queensland Hervey Bay: You Gotta Love It !!

[Manni79]

Carter and I decided to head up to Hervey Bay to have a fish with Chozza from Hervey Bay Fly & Sport Fishing, this would be my 3rd trip with him and each trip has resulted in a new PB.

The weather was looking sketchy but on paper is was meant to be reasonable conditions and for most of the day we were pretty lucky, every now and then we had decent wind gusts and pockets of rain however what lacked in quality of weather was made up in an awesome session with a large variety of species.

I would mention where we fished but half the time you couldn’t see Fraser due the mist/rain plaguing the island but a rough idea was somewhere between station hill and two thirds of the way up to Rooney’s and every where in between.

Our first spot didn’t disappoint, we found ourselves on top of a school of spanish mackerel most of them probably ranging from 40 to 70cm’s but none the less they made a good account of themselves. We probably landed about 7 or 8 between us with many many more dropped due to bite off or sharks. Carter got the best of the Spanish but no doubt dropped a couple better ones based on some of the aggressive strikes/runs!!

After loosing a bit of gear on the mackerel we decided to look for tuna, we searched for a short period of time before we spotted birds and Chozza started to stalk the feeding tuna. We had one shot at this school and I was on, he wasn’t the biggest tuna but made a few good runs and was brought to the boat quickly. Landing him was different story as he was pretty green so it was a bit of a tussle before we landed him.

In the end I was pretty stoked especially after having using my brand new Daiwa Sol II 4000H - this reel was drama central with a sticking/locking drag including the handle playing up - pretty disappointed in this reel and regret buying it!

Putting the Nordic though its paces

Next stop was spotties and they were good fun with a heap coming in the boat and some being released. They were working two small bait balls and were all around the boat, they made for good fun for a short while until the bait was demolished!

Poor little bait fish that were soon in fishy heaven

We had fly gear on the boat but not rigged up which was a shame as it was the perfect chance to have a crack at them on fly. With a new mission created we rigged up the fly rod and went searching for them, we found a small school and i had a couple shots at them with 2 fish striking my fly but no hook up... soon after there was success but not the first fish I was hoping for. Still it’s a first and better than nothing.....

We put the fly rod away and started chasing birds again, this time Carter is at the front of the boat having a couple shots at the tuna, after a short chase he’s hooked up and a good battle was underway and after a couple good runs this mac tuna came on board.

10%r in action

By this point we had a good mix of fish and thought we’d have a crack at some goldens, we tracked a few different spots and between catching some more mackerel and sharks, yep sharks - carter was the shark magnet they loved his lures!!

We were cranking out some tunes and Metallica was on and what better time to hook up to a golden whilst listening to the kings of metal haha. Soon after came up this little fella

We moved again hitting up some reefs and chased the birds once again, some random mackerel but were harder to get as the day went on, I caught a small reef shark as did carter but a bigger model, I even caught a small bat fish as we started to make our way home.

Nearly all but done Chozza took us to one more spot for goldens, first drop and the trusty mackerel were there again but biting us off. Next drift and the last drift of the day success!!! at first I called it for a small golden with a couple week runs and was easily coming up, until he woke up and took off like a rocket!! The only worry was being sharked but i took my time and was happy to and a new PB golden at 91cm (4cm more than my last PB)

Off to fight another day

It was a great day for me, carter had a great morning but his luck ran out in the second half of the day which was unlucky with bust offs, sharks and soft strikes

Thanks again Chozza that 3 from 3 awesome sessions and thanks for the awesome company and banter carter !!

[Surfingant]

Enjoyed the report and pics bro

[Manni79]

Enjoyed the report and pics bro

Cheers KiwiAnt

[Do$tylz]

^^^ haha.

Manny that's a great report man. Thoroughly enjoyed and great picture too. I'll have to get copies of you if you don't mind. Some of those angles are awesome. Too bad about the SOL. Surely it's a defect unit and Daiwa will sort out? That's a bit rough to get that from a couple of hundred dollar reel out of a box.

Great work again Andrew. It really makes sense that everyone is continuing to recommend to.

Sweet haircut Carter and tough gig on the 2nd half.

[Angus]

Yeah bois!

That is awesome.

Calling Chorley tomorrow

[Manni79]

^^^ haha.

Manny that's a great report man. Thoroughly enjoyed and great picture too. I'll have to get copies of you if you don't mind. Some of those angles are awesome. Too bad about the SOL. Surely it's a defect unit and Daiwa will sort out? That's a bit rough to get that from a couple of hundred dollar reel out of a box.

Great work again Andrew. It really makes sense that everyone is continuing to recommend to.

Sweet haircut Carter and tough gig on the 2nd half.

Thanks Bro - yeah the sol issue was a bit odd but speaking to someone who didn't want to be named had the exact issue with brand new sol's as well but I'll have a chat to 'em and see what they say.

I'm assuming the pics you want are the loaded up rod pics? can send you some hi res copies - we took heaps of other shots too like that

PS Angus - he's booked out til May on the weekends unless there's a cancellation, mid week there are spots now. I'm keen to go again already lol

[Do$tylz]

I would also like to get copies OFF you. But copies of you would be cool too

[Carter]

happy days, another cracker trip with Chozza,

Manni you fished like a champ and deserved everyone of those fish.

Hers a few more pics

[Homer4duff]

Wow looks amazing! Very jealous!