Reply With Quotegreat report and fish mate, congrats on the Snapper.
Love the sounder shots
Since my wife and daughter natty jane were of to sydney for a week, my son leon and I headed to harvey bay for 3 day of fishing
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Mark picked us up early friday morning and we headed down to tuan to chase the long tail that had been terrorizing the local bait in the area, he had been getting some nice size fish there earlier in the week around the inside entrance of the bar. As we arrived we could see a couple of schools working, however the fish were really shy and very hard to get close enough for shot at them. I managed to hook up to one on my third cast on my brand new Certate 4000 and my new Rapala braid concept rod, its rated 10 to 20 kg and having 30lb braid on my certate, I could fish it to the max (only if the fish played along that is) however the hooks pulled after a few mins.
We spent the next few hours chasing them, but couldn't get close enough so we decided to head outside the wide bay bar and throw some plastics and some livies down and see what would co operate.
The bar was quite good heading out, but there were 2 big black clouds in the distance with a lot of water heading towards us, so the plan was to head to the 5 mile and see what would happen, we could always make a run for it back inside the bar if we had to. Lucky for us the clouds kept there distance so we started fishing.
Mark kept the live bait coming so we put one out on a floater and dropped one down to the bottom, I pulled out my light spinning gear and cast out a nuclear chicken, just as I was about to bring it in for another cast, I got slammed and line started screamed of my little reel. I couldn't put to much pressure on it and hoped she wouldn't find the bottom before I could turn her head, I could feel a couple of head shakes and both mark and I knew it was a snapper, as I was about to tell leon to start taking some video his livie goes of (on my new rod and reel)
It's funny how we are conditioned to things, mac tuna put up a good fight but as soon as we see them close to the boat we get disappointed, most of us these days release most of our fish anyway so I don't see why we attach a vermin status to them.
If I ever figure that one out I will let everyone know.
Mark netted my fish and it went 8.6kg on the scales not bad for my first fish on a plastic. I have put in a photo of the bait and the fish hanging around them, thats where I got my snapper
Mark has just bought a new poly boat a 5. something rear console. Now I dont want to start a debate on wether they are good or not, because I thought they were crap myself, that is before I fished in one.
Actually mark was disappointed on how wet she was when he first got it, she was REALLY WET he said. In the last few weeks he has had 4" spray chimes welded to the front sides and I must say I was really impressed with how dry she was, we moved to a few places outside and hiked it from place to place and we didn't get any spray on us and we were sitting on the rear lounge, she handled really well, came of the wave smoothly with no jolting, my back really noticed the difference. As we all know every open boat is subject to the elements, however I was really impressed with her. If you want stable then this boat is great, mark stood on the back of the boat right on the side and leon stood right on the front on the anchor well and I walked from side to side and they both stayed on the boat and not over the side.
Now I'm not trying to sell anyone anything, I dont know if I would buy one myself, but I couldn't help be impressed with it, a little bit like those mac tuna, they fight well but we still don't like catching them.
As everything went quiet, probably due to the drop in the barometer we headed inside the bar to give the longtail another go with the flood tide, however they to didn't want to play, thats fishing.
The weather forecast for Saturday was for light winds early and turning ugly latter, so we got up early and headed in our own boat to pelican point to chase some golden on the sand flats with some plastics. Mark was on the other end of the sand bank fly fishing for them on his day off. It was a picture perfect day that harvey bay is known for, we saw sharks and rays on the flats but no goldens, you could see for miles in the clear water but the change must have put everything of.
As we were coming up to a change of tide, I headed to a mark near the artificial that Mark had given me earlier. We drifted a couple of times over the mark dropping nuclear chooks, when my rod went of , this time it was on my small chronarch (still not on my Certate) I had the drag screwed up as tight as it would go and I was still loosing line, whatever I gained I lost just as quickly and after about 10 mins a beautiful 9kg Golden Travelly was netted. WE took some photos swam her for a while and let her go.
The good thing about this trip is that I really wanted to catch a snapper and a golden Travelly on a plastic and they were both good fish. Pitty they weren't on my new rod and reel.
I am back up there again in 6 weeks time with friends from Sydney, and I will ONLY fish with my new rod.
We have taken some movie of our trip and will post it soon.
Fishfreak.
great report and fish mate, congrats on the Snapper.
Love the sounder shots
Great story fishfreak. Hervey Bay is a lovely spot. I am keen to take the boat up there soon for some action. If you have any GPS marks you are keen to share I would love to try some of your spots. If not, I understand. I'm new to the area up there.
Cheers
dave
Awesome snapper mate, well done. I also went for a ride in a poly the other day, and i could not believe how quiet and smooth they are on the water.
Marty.
Your not wrong Marty, I really was impressed this is a big boat, you feel safe fishing from it. Anyone can move anywhere in the boat and you dont feel a thing, my tinnie is so noisy in comparison.
Fisffreak.
Great story and great effort fishfreak.
Cheers Scott
Well done mate, thats a great snapper. Also love that sounder pic. Im waiting for the day I see a scene like that on my sounder!
I have a 600L Furuno colour sounder on my boat and I haven't seen that kind of detail.
Great sounder shots really shows the fish into the bait really clearly
cheers pete...
Hi Fishfreak,
Congratulations on two great fish on plastics. The photo of your sounder tells it all. Great work and thanks for the report.
Frank OO
Great report and great fish.
I laughed at your comments on mack tuna. They are almost twins to the North American False Albacore (were once considered the same species and you can only tell them apart by counting dorsal fins) which is considered the hardest/fastest fighting fish around for its weight - and yet we consider them a disappointment!
Thanks Frank, one thing I have learnt is, if there isn't any bait with something hanging around it, don't bother dropping anything down. Especially if your jigging. I was lucky the snapper hit mid water or I wouldn't of landed her with my gear.Originally Posted by Frank OO
Fishfreak, good photo of the GT thats an ugly head its sporting.. Thinking of heading up there myself next week, what is the go with accomodation - do you stay in a van park / motel? Cheers Enem
I stayed in the Harbor View Caravan Park which is 100m to the boat ramp. We had a onsite van which was reasonable and clean, had a double bed and 2 singles in the annex, for $55 a night.
Fishfreak.
Thanks for the report fishfreak. Great sounder shot. Do you know exactly what sort of bottom you were fishing. Would be good if someone (or yourself) had a go at interprepting the bottom on the sounder and you could confirm or deny the type of ground you were fishing.
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