Luke Landrunner

Been months since I got out for a fish. So was more than happy to get an invite to head up north and launch from turkey beach to hunt down some reds and other big reefies. We left brissy on Monday night for the seven hour journey north. Arived at turkey beach at some ungodly hour and launched the boat for the 120km trip out to innamincka shoals. Got out there in good time  to drop our first baits not long after sunrise on Tuesday. Fishing was a bit slow at first but we were getting the usual small reefies such as parrot various cods and plenty of hussar which were kept for big fillet baits. We sounded around for about 40 mins to find some good isolated lumps to drop over sized baits on and from this point on the big fish started coming onboard quite consistently.
the sharks were up to there usual tricks but spent the day nailing some nice gold band snapper, red emporer and nannygai. In all my years of heading up here, this was by far the best weather I had experienced. 
 

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Day one saw four nannygai, five reds and over a dozen gold band hit the deck so the call was made to head south to broomfield reef and anchor up for the night then chase some trout in the shallows before heading home at lunch time on day two. 
 
woke up before the sun up and had a quick feed then commenced chasing trout. The trout weren’t really playing the game initially but after dropping down sinker sizes we managed to get six or seven coral trout and coronation trout on board and plenty of Maori cod too. By this point the sharks were really becoming a pain so the call was made to move 
After this we went out to the 60 metre line for a last attempt at some good red fish we ended up with two more nannygai and one more red so we were stoked. I even managed to nail my pb dolly and a not bad cobia aswell. 

with more than enough fish to last our families (and very select friends lol) for months we pointed the boat home for a smooth trip back to the ramp in glass conditions. All in all was one of the best trips I’d had up there, especially considering the last one was full of all sorts of engine and boat dramas.
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To go fishing......😎 @Luvit 😜

Hey guys,
I've been up north past Lockhart River since last Friday with a mate and doing a bit of fishing. Currently having a rest day after 4 long magical weather days out on the reef and in the cooking sun. 
Its been neap tides and hardly any flow so far (thus fishing has been a little slow for some species) but things are starting to move a bit more now and should be firing in a few days time for the next reef trip. 
Here are a few pics! 
The shack 

The ramp

Restoration rock 

The town 

The rig (Liams renegade 420, same as what I used to own. Love those things!)

Day 1 on middle reef. Caught about 15 trout on the flats and 4 of the 7 species up here so far. All on Gobblers lures ripped past the shallow bommies. 


Day 2 on outer reef 50km offshore. Some bigger fish around and subsequent dustings. Lots of trout and co again. Nice bluefin trevally off the top. 
Amazing sights many sharks 
day 3 outer reef. Passionfruit trout and coronation trout. 
Day 4 Bligh Reef. Not many pics, but a stunning day! No wind all morning, it was HOT (Suffered heat stress later that day). Had a 100kg+ black marlin followed stickbait to the boat. Same with Wahoo. Caught 4 species of tuna so far (longtail, mac, skipjack, yellowfin) as well as 3 species of mackerel. Some big yellowfin 60km offshore but could only get small ones past the sharks. 
Lockhart River ramp
yellowfin sashimi. The best I've had 
Rest day feat. Iced filter coffee
Still over a week to go, will post more as the trip unfolds. 
Cheers,
Sam
 

Hey guys, been a bit quiet on the fishing fronts. Tried a few times but no success in the past couple of weeks! Today looked good, threw around a 100g microjig on a new GT popping combo (Penn slammer + Penn ocean assassin rod PE6-8). It was my first time catching a fish on gear this heavy. Its a tussle! Got one small GT and lost 3 others. 
Yes I am taking part in Movember! I've had amazing support so far. Please feel free to check out my profile 🙂 https://au.movember.com/mospace/14332106

The garden has been producing the goods

Some kayaking with Wilson too

Plenty of bait balls around the other day! 

Also getting ready for a trip up north visiting a mate
Hes got a nice spot.
Thanks,
Sam 

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.

Good luck Robbie !!!
Pictures of you holding big fish in your teddy please......

Good luck Robbie !!!
Pictures of you holding big fish in your teddy please......

Well the time is nearly up for the Bear to get on a plane and fly to an exotic fishing destination. 
The Plan is to head to Townsville and jump on a big boat and steam out over the water for ages and catch some fish. 
Here are some sticks that I have to take. 

I bought 2 rods for the trip and had 3 already. 
They will be holding onto these reels.

So that means;
Tyranos 20 with 80lb braid on a 5.6 foot Ugly Stick
Saragosa 25k with 60lb braid on a 9 foot Penn Ocean Assassin HPE 6-10
Sustain 5000FG with 20lb Braid on a 7 foot Crazee Taco Stick Pe 8
Stradic CL 4+ with 15 lb Braid on a 7 foot 8 - 16 lb Nordic Stage Favourite 
Saragosa SW 8000 with 40 lb braid on a Rovex Sabiki and as a spare reel. 
So I have a lot of options covered. 
I hope to;
Send BIG plastics down to the staghorn coral for xos trout
Throw xx large stick baits and poppers over the shallows for monster GTs, xxos Trout, and xxos emperors (various)
Drop very large live baits to the bottom for Doggies, xxxos trout and Red Emperors
Float out large live baits for Spanish Mackerel
Flick medium plastics and jigs for Mackerel (Spanish, Shark, Spotted) , Whaoo, Cobia and Tuna (Toooona thanks @aussie123)
Flick light plastics and micro jigs for little reef fish for a bit of fun and some live baits. 
Catch live baits on the Sabikis. 
That should keep me busy for the week haha. 
I will probably do a stack of normal bait fishing as well for xxos large mouth nannies - see profile pic from previous trip.
I hope to post up photos of an embarrassingly excited drop bear (and his mates) holding extremely large and colourful fish with stunning blue water in the background. 
My only disappointment is I won't get the chance to try out the sea sickness tablets as we are expecting 10 knots all week!!!! This must be payment from the weather gods for a extremely ****** 2020 that included chronic pain in my foot, prostate cancer and all the other hoohaar that we have all had to put up with. 
I have packed my teddy bear (and teddy to sleep in) and hope to see you all next week. 
🙂
 
 
 

On 4 pound line?

A Sea Horse. 
Pulled in a small tree branch which was submerged for some time in Woods Bay Noosa late last year.
I was about to discard it until I spotted said creature. Quick photo on my finger and waded him back in. 
Photo soon.......

Hey everyone! Just an update. It's been a while since I've drifted onto here, but it crossed my mind. Plenty of familiar members and many new ones it seems! What a community. 
Anyways I work for QFES now at straddie part time after over a year of training and study, and also a barista on the side. This leaves lots of spare time for fishing and gardening (I try to be self sufficient with about half of my meals). To aid in this I've purchased a brand new offshore kayak weapon! Coulda bought a boat with that money but it falls into place with my sustainability project; I can go out for free if I'm hungry 🙃
A few pics from recent times 

Spent 14 days up at 1770 with a dozen lads and 4 offshore boats and 4 smaller tinnies.  We rented the same place we had last year with 3 dwellings to house us all on 4 acres. This place is mint with a fire pit 4m across, we burnt a Ute load of timber every night in which I chainsawed from the paddock behind the block.
The 1st few days we got over to Lady Musgrave island in ordinary conditions and managed to collect a feed of fish each from the 4 big boats we caught coral trout, redthroat emperor, spangeled emperor, moari cod, hussar, green jobfish and tuskies. It was a squeeze getting everyone in the boats but we managed i had Lance and Terry in my boat for the overnighter out there at Musgrave.
The rest of the week was blown out but 1 of the boats got out to bustard head the next day it was the biggest boat for the ordinary conditions and they got 3 good spanish mackerel. The next day we all went to baffle creek in the samll tinnies, my outboard was playing up so I slowly motored to a likely spot close to the ramp. It had a rock bar with a deep hole and the water was back eddying behind the rock in this hole.
I was using mullet strips on my light rod with 10lb line and 10lb leader. I caught many bream where I was casting against the bank. I cast out into the middle in the deep hole and got thumped and broken off so I upgraded the leader to 20lb.
The next cast I hooked a good fish and next thing a small jack was netted this fish went 33cm returning him after a qujck photo. The next cast I got thumped again another jack fought hard running line and finally hitting the deck at 39cm. The next cast you guessed it thumped giving me curry stripping line and the net slipped under a good 42cm jack.
The other boys turned up and 1 of the boys got another jack around 42cm as well. The bight slowed and switched off so I called it very happy with my self with 3 jacks from 3 casts.



The rest of the week we did some exploring in murimbular national park with the 4wds and checked out middle creek and a couple of cool lookouts.  We burnt plenty of wood each night as mentioned and cooked up some great dampers in the camp ovens. 
The 2nd last day I rang home and the missus says to me are you staying longer with the weather coming good. I hadn't looked at it as we were packing to go home so I decided to stay a bit longer and get out again to the reef. My deckies had to leave but Callum jumped ship off another crew so we were on our own in my boat.
Sunday was mint and by late morning we were banging good trout and lipper. We worked our way deeper and by 3pm for the tide change we hit the red grounds. Callum hooked a stonker and after a good battle landed his 1st legal red emperor going 77cm. We both got plenty of just under or just on legal sized reds.
This spot went quiet so we moved up to the next bump and Callum hooks up again to another good red again boating a good red at 68cm. The fishing slowed and the sun setting we ran behind the reef to anchor for the night. 
The weather was still mint and a beautifull night was had without a breath of wind. The next morning the reds didn't bight so back to thumping trout and red throat, tuskies, cod and hussar. We worked our way down to Fitzroy lagoon for a snorkel and we blasted home from there.
Another night spent back at the ranch by ourselves we lit the fire and downed some coldies. The next day we filleted our catch and parted ways with Callum heading north and me running home.
 

Well, the stars aligned this morning for myself and my two sons, we all had time off work this morning and headed out for a quick fish from the Port of Brissy in search of any pelagics.
Bashed the beacons for awhile with no schoolies, so headed to an old mark where we have had success before in the middle of nowhere and was pleased to see on the sounder some massive bait balls 😊
Wasnt too long and off goes the Shimano baitrunner ! 
Nearly half an hour later and finally boated a nice Longtail Tuna which went just over a metre ...... 😊
Tried to swim it alongside boat for awhile for a graceful release but it was pretty gassed and ended up in the esky for dinnies.... (Lots of dinners i think)
Happy with that , so decided to make it a short session and back at the ramp by midday leaving behind a gloriously flat bay ! 
 

Plenty of favourite catches over the years but for me the best was watching my 10 year old son catch his 1st billfish.  The day started off with the intention of targeting mackerel so my son Brock a friend Brad and I jigged up some live yakkas and anchored on the gravel patch off Burleigh heads.
Brad fought the 1st fish which was a big Mack tuna then another bait got hit and Brock grabbed the rod. He sunk the hook and the fish jumped clear of the water I shouted MARLIN. It was a fair distance out and I thought it was a black marlin I was wrong. 
We dropped the anchor rope with a bouy and started the engine to chase it down. Brad was spotter man and I drove the boat , Brock worked hard and the fight wore on. The fish was fast and peeled line incredibly fast and jumping clear of the water many times
It was February and hot so we poured water over Brocks head and gave him sips of water. This fight was taking a toll on the young boy and he wanted to pass the rod on but I challenged him to keep going. If we had touched the rod he could not say he caught it by himself so he kept at it.
After 1 hour and 15 minutes we finally boated a sailfish that went 9 foot long and approximately 80kg. It was fantastic to watch my son fight and catch this awesome fish Brock and I will never forget that day.
 

Hi all
Since I am going on another scout camp this weekend, I was just wondering what your favourite fish story is. Maybe of your best catch (that you consider) or funniest fishing trip, etc. 
Mine is where I was fishing at Colmslie Beach Reserve targeting jewfish and threadfin. We were walking up the beach to do some more cast netting (only had one or two mullet left in the tank) but we didn't get any more. Though, when we walked back I realised we were missing a rod, and had a quick look. To my shock, it was in the water going out. I ran to it as fast as I could (not very fast 😉) and picked it up. The drag was locked (my bad) and I proceeded to drag in a nice GT, my first Brisbane River specimen - 

Sorry its not the best photo, either.
The setup is still working well too, it has caught shovel nose rays and little bullies as well. 
Hope for some interesting stories,
Cheers Hamish 🙂 

My favourite fishing story to date was catching an approx. 25-30kg shovel nose caught on a sand island at Turkey Beach when I was about 16. Caught on a handline it took off like a bus, I put the handreel on my arm but when it took off at speed, the line skipped off the reel and tangled on my arm, cutting straight through my long-sleeved fishing shirt and leaving me a cool scar on my right forearm (which I'm slightly sad has worn off with age as I was fond of it as a keepsake ...... 🙂). It was released to fight another day.
On the same holiday (around Xmas) we'd caught two approx. 10kg shovels and kept them to use in curries and also for crab bait. It was Xmas eve and right on sunset we were on the driveway of the rental house we were staying in, cutting them into chunks with a hand saw. With blood all over us, another brother arrived with his new girlfriend (and now wife) - to this day I don't know why she didn't turn around and leave instead of marrying into our family ............ 🤣

Couple of quick ones from me...
was fishing in 80m+ out off Fraser in the middle of the night.  my mate got nailed by something big, line touched side of boat, fish and ~80m of braid gone.  many swear words said.  I then hook up and start having a significant argument with a big beastie.  after about 1/4hr I had a high-finned AJ at the boat at about 12kg.... and some braid wrapped up around the 2nd dropper on paternoster.  grabbed braid, realized it was from my rod my mate was using, started to pull it up - and with only a couple of cuts in my hands from the braid shortly landed a second high-finned AJ about the same size.  my mate is still sore about it too.
another story came from moreton island.  it was blowing 30+ from the NNW, just about the worst possible wind for the island.  had consumed just enough liquid courage to go for a walk up to the north point rocks with a rod just to see if it was worth having a flick.  there was a corner that was a little less unsafe so i launched a 70g slug and let it sink down.  2 cranks of the handle and away we go.  a seriously nuts fight in the conditions and with a lot more ar$e than class, I managed to land a 85cm mulloway, after which I promptly gave up and headed back to camp for a lot more liquid courage and far too much crumbed fresh mulloway.
proabably my favourite memory though was when I was fishing off my kayak near wellington point right on first light.  there was some big boofs and a few showers of bait around but I was after snapper / sweetlip so didn't have the right gear to throw a slug around for whatever they were.  so on my 15lb 4-6kg rig, i hooked the 7:14 express from central station on a 1/4 oz jighead and a 4" gulp.  this thing headed for the open bay, I was peddling flat stick after it to try and not get spooled.  2 old mates in their tinny asked if i was ok - i just said if i'm not back in a hour or two to come looking for me.  so i chased this thing around on a thankfully glassy bay for ages, eventually ending up about 500m from harry atkinsons reef with a big slab of a longtail tuna on my lap.  I bled the fish out and lashed it to the side of the kayak to keep it cool - it was a little big for my esky - and started heading back to where i thought wellington point was.  At this point, the two old mates in their tinny appeared on the horizon like a pair of angels, took the fish and put it in their esky to chill it, threw me some water (i had run out) and then a tow rope and towed me all the way back - arriving back at wellington pt at 1030am.  fish went just over 16kg, i gave the guys the two snapper i had caught earlier as a thanks and then headed home.

Going camping and fishing again on South Stradbroke island on the last weekend of this month. Will be good to get away do some fishing and sit around a camp fire.
Hope the weather plays nice and I can chase some mackies on the close reefs they have been thick of late. This is a great camp site and is well protected from the weather and big boat wakes. 
It's time to get away from the big smoke and have some sand between the toes.

I rang to see how you guys went but Lance must be screening his calls these days.😜 
You got some great weather and the small tides may have contributed to the slow bite. You still got some amazing fish to bring home. That's a cracker photo of Tugger in crystal clear water.
I'm chaffing to get up there again.
Got do lots of product testing @Luke Landrunner 😉

Another great 1770 trip there!!
Me and my mate will get up there one day..... product testing 😜

To go fishing......😎 @Luvit 😜

Another great 1770 trip there!!
Me and my mate will get up there one day..... product testing 😜

Another great 1770 trip there!!
Me and my mate will get up there one day..... product testing 😜

Hi all
My brother and I decided to go to our local park on the Brisbane River yesterday, targeting sharks. We were successful and had some other surprises. Here's what happened, and the statistics of the trip 🙂 
So, after waking up at 5:30AM, I woke my brother up. Well, it was to early for him, so I got my Dad up and he took me down. After he left, I threw out my shark lines, one with a slab of mullet, the other with a bony bream. The combos were a Rogue Firepoint 6'6" and a Penn 650 with 30lb braid, as well as a lower quality set up.  I was up on the pier area, not on the jetty, but i saw two pecks, (well strikes) and I ran down thinking "Jeez, am I on one already?" Nope! I reeled it in, and nothing was on the hook - *disappointed*. Then, I caught a little catfish which was perfect shark bait size, which i kept (mainly because the line was stuck in it's gills). I pulled up a couple more, threw the cast net and caught a prawn for live bait, then Declan came down with Dad, and after a couple more bait checks we had caught about 5 catties. They each put up a good fight for their size, they really took off when the drag was loose 🙂 Great fun too. The catfish are caught on a 1000 size Shimano Sienna and a 2500 Diawa Shinobi. 
Now it was about 8:00AM, and I did another bait check on the shark lines. I felt a sudden pull, then realised I was hooked up. After about a five minute fight, I realised the little bully was tangled with this line and he was actually hooked on the other 🙂 It was a pretty bad situation, because he had some wire tang;ed around his body, but after he rolled a couple times I could walk him down to the jetty to land him. In about another 10 minutes, he was netted and then released. Here he is-

We didn't get a precise measurement but I'd say he was around 80cm and about 5 kilos. He scoffed a big chunk of mullet down too. After he was dealt with and released, Declan and I pulled up a couple more catfish, and by that time it was warming up a bit (but we were in shade). We only kept one shark line out, i figured it would be easier to handle. We had a crowd watching the bull shark too, a lady who walks there a lot and someone else. 
So, we re-casted all the lighter lines then upped the catfish count to seven or eight. Then, I dropped a line right next to pylon (mainly so it wouldn't get tangled with the other because we were fishing the run out of the end of the pier which is only about five metres wide). I hooked up after about ten minutes, at first thinking it was an ok catty again, but then after feeling the weight and the runs it was doing back to the structore I released it was something better. I got it away from the structure and then was happy/surprised to see a nice estuary cod on the end of my line. I slowly walked it down while Declan was grabbing some gear, like the landing net, brag mat, lip grips and pliers and he scooped it up. I dehooked it and it measured about 40cm on the mat. Here it is - 

He was released to be caught next time 😉 and swum off well, back under the pier/jetty. 🙂 After that, Declan pulled up a few more catties (I let him have them after  set the drag, etc) and he was having fun. After we got the tally to ten, the bite went quiet, as it was about 10:00AM and the tide had slowed a little. Most of the catties would've been under 30cm, but he caught a couple bigger ones. Then, I pulled in one more and my Dad came down and took us home. Here are the statistics of the trip:
Statistics
Tide: 1.7metre high, run out and .8 metre low, at approx. 10:00AM
Moon Phase: First Quarter, so not that much run
Weather: 34c, 55% humidity
Wind: Very glassy, though the breeze picked up later in the morning
Tackle Used: 14lb braid mainlines, 12;b mono leader, size 2 bean sinkers, 4/o suicide hooks, 30lb braid mainline, 80lb wire trace, 100lb mono leader, 6/o circle hook. 
Fish Caught: Shark x 1, Catfish x 9, Estuary Cod x 1
Bait Caught: Prawn x 1
Bait Used: Herring, Mullet, Prawn
Successful Overall: Very Successful Trip
I hope you enjoyed reading the report, I know it was a very fun session 🙂 
Cheers Hamish 🙂 

Last minute choice this morning,  woke up and no rain so went for a bank fish. Started lightly raining as soon as I got there.It was great, kept me cool and plenty of fish. Managed 28 bass, all on spinnerbaits for 2 hours fishing and home for breakfast.Each take was the same, I would get a bump followed by a savage hookup. It was like they were sampling it first.Had to quit as the pain was getting to me, legs,hips and back.See my ortho doc next tuesday to plan my next op, I think I 'll try a new hip this time.
Dino