tugger

Yes braid and plastics but it proves you can teach and old dog new tricks Kelvin

Yeah we both had a ball together 21 yrs old and still hanging with dad

Thanks Steve it was a great trip with Brock we will eat like kings again

Depending on depth and drift the red throat like it on the drop like floatlining but the trout you want to be hard on the bottom. We were using 3/4 ounce through to 2 ounce jig heads

Went up to 1770 with my son Brock on Thursday afternoon and stayed the night before leaving the ramp at 1st light Friday morning. We headed for the bunker group with plans to stay out for 3 days on the outer reef after a average run up we were fishing our 1st marks by 8am. I strugled with bait only landing the odd tuskie while my son tangled with coral trout for the 1st 2 hours i tried alot of different rigs and baits but Brock kept hooking up on plastics. I soon switched to plastics on the shads tuff prawn and we were both hitting trout along with a huge variety of fish. We landed spangeled emperor, moarie cod, red throat emperor, coral trout, srtipies, honeycomb cod, hussar, tea leaf trevally, bludger trevally and long nose emperor. We found more ground as we went and the wind dropped right out to nothing through the middle of the day. The red emeperor were proving to be elusive so we didn't waste to much time hunting them Friday chosing to keep looking for trout. It started to blow late in the arvo so we went shallow behind the reef and found plenty of red throat emeperor biting. These fish put up an amazing fight never giving up all the way to the boat and i would have to say pound for pound 1 of the strogest fighting fish on the reef. We got RTE up to 53cm and started to really get some colour to the box. After sunset friday it was time anchor up and settle in for the night cook some dinner and get a good sleep. Saturday morning the wind was still atleast 12 knots but i was keen to target the reds early morning. The 1st mark was quiet but the next move we found fish on the sounder and new ground nearby on the drift. It was this new ground where the reds were hanging and i got a little legal red emperor going 59cm on the ruler. Brock hooked up but lost a better red halfway up just spitting the hook then the bite shut down so after another 30 minutes we moved south looking for more trout etc. We were finding new ground and pulling fish as we went and by 11 am the bite shut right down. We decided to go for a snorkle in the lagoon at fitzroy reef, we had the lagoon to ourselves and anchored up in front of the biggest coral bommie. It took us an hour to snorkel around it, so much colour in the reef here and the fish life was amazing even seeing coral trout lurking in the holes in the reef. After the snorkle we had a fresh water shower then some lunch before heading out again to the lee side of the reef to find more fish. The fish were thick and in an hour we got another 7 fish to finish off our bag limit on the coral reef fin fish. The tuff prawns did outfish the bait by far and all the trout and most of the red throat fell for the prawn. Then pointing the boat for home the throttle went down and 90 minutes later crossed the bar back in the creek at 1770 a day early. I stayed another night in town and drove home on Sunday morning , just in time as we had run out of fish at home so this should keep us in qaulity fish for a little while.

Wow that is an awesome trip Robbie so many great fish but I see the pinnacle for you was the big jack and rightly so. This is why I like fishing up north so many fish species to catch and see on the great barrier reef. I bet this trip will stay in the memory bank forever it was epic fishing. I reckon your already trying to work out if and when you can do another 1 like this.

Lance's Cobia was a cool story how it took bare hooks next to the Boat

I was in stradiebrad's boat and you and Lance were in Julian's boat. We got good fish to it was an awesome trip.

Blakeleys were great weekends camping over on stradie we had some of the biggest fires and Teds beach side bar was a hit with the keg set up. Brad your grand kids sure are loving fishing every time i see them they are in to it.

He loved wavebreak trips Kelvin it was where he wanted to go back to before he passed but never got that wish unfortunately.

That 1770 trip was awesome Lance took you guys out deep and found that big show of snapper aye Robbie ( hippo porn) lol.

Lance was a member of this forum for a long time and its where i met him, i have many stories but 1 of the funniest ones for me was when we got back from a brissy fishing trip. We had been out in my boat and i had my brand new outboard on the boat by then so during the morning i had been telling Lance how my wife and i had saved up over the years to get a new kitchen in the house. Then my old 2 stroke engine had died and we used the savings to buy a new 4stroke engine for the boat. So we got back from fishing and cleaned the catch then started to clean the boat when Lance said to my wife its time to clean the kitchen very tongue in cheek. Well after laughing hard and trying to tell my wife how i told Lance about our savings going towards the outboard that would be his best 1 liner in my memories that i will never forget. Thanks for all the kind words, this forum was a place you would often see Lance visit and impart his knoledge if someone was seeking advice. Many fishos would have Lance as his deckie even though he owned his own small tinnie its the offshore he loved the most. I know ,many fisherman now who can chase marlin or big snapper etc with confidence and do well after having him onboard a few times. I will think of my old mate when i go offshore on my big trips, keep the stories coming I am sure he is reading them.

My close friend Lance Collins passed away on Wednesday many of you knew him here and were guided by his fishing knowledge he would pass on selflessly. I am richer for his mateship and will never forget the times we hung out together fishing and camping. He has suffered some tuff times this year with illness and I'm glad there were some happy times as well fishing together up at 1770 and offshore here in brissy. Please feel free to tell some yarns here about Lance and celebrate the life of a kind, sharing and gentle man.

What a ripper I love the runs and head thumps uou get from a big snapper like that.

Great box of fish boys

Haha haha I absolutely loved the place

We saw the new ramp with a nice new pontoon for it as well Ray

Thanks for the day out Steve it was good having a look around down there again it's been over 20 years for me. The whiting should fire up after some rain will be back after that.

Hamish its more to do with the warm water currents that move from one side of the Pacific Ocean to the other so in the years we have more rain there is more warm water pushing up to our coastline. Hence good pelagic seasons follow warm water along our coastline and more oceanic baitfish. I was getting plenty of yakkas and slimie mackerel on this trip and it's been a few years since they were in numbers like that on my bait grounds. All pointing to a good pelagic season fingers crossed.

Don't know any myself but I reckon that would be a closely guarded secret

22.5 degrees and yes it should be a good year for pelagics with the el nino likely this year.

Thanks for the company Steve it was a top day on the big pond, we should have stayed at the 1st spot in hindsight. That light rod did well on the moses perch it was buckeled over a fair bit looked like fun on the light string. The one thing i found interesting was the sea was alive with bait fish every where we went they were breaking the surface from inshore all the way out to 70m and back again.

Silver trevally 36.5cm Angler Tugger southside

Got some of that data 1st hand thanks for dropping by lads and telling me of a great days fishing while I was working

I'm in for the southsider team