queensland Uncle Drop Bear Trip Planned For Tomorrow

[Drop Bear]

I have been promising to take Uncle Drop Bear out for a fish for many years now.

He is a legend former Banana farmer from Mulumbimbi. He has a tinny down there and dreams of fishing the Brunny but never really gets around to it. 

He is up for the show today and we are going out to take advantage of the magic weather conditions expected for tomorrow. 

I'd love to take him offshore but I don't think he has had much experience in the deep and he is getting long in the tooth so, to make it a nicer day, a whiting trip is planned. 

With all the talk about cuttlefish I am keen to try for a few of these around Green on the way out. Perhaps try a drift or 2 for a snapper with a whole cuttlefish head then run over to the Sandhills to try for some whiting and some more squid. Uncle Drop Bear is only comfortable with Alveys (bless his cotton socks). That should mean I will only need 20 rods for the day. One whiting rod each, one squid rod each and one snapper rod each as well as 1 rod with a slug if we see some Tuna. I might chuck in a shark rod as well to try the sink hole as we will over that way. 

This trip has really been more than 30 years in the making. I hope I can get him onto a few fish.

Wish us luck!

 

[Drop Bear]

It looks mint

This is supposed to be 10am

[Old Scaley]

Good luck @Drop Bear.  I hope you put your uncle onto a few. I am without my tow vehicle until the end of the month and my hire car has no tow bar so keep me in mind if you need a deckie in the next couple of weeks.

[benno573]

39 minutes ago, Old Scaley said:

Good luck @Drop Bear.  I hope you put your uncle onto a few. I am without my tow vehicle until the end of the month and my hire car has no tow bar so keep me in mind if you need a deckie in the next couple of weeks.

I have a tow car... and a tow ball... and a reckless sense of abandonment...

i.e CALL ME

 

Hope you get a few @Drop Bear, has been some good catches of diver whiting around of late.

[Old Scaley]

4 minutes ago, benno573 said:

I have a tow car... and a tow ball... and a reckless sense of abandonment...

i.e CALL ME

 

Hope you get a few @Drop Bear, has been some good catches of diver whiting around of late.

Excellent.. will give you a buzz some time this arvo to see what we can arrange.

[Drop Bear]

2 hours ago, Old Scaley said:

Excellent.. will give you a buzz some time this arvo to see what we can arrange.

You would be most welcome to follow us around tomorrow if you wanted to get out. Weather is mint. 

[Poddymullet]

Can’t go tomorrow but off on Friday. It’s looking like a massive weekend with no wind or swell. Going to take the Scout out wide if I can Friday. Can’t leave until after 9. Might have a spot if anyone interested launching from Scarbs. 

[fishingnut]

11 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

It looks mint

This is supposed to be 10am

Is that on the bom site ? Awesome weather  make the most of it fellas call in a sicky if you have to ! 

[ellicat]

Good luck. Should be a nice day.

[ellicat]

10 hours ago, Old Scaley said:

Excellent.. will give you a buzz some time this arvo to see what we can arrange.

I too have returned from my quick trip, but can't do tomorrow.

[Poddymullet]

Yeah the whole weekend is looking bloody awesome! Hope to finally get some decent fish ... 

[kmcrosby78]

Good luck Robbie - we went out today. Trolled for a bit but only caught grinners (stop laughing @Old Scaley .....) so went back in to Green. Tried drifting for squid/cuttlefish in around 9m of water for no luck (if you try, perhaps try around 7m depth and see if you have better luck) and the kids were getting restless so went and anchored up to do some 'proper' fishing. Slow at first during tide change but then plenty of action once the tidal flow kicked in but no keepers sadly. Boys got some thrills with Liam hooking something big which turned out to be a large turtle and then right as we were packing up George had something else big which turned out to be about a 105cm wobbegong shark which I pulled into the boat for a quick photo before releasing. Amazing what 2-4kg rods with small reels and 8lb line and a small hook can pull up  

[tugger]

Good luck Robbie the weather is mint go get em 

[Drop Bear]

It was such a great day. 

We started off as planned and floated out some pillies while we targeted the squid and cuttlefish that have been reported around green. Sadly they were not there when we were. We fished the last hour of the run in with no luck and not even a squire. 

So headed off across the bay with a small chop from about 10 knots of ssw. This wind dropped out as we choofed along. I marked about 5 spots of interest on the way. Just lumps and bumps but no shows. There were some interesting troughs that I will explore later on. I did drop a pilly onto a small bump I found but nothing had a go at it and there were no shows on the sounder. 

I am not familiar with the sand hills so when we got there I hung around all the boats for about 5 mins with no luck. No one else was catching any whiting so we went for an explore. 

After about 5 spots I found them. I used a basic sinker swivel trace #4 long shanked hook rig with small bits of squid that I bought from Water Tower. The squid was unusually poor quality which is unusual as I normally like the stuff from there. Not sure if they had used up all the good stuff on Ecca Wednesday. Interestingly she said she thought she had met the 2 blokes that went missing last weekend. I hope they turn up... There were a lot of boats and helicopters out there looking for hem. 

Anyway we quickly boated a dozen whiting when the wind and current dropped out completely at high tide. As we were barely moving the whiting went off the bite. Uncle Drop Bear has not see the port or much of the bay so in the light winds and the bay quickly becoming glass we flew over to Mud. We had a fish there for a little while on the run out but only managed a few tiny flathead. Over to the rock wall for a quick flick with no luck then a tour down the river showing him the port and then new poop shoot cruse ship terminal. One last drift in the river and we headed back to Manly harbour under the boat passage. 

Here are a few dodgy photos of some whiting  I know they are lame but at least I get past the POIDH

 

[ellicat]

At least you got a feed and a terrific day on the Bay.

[kmcrosby78]

Nice one Robbie, good day out. You referred to the 'new poop schute cruise ship terminal' - is that on the right as you come back in the river before the pipeline? If so I didn't realise that's what they were building - haven't been around the river mouth in a boat for a while so will have to go for a tour sometime.

[Poddymullet]

@Drop Bear sounds like you had a cracker day in the end...I have to remind myself sometimes that catching fish isn't always what it is about (although it is hard not to feel a bit down). Still a good feed in the crate! 

Must admit have to spend some more time in the south as the north bay is just tough going ... although I hate to say it I reckon I have mastered the whiting fishing up here. One thing I definitely have noticed is that they won't bit much if the bait isn't moving. And generally speaking they prefer it closer to the bottom than floating - guess that makes sense as they are bottom feeders. They still amaze me how hard they hit when they are on. Maybe I should turn my whiting skills into Snapper skills with fresh bait! 

[Drop Bear]

19 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Nice one Robbie, good day out. You referred to the 'new poop schute cruise ship terminal' - is that on the right as you come back in the river before the pipeline? If so I didn't realise that's what they were building - haven't been around the river mouth in a boat for a while so will have to go for a tour sometime.

yep I have been told that is what they are building. I am not 100%sure though but it does look more like it now. 

[Drop Bear]

2 hours ago, Poddymullet said:

@Drop Bear sounds like you had a cracker day in the end...I have to remind myself sometimes that catching fish isn't always what it is about (although it is hard not to feel a bit down). Still a good feed in the crate! 

Must admit have to spend some more time in the south as the north bay is just tough going ... although I hate to say it I reckon I have mastered the whiting fishing up here. One thing I definitely have noticed is that they won't bit much if the bait isn't moving. And generally speaking they prefer it closer to the bottom than floating - guess that makes sense as they are bottom feeders. They still amaze me how hard they hit when they are on. Maybe I should turn my whiting skills into Snapper skills with fresh bait! 

Sounds like a good plan! the wind and tide was so still I was casting out as far as i could and slow retrieving. Sort of worked. 

The toads out there look very well fed