tugger

I should be back from the Kimberly then. Hope to get up there then and definately before then.

Sounds too good to miss. I will throw my hat in the ring for a decky spot. It is a long way out and I don't know what my work commitments will be then but I would love to go. 

A few of us are heading up to 1770 for a week during the school holidays starting from Saturday the 28th of September to Saturday the 5th of October. We have booked a house for the week and will be fishing the close and wider reefs depending on the weather.
If anyone is interested in coming up and getting a house or just heading straight out to the reefs fishing post here and we can plan our trip on this thread. So far we have 2 boats and crew going with a few more boys to get back to me.
This time of year is quite stable with the weather and we hope to get out to the wider reefs chasing red emperor, coral trout, red throat emperor, cod, etc.

A few of us are heading up to 1770 for a week during the school holidays starting from Saturday the 28th of September to Saturday the 5th of October. We have booked a house for the week and will be fishing the close and wider reefs depending on the weather.
If anyone is interested in coming up and getting a house or just heading straight out to the reefs fishing post here and we can plan our trip on this thread. So far we have 2 boats and crew going with a few more boys to get back to me.
This time of year is quite stable with the weather and we hope to get out to the wider reefs chasing red emperor, coral trout, red throat emperor, cod, etc.

A few of us are heading up to 1770 for a week during the school holidays starting from Saturday the 28th of September to Saturday the 5th of October. We have booked a house for the week and will be fishing the close and wider reefs depending on the weather.
If anyone is interested in coming up and getting a house or just heading straight out to the reefs fishing post here and we can plan our trip on this thread. So far we have 2 boats and crew going with a few more boys to get back to me.
This time of year is quite stable with the weather and we hope to get out to the wider reefs chasing red emperor, coral trout, red throat emperor, cod, etc.

Yeah I still have my 1st rod it is a solid glass black queen from Jervis walker and I got my old man's black knight the 1st is 40 years old and the black knight closer to 50 yrs old. I still use them when targeting whiting I won't use anything else on whiting in the creeks.
 

Awesome fishing I ran in to Fergie at the boat show and had a chat to him about the trip bloody amazing place you must have to duck down from the fish just wanting to jump in to the boat

What a trip!
Not exactly the one I wanted but there are stories none the less. To explain briefly without going into to much personal detail 1.5 days into the triup and my dad got extrmely sick forcing me to leave and take him back to Kimbe for care. Gutted. I was happy to write it off as I have enjoyed the experience before. I was devastated for him as he was having such a good time. He managed one small black bass for his efforts. Thus I am left with not a lot to report except images. I am sure @John would be happy to fill in many details.
Points of interest were the bass were challenging to target due to an early arrival of white bait but some creative use of soft plastics enticed many to bite.
As far as hard bodies go trends moved back to my first trip experience with FCL Labo lures killing.
I do not have heaps of time to write paragraphs so will add some pictures now and more text later or reply to questions as they come.
Visit to the village:

Black  Bass (Have so many more but how many can you see?):


 
Other Lutjanus species for the trip:

Trevally:



 
Questions? I have so many more pictures of bass, cod, randoms, jacks... just trying to choose highlights.

Yeah but I am winning the lotto tonight so I'll have plenty of money

Good day at the boat show just need to win lotto now as I know what I want beers were nice and cold to

Yeah but I am winning the lotto tonight so I'll have plenty of money

Yeah but I am winning the lotto tonight so I'll have plenty of money

Good day at the boat show just need to win lotto now as I know what I want beers were nice and cold to

If you go Saturday I will head in with you Julian

If you go Saturday I will head in with you Julian

I'll call you after work mate. Got some pressies for you too as a thanks for cleaning my boat after last trip.

If you go Saturday I will head in with you Julian

No sure what sort of fish they were....some sort of white bait. As for the smoked jacks....well that was a bit of a strange one.....lol.....the boatman was smoking them to take back to his family. Once smoked he would just stack them away in his stuff never to be seen again.....lol....but we didn't care, he was a really good boat operator and a really funny guy. It's always a lot of fun living with guys you can't understand and they can't understand you. Every night they offered us beetle nut, mustard beans and lime and it was great to be with such humble people. All the others would eat our dehydrated meals but Niko the boatman was really into his clean pure food. One afternoon we caught some tarpon and kept one and as soon as we got back to camp he had a fire built and a stick in it's gob cooking it. (Pic attached) By the way....Tarpon are extremely bony.

Definitely wild country the scenery would have been enough for most punters then throw in bass that want to pull you out of the boat for the whole experience

Great trip Stu moments you will never forget

Just epic the scenery the rivers the waterfalls the journey the huts the fishing the adventure 

Great trip Stu moments you will never forget

Great report Lance and there are so many more things that happened that I pop into my head each day and i have a little chuckle to myself.
One of the most memorable was one afternoon when Lance and I were fishing a particular area that was holding plenty of Bass and we were slowly motoring up to a really good looking snag and I looked at Lance then looked down at his rod and Said.  "Jeez...give me a look at your rod".....well gullible Lance went to hand me his rod and I quickly fired a cast off to land it right beside this big vertical log sticking out of the water. Well that backfired on me and because I was laughing and trying to get the cast off so quick I put the lure straight over a branch above the log and it didn't hit the water. Well Lance was quick on the uptake and fired a cast straight at the log also and didn't do much better and went straight over the top of the log and tea bagged his lure right beside the log. Well a cranky bass came flying up and grabbed his lure that was barely touching the water and took off. There was a few frantic moments getting it off from around the log and the fish was boated. Lots of laughs and it was released to happily swim another day. That was just one of the many moments that will stick in my head for a very long time. 
I feel very lucky to have done what we did and it was awesome to do it with a good mate. I think it's best if we add to this report as we remember things and clearly we probably should have written a diary every day. Anyway good job Lance and bring on the next trip.
Here's a picture of the hut from the river and some mangrove jacks that were smoked traditianally over the fire in the hut.

This was our crew for the week.
Nicko, he was the boatman and owner of the boat.
He would have to be one of the best boat operators that I have ever fished with.

Ono, he was our deckhand for the week.They both really enjoyed their Beetlenut.

Eko was our cook and general hand who did all of the running around to arrange, pay and pick up anything we needed both before and after the trip.

Then we have Teddy. He is our fishing mate over in West Papua and we have fished with him twice now.
I am hoping that he will come over here in the near future as his bucket list fish are of all things a Kingfish and Murray Cod and we will return the favour by hosting him here in Australia and taking him out fishing to experience some of what we have to offer here.

Just epic the scenery the rivers the waterfalls the journey the huts the fishing the adventure