A mad keen fisherman living in a green zone :(

[Jason Killen]

Hi all,
I am new to this foram and I am keen to get some knowledge on my new found love of barra fishing in CQ. I live on Heron Island in the middle of a green zone so fishing opportunities are extremely limited due to this fact and that I no longer own a boat so I can't go fishing regulary because there are no land based options here, it's a fishermans hell if you like. I do get the chance about once or twice a month to fish in Gladstone or Rocky and this is where I fell in love with barra with the help of Johnny Mitchell. I hope to be using this site quite a bit to make gain knowledge that will put me in good stead when I do get to fish.
Cheers
Jase

[MudRiverDan]

Nice place to live though.
cheers

[Jason Killen]

Not bad at all! Been in this beautiful place for over 4 years now. Don't get me wrong I love this place and I also love fish and viewing them in their natural habitat doing their thing but to see massive coral trout, spangled emporers and GTs everyday does get the casting arm twitching

[Captain Seaweed]

jase get yourself a tinny mate

[XtremeBoony]

must be tough but i can see your pain. If barra is what you want then a good start is to fish in around the rocks between the 2 bridges in Rockhampton. You can have a land based go here as well. I know a few blokes who do land based but fish at night with livies and do well. In the rocky barra bounty more barra are pulled from here then any other place in and around the system. Lures, softies, vibes all work well when worked around the exposed rocks. Hope this helps.

cheers from boony

[Sheik]

yeah and throw a cast net near the outlet pipe almost across from the abc studios. Heaps of threadies in hte fitzroy. But good idea to keep an eye out for mud geckos. The meatworkers tell some pretty scary stories about the crocs around the place and I remember a croc having a crack at a bloke washing a horse on a ramp near town. If it wasn't for the horse shying and pulling him out of the way he'd be croc poo. That was in the paper about ten years ago. Just before the first barra bounty.

[Basstones]

Ouch, can totally imagine the pain! I would just be trying to sneak on to one of the charters, pulled in some very nice fish on half day trips from the island

[Jarrah Jack]

Geez The guys on the mainland would be looking out to sea thinking of all the great fishing out there and you have to come back to the mainland because of some mindless bureaucratic decision. They could've left one area open. How far out does the zone extend? Also wondering whether the fish numbers and size have picked up with the zone. If so then there should be some good fishing on the edge somewhere.

Welcome to the site and you'll get all manner of advice on chasing barra, first one would be to get a few extra tackle boxes then some sites where to spend all your hard earned.

[Jason Killen]

Cheers Jarrah, It can be tough but I do occasionally get on the charter but that is limited due to guest numbers, occupancy, and work so it only happens about once every two months which isn't enough for a keen fisherman. Up until July 2004 you could fish about a quarter of the island but green zone since then. My barra tackle stores are growing so I am pretty set when I do get off to the mainland and I have had consistant success in the Fitzroy using slow sinking, weedless soft plastics in the sticks on a falling tide. Haven't met any mud geckos but I have been warned. I have also had a lot of success in the hot water outlet at gladstone with barra to a pb of 112cm. I like trying new areas so I might try Raglan or Hedlow creek next.
Jase

[fisho8]

Welcome to Ausfish mate nice place up there plenty of good reading here mate enjoy.