63.46.28!!!!!!hervey bay tourney onboard bulldog!!!

**tinsanity** · 15-11-2012, 07:56 PM

Fished the hervey bay game fishing tourney over the weekend in my mates 7m plate centre console "BULLDOG".Would first like to give a shout out to hervey bay bay game fishing club for putting on such a great event and allowing us the opportunity to compete in the tournament and also the Tasman Venture and fuel barge without you guys this tournament couldnt come to be.We towed the tinny up from brisbane thursday morning for the meet and greet at 12pm.From there we headed to rooneys from urangun harbour.It was our first trip to the northern fraser island region for all 4 of us.We met up with the mothership at rooneys and unloaded all our essentials and had a trial run in the bay with our spread to make sure all was in perfect working order for the next day.followed by a few beers and a yarn before we hit the sack.Next morning we made our way across the 13mile crossing in relatively nice conditons to be running about 10 minutes late for start fishing at 8am.With only a few tips on were they have been biting we decided to set the spread straight after we crossed the bar.
5minutes later we had our first hook up!!and soon after had a tag in her and we had first fish of the tourney.The next 4 hours were absolute chaos with fish after fish been hooked and tagged in quick succession.By lunchtime we had built up quite a nice lead and were all puffing and sweating from the mayhem that had just taken place.
To say the fishing up there was hot was a massive understatement!at one point i remember looking around and 7 boats all around us were also hooked up at the same time!we had double hook ups and multiple strikes more often then not and had a pack of hungry little blacks come right up to the back of the boat whilst we were fighting another and they were in a feeding frenzy!!the radio chat was never quiet for longer than a couple of minutes with calls of hooked up,double hook up and even triple hook ups were not uncommon.The bite slowed down for us in the afternoon with the boat black and blue finishing 2 fish infront on the first day.We tagged 19 fish on the first day!!!
Day 2:We were up a little earlier and headed out through the crossing just behind the boats black and blue and harden up.We were greeted with very ordinary bar conditons and looked at each other whilst we heard black and Blue say any smaller boats under 7 or 8 metres shouldnt bother coming out which was a pretty fair call as we turned around twice because it was a bit big even for our 7metre tinny.We then made the call to just get through the otherside and if its no better we would fish inside.1 hour later the winds and swell backed off and we knew we had made the right call.A spread of 5 skirts were deployed on our 8 kg tackle and we then proceeded to get hit consistantly but fail to stay hooked up.Only coverting a few the rain then hammered us for the next couple of hours but the fish started biting better and were starting to tag a few.But after a few hours of non stop rain in an open boat and the threat of a big southerly change looming we made the tough call to head in while the fishing was hot.after getting back to rooneys the sun came out and we started to regret our decision.We also were let know by the rest of the fleet what we were missing out on with multiple hook ups being called in..
we heard of fish been hooked up near the mothership at rooneys so we decided to concentrate our efforts around there for the afternoon.We came in about 200metres of the beach and set the spread.10 minutes in BANG where hooked up in the bay almost within casting distance from the beach and a few minutes later we had a tag in her,aroung a 30kg black!! then we heard cease fishing get called for the end of day 2.Soon after we hooked another just a couple of hundred metres from the mothership so the Tasman Venture quickly shot over for some video of this beautiful fish before it was promptly swam and released.Unbelievable 2 billfish in the bay in 15 minutes one hooked in 3metres of water!!!!
We then headed towards wathumba where the mothership was moving for the night in prep for the big change honing down on us,where we caught another 2 bills one being in complete darkness!!6.4.4 in the bay just off the beach and 1 of them in complete darkness....unbelievable! and the hurt from us leaving early to come back in that day was a distant memory.
The weather then picked up big!but we were on the mothership and warm and dry for a change.Most boats then headed back in to beat the looming weather forecast but we sat tight on the tasman and relaxed.We awoke with fishable weather on day 3: but it soon turned and we were dealing with a gale warning,the tourney was then called off a few hours early and we headed back in tucked up against the island and that was the tournament for us.
We finished up with 67.46.28 and a wahoo, First fish,Champion boat under 7.5 metres,Second overall and an experience we will never forget.We also had 2 go pros running most of the the time with some incredible footage above and below the surface which i will put up the link once it is complete.Thanks for reading!!! ENJOY!!!