queensland Hervey Bay Report 25-28th Feb 2016

[Luvit]

Sam Steel and I headed off to Hervey bay on Thursday trying to beat the weekend wind forecast. After picking up some supplies we launched after lunch and headed for Rooney’s point where we planned on mooring for the night.

Before we hit Warthumba area we were seeing birds indicating tuna. The tuna didn’t look like they were aggressively feeding but with a tide change coming up we would hope they would step it up a notch. As we approached the schools the excitement of trying to hold back on casting to early is always in our minds.

We initially started with some 5 inch offerings and Aquaholics stick baits that were rejected. So we changed to smaller profile lures and tried a new technique of using a single cord assist hook stead of the attaching the hook direct to the split ring. It seem to work and we boated our first Mac tuna that instantly confirmed our suspicions they were feeding on tiny bait. When it hit the deck it spewed up heaps of tiny bait fish so downsizing lure sized worked. We were really after Lontails but we are happy to catch Macs anytime.

 

As the afternoon moved into evening the tide change and fading light the bite became more aggressive and we switched back to larger lures. This time the customised Aquaholic Lure from James worked a treat with the only Longtail for the trip, falling to the memorising zig zag of a Fluro Pink lure retrieved at a medium pace.

 

We eventually made it to Rooney’s Point after jumping form bird flock to bird flock.

By the time we got there we had 7 or so Mac Tuna and 1 x Longtail tuna boated and many more fish dropped. (By someone who will remain un-named)  On a natural fish high we settled down to some dinner and reflected on the day’s awesome fishing. We tried sleeping but you always dream of the next day, wishing for day break to arrive so you can do it all again.  

After a restless night, morning arrived and we packed up and headed straight out to where I got the Spanish Mackerel a month ago.

 

We were the only boat there and while looking for fish we decided to throw out a bibbed Qantas lure (red head white body). The sun was peaking up and within 10 minutes of us starting to troll (and while I was GoPro-ing the sunrise) the lure gets a hit. Thinking it was a small Spanish at first because it wasn’t doing much I expected to knock it over fairly quickly with the heavy tackle. I was running a 24kg T-Curve GT jigging stick with a 65lb braid and 100lb leader down to a short single strand wire connected to the lure. I was so wrong, because for the next hour plus we chased and fought this massive fish that was too big for the gear. We tried planning it up, driving up the line to regain any advantage we could. 20 minutes into the fight my back was aching big time so I resorted to placing the rod on the gunnel and sitting on the rod butt, locking up the drag (approximately 10kg) and turning the rod upside down like an overhead rod. Winding with my left hand while using the right hand to move the rotor on the reel in an effort to get the beast up. It was eating into our prime fishing time so we made the call to bust it off without seeing it. The leader came back all scuffed signalling it was most likely a big shark as there is no shortage of them up there.

We saw a profession boat troll into the area and catch a few Spanish on lures. We sounded fish up and tried jigging and soft plastics. We got a couple of bite off without landing one and moved trying to get away from the sharks in the area.

 We headed back into the bay to chase the bullets of the sea. We had a great day catching another 15+ mac tuna, we lost count. We had multiple double hooks ups which made things interesting when trying to land them by yourself.

 

A few spotted mackerel and sharked way to many times. Definitely not the place to fall over board. I will have some exciting footage when I do the video to share.

We did have a brief look on the flats for some fish during the afternoon although it was a bit too windy. At the time we could not identify a brown shape and put it down to a shark, however, I said to Sam I thought I saw a small fin that was not shark like. As it happens we met up with another couple of likeminded fishers for dinner at the club Friday night. They said there had been Cobia to 100lb cruising the flats!

Saturday and Sunday the forecast was for 20-30 knot Southerly’s and we were not keen on that. So Saturday we headed to the Burrum river to at least fish. We asked a local if there were any boating hazards like rock banks etc and eh said the tide had just started coming in and that we should be good  all afternoon. We navigated cautiously and dropped a couple of crab pots baited with a mac tuna. A few hours later we pulled the first pot and had 2 legal muddies. One full and one not so, he went back in to fill up, the other pot had jennies in it. We fished for another hour and still no hits on the lures so we pulled the pin and headed back to the ramp because the tide was running out which is not what we were expecting after what the local told us.

The trip back was a lot faster till we come to the shallow section where before it was a meter deep it was now 400mm deep and we were on the mud. We got off the mud but not before sucking it some crap and the motor warning buzzer came on for overheating. We back washed it with the deck hose and we were back in business. We could see the ramp and eventually found away over to it in the coffee coloured water with 0.8 of meter over the deepest bank. The heart was pumping thinking we would be stuck out there till 9 pm for the incoming tide again.

Last boat out and we headed for home with 1 x muddy.

Sunday was the same forecast so packed up and headed home.

Sam and I had a great trip and we could be back there in the next few weeks.

 

[bersim]

Awesome report Wayne and thanks again for catching a longtail on the stickbait!  I knew I could trust you over Sam .  Can't wait to get back up there again.  All those great photos of tuna and bust ups are getting the excitement levels up!  Looks like nice weather on the Saturday.

James

[samsteele115]

Well written mate and great photos. I have nothing else to add, good report

[Luvit]

Your welcome James.

Thank for the opportunity to use them.

[RUSSIAN]

So cool! Would love to do a trip like that! Thanks for the awesome write up! 

[kmcrosby78]

Great trip and write up as always Wayne (and Sam). Geez I've forgotten what a real flock of birds working looks like - I really need to get me some pelagics!!!

[STKE]

Great report. The burrum's a bit tricky to navigate

[Luvit]

7 hours ago, STKE said:

Great report. The burrum's a bit tricky to navigate

Certainly is, not so bad in my old hornet but a different story with the glass boat.

[samsteele115]

10 hours ago, STKE said:

Great report. The burrum's a bit tricky to navigate

And it looks like diarrhoea