queensland Hamilton Island 2011

[plugga]

Well the time comes around again for my family holiday to Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays. Every since I can remember I’ve been going there every September and over the last couple of years as I’ve become more interested in fishing I have been taking a bit of gear with me. I’ve had great success over the past 2 years from everything to whiting on plastic to big mackerel on livies, so this year I was keen to give it another crack(:

With our place located 50meters from Catseye beach [Main Beach] I spend most of the time flicking plastic over the sand flats and reefs. Main fish that you encounter are Whiting, Honeycomb cod, Moses Perch and Tusk fish. Gear of choice was a Berkley Soron 3-5kg rod with a sienna 1000 spooled with 3lb braid, either 4,6 or 8lb fluorocarbon leader and at the business end a variety of jig heads [1/40,1/24,1/16,1/12], plastics I used were either damiki 3inch armor shad, Damiki 2inch air craw[my new favourite lure] and 3inch gulp minnows. Catseye is full of fish and even tho there is nothing to huge catching tusk fish and decent size whiting on light tackle is great fun, mind you I got destroyed by quite a few decent size fish that were just way to big and hard fighting to stop of 3lb braid especially fishing over reef. From the days I fished Catseye I estimate a total of around 40 odd fish caught. All fish swam off to fight another day and grow bigger.

There is all good fishing to be had all around the island, but it just a bit of luck that’s needed and on this one day I had luck on my side. Me & my Dad adventure around to a little cove which is one of the nicest spots on the island and is hardly touched by humans. After taking a few shots of the surroundings I tied on a 6lb leader [because of clear water] and attached that to a 1/12 jig head with a 2inch Damiki Air craw, now when I first got these lures in the mail from Damiki I new they would catch fish so I was keen as to try catch something a bit better then a honeycomb cod on one. So I went about my business making cast for the first 10 mins there were a few touches and bumps but nothing hooking up. So I slowed my retrieve right down and gave the lure plenty of time to sit on the bottom with just slight twitches of the rod all of a sudden there was a giant wack and my little sienna went screaming, unfortunalty the fish was unstoppable and reefed me, So I just re-rigged with the exact same set up and cast back out, all I could think about was what the fish that just reefed me could of been and all of a sudden bang I was on again, and once again the sienna went screaming, but this time the fish didn’t run to the reef it ran out and at one stage I could see the bottom of my spool and things weren’t looking to good at all. So I applied a bit of pressure to the spool with my finger and slowly started to retrieve a bit of line, after 2 more solid runs, the “Thump Thump Thump†at the end of the line and a good 10min fight a GT came to the surface and I was happy as(: My PB GT on the New Damiki Air Craw [ I knew straight away this fish needed to go on AFO] and on a light combo. So after a few photos the fish went off strong to fight another day (:

So by now I had a fair few fish under my belt and was pretty happy how things were going(:

I went down the road and saw my mate Scotty on Rapture sports fishing adventures and organised to go out with them for half a day. Previous trips with Scotty have always been good and successful so I was confident that this year would be no different. So the next day I woke to a picture perfect Whitsunday day, Sunny, hot, not a cloud in the sky and smooth conditions on the water. So with these great conditions we headed out east to a little spot that always produces good fish, on the way out we saw heaps of sea life [Whales, Dolphins and plenty of turtles]. On the way out I was watching the sounder and we stopped at this spot and about 30meters down was just completely full of fish apparently they were mackerel [ I wish I had my jigging gear] but with the fish not biting we moved on the a reef. When we arrived at this reef the sounder looked the goods, we were in 35 meters of water so signs were looking promising. First drop produced 2 trout and a decent sized moses perch. I rigged up my Daiwa Oceano 4500 [30lb braid] and Bluewater ugly stick and put a ganged pilchard out the back under a float. After a bout 5mins my Oceano went screaming and I was connected to a mackerel, after a half decent fight up came and average mackerel so I was pretty happy. So with a mackerel and a few reefies in the boat I decided to drop a few baits to the bottom and 2nd drop got myself a legal trout. After that the bite died with only a few more legal moses perch coming aboard. So Scotty pulled that pin on that spots and we trolled home, the troll was a bit disappointing with no fish caught. On the way back to the marina we chucked a few metal slices towards a rocky cliff and second cast I was hooked up on a GT, well let’s just say 30lb didn’t stand a chance.. So back to the marina we went. A half decent 4 hours was had and I was happy, fresh Spanish Mackerel and Coral Trout for dinner(:

Probably the fastest two weeks of my life and before I knew it I was on the plane home. All in all was a relaxing and fun holidays and I highly recommend to anyone. When you’re in a beautiful place with awesome flora and fauna the fishing is just a bonus(:

Hope you enjoyed the pictures

Thanks for reading

Jordan

[eg_vtec]

great write up! some great pictures too. well done mate. i would love to go there!

[Angus]

Thanks for the report mate. Thanks for teh effort with the extra photo's as well painted a very good image!

Angus

[mick2me]

Hey mate great report, thanx for the read and pics. what a great holiday

Cheers

Mick

[Doobsy]

Cracker report, great pics and a wicked variety of fish caught.

Must've been great fun.

Thanks for sharing.

[Hfisho77]

awesome report!! great fish plugga, those land based sessions look like alot of fun. I would love to get back up there and try that some day

cheers

Hugo

[Bluevien]

It looks like heaven up there. Some awesome fish with just as good photos.

Thanks for a great report.

[tugger]

Good spanaird and some excelent photos plugga

[Zim man]

awesome stuff mate, i love that area and hope to get up there soon. glad the air craws are doing the job for you

[plugga]

Cheers Fellas(: