Gove Fishing 2011 & Banu Banu

[crazywalrus]

Well it has been a while since I went on this trip and I have been coping a bit of grief from a couple of members over not posting so here goes.

 

I went up to Gove with a few Mates from around Australia to try our luck.

 

For people that do not want to read the Report and would rather watch a video

 

 

Day 1. Was travel flying via Cairns however this day was not wasted. I was going to try and catch up with Tio_Tony but my stop over was not long enough so the decision was made to enjoy the free beers at the Qantas Club, you have to love mates with membership. Several Beers later and a few MMS and Text to annoy fellow AFO members at work we on our next leg to Gove.

 

 

 

 

 

Landed In Gove and met by our mate living there and greeted with a coldie for the drive back to the house. What a good bloke. A quick catch up with his missus and the kids and the call was made to hit the local night highlights to try our luck. It was an interesting night but I think the details are best left for another forum. So pissed and tired we head back to the house at 12.30 to get some sleep before a 3.30am start. I slept in the boat as there was no way I was going to sleep in the same room as 4 snoring blokes.

 

Day 2. A quick breakfast of toasted ham and cheese croissants prepared by Nicole the night before and we were on our way. Yumm . I think we may have been a little tiddly but for Ellicat there was one Sober Driver. We got on the water and the first beer was cracked by 4.30am it went down nice. It was about 40 mins run over to Banu Banu and our fishing spots. http://www.banubanu.com/

 

 

 

First spot we found a nice pinnacle Reef and the expectations where high. It was not long before we where landing some nice small mouth Nannygai and a couple of fingermark. Two species I have never caught before. The current was starting to roar through with the 6m tides they get there so we decided to have a troll around the islands for some speedsters. On the first troll my RMG scorpion gets wacked only to have the braid on my mates rod fail. We go for another run around the island and see the lure floating on the surface with massive teeth marks in it. :woohoo:

 

We decided to Anchor up on the calm side of the Island. The bottom was made up of huge Granite Boulders with reef all over them. It was not long before we were on only to have it taken and smacked by an unstoppable. This continued to occur so we rigged up with some bigger gear. During this process I put my Barra combo up in the Rocket Launchers. It gets smacked by yet another huge fish and the rocket launcher breaks and I am minus a rod and reel for the weekend. We persist for a couple of hours but we are unable to get any of these behemoths up to the surface. We were pulling the hooks through 130lb Leader. Dam big fish and probably big Cod. Was a lot of fun trying to turn these fish.

 

 

 

 

 

[crazywalrus]

Call was made to head to Banu Banu Eco Resort on Bremer Island and get set up and have some lunch. The hosts, Helen and Trevor where incredible. The Resort is for Eco tourism/fishing. Everything on the island needs to be brought onto the Island by boat . It really is a take out of Swiss family Robinson or Gillgan’s Island as the area is decorated with items that has washed up onto the Island.

So we get to the island and Helen has ploughman’s Platter ready and the beers that Trevor organised for us are cold. So we sit back on the Viewing Deck and enjoy a great lunch. We were pretty tired by this stage so a quick Nana Nap and we decide to hit up the other side of the point.

This was a lot of fun fishing from the Beach and Rocks with Queenfish, sweetlip and trout all our targets. We see a 1m+ Shark chasing bait in the shallows on the Beech so I decide to through my Envy out with a plastic. Well that was the last I saw of that Plastic with no chance to stop this thing.

Nick dropped a nice Queeny off the rocks and I had a nice 40cm Trout which I managed to get out of the reef twice only to have him spit the hook over the sand.

Dinner was awesome, Helen and Trevor had cooked up our Nannygai from the morning in some sort of Lemon /wine Butter sauce on mash. A incredible way to end the day. Well that was not it. We decided that we would head out for a night fish getting back at 1.30am to only have to fillet a box full of Nannygai , Fingermark and Jew. I have to also mention the occurrence of a 2m+ Cat shark. Oh My God can I not catch these things. We had to man handle this thing into the boat as it had tangled up all the lines around it and would not survive. It also had two hooks in its mouth so it was hard to work out whose fish it was.

[crazywalrus]

Day 3. This was our half day Charter on the Nomad, Trevor’s pride and joy. I have to say he is a great skipper and has some bloody awesome spots. First Target species was Mackerel. We had a 40min run out to his mark over many likely looking pinnacles but Trevor new his stuff. I must admit that the fishing methods where a little unorthodox but as it went on I understood why. Out comes the Telstra Rope hand lines. Hmmmm Hand lines ?????? I do not fight it and settle in. Next thing I am on. Holly God this thing pulled like anything and the rope is running through my hands. It makes big run and nearly pulls me out of the boat. My toe goes under the door and pulls the toenail back – ouch!!! I finally get him in and I have caught my first Mackeral a 128cm Spanish. Not the way I imagined but all good. All of us hook up to some nice Spanish in only 30 mins and 3 trolls over the Pinnacle.

Trevor says that is enough as he has a Boat limit on the Macks. We talk him into letting us have a go with the rods. A rye smile on Trevor’s face is the only inkling of what is to follow.

I put on a large Vibe lure courtesy of Manni and Dan of Fishing Mania on and I am onto a Large Mack only to immediately have 3 bronze sharks maul it and I lose the lure. Alex is next on and narrowly misses a shark but manages to land it. Well done.

A short move to a nearby Pinnacle and we are landing many small mouth Nannygai, a couple of Large mouths, and a Huge Cod. We kept the Reds and let the Cod go.

The Charter was worth every cent and it was not the usual charter. Trevor new his spots and we got a lot of fish.

After Lunch we head out for a troll in the wind with Nick Landing a nice Long tail and I landed a couple Barracuda around the chicken eggs. Tuna Sashimi that night does not get any better.

[crazywalrus]

Day 4. A quick run back to the mainland to Drop of Darryl off as he had to work and we were back on the water. We decided that we would take it easy today and get back early so we could clean the boat. It was a great day again. We tried the same marks as the first day and Cleaned up on some more Nannygai, I caught a good sized fingermark and a few GTs into the boat.

A casual run back into the Gove Harbour and our fishing trip was over. Thanks for Reading this long winded report. I hope you enjoyed the Video. It was a great trip and I will be back there again.

[aussie123]

Bout time Ted

Gee that looks like an awesome place to visit.

I was surprised to see all the macks kept,i would have thought the risk of ciga up there would have been too great,even in those smaller fish.

I have been going to head up the for the last 2 years but havn't got around to organizing anything but now you have made me keen,lol

Love the reefies you all got,great feed there.

[crazywalrus]

Thanks Lance - Yeah is is a great place if you have your spots. You would be fishing a little blind if you did not have them. The reefies are great tucker. the Nannygai are one of my favorites now they are far better than Snapper.

[benno573]

Epic trip...

The attempted planking on the boat... GOLD! :woohoo:

[51MPL]

ROTM. that is all..

awsome trip buddy im so jealous

[Surfingant]

Gove trip, what Gove trip? Geez it took some time to get that up but well worth the wait. ROTM material there mate

[tugger]

I bet your planning your next trip after that Ted thats epic

[Eug]

what a wicked trip crazyman, all these reports from remote locations are great! wouldn't have known about them otherwise.

[Do$tylz]

mate that's awesome. Too bad the big GT's dind't come out to play but it looks like you had a ripper trip anyway. did you have a dip at the mackeral on your popping gear?

[crazywalrus]

mate that's awesome. Too bad the big GT's dind't come out to play but it looks like you had a ripper trip anyway. did you have a dip at the mackeral on your popping gear?

Yeah a few big Gt's Would have been nice. I did not pop for the Macks but I did hook up to the Mack on the Vibe on the popping Rod. I was not making ground on the Mack and the sharks did the rest. Incredible how fast they get to the fish when hooked.

[crazywalrus]

I bet your planning your next trip after that Ted thats epic

Yeah mate can not wait until I next time. Boat has made a dint on affordability though

[straddiebrad]

great report ted maybe a wanderers trip up there next year good spanish too.

[zan0_15]

awesome report ted, that is one trip i wouldnt mind doing one day!!

[crazywalrus]

great report ted maybe a wanderers trip up there next year good spanish too.

Is a great spot - We would have to fright the boats up on rail or road to do it. I think it is to far to drive

[dassa]

I hope your toe hurt to ya bastard see Carma does come back to haunt you LMAO. Yes the report does do your stories justice what a great place just make the mouth water.

ROTM if I do say myself.

[Keen-as-fisho]

Looks like you had a pretty borring trip ted with some ordinary fish.

Your a lucky bugger mate :woohoo:

[Milan]

ROTM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excellent video with great editing. Well done good sir!

[crazywalrus]

Bump for Old Scaley