FNQ Ausfish Meet & Greet Report

[levinge]

Townsville and Cairns Meet and Greet at Mission Beach – Australia Day long weekend.

Absolutely brilliant!!

All those who attended the M&G at Mission Beach from both Townsville and Cairns agreed that it was such a good weekend and everyone had a really good time, we are going to do it all over again. Through a few hazy beers and UDL’s the decision was made to hold another one over the Queens Birthday long weekend and this time it will be at Cardwell.

Most of the Ausfish boys and girls arrived at Hideaway Village Mission Beach during the course of Friday afternoon. As usual it was a procession of boats, bait and bodies coming and going as we setup for the fishing, drinking and tall tale talking over the next 3 days. As the afternoon wore on, various members wandered the park and introductions were made, boats were ogled and information swapped.

After everyone had acquainted themselves, we fired up the communal barbecues and everyone took turns cooking and feeding their respective crews and families.

From the turnout of fisho’s, it looked like a good weekend was in store. There were a few boats from Cairns with Wahoo, Disorderly, Major Defect and Wayno to name a few. Townsville’s contributions was Levinge, Rod Fishing, Mattmuller85, Alchemy, Nic, Scott Nthqld and 2 local lads in Blueline and Bad Bubby. Rules were passed and everyone melted away into the night to check gear and get some downtime on the pillow.

3:30am and the park was buzzing with the noise of boats being loaded with gear. Shortly after, the procession to the ramp began and it wasn’t long before boats were wet and their skippers had them humming off to the reef. A short run had all boats fishing and the banter over the radio was very amusing at times. Anyway over the course of 2 days fishing there were a large number of Coral Trout, Spanish Mackerel, Spotted Mackerel, Small Mouth Nannnygai, Golden Trevally, Red Throat, Spangled Emperor, Gold Spot Cod, Longtail Tuna and Bludger Trevally.

Overall it was considered by the locals that it was a quiet weekend on the water. I would hate to see what a bad weekend is like!!!

Anyway, once the fishing was done and everyone had stowed gear, flushed motors and washed down their boats, it was time for a few quiet beers. Results of each boats catch were handed to our 2 unbiased and extremely bribeable Weigh Masters, Wahoo and Scott Nthqld. After much deliberation the following results came to be.

Biggest Scoring Fish Townsville (Points) - Bad_Bubby 96cm Longtail Tuna
Biggest Scoring Fish Cairns (Points) – Dario on Wahoo 84cm Cobia

Longest Fish Overall – 138cm 17kg Spanish Mackerel – Levinge’s missus onboard Hard Livin (given honorary title of the “Mackinator”)

Highest Scoring Boat was the crew of Wahoo
Second was the crew on Hard Livin

Best overall Angler was Bad_Bubby

Best Capture was by Dieon onboard Mattmuller85’s boat, Got Crabz – he landed a 102cm Giant Trevally on 30LB Braid using a bargain basement Trollcraft popper in chrome with red head. The fight we are told took 25 minutes to complete.

Overall there were 88 keepers landed in 2 days of fishing – top effort to all who attended.

Special thanks go to Alistair Pike of Dunk Island Sportsfishing Charters, for his exceptional service to many of the guys who had tackle failures after fishing on Saturday.

Thanks again to all and wait for the next one, it’s going to be bigger….

[levinge]

Here are a few photo's from the weekend off Hard Livin

Crew - Levinge (skipper), Da Missus "The Mackinator" and Rod_Fishing

[FNQCairns]

Nice fish everywhere!, wish I was there, did you blokes even see a wave without a boat going past! the weather looked a cracker even from here at home.

cheers fnq

[levinge]

Saturday was absolutely fantastic weather for all.

Sunday we had a severe Rain Squall first thing with a bit of swell, but once it passed over landfall it cleared to blue skies and almost flat seas.

[ferrett]

well done guys looks like a great weekend. Maybe next time i might actually come ( although i mananged to hook 20 muddies yesterday so wasnt a complete loss of a weekend ). Good job levinge outdone by the missus again, at least your boat is catching some quality fish now not just sharks :)

[Scott nthQld]

I've got a few pics of those GT's we got...awesome stuff, I'll get them all together this arvo and put them up.

I'll also attampt to make up a video of the weekend, we got some great footage on the phone of the fight with the GT's, plus I should be able to put in a few pictures amongst it if anyone wants to email their's to me send me a pm.

[Bad_Bubby]

It sure was an enjoyable weekend! Haven't these M&Gs come a long way in the past few years. Speaking from a local's perspective the fishing was good but yeah we have had plenty of more productive days on bottom species on the reefs in this area. The number and size of the pelagics was very good to see though.
Well done on organising this event.

[Wahoo]

Brett, Myself and the guys on Wahoo would like to thank you for making this happen, we had a great weekend, was good to meet all the Ausfishers and put a face to there name, you Townsville boys out fished us fair and square,

LOL, i was just about to forfeit on Sunday night as I was so unorganised that evening, but had a good time downing a few beers latter on, cant wait till the next one


Daz

[ronnien]

well done boys, sounds like everyone had a great time & caught some fish.
would like you all to get your s#$t together & show lots of pics!

ron.

[Silent]

What a top condition & session on long weekend...
Good on ya (levinga) for organising M&G...
I miss the old good day @ NQ...:'(

btw thanks for pic's

[Alchemy]

Thanks Brett for getting this organised. Nic and I both enjoyed meeting everyone, plus had a great weekend on the water. We fished around Potter reef plus a bit wider, finding most of our fish closer in this trip. The fishing highlight for us were getting our PB trout at 65 and 62cm and Nic's PB GT at 84cm. We got plagued by spangled emperor at one point and released most as we were trying to catch trout. Terrible problem to have!

Another highlight was what we think was the successful release of two fat cod that came up bloated from 60m. Nic got hold of a venting tool a while ago. This is a hollow needle and it worked a treat in deflating the cod. We then used a release weight to send them back to the depth after deflating them.

[Alchemy]

couple more pics.

[Bad_Bubby]

Nice pics!! Heres a few from our boat while I'm here...

[levinge]

Thanks for the pics guys, was a great weekend and can't wait for June.

Gees we are spoilt up here in FNQ hey!!!!

[Nic]

Thank you Brett, we had an awesome time. Your missus is a bloody good fisher, I'd be stoked to catch a Spaniard half that size!

Very well organised event, lots of fun and great bunch of people. :)

[Scott nthQld]

still haven't uploaded my pictures yet, but am getting some footage of the GT's we caught emailed to me by Deion.

I've got my hands on some video editing software so now I'm going to attempt to make up a movie.

Also I'll try my hand at doing up a poster with heaps of pics.

So I'd like to get my hands on a few more pics from everyone so I can make it happen, I'll post the resulting video and poster here if I'm successful.

Those of you with pics, can you please email them to me, full size, to sth38150@bigpond.net.au.

I promise I'll get my pics up tonight.

[disorderly]

Thanks Brett for organising it...

Nice to meet everybody and sounds like everyone enjoyed the weekend despite the fishing being pretty slow...at least the weather was awesome and you cant beat Mission beach for its close proximity to the reef...

I just love living and fishing here..

Scott

Oh and cheers Scott nth qld..its nice to be known as "the bloke who takes the overseas visitors out fishing and gets them sick"..;D

[Scott nthQld]

haha, well Scott, I know its good amusement, but surely a couple bottles of ginger beer, or some kwells go won't go astray?? Surely we want it firmly embedded in their brains that this is God's own country?

Ok Here's my pics as I promised, uploaded from Photobucket for a bigger picture:

Heading out on the Saturday:

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/ww14/ScottNQ/Mission%20Beach%202009/SunriseMissionBeach.jpg

This was the first decent fish brought in for the day by Rochelle:

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/ww14/ScottNQ/Mission%20Beach%202009/RochellesTrout.jpg

Here's all our keepers for the Day on Got Grabz:

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/ww14/ScottNQ/Mission%20Beach%202009/TroutCaughtthatday.jpg

Now onto the serious fish, first up, Deion's GT:

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/ww14/ScottNQ/Mission%20Beach%202009/DeionsGTmeasurement.jpg

Then came mine:

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/ww14/ScottNQ/Mission%20Beach%202009/ScottsGT.jpg

Then Matty's

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/ww14/ScottNQ/Mission%20Beach%202009/MattysGT.jpg

Dehooking another:

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/ww14/ScottNQ/Mission%20Beach%202009/De-hookinganother.jpg

And last but not least (the 2nd largest, the biggest going to Deion):

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/ww14/ScottNQ/Mission%20Beach%202009/RochellesGT.jpg

Big Boof Head:

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/ww14/ScottNQ/Mission%20Beach%202009/BigBoofHead.jpg

This is what our lures looked like afterwards:

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/ww14/ScottNQ/Mission%20Beach%202009/GTLures.jpg

The top one caught just one fish (Matty's), that one was caught on 50lb braid on a Torium on a T-curve with 100lb leader. The popper caught 3 fish (mine, Deion's and Rochelle's) on a Saragosa 8000 (now rooted) and 24kg jigwrex rod with 30lb braid onto 100lb leader.

Still after any photo's anyone wants to email me so I can do up a video clip and big poster to get framed up. Send them to the email in my previous post.

[ronnien]

some big bruisers there scott.

ron.

[disorderly]

haha, well Scott, I know its good amusement, but surely a couple bottles of ginger beer, or some kwells go won't go astray?? Surely we want it firmly embedded in their brains that this is God's own country?



Mate I do whatever I can to get first-timers to take some tabs,use the wrist bands or take some ginger but some people dont realise how bad seasickness is till they get it...What am I supposed to do..hold them down and force the pills down there throat...:-/..

So where were you guys fishing for the GT's ?

Also is Matts boat called "Got Grabs"....

We heard you guys on the radio and thought it was "Got Crabs"...we had a bit of chuckle about that...

[Scott nthQld]

yeah, Matt's boat is Got Crabs. We got the GT's on th norht side of Farquasan (spelling?) in about 5m of water where it dropped off to 17m. Just casting poppers into huge schools of rainbow runners, we know what they were because Deion foul hooked one his the popper, it was destined to be a live bait but we spied fisheries coming and couldn't remember if they were regulated or not so we threw it back.

[Mozza]

Great read guys sounds like a top event - will keep an eye on more reports to come here.

Well done Brett et al on organising this.

Mozza

[major-defect]

I'm glad we got the good weather,you wouldn't have wanted to be here this weekend all the roads down to the beach are flooded.

[Rod Fishing]

Where are all the pics from the Cairns guys?

[Alchemy]

I did an oil change on the patrol today and when I got some tools out of the back noticed the padlock on my spare had been cut. Fortunately who ever did it wasn't able to get it off. I know it was ok when we left home before the m&g, and I've only had it parked at home since then so am guessing it happened on Saturday night when we stayed out. Just curious if anyone else had any issues at the ramp?

[disorderly]

That's not nice to hear Dave...

Have even left my car unlocked and window down on an overnighter before and had no drama..but then again my car is a piece of crap and my trailer is far worse...Hmmmm...think there's a message in that....

Seriously though its not a good trend ..I'll let the local fishing shops know about it though.... so at least people leaving there cars at the ramp can take adequate security measures....I hate to see that such lowlife cretins are hanging about...



Scott

[Alchemy]

Hi Scott,

It is possible it happened on my driveway at home, but it is well lit in the middle of suburbia. Not that that is necessarily a deterrent these days. Just thought I'd ask.

Regards,
Dave.

[levinge]

Definitely not the thing you want to wake up to in the morning. I've a couple of vocal 4 legged alarm systems at home. Can leave my boat in the front yard and my 2 girls will let me know when someone has even slowed down to have a look.

Payment a fat juicy Lamb Shank every week, cheapest alarm system out there.

I didn't have any issues over the weekend with security, but there were a few strange ones who I saw come down to the ramp (no boat or fishing gear), drive around slow and when we took interest in them, they left fairly quickly.

Looks like we will be tied up for a while with this bloody weather, unless your poking around for the Barra in the Ross

[Scott nthQld]

let just hope cardwell gets left on the map....looks like thats where this cyclone is going to hit. Not a big one though, only category 1 but who knows what could happen.

[levinge]

Tis but a little wind, we've had worse of a shitty day fishing the bay!!!

[nonibbles]

At least it should flatten out after all this. Trouble is who's got enough fuel to get away from the fresh?

[Rod Fishing]

I still haven't seen a photo from the Cairns crew

[ronnien]

rod,
i have been told that the fish the cairns boys caught are to big for the camera::)

ron.

[Scott nthQld]

No Ron, they're just to embarrassed from being shown up by Townsville, when we were all struggling to fill the esky, we still showed them who the better fishermen (and women, for Nic and Mrs Levinge) are

[disorderly]

Have to agree Mrs Levinge stole the show...

We didnt take any photo's...didnt catch anything special..couldnt even bag out on nannies..only got 16 for 30 or so total fish...was OK for a day and evening fishing but no stand out fish and I fish here all the time ...figured it would be a bit tough for some of the out of towners as we only had 2 bite periods while out there..I was parked up on my fave nanny spot both times and the rest of the time the fishing was very ,very slow...

Had a look in Daz and his mates eskies and while they got a few fish ..dont think they got anything spectacular either....

So yep for me the standout fish were Mrs Levinge's spanish and Dans(Bad Bubby) tuna's...and of course the boys with crabs got there wish and poppered up some GT's as well...well done..:)

Just glad the weather was so damn fine and it was great to meet everyone...

Scott

[Wahoo]

yes, nothing to show really,



Daz

[levinge]

The Mackinator here (aka Mrs Levinge) thanks for the good rap guys, can't wait for the next get together

[Bad_Bubby]

Just a quick question guys...does anyone know the contact details for the dive operation that was working out of Clump Point? (they were going back and forth in a small punt to a big boat)

[matmuller85]

No idea dan sorry