Northwest Is Sept 2014

[rtp1984]

Hi all.
Had the pleasure of getting an invite to head to Northwest Island for a 15 day trip with a bunch of blokes that go each year.
We had 23 blokes go, with my 555 Yalta, and 3 other similar sized boats driving over from Gladstone, and 4 small tinnies on the barge with the rest of the crew.

The bigger boats took off early, with 25kn on the nose, to make the early high into the lagoon, and made a start on get the camp set up. The barge arrived about 7pm on the late tide, and the unload begins.

With the amount of gear needed for this trip, all I can say is that the unload, and set up on the first day or two is absolute agony. But, once the hard work is done, it is paradise.

Weather for the trip wasn't too bad. We probably fished half of the days, witch was good. Fishing close to the Island was quite slow, with not many trout coming in, but plagues of parrot and hussar, and a few reds school sized reds coming in, that I found awesome in 20-25m of water.

The tides and weather really worked well for the last two fishing days of the trip, and the bigger boats made the trip up to Inaminka schoals. The fishing up her was great, with good trout, reds, and good sized red throat filling the box's.

The set up these blokes had was great, with a large mess tent, big filleting table, freezers, fridges, ice, beer, the works. I hope to get a few more photos off the other blokes soon, so you can see it all, but you need to remember that everything that you take, is carried on and off by hand. So to be considered a "young" bloke on the trip, came with its duties.

The trip home was horrible, with 25-30kn on the beam, but the Yalta handled it well. The barge took too long for the drop off and pick ups, and got stuck, and had to wait for the next tide, which made for some grumpy campers. At least they had beer.

It was a brilliant trip, with great company, with the high lights for me be Inaminka, and just catching reds in 20m of water.

I will be back.
Here are a few photos, I will hopefully post more when I get them of the other blokes.

[rtp1984]

[bugman]

Nice,
So how are Rumbo, Hally, Sterny, Ricky and the boys going.
It's been a few years since I've been with the crew and I understand there's been a few personel changes. Does Wang still go?
I'm taking the family up for 10 days end of Nov - start of Dec. Can't wait, magic place - hope for good weather.
Oh just out of interest most of those marks the boys fished north up at Innaminka etc were started by us about 10 years ago. They'd never ventured that far before.
Brett

[JulianDeMarchi]

Thanks for posting rtp! Great trip mate, I'm very jealous.

[Still_Dreamin]

Out of interest how much fuel did you use to get to Nw island please?

[bugman]

Fuel depends on what boat you have.
Next week I'll have 760litres in the boat and the barge is taking another 240l for me. (a 44 and 2 jerries).
Depending on what the weather is like I'll either have lots left or come back empty - you never know.
NW is about 68kms north east of Gladstone. The good reefs are 40kms further north or 25kms further east. You can do the math.
Last year we spent 4 days on the boat with 2 mates in the same area and used around 800l in my cat. I average 1.6l per km.
Brett

[Camhawk88]

Looks awesome mate but by the looks of the set up it would have been a huge pain in the arse to take up and down again. very comfy once it was up though I imagine.
Was talking to a colleague of mine in Gladstone the other day and she does this trip each year at Easter. Would love to do it some time- the scenery is pretty amazing.

[samson]

How do you boys take the boats on trailers off the ferry to be useable for the week?

[bugman]

Samson,
Only small boats 5m and under - mostly tinnies and cc's are taken on the barge on trailers. The Barge drops the drawbridge just off the island and uses it as a boat ramp to winch the trailers into the water and the boat drivers drive over the coral edge into the lagoon. Bigger boats are driven over from Gladstone.
All sounds good in principal except for my last trip with the big group 6 years ago where I had driven over in the big boat with the advanced crew and was waiting for the barge to arrive about 8:00pm.
We watched the barge pull up - watched them start unloading - heard a bang and then nothing. 10min later Brooksy hits the beach in my 5m brooker open tinny with wide eyes and the bilge pump going flatout trying to remove the 500l of water floating around the bottom of the boat.
Apparently the barge door cable snapped as he was sitting on the end of the door waiting for the launch Before they could release him, the barge door safety cable also snapped plunging him and my tinny into the water. Luckily for him and I he popped up and my boat survived. Same can't be said for the door which came fully away from the barge as they tried to move to the other side of the island to get out of the swell.
Barge operator had to hire another barge two weeks later to pick us up. I think the barge door is still sitting on the reef.
Brett

[rtp1984]

Nice,
So how are Rumbo, Hally, Sterny, Ricky and the boys going.
It's been a few years since I've been with the crew and I understand there's been a few personel changes. Does Wang still go?
I'm taking the family up for 10 days end of Nov - start of Dec. Can't wait, magic place - hope for good weather.
Oh just out of interest most of those marks the boys fished north up at Innaminka etc were started by us about 10 years ago. They'd never ventured that far before.
Brett

hey bug man.

They are all going well, Ricky hasn't been for a few years, but hally is certainly up to his usual tricks.

Wang a a sterny were there. I'm not sure how many more trip they will have in them though, Rumbo certainly work hard to make them comfortable.

You should have a ball over there mate, it shore is worth the effort when the weather plays.

Rob.

[rtp1984]

Out of interest how much fuel did you use to get to Nw island please?

Hey mate, I used about 55-60 litres each way to the island, but we also had plenty of fuel that went over on the barge.

[rtp1984]

How do you boys take the boats on trailers off the ferry to be useable for the week?

Hey Samson
aa Brett said, the boats are just launch off the drawbridge. The trailers are taken back in the barge. the boats are anchor on the beach, and are high and dry at low tide, which isn't a problem as you can't get over the reef on low anyway.

[samson]

Cheers i presumed that was the case as i regularly drive past the island and I haven't seen any vehicles too date.

[Dignity]

Rob, glad you enjoyed it, we used to go every year but haven't been since the mid 90's due to a variety of reasons one of them at that time was the banning of generators except for dive groups as they were supposed to upset the mutton birds. We used to go on the Robert Poulson, fill her up full with gear and boats plus tow 2 larger boats behind. I remember one trip over before a cyclone hit the place that on the trip over I watched through the rear door as my boat would rise on a swell and disappear for nearly a minute then drop down and do the same, nail biting experience. The rangers had a Chinook on standby to get us off the island if things got bad that year but fortunately it blew itself out and only on day was a bit of concern with waves lapping over the sand dunes for over 2 hours.

It is an awesome place and I would love to go back there as we used to live in similar conditions to those you have shown, I still have some fluro street lights in brackets that we used to use (if anyone needs one for their setup PM me.) We used to love it when newbies came along and we would point out suitable camping spots but inevitably they would pick the clear areas under the pisonnia trees, would only take a night for them to move once the mutton birds started climbing their tents early in the morning. Many a story has come out of that place.

Rob, are there still plenty of mice in the island or have they disappeared, these little critters were a direct result of the govt of the day allowing a commercial operator to set up on the island to cater for backpackers, every six weeks they had to leave the island, store all their crap in a warehouse at rocky then return with the stowaways. I also heard that a few years ago they got rid o the shack and palm trees because they weren't indigenous to the island but they the last time I was there they built some anaerobic toilets, odd way of thinking.

I still hope to get back there as it is a paradise on our doorstep, hope you get to enjoy many future trips.

[craigie]

Good stuff Rob !

A nice surprise to see a post with the old crew back at "The Island", looks like some nice fish too.
Did you fish the Banana Gutter ? we got a heap of good fish there back in 2008 and the year or two prior to that ?, plenty of Reds !

I was part of Rumbo's crew, done a few trips over with the guys. I see Chris B and his mate Greg, Dog and Sterny in the pics.
As Buggy mentioned, we started to hit that Inaminka area on my last 2 trips back in 2008 / 2009 (don't know where those 5 years went ?), great for early morning plastics on the Red Throat and Trout. Then pack it away and throw out the trolling lures and get stuck into the Spanish Mackerel and Wahoo ........ awesome fishing that I would love to do again. Those overnighter trips up there were the highlight for me !
I was on that barge trip when the front door fell off !! bit of a nightmare that one. very dangerous when the cables snapped as we were all standing in the general area unloading Buggy's tinnie. can't believe we didn't lose the trailer over the front too ....

You certainly earn the right to the great fishing for such an extended period, setting up camp is a tough slog. carying those freezers up the soft sand is beyond me now I reackon, you young fellas will be great assets helping with that job.

Johnny B still go with his 6m Quinnie centre console ? It sunk in the lagoon on the trip back in 2008 ? Yep a thousand stories we could all tell from those great trips to NW !
Got heaps of great pics from those trips....

Cheers
Craigie