queensland yeppoon trip 17/09-22/09

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi all,

This report will be about my recent trip up to Yeppoon. After driving up, I was pretty exhausted, so slept in on the first Monday morning. It was pretty windy that day though, but with tides ideal to fish off Double Heads my dad and I went for a quick arvo fish there. Unfortunately, with some relatively dirty water, and conditions making it a little difficult to fish, we didn't manage any catches. 

The next morning, we were back at Double Heads to try our luck again. Lures of choice were 20, 25, and 30 gram red Flashas, but after heaps of casts we were completely unsuccessful in catching anything. Conditions were pretty bad once again, so after about 1.5hrs of fishing off the rocks we decided to relocate to Ross Creek, because the tide was still pretty low. Here, I caught a small flatty on plastics, but the bite was still pretty quiet all around. That arvo, I was at a bit of a loss as to where to go fishing, but my uncle was going over to our boat in the harbor so I had a quick cast there. Being the middle of the day, I struggled to catch bait, but it was still disappointing that I had a big fat donut to finish the day off. 

The next day was Wednesday, and luckily for us the weather was good. Unfortunately, after a couple weeks of bad weather prior to me arriving, the water was very dirty, meaning most larger fish and baitfish were nowhere to be found. My Dad and I still gave it a good crack though, but I think the only catch was a grinner by my Dad. I fished for about 3 hours that day off the rocks, and was feeling pretty disappointed by the end of it. I can't recall whether or not I went fishing that arvo, but if I did it was probably at the harbor where I caught nothing. 

On Thursday, we were back at Double Heads, and this time I gave it a longer crack. My Dad headed off a bit early after catching nothing, but I managed to land a wolf herring and a couple grinners for the few hours I was out baking on the rocks. Later that day, after a rest at home, my mate asked me if I wanted to go for a fish at the Causeway Lake, so we tried there for a couple of hours. Despite our best efforts and a pretty long walk though, we didn't manage any fish flicking our lures, but it was still a nice way to spend a couple of hours fishing. That arvo, I went fishing off my uncles boat in the harbour again, and being closer to low tide it was easier to net a few herring. With these, I managed to catch one fish off the back of the boat - a solid 45CM cod, which I kept for dinner. 

The next day, I'm pretty sure my Dad and I went for a quick flick off Double Heads, the last time for the trip. Like every other session, it was a dud though, but we did find out someone had caught a couple good spanos and other mackerel off there a few weeks prior (when the water was cleaner). We left feeling disappointed - hopefully next time the rocks are fishing a bit better. 

Later that day, myself and @Coconutdog went for a fish off of Farnborough beach. It was pretty quiet though, and neither of us caught anything using some dead prawns on light line. Hopefully some more fish next time!

For my final session of the trip, I caught myself a few livies at the harbor, and went down for a fish off of my uncles boat again. Things were looking a bit better this arvo though, because shortly after getting there I caught a bream that would have been a solid 35CM, probably closer to 40CM though, on an unweighted bony bream. After that, while I was winding in an unweighted live bony to check it, it got smashed on the way up, and, having my drag set too tight, my ten pound leader snapped immediately. Bugger! Hoping for another opportunity, I sent another bony down, and sure enough, it got walloped by something that screamed off under the boat. The fight was only short lived though, because it broke me off after the first run. I am assuming it might have been a jack or fingermark, but we'll never know now .  

I called it quits after that bustoff, and we drove home on Friday. So far I haven't caught anything good in the river either this holidays so hopefully a big fish soon. 

Thanks for reading, and sorry no photos, not that there is much to show off anyways.

Cheers Hamish

[ellicat]

I know the feeling, Hamish. I just experienced something similar. A decent catch will be just around the corner.

[mangajack]

Good report Hamish.

The Capricorn Coast can be a heartbreaker at times.

Have you tried fishing the Rockhampton city reaches land based?

If you go after a shower in that area and look for the street drains to the river you will usually be rewarded with some barra land based. Threadfin can be anywhere there too.

[charlie.hans.fishing]

Nice report bro

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

On 30/09/2023 at 12:21 PM, ellicat said:

I know the feeling, Hamish. I just experienced something similar. A decent catch will be just around the corner.

Thanks Brian, hopefully. 

On 01/10/2023 at 7:42 AM, mangajack said:

Good report Hamish.

The Capricorn Coast can be a heartbreaker at times.

Have you tried fishing the Rockhampton city reaches land based?

If you go after a shower in that area and look for the street drains to the river you will usually be rewarded with some barra land based. Threadfin can be anywhere there too.

Thanks @mangajack. I've tried once in the city reaches of Rockhampton for no luck, I know it can fish pretty well, so thanks for the tips. Sorry for the late reply. 

On 01/10/2023 at 9:27 AM, TheCharliefisho said:

Nice report bro

Thanks Charlie.