queensland The Belated Burrum Heads Christmas/ New Years Report

[STKE]

Howdy!

Sorry for the lack of reports, unavailability of spare time and terrible whether see to be playing havoc on my fishing calendar. 

 

We spent another week up at Burrum Heads over new years for what we hoped would be another goods weeks worth of fishing.

But! that was not meant to be.

A constant and I mean CONSTANT 20 knot wind, all day, all night, all week, meant fishing was pretty terrible. 

 

We did manage to get out everyday, but we were limited to only a few hours during the top of the tide. As soon as the tide turned, it was against the wind and the trip back to camp left us soaking wet. It was a good solid 1m+ swell with White Caps on the way back everyday, it would get worse the longer the tide was running out.

Our only option was fishing in the Gregory River and using both the islands and land to hide us from the wind. 

Fishing wise wasn't that hot, we did manage a feed everyday with Big Bream on the cards this year. Every keeper bream was over 30cm and we topped out with the biggest at 38.

 

Crabbing wasn't that flash either, we managed a few each day, but no slaughter like last year. 

 

We actually managed to run into a fisheries patrol in the middle of the Gregory river which was a surprise. They were impressed with our catch for that day as everyone they had inspected had empty eskies.  

Here's a few pictures of the catches. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And of course the day we leave the wind died off........................ typical 

 

 

 

[Old Scaley]

Bad luck mate. You must have been heading out of town as we were heading in.  The weather was unbelievably good that next week and the water looked just like your photo until we drove out the next Saturday when it was windy and rainy.

fishing didn't improve though. Apart from the ever reliable feed of bream around the boat ramps, the pickings were very lean. Nothing biting in the river. Far cry from last year when there were heaps of quality grunter around. We did make the 8 mile one day for a heap of undersize nannys and a few undersize school mackerel. Just one (just) legal Mackie all morning. Sorry no photos of fish because it was such a pathetic effort.

crabbing picked up with the big tides and we got heaps with a bit of local help. Not overly full but they were delicious.  Will go back next year as usual so leave a few in the water for me if you are there the week before again. 

 

[Angus]

Droool!

 

Damn I love a muddy.

 

Angus

[Luvit]

The anticipation and build up of a trip can make us a little disappointed if the weather turns sour. Still a break is a break and you made the best of it.

Old Scaley you caught more crabs in one pot and than I've caught in the last 3 crab trips. 

 

[kmcrosby78]

Nice one mate, great perseverance in challenging conditions. Is that a grunter at the top of the third photo next to the muddy?  Geez that would have been heartbreaking seeing the water like that the day you left!!

Nice haul of muddies Steve - yum!!!

[kmcrosby78]

4 minutes ago, Luvit said:

The anticipation and build up of a trip can make us a little disappointed if the weather turns sour. Still a break is a break and you made the best of it.

Old Scaley you caught more crabs in one pot and than I've caught in the last 3 crab trips. 

 

He caught more muddies in that pot then I've caught in the last 10 years .......

[Old Scaley]

23 minutes ago, kmcrosby78 said:

He caught more muddies in that pot then I've caught in the last 10 years .......

Definitely my best crabbing up there, but as I said, I had a bit of help. There were 3 of us crabbing so we had 11 pots between us. I was more the apprentice than the master and learned heaps from my tutor. Some of the pots had up to 16 bucks in them, but only one or two keepers with the rest under by or 2 mm. Should be good in February.

STKE, I hope you don't mind me post bombing. Let's consider it a dual report since both of only got the job half done.

[samsteele115]

Cant help the weather mate, just gotta hope it (and the fishing) is better next Christmas!

[STKE]

13 hours ago, Old Scaley said:

Definitely my best crabbing up there, but as I said, I had a bit of help. There were 3 of us crabbing so we had 11 pots between us. I was more the apprentice than the master and learned heaps from my tutor. Some of the pots had up to 16 bucks in them, but only one or two keepers with the rest under by or 2 mm. Should be good in February.

STKE, I hope you don't mind me post bombing. Let's consider it a dual report since both of only got the job half done.

 

Yeah I had my boss up there the week after and he said it was fantastic weather, but that's the game we play.

 

It was a shame the grunter weren't on this year like last year, however the abundance of bream made up for it. There were reports of people getting good size Travelly around the red marker at the front of the river the weeks before. 

 

We geared up to head out to 8 Mile, it was a shame we couldn't make it.

 

I'm not saying the crabbing was quite, our tally for the weeks worth of work would have been well over 200. Plenty of big jennies and just under bucks. Quite a few cod as well.

 

Next year should be good, we seem to have made a bit of a name for ourselves in the caravan park. Special K is so easy to spot. Quite a Few people enjoyed watching us from the caravan park everyday come flying back over the top of the ****** river conditions, they all know were are crabbers so the daily report was common every time we arrived back. 

 

Depending on Saturday nights drinking efforts, i'm hoping to do a Caboolture river trip on Sunday if anyone is out. 

[chewbacoo]

Bugger, well, that's fishing, sometimes you can get good runs, other times dismal.

Yes, local knowledge does come into , nice muddies though. You're doing a lot better than I have but I'm land based so there's not many places I can go as its either someone's property, or developers have screwed it up, or multitude of others do the same thing land based and looking for virgin land that no one has been too.

Good luck with it next time fellas.

Cheers, Chewy

 

 

 

[samsteele115]

Sorry to hijack your report, but looks like this weekend will be blown out for Hervey Bay. I am still going to go, but just stick to creeks and the straits if the wind allows. 

My question; how shallow are the areas surrounding the pacific haven circuit boat ramp? I am planning to head up the river early at high tide and possibly venture up to the bridges, but when I come back it will be low tide. I am just wondering if there will be enough water to get back. @STKE

[STKE]

Never been up that @samsteele115 

We normally stay at burrum heads and there isn't a need to go past the Gregory River for us

How shallow does it get in the river........................... Ask my prop (it was white)..............2m odd tidal flows, sand bar's and coffee rock everywhere mate. 

Best suggestion is to go slow at low to find your own way.

 

Have the upper reaches of the river is normally where they do well on the Barra. 

 

 

[samsteele115]

Hmmm yeah the coffee rock is a worry. Shame the tides aren't the other way around. I don't really want to head out at high. Barra and jacks is/was the plan. 

Thanks for the input, I will have a think about it. Maybe an arvo session is the way to go. 

[STKE]

Man there's not much point fishing between 10 and 4. Far to hot and the bite shuts down. 

Most regulars on fish early morning/ late afternoon. 

[samsteele115]

Thanks for your advice.

Im happy to find that out for myself and still believe I could catch fish in the middle of the day :). Im up there for fishing, so I am going to fish 12 hours a day if I can.