queensland 1770 Report For Saturday And Sunday 3&4th March

[Luvit]

After a few false starts @Luke Landrunner and I got the opportunity to hit up 1770. After preparing the boat and packing during the week for a Friday morning departure the sight of a flat trailer tyre was not what I wanted to see. An hour later the 50mm stainless steel decking screw was out and the tyre repaired.
The road trip was without incident and we launched at 5ish hoping to get to Fitzroy just on dark. Progress was not as quick as we hoped, probably because when we saw tuna feeding with the birds hovering, we could not go past without a cast. First cast I hook and landed a mac tuna which was fresh bait for the up and coming days.

It was well and truly dark when we reached Fitzroy and not wanting to enter the narrow channel into the reef at night we tried 3 times to anchor with the new reef anchor outside the reef with no success. A bit peeved off, we made the call to head the further 20km to Sykes reef where we had anchorage marks and used the sand anchor. The full moon provided enough light to navigate safely and there were no boat lights in the distance.
By the time we hit Sykes we had clocked up 95km’s and it was bed time. Typically, the night sleep on the boat is fairly broken after the tide change against the wind and the rocking increases dramatically. 

The aim for me personally this trip was to catch a thumping Red Emperor on a Soft Plastic.

At one stage a few remora’s came to the side of the boat. Thinking this would be good underwater footage I quickly put the Gopro into the waterproof casing and plunged in. A remora swam right up to the camera and nearly nose butted it, cool footage I thought. Then I noticed bubbles coming for the camera’s case. Doh the rubber seal had folded over in my haste I didn’t check it and the camera is now cactus.

Excitedly we were up at day break and off went in search of Red fish. First cast with a 6inch white SP I got a nice hit, resulting in my PB coral trout at 74cm and just the start we were hoping for.

Over the course of the next two days we add some nice fish to the chilly fish bag most coming on soft plastics with a couple on the micro jig and Luke used bait here and there. The better size fish come on the soft plastics this trip. 

 

It was quite an array of different species we landed as you will see from the pictures. We tussled with many sharks and I think at last count we lost 10 x rigs and fish to them. We moved to 3 different reefs to get away from them but they were relentless and any decent fish we hooked was taken within meters of the bottom. We had some vey good hook ups on good fish and I was fairly confident that some of them were big Red Emperor based on the heavy drags we were running and still getting cleaned up on 80lb leaders.

Saturday night was a relaxing one with celebrations of the days catch some music and a bottle of Wild Turkey Honey that must have had a leak somewhere LOL. A few Hussar and tusk fish with some chips fried in butter hit the spot big time.

By Sunday night we had run out of ice and stopped catching fish to conserve the fish we had. For something a little different we trolled on the way into the reef Sunday afternoon and within 5 minutes we had a double hit from some Spanish Mac’s. One took the 8’ Gobbler in one bite and the other hooked up to a bibbed lure. We didn’t land it, but it was a good sign. We did another 30 minutes of trolling with a single hook up on Luke’s rod unfortunately it got off. Shortly latter another double hook up on the bibbed lures. Luke landed his first Spanish and the last fish to go into the fish bag. We could have caught many more but with ice nearly non-existent best to leave them be.
Monday morning we left by 5.30am and headed home and the conditions were the best we had seen. Most of the trip back we could maintain an 40-50 kmph and a small smile would come to our faces as we were passing tuna and the birds again doing their thing.
It was great trip that could have been a lot better fish wise if the sharks were not in plague proportion. We have a better plan for the ice next trip. 
When driving the boat back on the trailer I didn’t get it flush and the tide pushed the back around leaving the boat sitting on an angle. I backed it off gently to straighten it up. All was good I thought until we back in the carpark and I noticed the total scan transducer hanging down. It was flush mounted to the bottom of the boat and must have got caught on a roller when reversing off. It has pulled all the screws through, so I expect it is not repairable. Some added expense along with the Gopro.
We iced down the fish with 60kg of ice and ordered a big breakfast at the ramp café. What a magnificent place to explore. I think 2 months exploring the area and you would just be scratching the surface.
Look forward to the next time we can get back there.

Big thanks to @Luke Landrunner for organizing the food and great company adding to the 1770 experience.

[aussie123]

Gee you guys caught some nice fish, especially the Tomato Cod as they do not come much bigger than that.

The sharks are getting out of control up there and the only real way to get around them is winding at 150m a minute with big electrics, lol 

Well done guys, looks like another great trip.

[Luvit]

2 minutes ago, aussie123 said:

Gee you guys caught some nice fish, especially the Tomato Cod as they do not come much bigger than that.

The sharks are getting out of control up there and the only real way to get around them is winding at 150m a minute with big electrics, lol 

Well done guys, looks like another great trip.

Thanks Lance. The read on another report off Breaksea this weekend that the sharks were the worst people had encounter. Luke and I were wondering if it has anything to do with the full moon or the the time of the year maybe both?

[Luke Landrunner]

Thanks @Luvit for another amazing 1770 trip.

Absolutely love the place ( minus the sharks) and already planning another trips requirements in my head.

We still have to land a Big Red, intact.....

[Old Scaley]

Great trip, great report, great photos. Bad luck about the go pro and the transducer, @Luvit. I wonder how that $39 job that @Angus mentioned in another topic is stacking up?

Thanks for sharing yet again. These sort of reports really get the juices flowing.

[Luvit]

7 minutes ago, Old Scaley said:

Great trip, great report, great photos. Bad luck about the go pro and the transducer, @Luvit. I wonder how that $39 job that @Angus mentioned in another topic is stacking up?

Thanks for sharing yet again. These sort of reports really get the juices flowing.

I haven't seen that post, quite busy I'm missing a lot ATM. Thanks

[Luvit]

16 minutes ago, Luke Landrunner said:

Thanks @Luvit for another amazing 1770 trip.

Absolutely love the place ( minus the sharks) and already planning another trips requirements in my head.

We still have to land a Big Red, intact.....

We have a score to settle with some sharks. and a big Red should do it.

[aussie123]

23 minutes ago, Luvit said:

Thanks Lance. The read on another report off Breaksea this weekend that the sharks were the worst people had encounter. Luke and I were wondering if it has anything to do with the full moon or the the time of the year maybe both?

They are there all year round now but Summer is the worst time for them.

Luckily we don't see too many where we fish but we do have some spots where they like to make their appearance known.

[Luvit]

Oh well, we'll just live with it.

[aussie123]

With the restrictions on the commercial sector in both NSW and QLD as well as the rec angler bag and size limit, the numbers of reef sharks have increased dramatically and is only going to get a lot worse over time.

 

[natang]

Great report and awesome fish there guys! 

[ellicat]

Ripper trip Wayne and Luke. I'd need to sleep for a week after that. Shame about the sharks and lost gear, but you've still managed plenty of quality fish.

 

[kmcrosby78]

Cracking report, fish and pictures fellas, well done on a very successful trip. I'm assuming for a trip like this you need a big esky/bag for the fish, a second one for back up ice and then one for bait (if using it)? Plus possibly food. Definitely going to have to do this with my brother's in Dad's boat sometime.

[tugger]

Another great trip Wayme and Luke i hope to get up there soon we take dry ice and stack it with the bag ice. Those cooler bags won't hold ice over couple of days they are just for day trips for 3 days you need good insulated eskies. What side of the reef did you get the spanish or were you up on the deeper reefs still 

[Luvit]

10 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Cracking report, fish and pictures fellas, well done on a very successful trip. I'm assuming for a trip like this you need a big esky/bag for the fish, a second one for back up ice and then one for bait (if using it)? Plus possibly food. Definitely going to have to do this with my brother's in Dad's boat sometime.

We keep our food separate in a 40 Litre fridge, we took a 110L esky with block ice I had made in yogurt containers and ice cream container. Luke made some PVC ice grenades with salt water and froze them. We then had another 2 x 5kg block ice to fill the esky. Wanted to try the bag out and with the longer fish it was a good solution. It holds them fine for the day but you require top up ice each day. It was cold enough because we ate fish last night and we are all good 

[Luvit]

1 hour ago, tugger said:

Another great trip Wayme and Luke i hope to get up there soon we take dry ice and stack it with the bag ice. Those cooler bags won't hold ice over couple of days they are just for day trips for 3 days you need good insulated eskies. What side of the reef did you get the spanish or were you up on the deeper reefs still 

Our plan next time was to take my esky as well which would give us 180L of ice capacity and use it to replenish the chiller bag. The chiller bag can be kept up in the cabin out of the sun, where as the eskies don't fit through the cabin door and sit in the sun all day. Getting dry ice is not that accessible on the Northside which is why I gave it a miss. In hind sight we should have just bought 10 x 5 kg block ice taken both eskies and that would have done us a full 3 days easy with chilly bag.

We got the Spanish on the outside of Sykes. There was a pressure point NE corner, choppy water and we concentrated on that area.

[tugger]

53 minutes ago, Luvit said:

Our plan next time was to take my esky as well which would give us 180L of ice capacity and use it to replenish the chiller bag. The chiller bag can be kept up in the cabin out of the sun, where as the eskies don't fit through the cabin door and sit in the sun all day. Getting dry ice is not that accessible on the Northside which is why I gave it a miss. In hind sight we should have just bought 10 x 5 kg block ice taken both eskies and that would have done us a full 3 days easy with chilly bag.

We got the Spanish on the outside of Sykes. There was a pressure point NE corner, choppy water and we concentrated on that area.

Caboolture ice works has dry ice just off the M1, it is the best way I have found for keeping ice so far I have used it in the boats I have been in and the other boats doing the same trip have exhausted there ice every time where we have come back always with ice on the fish after 3 days on the reef. The best method for us was have the dry ice up 1 end of the esky with a whole 20kg bag of ice in the middle and start putting the fish in the opposite end in my big orange esky with a separate esky for food and drinks and normal ice.

[Luvit]

Good stuff.

If travelling outside the shop hours can you keep dry ice in a normal freezer so you can pre-purchasing it days before you go?

What size block of the Dry ice do you get 10kg?

[tugger]

32 minutes ago, Luvit said:

Good stuff.

If travelling outside the shop hours can you keep dry ice in a normal freezer so you can pre-purchasing it days before you go?

What size block of the Dry ice do you get 10kg?

I sometimes get it the day before we leave and just keep it in the esky I don't know if keeping it in the freezer will benefit it, with size it all depends on how long you want it to last I think the 10kg lasts for 4 to 5 days you do normally give them a ring the day or 2 before to arrange them to make it for you I go blocks as well not the pellet bags. Give caboolture ice works a ring and chat with them as I imagine each shop will be different

[Luvit]

Will do, thanks

[kmcrosby78]

Good information you pair - looking forward to putting it into practice sometime. Wayne, depending on whether you need/want to sit on your eskies, a good tip I picked up to keep the temperature down in eskies that are exposed to the sun is to lay a wet towel over them (just keep wetting it during the day to keep moist/cool). I now do it in my tinny in summer months and makes a big difference.

[Luvit]

7 minutes ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Good information you pair - looking forward to putting it into practice sometime. Wayne, depending on whether you need/want to sit on your eskies, a good tip I picked up to keep the temperature down in eskies that are exposed to the sun is to lay a wet towel over them (just keep wetting it during the day to keep moist/cool). I now do it in my tinny in summer months and makes a big difference.

Good idea Kel, will keep it in mind for long trips. Normal overnighters are not a problem.

[straddiebrad]

Mate great report good pics good bag of fish i hope to get up there on the easter break might be selling my rig so want one last trip if i can

[Luvit]

 

6 minutes ago, straddiebrad said:

Mate great report good pics good bag of fish i hope to get up there on the easter break might be selling my rig so want one last trip if i can

To upgrade Brad?

[straddiebrad]

1 hour ago, Luvit said:

 

To upgrade Brad?

no still dont know if i will sell it but falling a little short on funds for my straddie house will know more tomorrow if i will sell it or not.

[Luvit]

Hope it all works out and you can have your cake and eat it too. 

[Drop Bear]

16 hours ago, straddiebrad said:

no still dont know if i will sell it but falling a little short on funds for my straddie house will know more tomorrow if i will sell it or not.

Very excited for you mate. I hope you can get it all sorted out.