Houseboat holiday GC

[candogu]

I'm taking the kids and handbrake on a houseboat for a week at the end of the month..
I nead some help with some nice spots to put up for the nite and maybe catch a fish or two, around jumpinpin area ...

Thanks ;D

Noel

[sandbankmagnet]

It will all depend on the winds, but there are heaps of nice spots down that way. Perry's hole on the southern end of Short Island is usually good for some bream. Can get busy on the weekends though.

[brettrock]

Mate,
Tipplers is the go, park up at the front, throw the pots in the mangroves to the East, throw a line from the back and crack a beer.8-)

Good thing about Tipplers you can give the missus a night off from cooking and go enjoy some good seafood......maybe the only thing i miss about Brisbane.
I only have the dirty old Kepples to hang around now......HAHA!!;D

[tigermullet]

Try Tiger Mullet channel as well as Tipplers. Both are fun. Loads of interest at Tipplers with a mixture of responsible boaties plus idiots on Jet Skis - loud music from shore and others trying to find their way back to the boat after too much beer. All great fun to watch.

For a slightly quieter time get into Tiger Mullet - the bream are on and should be active towards the end of the month. Like Tipplers and Short Island it does get a bit crowded on weekends but you will catch fish and be entertained by a lot of activity. Ferrying dogs to shore in rubber duckies never ceases, there is the odd jet ski hoon and lots of boats drag anchor on the larger tides at night. That's always fun to observe.

You will be amazed by the number of boats, usually gin palaces, that have little fluffy white doggies on board and the amount of care lavished upon them. Every one of them has its little paws washed and dried before being carefully placed back on board to be welcomed with a kiss and a cuddle the lady of the boat.
(The nasty part of me is just waiting for one of them to dropped into the jaws of a large shark or over eager pelican)

The weekend before last all of those things happened plus we were graced by the presence of two large hire houseboats. One mis anchored twice then pulled up too close to a couple of us. No worries, we moved as soon as they started up the load music, drinking, swearing and chucking penny bungers all over the place.

The other anchored over the other side (northern) and had a lot of fun with a shanghai and sinkers.

Yet another dragged anchor in the middle of the night and went drifting past on the way to the bar on the outgoing tide, just missing me in the process. After a bit of spot-lighting and yelling they woke up and blundered off in the dark weaving from side to side across the channel before finding a place to chuck out the anchor. They did chuck it too and, by the sound of the chain rattle, let out too little once more. It held and next morning they wandered off probably nursing bad hang overs.

Several ran agound but the motors on those house boats are very powerful and the propellers are almost indestructable - they can grind their way off sand and mud so well that it surpises me that they need water at all.

Don't get me wrong - I am not sour about any of this, I just find it amusing and it really is fun. Most times people are very well behaved and I have met more nice boaties on hire house boats than the lairs who occasionally get down there.

The bird life is interesting too (and here I am not talking about trophy wives, though heaven knows there are enough of them) pelicans in numbers and pairs of wild ducks paddle up and down the line of boats in search of a free meal. Mangove herons, kites, ospreys, seagulls, terns and the occasional flight of stilts complete the picture.

If I had any choice I would love to live on board and would choose Tiger Mullet over any other place.

You will find enough bream by day and night and most nights the channel is full of bull sharks which can provide a bit of excitement if you choose to float out a large live bait. Swimming in the shallows should be okay in daylight hours but I would be a bit cautious after hooking into quite large bull sharks early morning, late afternoon and night.

It really is a great place and I will be heading out early next week with the intention of staying for a bit over three weeks. Naturally, I will move around a bit but a lot of time will be spent in Tiger Mullet. I hope that the luderick come on the bite as well. The bream will certainly be there - they came in on Sunday 27th May. I won't mention the score as some would find it objectionable.

If you do get down to Tiger Mullet I am sure that you will have a very enjoyable time. Take a lot of bait and a yabby pump. There are plenty of yabbies aound the various banks and they are best pumped just as the banks become visible or just before they go under. Pumping at low tide is hard work and produces smaller yabbies. A cast net is also a good idea - the channel is full of herring and the hardy heads are beginning to run as well.

Good luck - happy holiday.

[B_E_N]

just a quick question, rouhgly how much does a NICE house boat down there cost to hire for the week, reading this has got me interested, i.e rough deposits and weekly rent,
thanks ben

[manchild]

Long time no see mate.Gimme a buzz before you come down,i fish said area very often.We can go island hopping around the area in my rig .Finally i can repay some for your help with the secrets of Bribie beach;D
George

[tigermullet]

Hi Ben, I think that you would be looking at between $2,000 and $3,000 per week for one of the larger houseboats. Check out www.coomerahouseboats.com.au (http://www.coomerahouseboats.com.au)

A 'Google' search for "houseboat hire queensland" will reveal others.

A holdiday on a houseboat is not cheap but can be reasonable if a large enough and compatible group can get together and share expenses.

Having a rough idea of the cost of a week on board is what makes me very tolerant of houseboat users - after spending so much they deserve a bit of latitude.

Generally, the people on board are very well behaved and some quite experienced. If an unruly or noisy group are encountered I just move out of the way. After all, I can stay for as long as I like, so giving up a small patch for a day or two doesn't hurt. Nor does it matter much because in Tiger Mullet there are enough bream running, in the season, that an exact position is not necessary. The channel is, to all purposes, essentially featureless except for close into the southern bank. That feature does not produce any more bream than anywhere else in the channel. Luderick are another matter but you really need to walk the bank for those or use a dinghy.

If you choose to fish the channel all that needs to be remembered is that when you think that the sinker size is sufficient go one bigger when the tide is racing.

It's a great place and should not be missed. Some boats don't miss - I reckon that, by now, every single foot of bank and every square metre of sandbank has been hit by someone.

One night I could not get a friend of the aft deck - he was so amused by the hooting and hollering and the blundering around by the wherethefugarewe crowd blinding themselves and everyone else with their spotlights that he drank himself into oblivion and, at the end, was hysterical with laughter.

As a bonus we caught a lot of bream too - although how he managed to keep score I will never know.

[Herm]

Having spent last weekend (Friday lunchtime until Monday morning) on a houseboat from Horizon Shores - so I can tell you exactly how much money it costs!:'(


I paid - $925 for the houseboat (8 beds + sofa bed)+ $22 per hour the engine was running (Credit Card swipe $500 for security deposit) + food, drinks etc - I estimate it probably cost me between $1200 & $1500 for the 3 1/2 days & 3 nights! If you had a few couples to divid the cost between - it would work out much more affordable!

Not cheap but I would have been happy to pay it if things had of worked out as per my plan! but on Saturday lunchtime we found a sandbank and that meant by the time we floated back off, that we were travelling/navigating/anchoring in the dark. Not much fun at all!

But Sunday travelling in the daylight, anchoring up and being able to relax "nearly" made up for the stress and dramas of Saturday!

I was well and truely expecting to run aground at some point (atleast once;) ) but was unprepared for the anxiety that I felt when trying to settle for the night.

I had been researching going on a houseboat for a while now and got home from our weekend away to find an email from another company offering 20% off all new bookings made in June. If you are interested I can forward you details of company.

The company that we went with was "Island Seeker Houseboats" and Gayle and Vic could not have done more to help! I can thoroughly recommend them!:)

Janine

[B_E_N]

thanks for the info! might just start putting the wages away for a trip,

Janine, that would be great if you could email me the details or contacts, just pm if you want or i could give you my email!

[Just_chips]

Hey Cando, the houseboat mob will give you info on the best anchorages for particular conditions and you will be in contact with them regularly on the radio anyway as you will have to log in with them a number of times each day. Take your boat with you as when I last went on a houseboat down there (a number of years ago though) they only had a rowboat as a tender. Bream should be on the chew by the end of the month and it should not be too hard to locate some, there should also be plenty of tailor moving in and out of the pin bar at that time of year also.

Good luck mate and have fun.

Kev

[candogu]

just a quick question, rouhgly how much does a NICE house boat down there cost to hire for the week, reading this has got me interested, i.e rough deposits and weekly rent,
thanks ben

Ben,,, It's cost us 950 for the boat for moday to friday + fuel @ 22hr,, say 4 hrs a day so in the end about 1500..

http://www.sundownerhouseboats.com.au/

We have hired Snooty Fox... (http://www.sundownerhouseboats.com.au/fleet/Snooty.php)


Thanks every1... Manchild,,, they are on now at bribie;D http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/showthread.php?t=111665 ... send me your no again;) the ph has gone for a swin sence we last chated

[B_E_N]

thank mate for the estimate