before posting this trip but better late than never. Left home early on the 4th October and met mate a Nudgee and did the drive to the old stomping grounds of Hampo (also known as Rockhampton). Met a mate with his 4.53 Territory Sea Jay, stocked up with ice and fuel and headed north to Stanage bay. Road in was really good after hearing all the horror stories. 70km of bitumen and only 30km of dirt which had mostly been recently graded but pretty dry and dusty in some parts. Set up camp late arvo and rigged up ready for the first time chasing barra. Excited was an understatement. Now unfortunately due to the first night piss up we were up a little bit late the next morning and definitely a bit shady. Anyway we were off. Headed out the front for a jig on some rubble ground for no luck and a sea sick mate who had never been offshore, nothing to do with still being hungover. Headed up the passage to the first creek and saw fish on the side scan straight away, second snag we fished and about half an hour in I hooked the first barra on a vibe in deep on the snag. Great hit and fight and landed my first barra at 75cm. A few casts later on the same vibe I hooked a lot bigger one and lost it not long after. A mighty swirl is all I saw. Doh! Change of spots and with lots of fish on the sounder tried the same vibe and hooked a 63cm grunter which gave me a bit of curry. PB and back she went. Back to the first snag a little bit later later and a change of lure to a fat shad and I had annother 76cm Barra. A lot better fight and eventually in the net. And then I lost the magic vibe on the snag, and as much as we tried we couldn’t get it back. I shed a tear or two I have to say. Didn’t get a bite on any other colour all trip. Day two was very slow and bloody hot. The dog was not happy and we had to constantly wet him down. Straight to the creeks and hit probably 20 creeks for a few fingermark biggest by my mate at 42cm. Missed a few bites on Texas rigged paddle tails and learnt a bit of respect after being dusted a few times. Skipper got a 65cm barra at one of the last snags for the day. Back for more beers and snooze for me. The other two went out for a late arvo session with no luck on the ledge out the front. Saturday was windy with 15 – 20kt SE blowing early but we’ll just go ‘around the corner’ my mate said. 60kms late we get back to the ramp broken, battered but with my mate getting a 76cm barra. Bugger only started fishing 6 months ago. I won’t forget that trip back in a hurry and either will my back. Good feed at the pub that night and packed up camp in the morning for the drive back home. Great trip with a couple of good mates and already planning the next one. https://imgur.com/gallery/clIm6RJ

Jas, Mitch, Dan and I headed out to Bonshaw for a few days winter camping. I had found a great spot to camp on the Qld side of the Dumaresq River, when exploring about five years ago. Unfortunately the floods had seen to it that it was undesirable with long grass and weeds covering the whole area. We had a look on the NSW side and found a top spot with only one solitary camper about a kilometre or so away. Win! The mornings were a tad cool, with -3.5 and -2 to endure, but the days warmed up near 20, so quite pleasant and no annoying insects or snakes. We caught no fish, with limited effort put in. On the third day, somewhere between waking up and when I got up, I heard a big splash and a bird squawking for a few seconds. I can only surmise a decent cod took said bird from the surface. I should have got up 5 minutes earlier. Anyway, if you're interested, I'm posting daily summaries in 15 minute vids. (Produced with family in mind.) If you do watch, remember to change the quality settings as Youtube is defaulting to 360p for some reason. @Angry51, What's the go with brindle cows ? Never seen one before this trip.

Going to Sharp Park River Bend Country Bush Camping and wondering if there is any fish there In the river.

Camped out on Reynolds creek over the weekend with a group of friends, we circled our wagons around a central firepit. We took a few kayaks and caught about 40 bass and a couple of yellowbelly within our group. The best bass went 35cm and the best Yella went 50cm. Cooked up a mad feed on Saturday night in the camp ovens and Weber's and chilled around the fire each night. The bush setting at the campground is beautiful with some mountains as a backdrop. Definitely one of my favourite little campsites close to home great for a weekender.

Looks like tuesday is looking good for an overnight camping trip at Blakesleys Anchorage at North Straddie. I should be there by lunch time tuesday, staying over night in my pissy little 2 man tent till wednesday lunch time. Midday high tide should allow minimal distance to carry firewood etc up to camp. All welcome to meet up for a chinwag, and an overnight campfire cookup and drinkies Bring your own lambchops, snags, drinks, tent, blankets and sum firewood to keep us all warm and toasty A nice easy fish from the beach using yabbies might even result in a bream or whiting to enter into Hamish's winter classic too

Was thinking in this modern world, surely there's a device for towing extra cargo behind a kayak, anyone know of 1? My yaks rated for 180kg and have a few overnight trips in mind. Im confident i can cut my gear back to make the weight (im a trim 110kg) but was curious as to other options. Have a few ideas to make 1 up myself. Googleing kayak trailer is obviously showing the land based wheeled transporter.

So the Bears are planning to head to Fraser island. Plan is to get there next Mon - Fri and camp at Teebing Spit at Wathumba. The plan is to take a my boat from Urangan and Mrs Drop Bear takes some of the cubs on the ferry. There are lots of fires I hear... Anyone know how I can find out where they are and if it is safe or advised to go?

Just got back from Evans Head with the caravan what a top spot the van park has. It has the river and surf as 2 borders of the park and on the other borders you have the Rsl, pub, surf club and bowls club. As I have never been there before I took this as a challenge to visit everything. So I had a drink in all the establishments and fished both the river and surf. My brother also brought his van down as well as his roof topper tinnie so both he and our partners went fishing up river. The girls outfished us and got some big whiting and a nice flathead which fed us for dinner. We fished off the northern wall which was 300m from camp but had no luck. We went up to razor back lookout for beers and niblies with a spectacular back drop , it was good to see the position of everything. Then after we bought some ocean king prawns from the Co op to finish off our bellies. Here is the rainbow touching the lookout I was hoping it would bring me luck The last day to keep it simple we pumped yabbies off the beach right in front of camp and fished off the bank for more good size summer whiting. The river itself is loaded with these yabbies banks more than I have ever seen in any estuary I have been on and each 1 loaded with yabbies. It is a destination I will be going back to with plenty of natural beauty and of coarse plenty of fishing options.

Hi Guys I am planning to do a few overnight trips in my boat soon, just wanted some knowledge from people on here on the following:- 1. Do many people stay out overnight at places like Deep Tempest if the wx and swell are good ? or do most coming back around Comby and stay near Bulwer, Tanagalooma ? 2. When camping overnight on your boat in the bay near Bulwer etc do you need to be extra cautious in a westerly wind, in case you finish up on the beach ? 3. Any other little comfort tips people might have would be appreciated. Terry

Hi all This weekend my Dad was doing a camp with his Cub Scouts (the level lower than scouts) so I decided to tag along with a couple of my mates. It was great fun and even though I didn't catch anything, it was quite fun and we had fires, went hiking and swimming. I know this is a fishing forum so if you aren't interested in reading a camping report with only a little bit of fishing, I don't advise you continue The report also has a lot of photos, so you will have to put up with that too Since there weren't any cars to take us up to Rocky Creek Scout Park, we had to train up. The 1 and a half hour train trip up wasn't so bad, but since my friend decided his 'extra good satellite map' would work quicker/better than the route I had planned, and he was being stubborn, we took that way. After the 30 minute walk, we realised the stupid thing had taken us to a big steel fence on the other side of the camp, so we re-traced our steps and got back to the starting point. Afterwards, we took the actual route and arrived. We were all worn out, especially me as I had two packs on, but we were just in time for lunch I was loaded up well, with two backpacks and a tent - Loaded up After lunch, we proceeded to get our tents up and went down to Rocky Creek. It was pretty high and a lot more fast flowing than the last time I was there. My friends and I went for a swim, which was very nice. The water was a bit murky and we had to keep checking for rocks. We went on a rope swig that had fortunately been made and slid down some of the slippery waterfalls (hurt your butt a bit but was worth it ). Then, I went for a fish as well - Fishing in Rocky Creek I was using soft plastics, poppers and didn't bother flicking anything more expensive out as the creek is riddled with snags. It was on a 6'6'' telescopic rod spooled with 10lb braid and 12lb mono leader and a size 4000 Shimano reel (my travel rod). That was fishing in a pool below a small waterfall, so that's what all the white bubbles are from. It's my second time not catching anything in there, so I'm questioning if there's even any fish/eels inhabiting it. I also was going to use some bait (any leftover meat) but it was quickly consumed by the group of about 40 people camping out. After that, I had to get back to camp to make the nights bonfire for everyone. I love making fires on camps, it's one of my favourite things to do The cubs had just put a whole load of grass on one of their fires, so in this process I was getting smoked alive LOL. We were quite low on wood, so I just used all the big logs first with lots of kindling so it would light. At first I thought it wouldn't go off due to dampness, but after some blowing it did not disappoint This was about 2 hrs after the creek, and after dinner, which was sausages. We had a couple marshmallows and I was getting seriously tired. After the fire, I was completely done for the day. My legs ached, I began to feel a bit sick and I was tired (more than ever). I decided to crash in my tent, at about 8:00PM. Unlike me though, my friends (who are crazy) slept in the trailer and went to bed at about 1:00AM. I'm not sure what they did in that time apart from getting slayed by mozzies and eating, but they did find a green tree frog - One of the few 'catches' Well, I had a really nice sleep and I had a good sleep in too. After drinking a bit, I felt better and today I was up to anything (hopefully ). After waking up and packing up our gear, I was told to cook breakfast so I got started on the bacon while I waited for the others. They eventually got there and then our cooking operation became more efficient, with the final product ending up like this - BBQ Breakfast Now, it occurred to us we had to go home . We packed up our tents by about 8:30AM (or at least I did) and since we were catching the 11:05AM train, we still had a couple of hours. To kill time, we went for another swim in the creek. The rope swing was fun, and as well as water we had another fire, which I built on the rocks. That was very nice, but we had to keep it going so it took a while for us to chuck some logs on and just let it burn due to the struggle of finding any. It eventually turned out nicely, and we all were back by 10:30AM. The creek had gotten considerably clearer overnight as well. Nice Creek Overall, it was a nice camping trip and even though there was no fish caught, it was still fun. Next time, I might camp on the rocks under the stars, but we will have to remember everything possibly to repel mosquitoes. Here are some statistics of the report (not much that to read LOL) Statistics of trip: Location: Rocky Creek Scout Park Suitability: Good for large groups, but not much to do... I suppose that's why it's a scout park Fish Caught: None Tackle Used: 10lb braid, 12lb mono, small poppers and soft plastics Overall Success: 85% - getting there and fishing weren't to good, but otherwise it was awesome! Now, I have school camp tomorrow 'till Wednesday, so I won't be on the forum until then. I still need to play the trumpet and pack, too. Hope you enjoyed reading the report, Cheers Hamish

Hi all, Just letting everyone know there’s a fishing, camping and 4x4 expo on tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday at the Redcliffe Showgrounds for those that weren’t aware. cheers Greg

Heading to Warrabah NP next week to get away from it all. Taking the rods, Dan and his girl. Hoping to get onto a cod or yella. With so many people haunting my usual spots these days we've looked further afield. Hoping to find a quiet spot in the winter weather. They had snow at Guyra the other week, so here's hoping. Will have a report after we return. Hopefully a good one. Has anyone been there before ?

This is for ALL members, new or not so new. A few of us discussed in @Doyley's "New Tow Rig" thread about having a get together somewhere on the beach. I'm proposing the weekend of Friday 16th - Sunday 18th February as dates when we have high tides around 8.30 - 9.30am at Cooloola/Teewah. EDIT 29/1/18 Settled at Teewah 9/2/18 - 11/2/18 EDIT 1/2/18 Cancelled Alternative place of Bribie Island has high tides 1.30 - 2.30pm. It would be good if you could indicate your location preference and any alternate dates. Once we've thrashed it out and settled on a place and time we can organize the finer details.