A couple of mates and I have booked a houseboat/cruiser at Hinchinbrook in mid September. Planning has started for the trip and as none of us have fished north Qld (in particular the hinchinbrook area), we are looking for all local tips for the area including bait, lures, tides, locations (PM me if secret). All help is very much appreciated.
We plan to fish the creek systems for a couple of days, then head out to the outer islands (Dunk, Family and Brook) to fish the reef. Looking at catching a lot of firsts and PB's this trip, so please share some of your valuable local knowledge with a fellow fisher.
JOM
G'day JOM,
You would more than welcome to call in at my Lucinda workshop when you get up here. I will be happy to give you a good run-down on all the latest local conditions etc which hopefully will result in a fish or two for you.
Make sure you mention your Ausfish membership to receive a discount on some bloody good handcrafted timber lures - please refer to website in my profile if interested.
Cheers - Lou
JOM ..... We did the same trip in Oct 2005 & I wish I had known of Ausfish at that time. Hopefully you will have some sought of tinny (13-16 foot) with you & preferably with a leccy motor ...... As it sounds like you'll be up the Cardwell end ...... Head out to Missionary Bay & anchor off Macushla point ..... Fish the creeks (No s 3,5,6 8) .... You can easily spend a week here ! (go up the creeks on the top of the tide & fish the dropping tide ..... Lure casting for Jacks, barra & cod .... some Goldens near the mouths )JUST DONT GET CAUGHT BY THE TIDE over a rockbar or up a small creek
. Of a night you can catch some grunter , blue salmon & lots of sharks off the back of the houseboats. If conditions allow you can fish Cape Richards (troll or baitfish) ...... We burnt 4 of our 7 days here !
Keep one thing in mind ...... If this area doesn't deliver (don't hang around) ..... As it is a area that can fire or misfire! ...... We never made it too Dunk Etc .... we ended up the Channel (Gayundah Ck area) ...... Just stay flexible & see whats happening just prior to your arrival .....
Don't expect too much and you may get lucky. Hinchinbrook Channel is seriously overrated for the novice.
hi jom ,
i posted a similar question on this site about a week ago "hinchinbrook tips appreicated " with much the same reasult . I,m going on a house boat out off cardwell in may . will let you know how it unfolds and any tips discovered.nagg also gave some usefull info on my thread
Missionary bay is a good area and has Gould and Garden island just of there which both have good bottom fishing [reef fish and grunter]. There are some good spaniards and at that time of year most probably some spotty's in the deep water of the eastern point of Gould.Give us a date as it gets closer and I might try and catch up with you.
Luigi - Thanks mate, we will drop in to get some of those lures and local advice for sure. Can't find the website you are talking about. Can you PM it to me?
Nagg - We will have a 4.55m tinny with bow mount leccy for our fishing missions. Sound advice, thank you very much. I'll be looking out for your report.
Whiteman - Sounds like you had a bad experience up there? I'm sure the fishing up there is a lot better than down here in brissy! I'm sure that if we use the basic's and get a little local advice, we'll do OK. Do you live up there?
Sambos - Good luck with your trip, look forward to your report.
Major-defect - Will definately PM you when the time gets closer. Love to hook up with some locals. You mentioned spanish and spotties, now you are talking my language and have my full attention! We will be up there on the houseboat from 10/9/07 until 18/9/07.
I have only fished up there about 30 times so I'm starting to feel my way around. It's probably better than Brisbane but plenty of people who post on this site go there with very high expectations. I've caught good fish where there aren't supposed to be any and sat in spots which are known as "specials" for hours without a bite. Like any spot, local knowledge and experience goes such a long way. Really good lure fishos get results but it takes guts to throw a $15 lure into timber. My method is to park up close to the mangroves and drop livies into the timber. Lucinda has excellent access to the reef and Palm Islands where the fishing is usually faster and more furious - if you know where to go.Originally Posted by JustOneMore
Go have a chat with Luigi. He's a character and his handmade lures should be handed down through the generations as you don't see this sort of craftmanship much these days (I have caught jacks with his little purple model dipped in his special garlic sauce).
I've done trips there when i've got nothing worth mentioning like anywhere youve got to be in the right spot at the right time and it's a big area.
7th April M&G at the port Hinchnbrook boat ramp 8:00am. See Townsville/NQ M&G thread.
Last edited by Rod Fishing; 16-03-2007 at 10:51 PM.
G'day JOM
Mate i agree with whiteman im originally from brisbane and fished hinchinbrook twice a year until i moved to Cardwell and have lived here for the last 2 1/2 years . The amount of people i see who come up on house boat trips and go home with out catching anything but vermin is unreel . The Bay has that many fishing options that you will all ways find fish . Remember within 20 min run from macushla there are well over 30 species of fish to catch on softs and hards , wether it be finding some rubble in the middle of the bay and working softs over it for legal nanny's and grunter , sweetlip, fingermark , queenies, GTs , both salmons , giant herring, trout etc . theres one tip . My Brother was just up and he and a mate went camping at macushla for 2 nights best fish was an 79cm barra on a gulp off the beach and he got five that arvo all legal . they also got jacks , flathead Gts and i got a nice trout right at the rocks in front of the camp ground . Everyone else wasn't catching a thing just a few crabs and the whole time the fish were right under there nose they just thought it would be to easy because they were at hinchinbrook . Fish hard slow things down get your presentations right and you will get more PB's then you know what to do with .
A few of the QFM boys got here yesterday and a few new species were caught being trout , murwong and i cant remember what the other was but it was raining and blowing 20 knots but they still got a heap of fish on plastics . I was fishing a popper and we got a 104cm Queenie a 45cm jack and a GT about 50cm on a day when you souldn't be on the water because nothing will bite in 20knots ,Apparently. You will have a ball and it is better then brissie just take it easy and don't just flog snags in creeks the whole time hinchinbrook is more a flats fishery so mix it up .
Good luck i'll be out there thats for sure chasing spaniards at eva island and billfish in the shipping channel in september its my favourite month up here
Ask Blue from rent a yacht what Ben Johnston boat name is as im getting a new one built and call me on channel 16 when your up im on the water alot
Cheers
Ben
.... Fish hard (lots of casts!) & be flexible... NAGG
You must have had a bad experience whiteman.
As for me, I fish the channel almost weekly and always come home with reasonable catch... Live prawns go well and mullet strips cast into the edge of snags and cover... Nothing flash.
But I definitely rate this place as a top spot for anyone JOM.
Regards,
Paul
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