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6 days, 4 anglers at 1770


tacklebox

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About 6 months ago Benno573 asked Kreel and I if we'd like to join him on a trip to 1770 in December. The answer was "hell yeah!" and from that day on we had dreams of catching a few monsters of the deep and began counting down the months, weeks and days for the big one to arrive.

Day 1 – Wed 16/12/09

After a 6 hour drive from Brisbane and a couple of hours to set up camp, we finally got on the water at around 3:30pm. We crossed the bar no problem but as we got further out, it became obvious that the conditions were getting rougher so we headed back in to fish the creek. I caught the first fish of the trip which was an undersized spangled emperor and Kreel quickly followed with a bream. Not a bad effort considering we were using our offshore gear!

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the campsite

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on the water

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first fish of the trip – undersized spangled emperor

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Day 2 – Thurs 17/12/09

The next day the winds were up but expected to drop in the afternoon so we started off castnetting for livies in the creek. There were heaps of hardiheads around and at a spot we nicknamed "dart corner" I caught the first keeper of the trip - a dart on my bait jig. We were plagued by damselfish in the creek so had a peek at the conditions outside. It looked ok so back to camp we went to grab our offshore gear, and headed out to the trawler wreck. Ben was on first with what seemed like a great fish, but midway through the fight it suddenly felt a lot lighter. He reeled it in and we discovered a 49.5cm grunter with a few bite marks on it. The shark must have let go when he realised who he was up against. Kreel then caught another two grunters before it all got too much for me and we came back in.

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launching the boat

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wish you were here?

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dart corner

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damselfish

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biggest grunter – note toothy marks

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Day 3 – Fri 18/12/09

After Ben's first ever bung related fail and a bit of hard work from the bilge pump, we decided to be a little more adventurous and try a few spots at Middle Rock. I caught a little honeycomb cod and that was it, not a touch otherwise. We pulled the pin and began trolling around Bustard Head. Again, nothing doing. After a lunch break in Pancake creek, we went for a run back to the trawler to see if we could find some more grunter and hopefully some GT's.

On the way we noticed the birds having a field day so Ben decided to throw out a slug. First cast and he comes up with a little mac tuna which we keep for bait. Immediately after that he catches a bigger one which we release. Then we did a few drifts over the trawler wreck with Kreel and Mrs Benno having fun on several GTs, Mrs Benno with her biggest fish to date in the form of an approx 5kg GT. I wasn't getting any love on my lucanus jig so went back to bait. We were off the drift when I drop down and Ben tells me not to bother, we're in the middle of no-man's land. Sure enough, I get a bite and up comes my first cobia! Way too small so after a quick photo he was released.

At this point Ben decides he wants in on the action and we anchor up. He put out a livie which didn't take long to get hammered and after a brief tussle, we caught our first shark of the trip. From then on Ben and I took turns in catching sharks. I caught my first ever shark, followed by my second and almost got a third but got bitten off. Ben caught four or five, the biggest about 5ft and three different species from memory. Somewhere in amongst all that we caught half a dozen grunters that made it to the esky so we called it a day and headed back to camp.

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bustup!

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Ben's first mac tuna of the trip – bait!

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Second mac tuna of the trip

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Kreel's first GT

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My first Cobia

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Mrs Benno's biggest GT

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Kreel with a grunter

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Black tipped reef shark

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another bitey

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the day's catch, minus one we found in the esky later

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Day 4 – Sat 19/12/09

Conditions were the best yet. Glassy ocean, minimal swell. Perfect! We came across more bustups and Ben picked up another two mac tuna before Kreel finally caught his first ever tuna after two days of trying! The smile on his face said it all and he said later on that he would've been happy to go home after that. Ben had said he wanted to compile a good feed of reef fish today and Mrs Benno put us all to shame, adding the first 3 keepers to the esky! We all started chipping away and we ended up with a very respectable looking esky! Total for the day was six grassies, six hussar, one tuskfish and my very first mackeral which took a piece of squid on a paternoster rig. We would have had one more hussar in the esky had it not been for kreel's slippery hands.... oh well! There were many solid hookups and fights, unfortunately most of these resulted in dam trigger fish! Grrr! BBQ'ed fresh mackeral was on the menu for dinner!

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double trouble

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kreel's first mac tuna – happy much?

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Frypan snapper – cool looking fish

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Best Hussar of the trip

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triggerfish

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kreel's Hussar (the one he didn't drop!)

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crispy skin mackeral with bbq veg

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Day 5 – Sun 20/12/09

Sunday started with a bit of trolling around the headland. We'd heard most spanos were being caught on trolled bait so we rigged up a couple of pillies on some skirted lures but didn't have any luck. After that, just like clockwork Ben caught two mac tuna on slugs, but then hooked onto a very nice spotty mackeral which got to the boat, took one look at him and spat the hook! Not happy. A bit of bottom bashing resulted in a morwong, grassy and hussar for the esky, until we looked at the sky and saw a storm brewing and hightailed it out of there. Conditions again were glass with a minimal swell. Of course, the dam storm blew around us and we could have stayed out there after all!!! Bugger! Crumbed grassy, morwong and hussar for dinner.... YUM! An afternoon was spent drinking beer.

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First mac tuna of the day

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Second mac tuna of the day

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Me with a grassy

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Looks worse than it was

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Day 6 – Mon 21/12/09

Our last fishing day began very slowly with the usual undersized fish, iodine bream, whiptails and trigger fish. Thankfully conditions allowed us to try a few different spots with minimal travel time Since our pillies and squid weren't getting results I started using iodine bream for bait and just as I'd finished the last of my sandwich I had an almighty bite which buckled the rod and started peeling line off my reel. There were powerful headshakes so it definitely wasn't a shark. It was exhilarating knowing I had a good fish on but also nervewracking not knowing what it was and trying not to lose it. After a couple of minutes we saw colour and then realised I'd caught my first GT and the biggest of the trip! We got a quick photo and didn't think to measure it as I was concerned about getting it back into the water. He swam away fine and everyone fished a little more seriously after that.

Kreel tried using a whiptail as a livie and straight away it began swimming nervously until Kreel's rod doubled over. A similar fight ensued and we thought he'd caught another GT but on closer inspection we realised it didn't have enough tail scutes to be a GT and Ben called it for a tea-leaf trevally. Ben was unusually quiet at this point until finally his strip of iodine bream got taken and his reel started singing. It was another tea-leaf trev so it was bled and put on ice with the first one.

We tried the drift again and while we knew we were in about 100ft of water, strangely the sounder was reading 20ft. As we looked over the side of the boat we saw hundreds of what we think were trevs swimming right under us! The school just went on and on and was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Ben tried to tempt them with a slug and then a plastic but no joy. I caught one more tuskie then it got quiet so we headed home with smiles from ear to ear and memories that will stay with us for a while to come.

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My first GT!

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caught on a fillet of this (iodine bream)

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kreel and his tea-leaf trevally

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Ben and his tea-leaf trevally

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The crew

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ellicat wrote:

:woohoo: Nice work guys. looks like you had a great time ! Congrats on the firsts etc.

I reckon kreel had the right idea dropping the hussar back in the water though :laugh:

I wonder why they call them tealeaf trevs :dry: :P

Happy birthday Benno :kiss: :cheer:

your nuts. Hussar taste good. Tea leaf trevs taste surprisingly nothing like tea. Very good eating, thanks jeff f for cooking tips!

And thanks for the bday message. Love you too...

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ellicat wrote:

The tealeaf trevs look like they have tealeaves stuck to their side. (Might not be obvious to the teabag generation though :laugh: )

Hussar tastes fine, I'm not rapt in the texture though. Maybe it firms up with size ?

tastes just like Moses perch. Never had a specific problem re texture at any size. Maybe just how they are cooked? Not saying you can't cook of course.

Also, not sure my generation is big on tea bagging really. Certain clubs in the valley it may be acceptable.

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roobs wrote:

great report- the fish in the big school could have been ray's bream or pompano.

yeah, they definitely weren't rays. I originally called them for sharks but we kept seeing big silver sides and after catching a few trevs that was the most logical conclusion. If they were bream... Dude... They were at least 2ft long!!! I want me some of those bream!!! :)

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We've been back for almost a week and I haven't been on the water let alone cast a line in anger since the trip. This weather has made us go cold turkey and I DON'T LIKE IT!

That was a great trip, still eating plenty of fish and loving it. Can't wait for the next big adventure.

Thanks to Ben for the great skippering and the fish always a centimetre or so bigger than mine. Thanks to tBox for the great write-up and as always the best fishing buddy(ess) a LAD could ever have.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Yay I won ROTM! Thanks for all the kind words everyone.

For those playing at home, we had the two distinct species of trevs caught on the trip identified. My big fella and some of the trevs caught on previous days were blue-spotted trevally (Caranx bucculentus). The last two the boys caught were longnose trevallies (Carangoides chrysophrys).

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  • 3 weeks later...

dad whent to 1770 a few years ago when there was a 5 mile by 2 mile wide school of little silver fish and millions of mach tuna. he trolled around looking for a spanish mackeral and got coulntless mach tuna and a a few mackeral. he decided he would head to the rocks to get away from the mach tuna. went 20 metres and both the rods went off. him and his girlfriend fought it for only 20 seconds when the lines went slack. puzzled dad turns around and looks 18 inches past the outboard and there is a head of a shark which head is wider than the back of his 12 foot tinny. 12 feet away in its dorsal fin was hid blue lure. he estimated it at 27 foot and thought no one would beleive him so he settled at 25 feet long. dez is the owner of the caravan park there a few of you may know him. but he and his uncle where anchored in 30 metres of water in a 21 foot fibreglass out of the mouth of middle creek when something got entangled in the anchor rope and pulled the anchor off the bottom and dragged this 2 tonne boat at speed whilst they tried to cut it away. i thought this was a good idea to warn people that there are big sharks out there and a 12 foot tinny isnt the best of ideas.

thanks pat

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