Another Hervey Report

[samsteele115]

Hey everyone!

As some of you might have noticed I haven't reported in a few months… this is largely due to me not fishing! I think I've been fishing 3 times in 4 months due to a long term relationship breakup and needing to move houses a couple of times in that time. With work being busy also I simply haven't had the motivation or time to fish. I moved into a new place a few weeks ago though and finally my boat is in a garage again and I can start to settle down a bit and fish more!

Anyway, as @Luvit mentioned in his report @Skegz and I shot up to Hervey Bay Saturday night after work. We got up at 3am the next morning with a big day of fishing planned before driving home Sunday night.

The rig. I love this thing.

Its always nice having a decky with boating experience making launch and retrieve easy.

 

Plan A was Spanish Mackerel. Plan B was trevally on jigs. Plan C was to stalk the flats to see if we could sight cast a flats fish of some sort. Usually we stop in at all the surface feeding schools of tuna but not this trip, we wanted to do something different. We got up to near Rooney's after driving past dozens of mac tuna bustups on the way to the Spanish grounds out past Rooney's. We saw longtail this time right in front of us so what better way to break the donut than a double hookup on longies.

Check out the bend in that Nordic Stage Cheater!

Me with my only longtail, looking like a weirdo.

But because this was not in the plan we didn't spend long stalking these schools. Skegz got 2 more longies and a mac before we drove off in search of (hopefully) a Spanish Mackerel that would hit a surface lure.

To cut it short, this was not to be. We spent a few hours casting and sounding for nothing whilst the NE wind seemed to keep increasing. Plan B was tied in with plan A so we couldn't jig for trevs due to not finding any on the sounder   plus inside the bay where they usually lurk was too rough.

Plan C on the flats couldn't work either because of cloud cover. So all of a sudden we found ourselves out of options and a little disappointed. Had the weather been good we could have covered a lot of ground sounding around but it was just too tedious in the chop. It was about 2pm and we decided to call it quits and start the 75km trip back to the ramp. Very bumpy ride and hard on the tiller steer arm and back but we got there in the end. We stopped in at one more school of tuna and got a mac tuna each before driving home without stopping at other schools.

How's the on-water fashion sense!? Had to swat away all the ladies with the paddles when we got back to the ramp

Wouldn't want to be a bait fish...

Another solid mac. These things go hard. Notice the birds working the school in the background...

We caught 8 tuna in probably just as many casts and could have caught so many more but for some reason we left quite disappointed as if we donutted, probably due to not catching what we came for but that's the way it goes and it was still definitely worth the effort  I've come to the conclusion that I'm a little sick of Hervey Bay tuna because they simply aren't challenging. The moreton bay longies are a different story and cant get enough of them...

Next time I think I will try to target them in different ways. Maybe fly. Anyway thanks for reading and I hope everyone is well.

Sam.

[Angus]

I never complain about "just another" Hervey report mate. Well done.

Still loving that load up shot yew!

Angus

[ellicat]

1 hour ago, samsteele115 said:

How's the on-water fashion sense!? Had to swat away all the ladies with the paddles when we got back to the ramp

Very Lady Gaga

Your absence had been noted. I was almost going to comment in Wayne's thread, so great to see you back out there and in here and moving on. Some nice fish and good times despite feeling disappointed.

[Luvit]

So were you declaring your love for the boat or Skegz?  "The rig. I love this thing" They both appear in both shots.

The Cheater shot is great.

Also a testiment to Skegz's knot tying abilities.

Good to see you back.

 

[samsteele115]

Yeah I do love that cheater shot. For some reason the quality deteriorated when I sent to you over facey Angus, this one's better but oh well. 

Thanks Brian

And Wayne yeah I'm talking about both of them. Both are fine specimens  haha. Yes he does everything right with his knots and knows how to go hard on the fish which is good too 

[benno573]

Good to see you back Sam.

 

as I said to @Dinodadog a little while ago, if that's a poor day where do I sign up to tag along??

 

how much distance to you cover in a day up there?

[samsteele115]

Haha thanks @benno573 !

We did about 180km on sunday which is about an average trip distance for a day up there.

[kmcrosby78]

Ditto what the others said Sam, good to see you out doing what you love doing. Glad to see things are on the improve and with that dress sense, you'll no doubt 'bag' another one in no time ...... Although I have to say, if you think your attire is embarrassing, you should see my get-up ...... Let's just say extremely grubby and the shorts and shirt are a total no-no combination with totally different patterns as well ..... Although in my defence (sort of) I 'mostly' fish at night at the moment - it's just stopping in at servo's that I feel self-conscious about ......

[Doyley]

Hey Sam, sorry to hear about the breakup. Remember there are many more fish in the sea 

Im with @benno573and will sign up to these 'disappointing' days!

Another awesome report. Well done mate.

[samsteele115]

Thank heaps guys, really appreciate it  @kmcrosby78 @Doyley

[timtam_]

Awesome fish, awesome report, awesome trip! I'll make it up there hopefully soon and will be stoked for a tuna of any description! Well done mate and sorry to hear about the lady. I'm sure @Skegz will happily stand in....

 

Cheers