queensland Yeppoon

[Drop Bear]

Nice one mate. Some delicious meals in that lot and sounds like you had a ball!

Thanks for the reports. 

[Guest]

On 18/12/2020 at 1:02 PM, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Hi all

Well it's time I got ready and did all the reports, so this post here is going to have them all except one exciting boat trip. Most trips we got some keepers, but other than that it was largely pickers. I'll start now.

The first session was on the day I arrived. I hopped off the plane and met my uncle, and after getting home, rigging up, and catching up with everyone, we went land based at the harbour. We had prawns and pilchard for bait, and we had small sinkers and hooks on. After a little while, we realised the wind would make it very hard to cast with such small weight on so we changed to a larger sinker. I lobbed out a chunk of peeled prawn on the Barra King 650, my uncle with the Penn SSM 650.

There were lots of picker attacks, and this lasted for the whole session. Tap, tap (baited). We had whiting hooks on and failed to hook them, so that is why this report is very short. Some interesting things were that they were hitting my peeled prawn immediately, but my uncle's bait was rarely touched compared to mine, and that my uncle saw someone with some very suspiciously sized Red Emperors getting loaded away. 

The stats of all these sessions are going to be very brief, as I was slack on recording them.

Stats of Trip - 

Weather: Windy, 15 knot wind, slightly cloudy

Tackle used: 20lb and 30lb braid mainlines, 20lb fluorocarbon leaders, size 0 and 2 ball sinkers, size #4 whiting long shank hooks, Rogue Firepoint and Angler Advantage rods, Penn and Abu Garcia reels.

Tide: Outgoing (3.98M High)

Bait used: Pilchard, prawn

Time Fished:3:30PM or so until around 5-ish

Overall Success Rate: 30% - not very good

The next session was the first session out on the boat. Since the wind was absolutely dismal, we just decided to sit down in the harbour. We normally always manage a feed of something here, so I had high hopes today. My uncle had brought the cast net, and on the first throw I did off the boat I got about 30 herring. Score! I chucked 'em in a bucket, with most of them dead, and we planned on using them for bait for the rest of the trip.

Shortly after this, my Uncle hooked up to something that we thought was giant. It took about a 2 minute run on tight, thirty pound drag, then he handed it to me because I was down on the tinny. I got to the fight. It was like a big tug of war - I'd gain some line and it'd go back down. Eventually, it surfaced around fifteen metres out. 

"What the hell is that?!", we said. 

Soon enough, we found out it was just a big, old, dirty, spotted, ray. . We got it up to the boat in about another five minutes as it did the old, "I'm sticking down here" routine. We flipped him upside down, chopped the line off and off he swam away (if you are worried, it's a bad quality whiting hook so it'd be rusted out by now). The next few bites were just tiddlers, and we changed our sinker sizes to a zero. I then blooded the new outfit with a small bartail flatty which was thrown back. 

Throughout the day, little grunter, bream, and trevally came on deck. Everything was released on this day, and it really was an unfortunate fishing session! Here are the stats of the trip -

Stats of Trip -

Tide: High, 7:30AM, 4.4M, Low, 12:50PM, .9M

Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous

Bait Caught: Herring

Bait used: Herring, pilchard, prawn

Fish caught: Pickers and Vermin

Tackle Used: 20lb and 30lb braid mainlines, 20lb fluorocarbon leaders, size 0 and 2 ball sinkers, size #4 whiting long shank hooks, Rogue Firepoint and Angler Advantage rods, Penn and Abu Garcia reels.

Overall Success Rate: 50%

The next trip was not anticipated for high success.. The dreaded Westerly was blowing, which my Uncle says normally makes everything bite bugger all. Fortunately, after a couple picks, the new combo loaded up nicely and in no time I had a batfish on deck. 

This was caught on peeled prawn, so I dropped the exact same thing down in the exact same spot. It didn't take long for some more nibbles, and then I was on another. They all put up a good tussle and provide lots of good fun, even on a tight 20lb drag. I had yanked them up on deck, and was beating my uncle 2-0. 

The next fish I hooked felt a bit better. It was taking more runs and pulling a fair bit harder. The rod was handling it very well, and I was cranking him up from the depths. After a couple more runs, I saw a really good sized batfish. He was about 40cm, and went nicely in the feed. 

The fourth and final keeper for the day was another average sized batty. My uncle had only pulled up one undersize fish this day, and we were still in the shade as it was quite early. I hoicked the batfish up, slit it's throat, and then released it to our bucket.

I hooked up again, but upon landing it, and massive cuda came up and ate it right off the surface. For about 20 seconds, it swum around back and forth (still on the surface) with the batfish in it's mouth. Then when it finally let it go, I got half a fish. What a dirty dog! It'd taken tea!  

The rest of the session was uneventful, except someone fishing lures around the marina did hook up to something massive - it leapt out of the water and was big and silvery, and kind of had a cuda shape about it. I couldn't quite see though, so it also could've been a barra. Regardless, it went straight under a jetty and busted him off .  Here are the stats of that trip - 

Stats of Trip - 

Tide: High, 7:30AM, 4.4M, Low, 2:06PM, .9M

Moon Phase: Waning Crescent

Time fished: About 7:00AM-10/11AM

Bait used: Prawns, pillies, yorkies

Bait caught: - 

Tackle Used: 20lb and 30lb braid mainlines, 20lb fluorocarbon leaders, size 0 and 2 ball sinkers, size #4 whiting long shank hooks, Rogue Firepoint and Angler Advantage rods, Penn and Abu Garcia reels.

Fish Caught: Batfish x 4, stripey x 1, grunter x lots

Overall Success Rate: 80% - good feed

After a quick trip down to Statue Bay to try and fish (it was failed as it was so windy you could hardly cast, and I wasn't bothered to go past 200M down the rocks as I wasn't up for rock hopping), my uncle and I took the tinny out for our routine fish. Nearly immediately, we were getting bites and pickered off. 

It wasn't long before my uncle hooked a small cod from under the neighbouring boat. He pulled it up, dehooked it, and we got back to fishing. I was still fishing, and had only pulled up some pickers for then. My uncle then hooked a rather good fish, which was taking runs back and forth. He managed to get it up though, and we boated a legal cod at about 40cm. I cut his neck, washed out the blood, and then got him into the ice.

Shortly after the cod, I felt some nibbles and managed to pull up a nice little bream at around 36cm. He put up a good fight and was the perfect size to keep, so he and the cod were then happy living partners. It is worth mentioning I caught a smaller batfish as well, but did not bother keeping as we already had four.

Just after the bream, a front moved over us and the wind picked up from about 5 knots to about 25 knots. This put the fish off the bite which was rather unfortunate, and we were rather annoyed as it was looking like it as going to be a hot bite. Yorkies, pillies, prawns, and a little bit of stripey were all tried to no avail. We decided to call it quits before lunch time and went back home to clean the catch. Here are the stats of the trip - 

Stats of trip - 

Tide: 8:00AM, 4.8M, high, 2:40PM or so, .7M, Low

Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous

Time fished: About 6:30AM-11:00AM

Bait caught: -

Bait used: Herring, Prawns, Pillies

Fish caught: Stripey, Cod, Bream, Grunter

Tackle used: 20lb and 30lb braid mainlines, 20lb fluorocarbon leaders, size 0 and 2 ball sinkers, size #4 whiting long shank hooks, Rogue Firepoint and Angler Advantage rods, Penn and Abu Garcia reels.

Overall Success Rate: 80% - good feed

Since we were that keen, we deiced to go back out again that arvo after lunch. We got there, and after just getting pickered numerously, I tried a bit of shelled prawn. I got some grunter with this (in fact, I was at 5 and my uncle was at 1), but they were all about 20cm. Then, I got a good hit. For a brief moment, it sat there, then it took off. It went straight into the pile, giving me no time or way to get it to stop. I unfortunately lost what I thought was a good cod or grassy, especially seeing as though I'd just pulled up a 25cm or so grassy before it. 

They went off the bite after that for me, but my uncle was catching them all on his side of the boat. We each pulled up more grunter, but then I moved up to the front of the boat. I dropped a little fillet of stripey down, and my bait was smashed. I pulled up a legal cod and slit his throat. Straight into the esky with you buddy! 

They then stopped biting after the cod. It didn't take long for us to call it quits, and we set off away back to home to fillet our catch. Here are the stats of the trip - 

Stats of trip - 

Tide: I believe it was rising, low about .7M, 2:40PM, high about 3.8M, half past nine

Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous

Bait used: Pillies, yorkies, herring, prawns

Bait caught: -

Tackle used: 20lb and 30lb braid mainlines, 20lb fluorocarbon leaders, size 0 and 2 ball sinkers, size #4 whiting long shank hooks, Rogue Firepoint and Angler Advantage rods, Penn and Abu Garcia reels.

Fish caught: Estuary Cod x 1, Little grunter, heaps, stripey x 1, grassy x 1.

Time fished: Around 2:30PM onwards

Overall Success Rate 60% - feed acquired

Well that was all the trips we did in the harbour - quite a few good ones landed I suppose. I hope you enjoyed reading about it. Thanks for reading too. There's another report I will be doing soon. 

Cheers Hamish

Done well mate , good mix of fish

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

12 hours ago, ellicat said:

Good to see the amount of fishing you got in with some good results.

What are yorkies ?

Hello Brian

Thank you for that, I believe the Yorkies are a different name for Herring/Frog Mouth Pilchard up that way. My Uncle called the herring "Yorkies" and the bait shop called the Frog Mouth Pillies "Yorkies".

11 hours ago, Ed. said:

How did the Batfish taste?

Hello Ed.

The Short Finned Batfish taste like Bream. They are good to get a feed out of as they are quite large and still taste good  

Cheers Hamish

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

8 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

Nice one mate. Some delicious meals in that lot and sounds like you had a ball!

Thanks for the reports. 

Hello Robbie

Thank you for that. It was great fun and great eating!

1 hour ago, Sneaky1 said:

Done well mate , good mix of fish

Cheers Sneaky, sure was!

Cheers Hamish

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Also, I figure I better chuck up the exciting boat trip report - so here goes!

The first time we went to the spot, we were land based and it was largely reconnaissance. We chucked in the line at a little part away from the ramp. We didn't get anything for a while and tied on a bigger sinker, and then after that we each pulled in a couple grunter each (all under).

That told us what we needed - a good dirt road the boat could go on - a good ramp - and hopefully an OK fishy population. We set off for home after and hoped for some good fish and crabs the following day.

My Uncle Fishing  

Sorry - stats are going to be very brief as I didn't record them well.

Stats of trip:

Tide: Run out

Bait used: Prawns, pillies, herring

Bait caught: -

Fish caught: Grunter

Tackle used: 20lb and 30lb braided mainlines, 20lb fluorocarbon leaders, size 2 ball sinkers, size 4 whiting hooks, Penn reel and Abu Garcia reel, Rogue Firepoint Boat rod, Angler Advantage overhead rod.

Overall Success Rate: 80% - Reconnaissance was successful

Alright, now to the real deal. We left a bit before half past seven, and after a drive down the long dirt road and highway we arrived at the ramp. When I got there we found out it was a favourite spot for grubs camping and leaving the place trashed and teenagers smoking ciggies, so we decided to just launch. The first task was to get the crab pots in. We retied what needed to be retied, then put fish frames in the crab pots (I love crab pots with built in bait bags). Everything was in a square, and after we put them in we got fishing.

We tied up to what looked like a deep hole on the bank, and flicked the lines out. We stayed here for about 20 minute with just one little nibble each. We crossed the bank again, it seemed deep (no depth sounder so we were checking with a paddle), and tried here for about 30 minutes. It was no bites there though, so we kept moving on. My parents called and told us they were at the ramp, so we went there and said hi and goodbye  

Flying along

At the ramp

We talked briefly then we went back to fishing - we decided to go upstream this time, in hope of some bites. As we were speeding up, I noticed what looked to be a crocs head poking out of the water.

"CROC!" I yell, pointing over in the direction.

We stopped the boat, but lost site of it so kept going. After we found what we thought was a likely spot, we tied up and casted our lines up. We both got some undersize grunter, and then I got what felt like a much better fish. It took some drag, and low and behold up comes what (or I believe so) was a Barred Grunter. At 35cm, we let him go. It was good to know there were some better fish about though. 

We got no more bites here, and then my uncle and I decided to drift. He got the next good fish, a 36cm Spotted Grunter. We cut his throat and chucked him in this esky after the excellent fight that was provided. We kept going on a drift - happy with our fish. My uncle then managed a 27cm bream which snuck into the esky. We were getting a good feed now  .

As we were motoring down, we figured out what my 'croc' was. It turns out it was a massive rock jutting out from the water. Boy! It's lucky we didn't hit that. I would've gone flying and the tinny probably would've had a hole ripped in the hull. I guess that's a risk with new ground. Obviously, we gave it a fish but to no avail. 

The bite went a bit quiet, and we moved a few more spots. At the mouth of some gutters - deep holes (or what we thought) and more drifting. We then made the call to head more downstream - we found a nice little rocky outcrop in the river, and put the boat up against that. Immediately when my bait hit the bottom I got a really good hit. I wasn't ready though and I missed it completely as well as getting a tangle with the tree above  

We drifted out to the front of it, and it didn't take long for another few bites. We got a bunch of little grunter, and then I got an undersize cod which bricked me at one point in the fight. After a little bream my uncle got, he managed to snag a nice legal Sand Whiting. This was welcomed into the esky, and we were now satisfied with the feed.

The one thing that could make it better was the muddies though. I checked the first pot... Nothing. That was sad. The second was the exact same, and the third was too. Now, it came down to the last pot. I could grab it with my hands, and I did my back right in pulling it up. There was one crab - unfortunately it was just a little jenny. We flicked it out and left the spot, after about a 6 hour session. We didn't get any crabs but we gave it a red hot crack so we know that! The final haul was filleted and has since been eaten. Yummo!

Yummo!

Thanks for reading if you've got this far, I hope you enjoyed. It was probably my trip highlight. Great fun with my uncle and fishing. Here are the brief stats of the report - 

Stats of Report - 

Tide: Run out, change, rise

Tackle used:

Bait caught: -

Bait used: Prawns, yorkies

Fish caught: Grunter, cod, whiting, bream

Crustacean caught: One small jenny

Time Fished: About 8:30AM-2:00PM

Overall Success Rate: 90% - an awesome day out

Cheers Hamish

Batter!

We saw heaps of these on the trip

[Coconutdog]

Hi Hamish. Where were you fishing? Looks like the road up to Fishing Creek just north of Yeppoon on the Farnborough road. Apparently crocs have been seen there and there is a sign warning about them.

Matt.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

16 minutes ago, Coconutdog said:

Hi Hamish. Where were you fishing? Looks like the road up to Fishing Creek just north of Yeppoon on the Farnborough road. Apparently crocs have been seen there and there is a sign warning about them.

Matt.

Hey Matt,

This was a couple years ago now and I have not been back there since but it was at Corbett's Landing, on Water Park Creek. There are supposed to be crocs there.

Cheers Hamish

[Coconutdog]

Thanks Hamish, just had a look on Google maps. Sort of near Byfield. What are the roads like getting there? We've only got a 2WD at the moment. I've been up a few of the roads near Byfield, the one up to Shoalwater Bay training area wasn't too bad, a bit rutted though. Do you need a 4WD?

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

1 hour ago, Coconutdog said:

Thanks Hamish, just had a look on Google maps. Sort of near Byfield. What are the roads like getting there? We've only got a 2WD at the moment. I've been up a few of the roads near Byfield, the one up to Shoalwater Bay training area wasn't too bad, a bit rutted though. Do you need a 4WD?

I can’t comment on what it is like recently, but when we went it was a bit bumpy in some sections but definitely nothing you needed a 4WD for. The road wasn’t damp or boggy in any sections and it was easy enough to tow a boat as well. 

[Coconutdog]

Thanks mate, I'll try and get my trusty AE93 Corolla up there when I get a chance. These cars go anywhere.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

16 minutes ago, Coconutdog said:

Thanks mate, I'll try and get my trusty AE93 Corolla up there when I get a chance. These cars go anywhere.

Good luck, maybe it would be an idea to ask one of the local Facebook groups dedicated to fishing for that area as someone may know some more recent information.