queensland Whitsunday Trip Later This Month

[Drop Bear]

Well well well this is nice. 

A long time mate of mine that I haven't see for about 20 years is coming back to Aust.

He has bought time share in a sailing boat that is kept at Airlie Beach. 

He has invited me and another mate to spend 6 nights on the boat with them.

They are both keen fishers but the trip is more about getting some hours up sailing his boat for his licence. I don't really know much about this or why he needs hours up. 

Anyway it is a lure only trip (though I will take some hooks if we get some fusiliers or something for bait). One mate only fishes with flies. He is pretty good at it too. 

We don't really know the way around up there but expect it to be pretty fishy especially when we are a few hours away from Hamilton. 

Wish me luck. Hopefully I will get loads of fish and loads of photos. We are not taking enough food and will be relying on cooking fish on the BBQ... One Spanish and we eat like kings,,, nothing and we starve haha. 

[ellicat]

Good luck.

When do you head off ?

[benno573]

Just troll everywhere you’re allowed to mate, you’ll get something. Beauty of sailing boats - they tend to travel at perfect trolling speed!!

[Drop Bear]

13 hours ago, ellicat said:

Good luck.

When do you head off ?

I fly to Hamilton on the 30th. Very excited!!!

[Drop Bear]

9 hours ago, benno573 said:

Just troll everywhere you’re allowed to mate, you’ll get something. Beauty of sailing boats - they tend to travel at perfect trolling speed!!

Yep that is the plan.

I will take 2 trolling rods one casting rod with soft plastics and a jigging rod for micro jigs. 

[Drop Bear]

Casting rod also for surface lures for GTs etc. 

 

[tugger]

Sounds like a lot of fun Robbie plenty of mackerel up there this time of year 

[Drop Bear]

3 hours ago, tugger said:

Sounds like a lot of fun Robbie plenty of mackerel up there this time of year 

Yep I hope so. I want to try out casting over shallow reefs with sinking stick baits. i have a mate that does it pretty well and have always wanted to give it a go. 

[57one]

Headed to the exact same place the following weekend for the first time, cannot wait! Good luck.

[Drop Bear]

On 22/08/2019 at 2:04 PM, 57one said:

Headed to the exact same place the following weekend for the first time, cannot wait! Good luck.

Nice. Where did you go? 

[Drop Bear]

So the skipper has said he has a rough plan.

"Hayman then out to bait/hook reef. Down to Keswick then mosey"

I am not from up there. Anyone got some amazing places that they would recommend?

Where do the Monsters live? 

Are there bill fish options we should explore?

 

[Drop Bear]

So I'm pretty pumped. 

The winds are up to 20 knots sse but we are on a sail boat so no problems at all!

Yew.

We need to find some spots to anchor up at night but otherwise we can go wherever we like for the week. 

Cant wait. 

[Old Scaley]

19 minutes ago, Drop Bear said:

So I'm pretty pumped. 

The winds are up to 20 knots sse but we are on a sail boat so no problems at all!

Yew.

We need to find some spots to anchor up at night but otherwise we can go wherever we like for the week. 

Cant wait. 

Hey Robbie, this month’s Qld Fishing Monthly (September edition) has a feature article on trolling for inshore pelagics in the Whitsundays. Might have some useful info for you. I hope you have better luck than one of my brothers who recently had a week in a hire yacht up there. Winds were 25 to 30 knots all week until the day they left.  He could hardly get a lure in the water. But, that’s fishing. Enjoy your time up there mate, it is a beautiful  part of the world.

[Drop Bear]

On 28/08/2019 at 9:08 AM, Old Scaley said:

Hey Robbie, this month’s Qld Fishing Monthly (September edition) has a feature article on trolling for inshore pelagics in the Whitsundays. Might have some useful info for you. I hope you have better luck than one of my brothers who recently had a week in a hire yacht up there. Winds were 25 to 30 knots all week until the day they left.  He could hardly get a lure in the water. But, that’s fishing. Enjoy your time up there mate, it is a beautiful  part of the world.

Thanks.

I will pick it up today on the way to the airport. 

[Drop Bear]

Yew heading off now. Cant wait. 

[Drop Bear]

It was a great trip. 

It ended up being a sailing trip and not really a fishing trip. 

I towed lures for 5 days straight for one hit and one fish. Bludger Trevally. 

It ate really well. It was a good size one and we had it for about 4 meals including 2 large sashimi platters. These fish eat a lot better than their reputation. 

The weather was fantastic! 

We trolled lures around the shallows a fair bit and caught a very nice cod that went 73cm. The lads wanted to have this whole and we baked it in the oven. It was terrible. Like a rubber ball with no flavour at all. I have experienced this once before with some spangled emps.  I have no idea what causes this?

There was a school of smaller Bludgers smashing fish in the shallows. We creeped up to them and my mate, who thinks all fishing is rubbish unless it is fly fishing, plopped a paddle tail soft plastic in the middle of them. They shouldered each other out of the way to get get to it and he was on fast to a nice fish. It fought like a trooper in the shallows. Jumping clear a few times and circling our tiny little tender 3 times. We had no net or gaff so landed it with a glove. Great fun and he is a bit of a convert now to soft plastics. 

So plenty of fish to eat and a fair bit of sport. 

I caught about 20 small fish mostly coral cod and other cods and a few small trout. I caught 2 grassy sweetlip one morning and hooked a large shark that was not hooked but really wanted the bait. So much so that I got it right up to the boat a few times before it opened its mouth and let the trev frame go. 

A stunning trip and what a fantastic place to explore for a few days. 

So despite the lack of fish, especially on the troll, I will be back for sure.

 

 

[tugger]

Wow the weather looks unreal would live to hire a cruising yacht around the whitsundays

[57one]

On 26/08/2019 at 6:20 AM, Drop Bear said:

Nice. Where did you go? 

Gday, just got back yesterday. Explored around Hook, Whitsunday and Hamilton Islands for a long weekend. Drove up and back towing a ski, so got 2.5 days of fishing in. Didn’t make it out to the reef, with fuel range on the ski holding us back a bit.

Managed a heap of sweetlip half a dozen trout, couple cod and some squid. Saw tuna busting up a few times but could tempt them with anything we threw at them, and got smoked a few times by big fish. Fishing mostly with jigs.

Beautiful place, very keen to get back and get out to the reef.

[Drop Bear]

2 hours ago, tugger said:

Wow the weather looks unreal would live to hire a cruising yacht around the whitsundays

Yep absolutely crazy good weather. Those still shots are right out on the reef. 

Such a great thing to do. 

[Drop Bear]

1 hour ago, 57one said:

Beautiful place, very keen to get back and get out to the reef.

Great eski. 

Well done. Such a stunning spot. 

[kmcrosby78]

Glad to hear you had a fun trip Robbie, looks like you nailed the weather and had at least some fun with the fish. 

@57one - that's a very tasty looking box of fish, yum!!

[ellicat]

Looks mint. Glad you had a good time despite the slow fishing.

[Luvit]

I've got to back on here more. Missing so much, hard to beat the Whitsundays. 

[Drop Bear]

8 hours ago, ellicat said:

Looks mint. Glad you had a good time despite the slow fishing.

yep it was crazy nice.

I had  great time flicking soft plastics at the reefs and catching small fish. 

Nothing to eat or talk about but it was great fun. They are such pretty fish up there. 

[Drop Bear]

7 minutes ago, Luvit said:

I've got to back on here more. Missing so much, hard to beat the Whitsundays. 

Yep sure is. 

[Drop Bear]

I am looking forward to next winter when he will have the boat up there for 4 months. 

It is hard to get him to have a fish and most of the anchorages are in green zones but I used the little tender to get to some other areas. 

I had a great morning on the southern end of Hook island in a yellow zone casting plastics to the edges of the coral. Heaps of fish to be had. The problem is that in a tiny inflatable the fish drags you and the boat back into the coral... 

 

[WAZA]

A dream trip , I would love to do this along the outer reef towing a dory of 5-6m