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Moreton Trip and Report 12/11 - 16/11

benno573

By benno573
in Saltwater

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benno573 Rising Star

benno573

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G’day all,

Noticed there had been a bit of a drop off in reports of late so thought I’d make a contribution.

Loaded up the BT and the trailer and jumped on the 8:30am Micat on Wed 12 Nov for 5 days of relaxation on Moreton. Arrived right on high tide which made the trip up the eastern beach a little interesting in the soft sand. I could hear that the BT was working but was maintaining momentum quite well despite the trailer, not struggling and rarely needing a downchange. Just for interest sakes I checked the fuel-consumption-o-meter and it said the car was sucking down 75L/100km at the time, about 10x the normal highway consumption. Glad the beach was only a few k’s long!

Arrived at North Point camp ground and set up, picking a spot that would be well sheltered from the forecast strong northerlies on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. After a quick bite we were off down the beach with the kayaks while the weather held to see if we could grab something for dinner. No issues with the launch, grabbed a nice 40-ish snap and a 35-ish grassy for dinner then headed back in. Within an hour and a half the fish was crumbed and on the plate, pretty hard to beat. Cracked a bottle of bourbon which seemed to have a hole in it and had a dam good night.

Friday morning we were up early again on the yaks, this time the fish were a bit harder to find. Chased a 5ft bull shark around for a while, couldn’t get him to take the plastic though. Managed to scratch together a nice feed of snapper, grassy and a couple of stripies.

After Tim Tam pancakes for breakfast and a quick trip to the lighthouse we headed over to Tailor Bight for a flick for flathead. Plenty of tiddlers, only managed one keeper though at about 52cm. There was a few older guys standing there bagging us out for using plastics (apparently they don’t work) – only to have both of us hook up about 10 seconds later, unfortunately mine was only a long tom but still was funny proving a point. Headed back for a late lunch, the northerlies were just starting to kick up a little. Thursday arvo my mate wanted to go kayaking but I couldn’t be bothered so I sat on the beach and made a substantial dent in another bottle of bourbon, my mate had to drive us back to the campsite but that was ok. He doughnutted so my decision was completely vindicated! More crumbed fish, a bit of tomfoolery and a good night’s sleep followed.

Friday I was up early to pick up another mate off the 5:30am barge. Came across a very bogged Pajero on the way back, offered him a tow out and he told me to get nicked. More fool him I reckon!

Bacon and eggs followed and then we formulated a plan for the day. We headed up Cape Cliff for a look around and a sneaky feed of oysters straight off the rocks, sensational. Friday arvo we decided to ignore the 20kn+ northerlies and fish Tailor Bight, had the place to ourselves, only tiddlers again but not a bad arvo. Had a bit of fun trying out my new lightbar on the way home, best thing I ever got. Flathead and sweetlip for dinner, decided to crack the Appletons being a Friday night, it too had a hole in it but you get that…

Saturday morning I was off down the eastern beach to collect some pippies for bait (and a snack), managed to find about 50 or so, still recovering slowly after the oil spill a few years ago. Had some breakfast and headed over Cape Cliff to a nice sheltered spot to chase some dart, bream, whatever. Caught a few dart (which were released), a couple of bream and then, randomly, a couple of spangled emperor, one just under the required 45cm, so all released to fight again another day. On the the spangles was carrying a set of gangs around with it which I removed before releasing. My mate then hooked something that was fighting differently, looking into the water I could see a tailor being chased by a whole bunch of his mates, as well as a decent GT and a couple of kingies. Needless to say, the light gear went away and the metals on the heavier gear came out in a hurry. After securing a feed of tailor up to 50cm long I hooked what I am fairly sure was the GT, 25lb line and 30lb leader was good for a while but at the end of the day was never going to stop this thing. Good fun while it lasted though.

Saturday arvo we had a pretty lazy arvo (mostly as those who didn’t fish sat on the beach and got sunstroke and drunk and needed a little lie down), my mate and I had a few drinks and decided to stop wasting our time and went for a walk up to north point to fish on the honeymoon bay side with the wind mostly at our back right on dusk, three casts in my mate’s lure got brained and my sustain 4000 started singing that oh-so-sweet song. Being his second time rock fishing (the first earlier that day) I was trying to talk him through the process but in 30kn winds and a 2m+ swell he lost his nerve and basically threw the rod at me. After finally stopping the initial run, I backed the drag off trying to wear the fish out while it was well away from the rocks. After a few minutes of this I upped the tension a little and began to work the fish towards the rocks, trying to steer it into a gap between two rocks where I could easily surf it up on a wave. The fish had other ideas and went on a long, powerful run, heading out round the end of the rocks. I put as much pressure on as I was game and with a lucky wave managed to turn the fish and wash it straight into the area I was targeting. With another wave it was in a position where it could safely be retrieved and to say we were both stoked was an understatement. 85cm of mulloway, weight guessed at about 5kg. Bled it out and then headed straight back to camp where every kid (and most of the dads) had to have a look and a photo, knocked the sides off and straight into the pan, as well as a bit of sashimi. Delicious!

Sunday was sleep off a hangover, a swim and then a slow pack up, jumping on the 9pm barge home. During 5 days we did not eat any of the meat I had in the freezer and bought home about 3kg of fish fillets as well. Cracker trip, can’t wait to do it all again next time!

Also, massive thanks to sparksie and viper83 for the loan yaks for the trip, cartons are on their ways guys.

Cheers for reading

Benno

Photos to follow

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benno573 Rising Star

benno573

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Looks like a great trip over there and some pretty good fishing too!

Hey Benno I've never done Moreton, if you're planning any more trips in the future I'd be keen to come along and play with the new toys on my Dmax.

For sure mate. It's an "at least once a year" trip for me so will hit you up before the next one, thinking around May. Bring your drinking boots... ;) don't need a lot of toys on the car really, mine is 100% stock except the nudge and light bars. Still factory tyres, that'll be coopers once this lot run out.

Steve - it's November?? March flies? :P nah, there was a couple here and there, not too bad though. Wind and coils kept the mozzies and sandflies away.

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kmcrosby78 Mentor

kmcrosby78

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I know what you mean Steve. At the rainbow trip in 2008 we had heaps of them too. But we moved Ellicat 100m up the beach and the problem was instantly solved... ;)

Also - can you pm me your mob #, lost it, need to hook a trip up one day soon.

Bet it was a helluva lot quieter too ....... Surprised the flies recognised him in his wig .......... :P

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