jon

Well said mark, love thawing out some reefies or mackerel when the weather dosnt let us get out offshore 

Nice. How good are RTE flapping around the boat with trebles or snells lol. They punch above weight

Well said mark, love thawing out some reefies or mackerel when the weather dosnt let us get out offshore 

Nice. How good are RTE flapping around the boat with trebles or snells lol. They punch above weight

Nice. How good are RTE flapping around the boat with trebles or snells lol. They punch above weight

Well said mark, love thawing out some reefies or mackerel when the weather dosnt let us get out offshore 

Well said mark, love thawing out some reefies or mackerel when the weather dosnt let us get out offshore 

Most of it frozen some eaten fresh and this lot will last about 2 months before all of it is gone. Nothing like pulling Trout and Lipper out of the freezer to feed the family a couple times of week. We love fish at home and a bit goes to my extended family as well you got to look after mum and dad.

Got the big RTE in about 40m

I’ve read your posts... this is BS

Burning some long service, loading up car and trailer with far too much camping and fishing gear, 2 kayaks, a sup, and setting up on my favorite island for 3 weeks. Can’t wait. Only 4 months to go. Booked it back in feb so already been counting down for 6 months. 😂

Nice work again mark. That top left red throat is a stonker would have gone bananas if you got him in the shallows? A solid bag indeed

Purpose: -To anchor offshore with bow facing outwards (eliminates the risk of stern being swamped by shore-break waves in bad weather) using a single anchor
- To be easily retrieved without swimming out to boat 
What you need:
- 1× Sand anchor with chain and 5-10m length of rope attached to a buoy with stainless steel ring 
- 2x 50m length of rope 
- star picket (and mallet) 
How to: 
1. Throw out anchor, chain, short rope and buoy (all connected). Hold onto the buoy
2. Take one end of 50m rope and thread through the ring of the buoy
3. Securely attach that end of rope to your bow cleat
4. Throw buoy over board and reverse into shore (the rope through the ring and attached to your bow will unravel) 
5. Once on shore, take the other 50m rope and secure to stern of boat (this one pulls the boat to shore) 
6. Take both of the secured long lengths of rope up the beach with star picket.
7. Hammer in star picket above high tide line and tie off stern rope to keep boat in position if you need to unpack boat etc
Now you are ready to pull the boat out to the buoy and anchor
8. Untie stern rope from star picket and pull the bow rope. This will pull the boat offshore out to where you anchored
9. Once the boat reaches the buoy, tie off the bow rope to star picket. Then tie off the stern rope and you are set. 
Things to consider:
- Tidal swing. Fix star picket IN LINE WITH ANCHOR (estimate where it is) not in line with buoy. This will ensure that your tied off ropes won't become too tight and put too much pressure on the star picket at change of tide. 
- The stern rope doesn't need to be 50m it's just what I had. It doesn't hurt to have too much length though. The important 50m length is the one through the ring as it's doubled back when boat is on shore, so you need plenty of rope for that one. 
- Keep in mind the 5x rope length for depth rule when anchoring safely. I had about 5-6m rope attached to 4m chain so about 10m all up. This allows a safe anchorage in about 2m of water. If you know you're anchoring in a deeper channel then use more rope accordingly.

Blue= stern rope (pull this to bring boat ashore)
Red= bow rope through buoy ring (Pull this to take boat out to anchorage at buoy)
Yellow= anchor and chain and short length of rope attached to buoy ring with D shackle
Note: You'll notice that even though the bow is facing offshore that the current pushes it to one side. I allowed this to happen by not having stern rope tied off TOO tight. Just ensure the star picket is in line with anchor so that it can swing around the other way to create a mirror image without needing to reajust the ropes.  
You can pick up the bouy with ss ring from BCF or other relevant stores. 
Ensure you use appropriate knots and means of fastening (e.g. splicing rope to D shackle, seizing D shackles with stainless wire etc). The more safety stuff you do, the more sleep you'll get knowing your pride and joy is securely bobbing out there all alone 😎
 

Shot up north for a couple of days fishing the bunker group at the bottom of the great barrier Reef. The weather was perfect as the forecast predicted and my little tinnie handled it well.
My friend Nathan and I started to catch coral trout as we pulled a few fish from each spot before moving so not to flog any one mark. As we moved further north we caught more fish with a good mixed bag filling the Esky. Red throat emperor, tusk fish, moari cod and even a surprise pearl perch joined the trout in our bag.


By lunch time we headed deeper in search of Red emperor and we both hooked some beauties only to be sharked. We kept moving trying to get away from the sharks now but the bite shut down after a few spots. We did boat many big spangled emperor on these grounds as the sharks didn't even want them and neither did we so they were all released.
We anchored up for the night 100km from where we left the boat ramp on the lee side of a big reef system. A few beers and a cook up for dinner and it was time for bed. In the morning we headed south again working our way back hitting new marks and bagging out on trout having to release half a dozen so as to get a bit more variety in the Esky.

We got our coral reef fin fish bag by 9am so pointed the boat for home as the weather turned it on for us again making the trip home a pleasure. Filleting all our catch Nathan and I split up our spoils and toasted our success now I'm due for fresh fish again for a while.



 

That’s an epic fish Greg well done! Spanish of the beach is next level. Good to see you had a great trip

Although they can be found throughout the year, around the full moon in August is when the sand whiting get a bit more active as they start to roe-up. It's also the time of the year when there are still a few tailor around. 
We fished Runaway Bay today and we got a good feed of whiting. The area we fished during the day tends to be dominated at this time of the year by fish between 27 and 32 cm. We used Cribb Island worms for the whiting. 
There were some tailor there as well with the best 42cm on pillies so it was a good day overall. 
 

Nice work mate some good quality fish

It was a good week’s fishing in Moreton Bay chasing a few tailor.
Started on Monday night at Redland Bay. Bites were few and far between but the tailor were good quality.
Moved to Point Halloran on Tuesday night. Plenty of bream and a few small legal flathead and a couple of tailor there too. Most of the bream were only around 27 cm so no big fish.
Shorncliffe foreshore was very slow on Wednesday night. Only a couple of just legal tailor that were released and a solid but solitary flathead.
Thursday night it was back to Redland Bay and a good little burst of nice tailor early, along with another solid flathead meant for an early night.
There are no secret spots, good fish are widespread this time of the year along the western foreshore for those with an understanding of the species and their movements that put in the effort.

I don't remember you being at that party...

For example, back in January 2020 we went to a water park with the grandkids. Here is a pic of the mrs on the left......
Just by coincidence there happened to be something else in the pic at the same time...... 🙂 my point is that at least i know it was Jan 2020 🙂
 

Mate kudos to you for tackling such an adventure with lil Bub as well. Be a great yarn to tell her how tough mum and dad were when she gets older

Mate kudos to you for tackling such an adventure with lil Bub as well. Be a great yarn to tell her how tough mum and dad were when she gets older

Hi all,
 
This is not strictly a pure fishing report report but thought I’d throw up a bit of a story if anyone was interested. 
About 2 1/2 years ago, my sister and I booked a spot on the thorsborne trail on hinchinbrook island. This is a 32km long 4-day hike and has a limit on numbers so slots can be hard to get during busy times (school hols). Major hiccup was since we booked a small person has come into my world... what the hell we thought, we’ll take her along for the ride, what could possibly go wrong with that... 😬
 
so last saturday we jumped on absolute north charters at Lucinda and had an amazingly scenic trip right up the inside of the island to our drop off point. 

A hasty offload onto the boardwalk through the mangroves and sand flies and we soon arrived on the eastern beach. First day was 6.5km but with a side track up to Nina peak to add on. The information online said total walk time of 6 hrs which we thought was nuts for only 6.5km... how wrong we were. We quickly realized this was not a track you could take your eye off for a second. While the terrain itself was challenging, the “track” at times was bordering on nuts. At one stage it took us an hour and a half to cover 800m across a rocky headland and through the infamous Boulder Bay. But I digress...
 
we decided to ditch the big bags at the bottom and I carried bubs up the side track to Nina peak - what an amazing view.

after a lunch stop at Nina bay, we pushed on to our first nights stop at little Ramsay bay. The boulder bay was a serious test for all of us, especially me with just on 30kg on my back. We arrived at our campsite, set up, applied several tonnes of bushmans and enjoyed walking around unladen. Thankfully only about 100m walk to a beautiful freshwater creek for water. There were heaps of juvenile mangrove jack and jungle perch in amongst the granite boulders which was really cool to see. We were treated to a beaut sunrise the next morning to get us motivated for day 2 - 10.5km

 
what a days walk... how we got through this day I still don’t know. After scrambling our way around a headland that seemed to go on and on we entered the bush and started to climb. And then we went down - which was probably harder than the up. Loose rocky surface, tree roots, creek crossings... this track was a serious challenge. We stopped for lunch on the edge of the swamp section - coz that’s what we needed to make our day - MUD. 

After negotiating the mud, 4 creek crossings, 2 more bog sections and the sandfly ridden hell hole around the back of the mangroves we emerged muddy and battered onto the beach at Zoe bay. Child promptly offloaded to lighten mums load and the remaining 800m was covered in quick time. Camp set up and another several tonnes of bushmans applied. After a hard day, this was a great sight on the beach
 
thankfully the next day was our rest day. We did as little as possible in the morning, with the exception of drying out boots, charging all devices and me throwing every lure I had at the local fish with very limited success. I did land 3 small cod but that was it. We watched a school of 15 or so cow-tail stingrays feeding on the waters edge, some truly massive queenfish smashing into schools of mullet and small sharks cruising in the shallows. 
 
That afternoon we walked up to Zoe falls and had a great time relaxing in the refreshing cool water - even a bit of a jacuzzi under a waterfall.

the pool at the base of the falls is teeming with massive jungle perch that are so tame they literally nibble your toes. While I would love to throw a line and catch my first JP, I am quite glad there is a “no fishing” sign there - it was really cool to see what many of our wild tropical rivers used to be like without introduced pest fish, habitat degradation and fishing pressure.
 
 
the next morning we woke to wet tents after a couple of heavy showers through the night. Bad news is all the granite rocks on the track and around the creeks that has provided excellent traction were now more like walking on wet cakes of soap. 8.5km to cover today for our last overnight destination at mulligan falls. We climbed to the highest point on our trek which I am sure on a clear day would afford amazing views. Unfortunately, we had a lot of low cloud and light rain so our view was a little different. The last major obstacle was diamantina creek which is prone to flash flooding and can leave walkers stranded with no way forward or back. We arrived at the creek which is around 40m wide and fast flowing. I was the crash test dummy so I attempted first without a pack and quickly determined the safest way across was to ditch the hiking boots and go with socks only to grip the wet rocks better - like felt soles shoes when rock fishing. With a lot of teamwork, we all made it across unscathed. After arriving at our campsite the heavens really opened up and the spectacular falls just near camp doubled in volume in the space of half an hour. Very glad we got over the big creek when we did. not a lot else to report from here on. A lot of huddling in a tent trying to entertain a bored bub and keep her dry and warm.
 
The rain was persistent throughout the night and a wet and muddy packup ensued - unfortunately meaning the pack was now even heavier owing to wet clothes, tents etc. our last day of hiking was a 2.5km stretch through the rainforest followed by a 5km walk up the beach - should be easy right...?
Yeah... NAH.
the overnight rain had turned 3 of the 5 creeks we had to cross in the first 2.5km into raging torrents. With no other option to get out, crash test dummy benno was sent into the waters to check it all out and again with careful and methodical teamwork everyone made it across safely. The worst one was sketchy AF, waist deep on me in parts and flowing hard, had to really pick the soft spots in the current behind boulders and things like that. When we finally hit the beach for the final push, we were all a bit emotional that we had made it through all the hard stuff, the last bit of stress with the creek crossings had really got to us all. Despite the 25kn SE we were walking into and sideways rain we all happily trudged our way up the beach, knowing a hot shower wasn’t too far away.
a brainwave on the drive back to Townsville and into lockdown saw the deployment of the KFC app and a mountain of fried gold subsequently applied to all and sundry. A massive unpack, clean up, dry out and repack ensued, with my boots and backpack both suffering terminal damage in the final 2 days. Fare thee well comrades... you were both faithful servants.
 
so how would I rate the overall experience? Well... I guess challenging would be the optimal word. Way more so than any of us had anticipated. Amazing place, spectacular scenery and I am 100% sure some great fishing opportunities as well. Would I do it again... unsure. I would love to go back there but possibly not with the the 4 days of hiking. I am glad I did it for sure, but just not sure I want to sign on again anytime soon. Good news is bubs on the whole loved the experience which is the most important thing I guess.
big shout out to John at absolute north charters though - went out of his way to help us and made sure the boat home arrived at the pick up point right when we did which was awesome. Even arranged us access to a hot shower upon return at a local accommodation place if we needed it which was hugely appreciated. If you are thinking of heading to hinchinbrook, he’s your guy.
anyway, enough from me, thanks for reading if you made it this far, hope you enjoyed the trip.
cheers,
benno
 

The Labrid Family which contains the tuskfish and wrasses are a group of fish that are only usually active during the day. They don't form a mucous bubble like some of the Scarid Family, but they are typically hiding somewhere and not feeding at night. 

A stinking hot swelter of a day seems to see them fired up