Hervey Bay and a majestic day

[The BeaR]

Hi All...

Had a fish on Wednesday, weather predictions seemed good at 10-15 SSE. With an early start heading over to moon point was absolutely flat. From moon point we headed straight across to Roonies again, seeing though we’ve had a lot of fun in this area previously, we had to give it a go, but once we were away from the island a bit, the chop started to pick up. Not enough to worry about so we persisted.

Arriving on the marks that had previously proved a little productive, we started to sound around for the bait which compared to the last trip was sadly lacking but we were there and managed to find some small areas of baitfish that produced a few small squire. There are reasonable numbers of these fish just no quality this time.

While we were there this time just bobbing around like a cork in an Olympic swimming pool, out of nowhere came our sighting of our first Hervey bay Humpback and we didn’t have to look far as it decided to show itself about 20ft away from the boat. This was exciting for us as we think these creatures are just so majestic. We are used to the whales around the boat from the years of fishing off cape Moreton. I’m not real sure what these creatures eat but I don’t think the squire were too sure either because after the whale had turned up the fish were nowhere to be found so it was time to look somewhere else.

\We decided to start heading back by following the island around. Just north of Wathumba saw some fish working on the surface, so decided to go and have a look. These were small schools of longtail and scads feeding together, so decided to have a bit of fun. Took my BeaR S4 which was already rigged up with a 3/8oz jighead and 5”pinkshine gulp and put a cast in front of the lead fish. This was easy, didn’t even have to crank and the fish was on it straight away. Took about 8 mins to put a nice little longtail in the net. The fish we got were around the 7kg mark and that would be the average within the schools with a few larger specimens at best about 10kg. The scad were also quick to nail these little lures.

While in this area fishing had to come to a stop, because there were whales also in this area and three of them decided they had to find out what we were doing. While we were drifting taking some photos of the fish, we had them turn up around the boat, and I mean around the boat, so what else do you do, cameras already out and it’s not like I can start the boat and motor off, so we started clicking away. To be honest, we could sit for hours and watch these creatures; they just create an instant feeling of peace. Eventually the whales moved on and it was time to head home. The ocean conditions had become calm and on the way back we had a few playful dolphins come into the pressure wave of the bow, not that our boat’s big enough to create one, but the dolphins don’t seem to mind it. It just topped the day off nicely.

Eric&Deb...

[Peter4]

Magic report and great pics, Eric & Deb.....sounds like the perfect day out.

Very envious...

Pete

[skipalong]

top fishing eric, some quality fish and pics

justin

[Poodroo]

Let's hope an equally magical day is in store for Scalem, Frank OO, and myself this Saturday. Top report Eric and Deb. Thanks for sharing.

Poodroo

[Jurkyjj]

Thanks for sharing your great day out on the water.
You have a couple of really nice fish there to show for your efforts.
Well Done. Nice fish and photos.

Cheers, Jason.

[setthehook]

Great stuff mate!! what sort of water temps were u fishing?

[The BeaR]

Thanks for the replies all.

STH...Water temps were sitting around 18.5deg for most of the day. It was a bit blowy around the point but once we came back into the bay it settled down nicely. I don't think the longtails have seen too many boats as they were not shy at all.

Eric&Deb...

[Mark-P]

Love your work eric & love the bay !
Cheers Mark