queensland North West Island (17/5-25/5)

[reef_raider]

so had a school trip to North West island about 75km out from gladstone for a week.

main part of the trip was snorkelling but did manage to get a small amount of fishing in whilst i was there

arriving late on saturday afternoon after a very long trip we had no time for set-up or anything so it was a good old sleep under the stars night

next day was set-up then a snorkel off the reef edge which really opened up my eyes to how many fish are down there and how many different species of fish and coral there are.

that first snorkel i saw everything from the smallest of fish to crayfish to a 6ft reef shark...

but the next day was what i looked forward to, first up i got the chance to have a fish off the rocks on the end of the island, the wind was up but that wasnt going to detter me so threw plastics around for a while with only a few good hits... started walking down the beach and decided to try a metal slugs along a rocky edge that ran right along the beach around 30m out... had many follows and hits from average sized queenies but no hook-ups. the highlight of this walk was definatley watching a 60-70cm GT follow my slug and take one swipe at it before swimming away.

although no fish this day i had gained a bit of knowlege of what to do... got back to camp and one of the teachers had been out spearfishing and managed to get a spanish mackeral around the 20kg mark so we had a good feed that night

was a couple of days before i got to fish again but when i did i went back to the rocks at the end of the island, this time there was next to no wind and i decided to go smaller so tied on a 7gm slug, a few good hits and then looked out to sea, about 300m out was a big school of trevally chasing bait, they were coming towards us reasonably fast so we waited a few minutes until they were within casting distance, after a few casts i landed one smack bang in the middle of the school a few quick twitches and within seconds i was on. this was a solid fish and after about 5-10minutes of fighting it in came a 56cm golden trevally.. a first for me and wow what a fish it was. had a few more solid hits but didnt manage to hook up.

headed back towards camp and managed a little queeny around 40cm..

got a few more sessions in before we left...

one session all i managed was one queeny around 35-40cm

and the other a small fingermark, two queenys around 40cm and another trevally, which i think is a bigeye trevally around 35-40cm

had an awesome trip and will hopefully get back there again one day, its such a great place even though i was fishing off the bank, but with a boat the options are endless.

pics to come

[reef_raider]

56cm golden trevally

[img size=498]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/Golden_1.jpg

[reef_raider]

and again

[img size=498]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/golden_2.jpg

[reef_raider]

is this a bigeye trevally?

[img size=498]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/bigeye_1.jpg

[reef_raider]

an afternoon low tide

[img size=498]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/low_tide.jpg

[reef_raider]

and one more

[img size=498]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/low_tide_2.jpg

[Dan23]

reef_raider wrote:

is this a bigeye trevally?

[img size=498]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/bigeye_1.jpg

Nice report. Good Trevs, that looks like a big eye trev because of the black spot on its head.

[Angus]

Great fish mate. And sweet effort land based well done.

Angus

[Mozza]

Great stuff reef raider ... god looking fish mate

[Jordan]

how good is that. did you guys fly or drive up there? how long did it take?

[reef_raider]

drove up to gladstone which took 6 hours, we left here at 1am and arrived at 7am and then had a 6 hour barge trip from gladstone harbour

[brisfisher]

great work,good to see you managed a few sneaky sessions away from teachers/class mates n caught a few.nice;)

[obone]

Sounds awesome mate. I'll be going to northwest later next year hopefully and from all reports the fishing there is epic. And we'll have a boat! Very exciting prospects, can't wait!!

Joel

[Rocket75]

Dan23 wrote:

reef_raider wrote:

is this a bigeye trevally?

[img size=498]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/bigeye_1.jpg

Nice report. Good Trevs, that looks like a big eye trev because of the black spot on its head.

Do you mean it's eye Dan?:silly:

[ellicat]

Looks like a great place to play reef_raiderB) . Nice fish too:woohoo:

PS Rocket, You're a funny man:laugh: :laugh:

[benno573]

i wish my school trips were like that back in the day...:dry: awesome effort mate, would have been good to hook up on that GT!!!! :woohoo:

[kriso]

hell yeah we only got to go to indy and look at topless chicks on the balconies

[mangler]

What a great school trip! Way to go! Some nice trevs there too mate.

Cheers,

Matt

[kriso]

what rod was that you where using jake looks nice

[Cowfish13]

Awesome Trevs mate:woohoo: Any pics of the Queenies?

Kriso: looks like a Berkley Dropshot, but might also be a Starlo Stix

[Bommie]

man i wish my school trips were like that and had a teacher that was a spearo,

well done on the trevs Reef_Raider:)

[reef_raider]

kriso wrote:

what rod was that you where using jake looks nice

its a 7'6 starlo stik snapper spin. 5-8kg

a really nice rod for the money

and the reel is my 2500 sol which i loaded with 30lb braid... it handled it extremely well

[MichaelJ]

how many metres can u fit of 30lb braid on the sol?

[reef_raider]

i think i got about 150m as it is really thin 30lb... its berkley whiplash which anyone who uses it will know is thin