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Harvey You Little Trimmer - Now With Report


Drop Bear

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I'm very excited. 

The ducks are in a row and I'm very excited that I am going to have my first trip to Harvey Bay on Wed. Well I have been to Harvey Bay in the past but not since I have been involved with AFO. I have learnt so much from so many of you I feel really confident we will be able to get a feed and have a nice time. 

I have spent the last 2 days getting Quampie ready. Thanks to @aussie123 and Reel Tackle http://www.reeltackle.com.au/

I have a replaced the bilge pump and pick up on the live bait tank, replaced the dodgy plastic rod holders to brand new stainless ones and bought some extended rod holders so I can run 4 rods now. I got a nice surprise when I checked the switch on the bilge. Salt water had gotten behind the switch panel and they were all corroded. So I built a box out of some ply wood I had lying around. I bought a new switch panel and re-patched everything to this. I now have spare fuses and a, hopefully, water tight switch panel.  Very glad I saw it before the trip. All of the switches were in trouble and most were starting to rust away. The switch from the old bilge was not working at all and constantly on. I think the old motor burnt out from this. 

On top of this I have bought a few skirted lures, brushed up on how to rig live baits for trolling and how to rig some larger dead baits for trolling. I hope to catch a few large spotties and have a go at rigging these as troll baits. 

The plan is to read off at stupid early on Wed, launch at Urangan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urangan,_Queensland and leave the boat and car in the caravan park. $20 per night. 

My mate is a 4wd nut and is taking his car over so we will have to stay at Awinya Creek.

https://findapark.npsr.qld.gov.au/parks/fraser/awinya-creek-beach-camping-camping?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gmb&utm_content=awinya-creek

because I was told you cant camp at Wathumba from a car. Can anyone confirm that it's boat access only? 

The idea is to tow spoons and catch some spotties. Find some baits and tow some livies. If the wind alows go out to Roonies and target some Spanish on livies and perhaps try for some Marlin if we get the chance. 

Does anyone have Gps list for spots to try up north of Wathumba? We might send a few livies down for reefies if that is an option. Aussie told me there was a wreck up there worth a shot. 

Anyway wish us luck. I think it's gonna be awesome! 

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I have lost heaps of marks l had for HB unfortunately. The wreck straight out from Warthumba has snapper and trevally on it most of the time. 

If you go to the shops just up from boat club there use to be a map in one of the windows with gps marks on it. I took photos of the map and put the marks in as a starting point. If you do this, please send me the photos so l can put them back in the GPS!

Spotties should show themselves by way of birds etc, we New Year’s Day we only saw them from Warthumba and north. 

4 mile reef off Roonies point for Spanish. 

Go have a ball. 

 

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Hi Robbie.  I have been to Wathumba many times and also camped at Awinya once.  The cleared area there is pretty small so you need to hope no one else beats you to it. The creek is small and very tide dependent so you might need to park the boat out off the beach to make sure you can get out when you want to. 

Wathumba is a better proposition and you can get there from the eastern beach, but I have never done it so can’t give you better info on getting there by car. You can only get to the southern side of the creek by road and the northern side is by far the best camping (more room, less insects). If your mate can get there by car, maybe pick him up in Quampie and head over to the other side of the creek mouth.  The mouth of the creek is wide but full of sand banks so watch your tides and mark your track in so you can find it again if there is a bit of chop. Take plenty of insect repellant, a dingo proof box and a length of hose to chase away any dingos and keep a really good eye on Pippi if he is going with you. 

I dont have any marks because I haven’t been there in my boat but there are are heaps of coffee rock spots out from the mouth and all the way up to Rooneys.  Looks like you will have perfect weather once you get there but if you feel like a quick session inside the creek, there should be heaps of elbow slapping whiting on the low tide in very shallow water. Take a yabbie pump.  Jacks and trevs further up the creek.

I am heading up to Hervey Bay tomorrow but not taking the boat. Give me a call if you want more details. Have a great time @Drop Bear

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24 minutes ago, Old Scaley said:

Hi Robbie.  I have been to Wathumba many times and also camped at Awinya once.  The cleared area there is pretty small so you need to hope no one else beats you to it. The creek is small and very tide dependent so you might need to park the boat out off the beach to make sure you can get out when you want to. 

Wathumba is a better proposition and you can get there from the eastern beach, but I have never done it so can’t give you better info on getting there by car. You can only get to the southern side of the creek by road and the northern side is by far the best camping (more room, less insects). If your mate can get there by car, maybe pick him up in Quampie and head over to the other side of the creek mouth.  The mouth of the creek is wide but full of sand banks so watch your tides and mark your track in so you can find it again if there is a bit of chop. Take plenty of insect repellant, a dingo proof box and a length of hose to chase away any dingos and keep a really good eye on Pippi if he is going with you. 

I dont have any marks because I haven’t been there in my boat but there are are heaps of coffee rock spots out from the mouth and all the way up to Rooneys.  Looks like you will have perfect weather once you get there but if you feel like a quick session inside the creek, there should be heaps of elbow slapping whiting on the low tide in very shallow water. Take a yabbie pump.  Jacks and trevs further up the creek.

I am heading up to Hervey Bay tomorrow but not taking the boat. Give me a call if you want more details. Have a great time @Drop Bear

Awesome thanks mate. I will probably have a few sessions in the creek. I will take some surface whiting lures for a bit of fun. 

I have booked 4 nights at the Eastern site. I think if we decide its not awesome we will make the trip across the creek. The guys want to camp near the car if they can so they can have the coffee machine going. 

Thanks for the tips, I will pack all that stuff. No dogs aloud on frazer.

I will make sure I have plenty of Deet and mozzie coils. 

 

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2 hours ago, Luvit said:

I have lost heaps of marks l had for HB unfortunately. The wreck straight out from Warthumba has snapper and trevally on it most of the time. 

If you go to the shops just up from boat club there use to be a map in one of the windows with gps marks on it. I took photos of the map and put the marks in as a starting point. If you do this, please send me the photos so l can put them back in the GPS!

Spotties should show themselves by way of birds etc, we New Year’s Day we only saw them from Warthumba and north. 

4 mile reef off Roonies point for Spanish. 

Go have a ball. 

 

Ok I will have a look for the map. We are camping at Wathumba now so should be great. I will try around Roonies. It looks like we will have easterly winds the whole time. Winning. 

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2 hours ago, straddiebrad said:

get onto them rob have a ball witch i think you will

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Thanks mate. I have lots of options. 

Live baits; trolled slow, dropped with breakaways, floating, dropped on sinkers

Trolling; paravanes, skirts, surface lures, plastics, diving lures deeps and shallow

Casting; slugs, plastics, stickbaits, poppers. 

Jigging; knife, Micro jigs.

Dropping cut baits for reefies...

oh and fishing in the creek... lots of ways.

Yay time to leave. 

 

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On 28/01/2019 at 5:02 PM, Luvit said:

I have lost heaps of marks l had for HB unfortunately. The wreck straight out from Warthumba has snapper and trevally on it most of the time. 

If you go to the shops just up from boat club there use to be a map in one of the windows with gps marks on it. I took photos of the map and put the marks in as a starting point. If you do this, please send me the photos so l can put them back in the GPS!

Spotties should show themselves by way of birds etc, we New Year’s Day we only saw them from Warthumba and north. 

4 mile reef off Roonies point for Spanish. 

Go have a ball. 

 

 

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What a great trip.

Thanks so much to everyone for all your tips and help.

I left Brisbane at about 5 with a 3.5 hour drive up to Urangan. 

I have not been there for many years. The peer is huge and great to see. I found the map that @Luvit wanted and took some photos (see above) before launching and parking the car at the caravan park for safety. Thanks for the tip luvit.

The trip out was pretty rough. 20+ knots with a bit of wind against tide. I picked my way across to moon point just off the plain but it smoothed out as soon as I got to Moon Point. From there it was flat out in under a meter of water. Crystal blue dotted with occasional rays. I didn't see any Trevally. 😪 It is a fair haul up to Wathumba Creek (silent H) and as luck would have it I got there about 1 hour after low water. It is a shallow entrance at low but as the tide was already coming in I picked the channel and got in with no problems. 

My mates had not yet arrived and I chatted with some other campers. They complained about flies, mozzies and sand-flies that eat deet for breakfast.

My mates were coming by car and only about 20 mins after I arrived they turned up. I had mucked around for about 30 mins in Urangan with photos and a few tourist things so over all it is about 50 mins quicker by boat than it is by car. 

We set up in a nice bush camp area and headed off for a fish. 

There were a lot of bait fish schools so we dropped some jigs and caught a stack of very small slimy Mackerel at only about 10cm long.

Disappointing as I was hoping to tow some live ones around. Oh well. All the schools were the same. Very fast moving and quite small and isolated schools. no point marking them as they were so mobile. 

We caught a Spotty Mackerel on a paravane and spoon but that was all for the day. It was quite choppy and we saw no bust ups or birds working. 

Had a great night with lots of mozzie coils and refreshments and laughs.

Next day was stunning early. We trolled around and headed up to Rooney's Point. Such a stunning part of the world. 

The days were spent trolling a spread of 4 different lures and casting to bust ups. The wind got up in the afternoons but they were mostly from the east so no real problems. 

The best thing I saw was a bait ball on the surface with tuna, macks and sharks crashing through it. We hooked up about 5 times to fish in this but the sharks took their toll. The bait ball dispersed. No bill fish to be seen. 

The sharks ended up getting more of a feed than we did on the Tuna. We ended up boating 6 Spotties and about 40 grinners. Grinners make good Crab bait. Who knew?

Mick had brought 2 crab pots along and we tried them in the creek. We ended up with 6 bucks. 

It is a very healthy waterway and well worth the visit.

Big tip is to not come by car at all and camp on the spit. You can not drive there. No flies and much less mozzies and sandflies. Also it is a lot nicer place to be with beaches on both sides. We were there with some really big tides and the high tide mark was way up into the camp areas so pick some high ground if there are big tides expected. 

The spit does not have toilets where the Car access camp does as well as a tap with not potable water. 

Fuel used over 5 days including travel to Urangan and back - 140 ltrs (70hp Suzuki 4 stroke 5m tinny)

Camp fees were about $84 for the 3 of us over 4 nights

Parking at Urangan caravan park $40 ($10 per night)

Do it!!

 

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Thanks for the photos. 

It’s a magic place to enjoy and if the fish are not thick it’s still a great place to be. 

Nice size spottie’s by the photo. 

What we have done in the past if the sharks are taking fish is to move off the largest schools and look for smaller ones. Less chance of them having sharks on them. Sometimes you can’t get anything past them. 

Hope you do many more trips up that way. 

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37 minutes ago, Luvit said:

Thanks for the photos. 

It’s a magic place to enjoy and if the fish are not thick it’s still a great place to be. 

Nice size spottie’s by the photo. 

What we have done in the past if the sharks are taking fish is to move off the largest schools and look for smaller ones. Less chance of them having sharks on them. Sometimes you can’t get anything past them. 

Hope you do many more trips up that way. 

Yep a top trip. Love that place. so beautiful. I will definitely be back. We threw a lot of lures at a lot of schools and hooked up quite a few times but didn't land any Tuna. Great thing to do. So exciting seeing all that action.

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spotties or schoolies? 🤔 schoolies have a white patch on the front dorsal fin (the retractable one) that the spotties lack, looking at the patterning on those I would suggest schoolies - either way they would have been tasty as F.  shame about the tax man stealing your sashimi, that guy is a pain in the r's.

 

looks like a cracker trip mate, guessing you'll be packing a few more pots for the next trip up there.  i always use grinners to top up the pot bait in the bay, sandies get into it no worries as well!

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Great report @Drop Bear.  It is amazing how there are so many fewer annoying insects on the spit compared to that other camping area. We always figured that it might be the extra bit of breeze you get on the spit? Some good photos there that bring back some good memories. You did well on the fishing too considering it is your first time up there. Did you try the creek?

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7 hours ago, benno573 said:

spotties or schoolies? 🤔 schoolies have a white patch on the front dorsal fin (the retractable one) that the spotties lack, looking at the patterning on those I would suggest schoolies - either way they would have been tasty as F.  shame about the tax man stealing your sashimi, that guy is a pain in the r's.

 

looks like a cracker trip mate, guessing you'll be packing a few more pots for the next trip up there.  i always use grinners to top up the pot bait in the bay, sandies get into it no worries as well!

The first one is a spotty and second one is a schoolie. Apart from the white patch at the first dorsal, a quick way to tell the difference is that spotties have lots of more defined spots smaller than the size of their eye, while schoolies have fewer larger "smudged" spots, larger than their eye.  School mackerel have a minimum size limit of 50cm and bag limit of 10, spotties have a min size of 60cm and bag of 5 so it can make a difference to your esky!

Great trip @Drop Bear!

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On 05/02/2019 at 12:54 PM, benno573 said:

spotties or schoolies? 🤔 schoolies have a white patch on the front dorsal fin (the retractable one) that the spotties lack, looking at the patterning on those I would suggest schoolies - either way they would have been tasty as F.  shame about the tax man stealing your sashimi, that guy is a pain in the r's.

 

looks like a cracker trip mate, guessing you'll be packing a few more pots for the next trip up there.  i always use grinners to top up the pot bait in the bay, sandies get into it no worries as well!

Hmmmmm. I must say I am not 100% sure how to tell the difference between spotties and schoolies. I think there might be quite a few lucky schoolies swimming out there that were under 60cm but over 50cm. Oh well. I have nearly finished eating all the Mackerel and I have one big buck saved for lunch today. We did use some of the grinners for bait but we had plenty of Mackerel frames that did the trick. 

Yes we were very annoyed about a lack of tuna sashimi but we did have a great plate of Mackerel saxhimi that nearly made up for it 🙂

 

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1 hour ago, Drop Bear said:

Hmmmmm. I must say I am not 100% sure how to tell the difference between spotties and schoolies.

 

Hope this helps, sorry for poor quality images but you should get the idea.  Patterning is very arbitrary as there is so much variation but generally spotties have much more defined spots for the whole length of the body and schoolies generally have defined spots towards the tail.  However, the only definitive way is the dorsal fin white patch.  if it has one it is a schooly.  if not, spotty.

Schooly:

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Spotty:

spotty.JPG.d670dff9789ed4df0a0b1843393d54dd.JPG

 

a 55cm schooly still yields a good fillet so it is well worth knowing the difference! 

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On 05/02/2019 at 1:29 PM, Old Scaley said:

Great report @Drop Bear.  It is amazing how there are so many fewer annoying insects on the spit compared to that other camping area. We always figured that it might be the extra bit of breeze you get on the spit? Some good photos there that bring back some good memories. You did well on the fishing too considering it is your first time up there. Did you try the creek?

Yes we caught a stack of pike that we used for baits. We used some of the small live Slimeys in the snags for a few bream and more pike. Lures caught some more bream. If you had more time or the weather was worse it would be a great place to flick lures to whiting flathead bream. I saw a stack of small Mangrove Jacks in the shallows so the bigger ones must be somewhere. 

Yes the spit is def the place to be. So much nicer on so many levels apart form toilets. There are no showers at the main camp site any more as they have been removed but there is a non potable water supply there. 

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1 hour ago, benno573 said:

Hope this helps, sorry for poor quality images but you should get the idea.  Patterning is very arbitrary as there is

a 55cm schooly still yields a good fillet so it is well worth knowing the difference! 

That is great info. Thanks so much Benno. When are we going out for a fish? 

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