Another Windy Adventure

[samsteele115]

I went up to Hervey Bay again last weekend for the third time this year. Once again the weather forecast leading up to the trip was not good but we still decided to go anyway because my mate Liam and I had already taken Monday off work.

We left home Friday night in my dodgy little corolla and the trip took a lot longer than I was used to. Probably because I was doing 80 or 90 the whole way... Upon arrival we quickly set up our tents in the caravan park and snuck in a few hours sleep before an early start the next day.

Saturday morning arrived and we were itching to get out there, but also expected to face 15 knot south-east winds once leaving the harbour. We were wrong.

We made the most of it by taking a wide line out from Fraser to see if there were any tuna further out as we knew we would probably be spending most of our time in close due to the wind when it got up. It didn't take long to find a few different species of pelagics busting up about 7km out from arch cliffs. Liam was the first to hook up to a solid longtail tuna after a few failed attempts of approaching flighty schools feeding on tiny bait. I hate it when they are like that! All part of the challenge though. Usually I would have hung around until they fired up a bit more but all of a sudden we got a few gusts of wind and before we knew it we were faced with 20 knot winds. Lucky Liams fish got sharked because we really had to get out of there.

We were relieved to get in closer to Fraser but were disappointed not to find any fish. We tried finding bait over the close reefs but nothing turned up. We made the executive decision to anchor up in Wathumba Creek and eat something as well as find a spot we could anchor for the night.

We didn't end up leaving the creek because it was so nice being out of the wind. Liam worked a small prawn plastic whilst I had a quick lie down and he came up trumps with this beautiful little Golden Trevally that put up a great fight on his light gear. It was actually one of the highlights of the trip because we cooked it straight away to have with lunch. It was a great little morale booster.

 

You can't get fresher than that.

 

An hour or so later he picked up another little trev. We saved it for dinner and it wasn't as nice as the golden as expected. We actually had a pretty fun surface bite with these little trevs! 

Some of the native fauna came to visit us before setting the boat up for the night.

 

This is me rigging up for the next morning with the last bit of light remaining. 

With a tent fly tied across my open tinny to protect us from a drop or two of rain what could possibly go wrong? It was quite a cosy little setup and I wish I took a photo of it.

We looked forward to a good sleep because we only had a few hours the night before. With the forecasts saying there was meant to be hardly any rain we thought we would be ok. Let's just say it rained until 3am in little showers every 10 minutes or so. After the 5th or 6th shower water started coming in and we ended up being soaked. Sleeping mat, sleeping bag, pillow, clothes, scrote, everything. What a nightmare!

All we could do was laugh about it.

Finally the wind and rain stopped and I thought ‘you beauty, I've got about 2 hours to sleep until we wake up’. Then the mozzies joined the party. At this point it wasn't funny anymore.

We got up to a beautiful glassed out setting after having a solid 1 hour sleep in 15 minute bursts. We packed up, had some brekky and headed out to the spot we found tuna the previous day. They weren't there but they were nearby which was great.

We had about an hour before the wind blew up again so we made the most of it and had a lot of fun on some very fast fish! There were some pretty impressive longtail bustups and we managed to hook a few as well as the usual mac tuna that hang around. Here is Liam with his first boated longtail on a slow flutter microjig lobbed into the school. These fish are built for speed!

This is probably a pb mac for me at about the 90cm mark. It was in a school of longtail and the surface hit was awesome. It actually died a couple of minutes into the fight which was strange. I probably would die too if someone was dragging me around with a hook in my bumhole.

 

The wind picked up again as expected so we headed in close again but this time luckily found some fish to have fun with in safer waters.

 

We headed back to the ramp after a very satisfying little session in tough conditions and caught up on some sleep followed by a pizza, then some more sleep.

The next morning we started packing up assuming we were just going to drive straight home. Liam mentioned that we would be getting home just after midday if we left when we planned to which means the day off work was a bit wasted. So we went out again….

The forecast wasn't quite as bad being more like 15 knots rather than 20 knots but it still wasn't very nice. We punched up to Wathumba again and found a couple of schools of quietly feeding longtail. Sometimes they are a lot easier to catch when they are like this compared to when they cut up water in a frenzied state. They just seemed to be feeding a lot slower so maybe gave them more time to see our offerings.

We had a blast hooking 6 longtail unfortunately only boating 1 each due to the shark problem up there. I had finally broken my latest curse of 10 hooked longies without boating 1. Woohoo!

 

We had a few double hookups too which is always awesome.

It was about 11am at this stage so we made the call to head back. Of course we found more fish and got 6 more mac tuna. Again, only a few making it to the boat. One of the sharks came up and whacked the outboard with it's head. Pretty scary stuff!

We had a very very dodgy crossing from Moon Point to Urangan as it blew up again but we made it back safe and sound. Another Hervey Bay trip done and dusted. Might be a while until the next one; gotta rest my fishing spots.  

Thanks for reading.

[Old Scaley]

Another great report Sam. Getting some quality speedsters would have made up for the cold wet night and rough wet crossing.  I can see you moving to Urangan one day soon.  Many other boats out that way at the moment?

[Miller 197]

Im so over this non-stop cr@ppy weather that we have all been dealt this year..

But great fish in trying conditions !!

Tell the longtail to visit the bay

[samsteele115]

Thanks @Old Scaley. It was actually hot and wet because we had to sleep inside our sleeping bags. To add to that we were all sticky from salt and sunscreen sleeping inside a drenched sleeping bag.... It was the worst! There were hardly any boats out, especially up the top end. I think I saw chozza once or twice and apart from that we were the only boat out there. The other two popular guides had days off which says something.

It hasn't been good has it @Miller 197. The longtail have been in decent numbers in moreton bay all of this year. I have boated 1 out of 8 so far and they are absolute brutes. Most of the fish in the school look to be between 15-25kg and haven't seen any smaller than that. I would have gone to Moreton Bay if the weather was better but it wasn't. Keen to get out there again and hopefully land one of the many tank longies out there... Go get into them they are certainly around!

[The Mad Hughesy]

solid longies mate! that dingo picture is awesome, very cool stuff

[samsteele115]

1 hour ago, christophagus said:

solid longies mate! that dingo picture is awesome, very cool stuff

Thanks. Yeah it was pretty cool to see one, never seen one before. Another one joined it and they started rooting on the beach haha. 

They were the smallest fish we hooked. Got a few solid longtail but the sharks got to them quick. You basically have 2 minutes to get the fish in the boat up there before they get eaten. 

[Angus]

Awesome report mate thanks for sharing.

I am looking very very forward to getting up there in May!

Angus

[samsteele115]

1 hour ago, Angus said:

Awesome report mate thanks for sharing.

I am looking very very forward to getting up there in May!

Angus

Thanks. You going with chozza? 

[RUSSIAN]

Sweet report once again! What sort of rig you towing? Looks ideal for the palagic fishing you've been doing 

Anthony 

[samsteele115]

It's a great rig, definitely my pride and joy. Quintrex 420 renegade. So roomy for its size with heaps of storage. 

[Luvit]

The fish are well deserved when you put that much effort. Thanks for taking the time and effort to write up a detailed report.

Sort of glad we pulled the pin since the weather was not the best.

 

[kmcrosby78]

Great reward for (considerable) effort there Sam, well done! That's one very solid mac tuna, bet it fought hard!!  The shark encounter would have been interesting - any idea on rough size? Bet you enjoyed your own bed when you got home!!!

[samsteele115]

11 hours ago, Luvit said:

Sort of glad we pulled the pin since the weather was not the best.

 

Yeah mate it was the same if not worse than when you were up with your brothers and dad. 

@kmcrosby78We had shark encounters most of the time. If they weren't eating our fish they were just circling the boat which was pretty daunting. They were bronze whalers from 2 to 3 metres and saw a massive tiger over 3 metres as well. 

[The Mad Hughesy]

22 hours ago, samsteele115 said:

Thanks. Yeah it was pretty cool to see one, never seen one before. Another one joined it and they started rooting on the beach haha. 

They were the smallest fish we hooked. Got a few solid longtail but the sharks got to them quick. You basically have 2 minutes to get the fish in the boat up there before they get eaten. 

I dream of going up there one day with my 50w for some shark fun...one day

 

didn't see any whites?

[samsteele115]

Na no whites. Mostly whalers with the occasional tiger is all I have seen so far.