queensland Bear On Tour - Report Added

[Drop Bear]

Well the time is nearly up for the Bear to get on a plane and fly to an exotic fishing destination. 

The Plan is to head to Townsville and jump on a big boat and steam out over the water for ages and catch some fish. 

Here are some sticks that I have to take. 

I bought 2 rods for the trip and had 3 already. 

They will be holding onto these reels.

So that means;

Tyranos 20 with 80lb braid on a 5.6 foot Ugly Stick

Saragosa 25k with 60lb braid on a 9 foot Penn Ocean Assassin HPE 6-10

Sustain 5000FG with 20lb Braid on a 7 foot Crazee Taco Stick Pe 8

Stradic CL 4+ with 15 lb Braid on a 7 foot 8 - 16 lb Nordic Stage Favourite 

Saragosa SW 8000 with 40 lb braid on a Rovex Sabiki and as a spare reel. 

So I have a lot of options covered. 

I hope to;

Send BIG plastics down to the staghorn coral for xos trout

Throw xx large stick baits and poppers over the shallows for monster GTs, xxos Trout, and xxos emperors (various)

Drop very large live baits to the bottom for Doggies, xxxos trout and Red Emperors

Float out large live baits for Spanish Mackerel

Flick medium plastics and jigs for Mackerel (Spanish, Shark, Spotted) , Whaoo, Cobia and Tuna (Toooona thanks @aussie123)

Flick light plastics and micro jigs for little reef fish for a bit of fun and some live baits. 

Catch live baits on the Sabikis. 

That should keep me busy for the week haha. 

I will probably do a stack of normal bait fishing as well for xxos large mouth nannies - see profile pic from previous trip.

I hope to post up photos of an embarrassingly excited drop bear (and his mates) holding extremely large and colourful fish with stunning blue water in the background. 

My only disappointment is I won't get the chance to try out the sea sickness tablets as we are expecting 10 knots all week!!!! This must be payment from the weather gods for a extremely ****** 2020 that included chronic pain in my foot, prostate cancer and all the other hoohaar that we have all had to put up with. 

I have packed my teddy bear (and teddy to sleep in) and hope to see you all next week. 

 

 

 

[Drop Bear]

So today will be sorting out all my ****** old lures and working out what to take haha. 

[ellicat]

Good luck, Robbie. Hope it all comes true.

[kmcrosby78]

Yep, have a blast mate and very glad to hear you've been rewarded with a great weather forecast, you certainly deserve it. I have my fingers crossed you have sore shoulders every night ..... . Can you  remind me/us which charter operator the trip is with?

[Angry51]

I'll give you a wave as you fly over Ravenswood.

Be sure you're looking out the window.

I'll be the little speck on the  ground you can't see.

Enjoy yourself and leave some fish for others.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Great news Robbie, it will be a blast  

Hopefully you can smash some trophy fish!

Cheers Hamish

[Drop Bear]

4 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Can you  remind me/us which charter operator the trip is with?

https://www.nccharters.com.au/

Thanks mate. I hope so too.

 

[Ed.]

8 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

So today will be sorting out all my ****** old lures and working out what to take haha. 

Pretty much all of them as you are bound to lose a few. Good luck on your trip. Remember if there aren't any pics then it didn't happen!

[Junky]

No better feeling. 

Good luck. 

[Nirvana]

Good luck mate. Sounds like a well deserved trip. 

[Kat]

Wow sounds like a dream week.  Don't forget the Red Bull or V - you will need it.  Are you planning on catch and release?  If not how are you going to get the full freezer on the plane home?

Can't wait to see the picks.  

Cheers Kat

[Guest]

14 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

Well the time is nearly up for the Bear to get on a plane and fly to an exotic fishing destination. 

The Plan is to head to Townsville and jump on a big boat and steam out over the water for ages and catch some fish. 

Here are some sticks that I have to take. 

I bought 2 rods for the trip and had 3 already. 

They will be holding onto these reels.

So that means;

Tyranos 20 with 80lb braid on a 5.6 foot Ugly Stick

Saragosa 25k with 60lb braid on a 9 foot Penn Ocean Assassin HPE 6-10

Sustain 5000FG with 20lb Braid on a 7 foot Crazee Taco Stick Pe 8

Stradic CL 4+ with 15 lb Braid on a 7 foot 8 - 16 lb Nordic Stage Favourite 

Saragosa SW 8000 with 40 lb braid on a Rovex Sabiki and as a spare reel. 

So I have a lot of options covered. 

I hope to;

Send BIG plastics down to the staghorn coral for xos trout

Throw xx large stick baits and poppers over the shallows for monster GTs, xxos Trout, and xxos emperors (various)

Drop very large live baits to the bottom for Doggies, xxxos trout and Red Emperors

Float out large live baits for Spanish Mackerel

Flick medium plastics and jigs for Mackerel (Spanish, Shark, Spotted) , Whaoo, Cobia and Tuna (Toooona thanks @aussie123)

Flick light plastics and micro jigs for little reef fish for a bit of fun and some live baits. 

Catch live baits on the Sabikis. 

That should keep me busy for the week haha. 

I will probably do a stack of normal bait fishing as well for xxos large mouth nannies - see profile pic from previous trip.

I hope to post up photos of an embarrassingly excited drop bear (and his mates) holding extremely large and colourful fish with stunning blue water in the background. 

My only disappointment is I won't get the chance to try out the sea sickness tablets as we are expecting 10 knots all week!!!! This must be payment from the weather gods for a extremely ****** 2020 that included chronic pain in my foot, prostate cancer and all the other hoohaar that we have all had to put up with. 

I have packed my teddy bear (and teddy to sleep in) and hope to see you all next week. 

 

 

 

Good luck Drop Bear hope you clean up.

[Drop Bear]

13 hours ago, Ed. said:

Pretty much all of them as you are bound to lose a few. Good luck on your trip. Remember if there aren't any pics then it didn't happen!

Yep I pretty much took all of them. haha. I have a very large backpack full of tackle boxes. 

Oh and there will be pics haha. :)
 

[Drop Bear]

11 hours ago, Junky said:

No better feeling. 

Good luck. 

Thanks mate. I am pumped. I will be happy with just one good fish but I am greedy haha. 

[Drop Bear]

11 hours ago, Nirvana said:

Good luck mate. Sounds like a well deserved trip. 

Thanks mate. I'm Frothing. 

[Drop Bear]

10 hours ago, Kat said:

Wow sounds like a dream week.  Don't forget the Red Bull or V - you will need it.  Are you planning on catch and release?  If not how are you going to get the full freezer on the plane home?

Can't wait to see the picks.  

Cheers Kat

I gave up caffeine a few years ago. I have a coffee every now and then if I am feeling flat and have a particularly big day and don't want to do it haha. 

In saying that I will probably have a few coffees on the boat.

I will keep some fish and release some as well. They pack it all up in freezer boxes for you and I put it on the plane as an extra bag.

So lots of delicious fish dinners coming up. Fingers Crossed. :)

 

[Drop Bear]

7 hours ago, Sneaky1 said:

Good luck Drop Bear hope you clean up.

Thanks mate me too! :)

 

[Do$tylz]

Good luck Rob! Have a blast mate.

[Brodie_S]

Looks like it’s gonna be a good sesh can’t wait for the pic’s all the best and safe travels

[Leroy]

Go have some fun.  Doggies are a mean but very cool fish hope you meet  and greet with a monster fish. And have a blast and have fun mate   good sunsets way out there  

[Angry51]

How's the weather Robbie.

It's been blowing the dog off the chain here today.

[Leosonfire]

Jealous Robbie! How’s your arsenal of rods and reels! 

[Luke Landrunner]

Good luck Robbie !!!

Pictures of you holding big fish in your teddy please......

[Drop Bear]

Report to come. Here is a little teaser. 

Trip was great, weather perfect. The tax man took WAY TOO MANY of the best fish sadly but we got a few past them. Including this nice little Mangrove Jack.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Oath! 

[Ed.]

Little jack?

Is the trip all that you expected to be? You know you won't want to come back! Did you manage to catch enough to bring back an eski or two?

[kmcrosby78]

Nice jack Robbie - do they eat them at that size or are they a cigatuera risk?

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Drop Bear said:

Report to come. Here is a little teaser. 

Trip was great, weather perfect. The tax man took WAY TOO MANY of the best fish sadly but we got a few past them. Including this nice little Mangrove Jack.

Holy crap Drop Bear , you could put a saddle on that. Awesome jack

[Drop Bear]

15 hours ago, Ed. said:

Little jack?

Is the trip all that you expected to be? You know you won't want to come back! Did you manage to catch enough to bring back an eski or two?

It was great and I brought home 20kg of fillets.

 

[Drop Bear]

The forecast was superb. 10 knots max that on the 55 foot boat is nothing at all. 

We flew into Townsville and had few frothy ones at the Seaview Hotel before sleeping on the boat for the night. Well sleeping is a word... I got unlucky and grabbed the front bunk room. It is tiny and hard to get into and contained a walrus snorer. So not much sleep but at least I was up and ready when the motors kicked into life for the 4am leave. 

Lures were put out the back in the dark with skirted and bibbed in a spread of 3. The boat does about 9 knots so only the short billed diving lures would stay in the water. 

Grey dawn soon became a pink glow and the sun popped up as we passed the last of the ships waiting to dock. 

A few frothy chops later the drags screamed and we pulled in a couple of good sized Mac Tuna. I cut up one half for a sashimi breakfast and the rest went to hard baits. 

We steamed for about 3 hours and landed at the first spot where we dropped 100lb paternosters in 45m of water. The Nannies were waiting for us and we pulled in about 12. I got the best at 84cm but Rob got a cracking Red. They went off the chew and we moved to the next spot. 

That was pretty much us for the day. They men in grey suits were thick everywhere. We moved about 6 times and didn't bring in another whole fish. I know I had on some thumping Reds and pulled in 2 heads that proved this. 

We moved to the anchorage and caught a great Spanish and Wahoo on the lures. Even the decky wanted a photo with the hoo.

As we approached the anchorage the Shark Mackerel were thick. Everyone on the boat had a go at bringing them in. 

Day 2 started out pretty much the same. Shark Shark Shark...

This was getting crazy frustrating. The skipper moved a few times but we didn't do very well at all. The skipper said to relax as we were to travel for over an hour to try and escape the sharks. We went to a mark called "Loads of F%$#$%g huge fish" that sounded nice. 

We pulled up and were straight on! Big Large mouth nannies and I finally got a Red. Not a big one but it made the eski. (one of my mates took a photo... so I will post it later)

We pulled lots of good fish off this spot. Mostly Large Mouth Nannies but a few Small Mouth Nannies too. 

Then the sharks moved in. They came up to the boat. there were about 12 of them circling and looking for dinner. Such big machines. It was hard to identify them, besides I am not very good at it yet but hope to get better. The skipper tied some mono to the tail of a large Shark Mackerel and threw it over. They came in closer and they were formidable to see. One of them effortlessly and with no fuss turned to the Mackerel and before the skipper had time to pull it out of the way engulfed the whole thing. The skipper was keeping the fish away from the sharks hoping to entice them closer but the way this brute closed the gap on the big bait was eerily cool and ominously fast. No swimming here...

We went into a shallower spot, about 25m, for the night. A few trout were caught but we waited for the sun to dip. Pretty much on que the fishing started to heat up. RT Emps, Pink Cheaked Emps lots of tea leaf and bluger trevallies hit the decks. I was busted off so many times. I was using Hussar heads and big chunks of Mac Tuna and Shark Mackerel for baits on my Tyrnos 20 on a short ugly stick with 80lb line. Leader was 100lb mono tied with a FG and made into a paternoster with single hook and #8 snapper lead. 

Then all hell broke loose. thumping head shakes buckled the rod. I had been catching big fish for 2 days (well hooking them and loosing to sharks mostly) so knew to get a few desperate winds in to get it off the bottom, but in the shallower water the fish takes on another dimension, running sideways and the short rod made it hard to stop the line from touching the boat. I had the drag set to STOP so lost very little line but the head shakes thumped down hard, testing the already torched back and arms. After a few mins I started getting line back and soon the fish made it to the surface. The skipper yelled REEF JACK and sprinted for the gaff. He hit is perfectly in the head and it was on board. Such an epic fish. My first big Jack and one I am very happy with. This photo was taken the next day, you can see it's eyes are cloudy, it had spent the night in the ice slurry.  I have more photos on other people's cameras that I hope to get back soon including one on a brag mat. Yep POIDH.... coming haha. 

The fish went off the chew and we settled into some serious drinking. 

I got up early and floated out a pilly and fished the bottom with only one run but no success. 

this was our last day now. We had 5 hours of steaming and flights booked for about 5.30pm. 

We went to the same spot that had produced the fish the day before without the sharks and picked up another 20 good fish including, Nannies, one smaller Red Emp, trevs and some Frying Pan Snapper. 

There was only one more stop on the list and we hit it and caught a few more fish but nothing remarkable. We had a very nice looking eski for the day already.

The steam home saw a Mac Tuna on the troll on a Skirted Lure and a few beers.

Over all it was a great trip. I took about 20kg of fillets home including the big dog that has mostly been eaten. I spent a bit of time cutting out its jaw and have it on an ants nest in a besser block with another on top so the dog and crows wont get it. 

We all caught good fish but man I was sore. The number of fish that got eaten by sharks was crazy. It is so exhausting to try and hold up a rod at full drag when a shark is tearing off... But worth it haha. 

I will do it again.

Here are a few more photos.  

 

We were on Sir Reel from Northern Conquest. 

https://www.nccharters.com.au/

Edited October 25, 2020 by Drop Bear
added web address for charter

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Great job Robbie - what a marathon of a trip

It must've been awesome going out there. Those fish are all massive! (and tasty!). The mangrove jack is a thumper.

Cheers Hamish

[Drop Bear]

5 minutes ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Great job Robbie - what a marathon of a trip

It must've been awesome going out there. Those fish are all massive! (and tasty!). The mangrove jack is a thumper.

Cheers Hamish

get your dad to take you up there one time. 

I will edit the report to put some details on the charter. 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

I wish! He might need some convincing for that one haha.

Maybe for his 50th...

Cheers Hamish

[Ed.]

Well Drop Bear back to reality and back to Whiting  and Bream! Won't be quite the same will it? . So have you already booked your next trip yet? You know you have been ruined now, every time you go fishing here you will be thinking about that trip.

[Kat]

Wow.  I really need to get much stronger and fitter, not to mention better at fishing. More Gym workouts and more fishing.  Then I am going to start saving for a trip like that.  Funny, before I got the fishing bug I would have been thinking about sandy beaches and beautiful forests for a vacation.  Now all I can think about is going somewhere where there is good fishing.  

Oh and I note there are no female fishos.  What a pity.

I presume the jaw is to mount as a souvenir?

Cheers Kat

[Old Scaley]

Nice Report @Drop Bear. Funny how everyone in the individual photo has an OzFish cap on, but in the group photo they all have different headwear???   @Kat, that is a funny looking boy in the red tough toad t shirt.

[Drop Bear]

1 hour ago, Ed. said:

Well Drop Bear back to reality and back to Whiting  and Bream! Won't be quite the same will it? . So have you already booked your next trip yet? You know you have been ruined now, every time you go fishing here you will be thinking about that trip.

Yep back to the Bay haha. Oh well. 

I am yet to book the next trip. I will leave it a few years I think. 

[Drop Bear]

1 hour ago, Kat said:

Wow.  I really need to get much stronger and fitter, not to mention better at fishing. More Gym workouts and more fishing.  Then I am going to start saving for a trip like that.  Funny, before I got the fishing bug I would have been thinking about sandy beaches and beautiful forests for a vacation.  Now all I can think about is going somewhere where there is good fishing.  

Oh and I note there are no female fishos.  What a pity.

I presume the jaw is to mount as a souvenir?

Cheers Kat

This trip is organised by a mate. Sadly it is a blokey trip. It was great that we had a female decky and it kept a few of them in check... a little. 

This trip is hard work. It took me a few days to get over it. It doesn't help that I drank a lot too... 

I think you would love it Kat. or something similar. 

I am not sure exactly what I will be doing with the jaws. Many people mount them. I will work something out. They have very impressive teeth so as much as anything I am keen to see them all cleaned up. 

[Drop Bear]

23 minutes ago, Old Scaley said:

Nice Report @Drop Bear. Funny how everyone in the individual photo has an OzFish cap on, but in the group photo they all have different headwear???   @Kat, that is a funny looking boy in the red tough toad t shirt.

haha yep I got them to all wear my hat when I took their photos haha. OzFish will be happy I hope haha. 

The funny looking boy was the decky. She was great fun and worked really hard. 

[Angry51]

Good onya, looks like fun was had pulling them in.

Surprised the weather was good as it blew like hell here for the whole week,

we're only 80k's direct line from the coast. The weather Gods must have been behaving.

Glad you enjoyed your trip.