queensland Bargara Jan 15-17

[Do$tylz]

Rightio... so now that Ive been able to find someone with the same camera as mine I’ve been able to take the photos off and can no do a report... so without further adieu..

6pm, Friday 15 Jan saw me, 5 drinks in and meeting my mates and g/f at my work loading bay ready for the long drive ahead of us. Bargara (just coast-side of Bundy) was our destination, trying to stay awake for the ride was my aim. I failed miserably. A quick nap, Pizza Hut at Gympie, driver change and 4 flat toads later, we were met with the sound of the ocean crashing on the rocks and a ready lit bonfire in the front yard of our mates house. WOOT!!. It was 11:30pm by now and the wind was up a bit but I was hoping it would die down by sunrise enough for me to hit my bream honey hole that I’d found last year. (last years report... http://www.australianfishing.com.au/forum/9-north-coast-reports/182773-bargara-15th-17th-april#182785)

Anyway... my alarm went off at 330am and straight away my mate wakes up and says “henry is that the alarm to go fishing??.....I’m not goingâ€. No surprises there for me... he’s definitely not a morning person. So off to the spot at Burnett Heads and pretty damn excited. I get there a little early so I have to wait in the car for 15minutes for the sun to come up enough for me to not break my ankles on the rocks.

Sunrise.

[Do$tylz]

Anyway.... I make my way down to the rocks and cast along the way to my honey hole. Gear used... shimano raider bream finesse 7’2 , 1-3kg, stradic 2500 with 8lb fireline, 8lb black magic flouro leader, 1/24 nitro tt jighead and 3†gulp minnow in New Penny.

First cast in and the obligatory moses perch was landed .. a few more casts in... another moses.

[Do$tylz]

I get to my honey hole after a bit of re-calibration to get my bearings and the anticipation is high I do a time check... 5:20am. A few tentative casts in wide to cover some space and not a touch. I few casts in front and a couple of touches but no hook ups... I ping a cast that’s on the money as far as possible. A 1 second drop, flick flick, crank...drop...and then weight..I give it a good strike... FISH ON :D . This thing was heavy and strong. Some awesome powerful runs made me think I hadn’t tightened the drag enough but sure enough with my arm up in the air keeping the rod high above the rocks I found that it was on. My wrist and forearm was getting killed trying to reign in the runs. A few hairy moments as the big unknown pulled to the left and went over the top of an exposed rock with a wave followed by a big splash.

The sun was still a little hidden behind clouds so I didn’t get a look...I good final sizzling run for freedom had my very worried for what I was calling for a monster bream. Man this thing knew how to use the waves to its advantage. One final wave on the rocks and I had the fish up in the shallow pool splashing about. I swear the entire Burnett Heads region heard me. I had just caught a new PB jack. If anyone was watching it would have been hilarious, I was dancing on the spot, fist pumping, legs shaking. I may have even attempted to do the running man dance move. Lip grips in its mouth it did a flick and my plastic and hook fell out of its mouth. Jeez that was lucky.

Anyway... pics are a bit dodge as I didn’t have a proper rock to put my camera onto. But man... I was pumped.

[Do$tylz]

another pic of the jack

[Do$tylz]

The rest of the morning was still awesome. 2 bust offs which then had me upgrade my leader to 20lb leader, endless moses perch and not 1 bream. Then.. final spot before goin back to the car to drive home...bzzzz....I was on again to a sweet fish. Not as strong as the jack... but still strong. A short fight and up came a 45cm grassy/spangly (dunno which one). Both of these fish were kept for a feed for dinner. Got home at 730am, showed off the goods, had a shower and then a nap.

[Do$tylz]

The rest of the day was swimming, skim boarding, water launching, drinking and another nap.

[Do$tylz]

another launch

[Do$tylz]

flatland skimboarding.

[Do$tylz]

Later in the arvo too my mates back to the same spot for them to try their luck. First cast into the honey hole for my mate and he was onto a 25cm bream.

[Do$tylz]

A change of hands with the rod and his g/f was onto her first fish ever, a little moses. She was happy as Larry

[Do$tylz]

A bit of a move on rocks and boom.. she was onto a perfect flattie at 45cm. Added both of those to the dinner kitty. No fish to my missus... I tried hard but no love.

[Do$tylz]

Anway.. dinner of extra dry and oven baked fish...mmmmm.

[Do$tylz]

Got up the next morning at 4am. Hit the same spot for nothing special. A straightened hook on a blistering run, a 25ish spangly and that was the morning.

[Do$tylz]

Went for a snorkel at Coral Cove where my waterproof camera decided to no longer be a waterproof camera.

Home at midnight on Sunday night after an awesome weekend trip.

Thanks for reading

[ellicat]

Good coupla days Henry. Nice Jack to kick it off with :woohoo:

Do you have any pics of Larry ? What did he catch and why is he always so happy ?

[meldrum1]

Nice Jack. Looks like a great place to spend a couple of days

[Old Scaley]

Nice report, Henry. What sort of camera is (or was) it? How old? I have a waterproof Lumix and haven't been game to dunk it yet.

[Keen-as-fisho]

Nice jack mate, well done.

[tacklebox]

top report and some great fish for land based

[Do$tylz]

its an olympus MU... one of the 10m ones. MAte they can definately do water and hold out in the tough stuff. I think mine has just had a very rough life over the last 2 years. And chances are I didn't close the battery lid well enough and persisted with using it under water to depths of 5m.

[Terry H]

Nice report mate, nice jack!!

[mangler]

Awesome report mate, great mangrove jack there, gotta be happy with a weekend trip like that!

[dassa]

Cracking jack henry good to see the weatherhad inproved for you we were up there from the 1st to the 10thand did nothing but rain

cheers dassa

[benno573]

Wicked fish off the stones there mate. Pretty sure that's a spangly in the photo. Good feed to boot. I know the feeling with acting like a clown after a good catch - you should have seen me with my first decent golden trev off the rocks!!! The world knew about that one! Good on the mates mrs for having a go too.

[tugger]

well done on your pb jack mate top colours on him great report

mark

[Do$tylz]

yep.. weekend was frikking awesome. I'm still trying to catch up on sleep.

Cheers all.

Yeah Ben.. got Billi to have a few casts and we were getting heaps of hits and a couple of big hits but no hook ups...It was good to see her get excited about fishing for once

[Rocket75]

that Jack makes getting up at sparrows worth the effort bigtime.

you seem to be catching some great fish since the hair cut...maybe you should stick with the buzz cut!

great report mate.

rocket

[the1fuzz]

Nice looking jack.Well done!

[waldo]

I read somewhere else I think those underwater camera jobs need the seals checked annually or so? great jack and nice spangled looks like a fun trip.

[yoyo]

Nice jack henry, did you get a measure on it ?

[rumrunner]

good report Henry!

and a cracker Jack to man!

dont know why you need to catch up on sleep with all of those nanna naps!

cheers Ian.

[adambris]

has that MP been sharked? nice report mate. good to see great fish being caught within driving distance.

adam

[tomca]

I can only imagine how much more unco your "PB jack dance" was on uneven ground. :laugh: What Lonely Island song were you playing on your phone this time: "I jizzed in my pants"???

A few weeks and I'll be in 1770 and Baffle Creek chasing similar targets.

[tobie10]

Great report and nice jack!

[Eug]

some nice colour on that red and light gear too!

[Feral]

Great Jack mate, whats with the half fish photo?

Do you need Ray's mobile number :evil:

[novrain]

good looking jack, especially after your first couple of casts. must be happy you woke up to the alarm...

were you guys jumping off some jetty or something? seemed to be doing some good leaps in the water..

[Do$tylz]

cheers again

rocket - nah.. its getting grown out mate. Can't stand having to put sunscreen on my noggin.

waldo - yeah it was someone here that I read it from (maybe ellicat or feral) about having to change seals. I hadn't read that in my manual but maybe I just didn't read that section.

yoyo - yeah mate. went 49 fork, 50 tip

Rummy - man those nana naps just kept me going through the days. Love my sleep.

adam - nah it was a little roughed up from the rocks it swam over and splashed around on when I pulled it in.

Tom - man I've been meaning to make that extra drive up there to fish... but the best about burnett heads and exactly where I fish is that for the 4-5 times I've fished it, I've never seen another soul fishing it. Infact I get the locals looking at me funny.

Eug - yeah dude... was VERY surprised to get it in on 8lb line and leader. Who says you need 20lb etc to get jacks??

Feral - messaging as I type

novrain - nah no jetties mate. Shoulder launches in the surf

[nabs]

Awesome jack dude!

Is that the same raider I sold you? Cracker jack on that light gear!

[Do$tylz]

yep thats the one Nabs. Its definitely done very well for me.