Fishing tips for Great Sandy Straits

[JRBK]

Hi all,

After the dismal weather we had on a Houseboat trip to Hinchinbrook last year, we going for a place closer to Brisbane. We're looking at hiring a Houseboat and travelling the Great Sandy Straits from Tin Can Bay to Kingfisher Bay Resort for about a week.

I am hoping to get some tips not necessarily on places to fish, but on the month and moon phase to go. Fishing tips would help also along with gps points as well. The more the merrier.

At this stage we're fairly open to all suggestions. We'd be targeting anything decent and everything edible, just wanting feeds of fish and crabs.
We'd be taking a 4.5m centre console and possibly a 5.5m glass boat in case the days glassed out and we could fly out across the bar at inskip or the reefs in Hervey Bay & off Fraser

ta
Mark

[robersl]

Hi mark
They are still getting plenty of Mud Crabs and sand crabs in the channels up there at the moment the muddies go into the deeper channels out of the mangroves in winter but go quite around oct-nov, just watch your sand bars other than that alway a few good whiting around on the sand banks on the rising tide and if you anchor near a bank that empties off with a big drain on it the wghiting and flathead sit at the entrance to these drains towards the bottom of the tide and use them to go back on the banks on the run up, you can troll lures at ungowa close to the rocks fornear the old wrecks and jetty for trevally ,school mackerill and i have even caught a 95 cm barra there plenty of yabbies on most banks

regards shane

[Scott Mitchell]

We're coming into a great period for fishing the Straights - from Oct to December there will be plenty of stuff to chase. The week leading up to a full or new moon is generally better with building tides & clearer water coming off neaps

So much water - Scotto

[JRBK]

Thanks Scotto & Shane for the responses
Thats the problem Scotto, there is so much water

Does it really matter what month of the year we go in? Is the Straits a place where because of the vastness of options, a feed can usually be obtained all year round or is there a couple of times of the year which are better than others?

Mark

[davo]

There is only one thing that you have all forgotten and that is the Bushman's repellant. Seriously, Any drain off Fraser has a good population of flathead and others. Try Ungowa. It either fires or not. I'm jumped off barra on SP's but found prawnstars were to the liking of the local grunter. I ususally take heaps of gear because you never know what to fish for next.

[rhino01]

There is a green beacon pretty much in the middle of Tin Can Bay which is called Big Mick try there - last time I went camping at Inskip took the boat and got into some nice school mackeral LOTS OF FUN and great on the chew... try an unweighted pilly and cast with 10-15 metres of the beacon. The only thing last time there was the worlds largest toad fish there

[robersl]

My mate picked up a 74.5 cm flatties today on the banks in near the turkey straights

shane

[JRBK]

That'd be a nice suprise to add to the esky Shane