Offshore lucinda

[Flex]

Hi all,

heading up to Lucinda in a few weeks.If it doesnt rain,cyclone,flood or earthquake!.

Anyhow, Fished the area before in a tinny but this year is my first try out of my new 6m boat.

Headed offshore what reefs/areas am i better off heading to? I only have a week and dont want to waist to much time going in the wrong direction.

Brittomart is first reef off the ranks, is it worth trying around here or heading further east?

Also is it worth trying the tinnier reef patches to the south. I dont hear much about these.

Anyhow, Any bit of info would be very handy.

Cheers..

[Scott nthQld]

Britomart and trunk are the reefs I have fished with Stuie63, i dare say if he sees this post he'll give you a bit more detail on the area.

Trout reports have been mixed of late, some are finding them deep(40m +), some shallow (less than 25m) and most hardly at all. but the trickies, are out in force apparently.

The recent rain and cloudy weather has dropped the water temp a bit too, so shallower for trout might be good, but generally stick around the 25m mark, and good looking bottom. if you can sound up a few bommies in a line and anchor up current from them, if they line up with the current flow its perfect, that way to can fish each one for about 20minutes, and let out a bit of rope to drift down to the next one for another 20min etc.

I've just been told today that the Jetty has had an exclusion zone put around it because of damage from Yasi, so stay clear of that, i think they've even gone and marked it with temporary beacons which makes things easier, shame really, there'd be plenty of good structure underneath it now. This will also mean you'll have to find somewhere else to jig up any livies, no idea where though, i think there's a marker a bit further out you could stop and give a go.

Now Idea on the reefs a bit further south, sort of 'inbetween' country from lucinda and Townsville, so they could fish well, as I would expect they aren't fished as often.

I'm sure you'd be aware of the green zones, but still make sure you make yourself familiar with them, the bastards get you with planes and helo's up here

[STUIE63]

give me a bell 0438 225575
Stuie

[whiteman]

On my first trip to the reef off Lucinda (we did Walker that time) all I knew was "look for baitfish in 25-40m and hang a balloon off the back". We came back to the ramp with an esky full of trout, spaniards and red throat. And while not every trip since has been as good although we have had our fair share of better catches (add in cobia, spangled emperor, etc), you would have to be unlucky not to get some good fish so long as you have a good sounder like a Furuno and you are prepared to up anchor and move when things are quiet (like, 5 minutes without a good bite is a quiet time!). Once we choose an area we tend not to go too far. Like most fishing spots the reef becomes quiet between 11-2 and that's when you should pick a shallow spot and go for a snorkel. It gets very rough coming back in for the last 10k when the PM onshore kicks in so be aware of this.

[nidrac]

On my first trip to the reef off Lucinda (we did Walker that time) all I knew was "look for baitfish in 25-40m and hang a balloon off the back". We came back to the ramp with an esky full of trout, spaniards and red throat. And while not every trip since has been as good although we have had our fair share of better catches (add in cobia, spangled emperor, etc), you would have to be unlucky not to get some good fish so long as you have a good sounder like a Furuno and you are prepared to up anchor and move when things are quiet (like, 5 minutes without a good bite is a quiet time!). Once we choose an area we tend not to go too far. Like most fishing spots the reef becomes quiet between 11-2 and that's when you should pick a shallow spot and go for a snorkel. It gets very rough coming back in for the last 10k when the PM onshore kicks in so be aware of this.

This is good advice, we were out there a couple of weeks ago and fished trout ally, the fish were there just not biting, so it was a mater of finding good patch of fish and if they weren't biting in 5-10 mins just move on to the next spot. I did exactly as whiteman suggested at lunchtime (got sick of sitting in the hot boat) so jumped in for a quick spear and got 3 trout and a nice white spot cod in an hour and a half. they are there its just a matter of finding when they are feeding, getting in the water is a good way to find this out as all of the fish i got were all holed up hiding and not out looking for food, would have missed another 3-4 trout and a nice reef jack in that time as well because they were hiding away and was unable to get a clean shot off. Send me a PM when you are closer to heading up and you can tag along with us if we are going.

Nidrac.

[Flex]

Thanks for the info guys,

Im headed up in a 21foot CC Seaswirl striper with my wife. So lets hope the weather gods are nice for a change this year. If you see me feel free to say g'day.
Stue thanks for your offer, will give you a call shortly.

The 100m exclusion zone around the jetty is a pain. Is there much damage to it?

Cheers

[nidrac]

There is a fair bit of damage to the jetty, towards the end there is a big hole about 30-40m long where all the iron has just been pulled in, there are several smaller holes similar right along it. The new weather/research station they only just built over Christmas is gone off the end as well as a small brick structure is now a pile of rubble.. This is all on the north side i haven't been over to the south to see what it looks like.

Nidrac

[STUIE63]

onn the south side there is another block structure that has been blown apart and is in the water and bits of wire hanging in the water in a few places probably lights and stuff that were smashed into the water .

[STUIE63]

the local paper in Townsville has fishing section that has good fishing maps there is one for the Palms and one for the channel link is here http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au...s/fishing.html
another very good magazine is the About Fishing NQ I reckon pick one up at most tackle strores in the north some great articles and some maps as well http://www.aboutfishingnq.com/

[Barry Ehsman]

the local paper in Townsville has fishing section that has good fishing maps there is one for the Palms and one for the channel link is here http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au...s/fishing.html
another very good magazine is the About Fishing NQ I reckon pick one up at most tackle strores in the north some great articles and some maps as well http://www.aboutfishingnq.com/

Thanks for that Stuie We are doing a 3 month trip up the QLD coast from the middle of May & want to spend a lot of time in that area..

Cheers baz