After falling in love with the place last year on my first visit to Evans Head , I promised myself that I would come back ..... It took a while but 13 month later I finally made it back to Evans Head after delaying the trip by a month -
Now I have to say from the outset , I really didn’t know what to expect or have ever hoped to top last years redundancy trip …… big seas & unfriendly conditions over the past several weeks kept the reports down with very few boats braving the bar & venturing offshore ….. but heck , a weeks fishing & a weather window had me super keen.
I had my brother come down from the Gold Coast to have a fish with me & share few beers to celebrate his birthday . .....
THE FISHING
With a poor tide & blustery conditions – day 1 (Monday) was kept to putting the crab pots in & going for a bit of a run up the Evans River ….. more the social chat than any serious fishing but we did cast some mullet strips around the Iron Gates for the ever present bream before pulling the pin to prepare for the serious stuff the morning.
NEEDING A PLAN
An early rise had us on the water just on sunrise but without any real knowledge of where to go we started off on my mark from last year to no avail …. Not a thing ! - after an hour or so I decided to go to a mark that was given to me – heading south we were onto the location in what was pretty messy conditions & after running the sounder for some 15 mins I eventually found some activity which looked promising ….. now at best my brother Stan is a bit of a novice when it comes to fishing & boats – so we kept it pretty basic fishing running #1 ball sinkers down to a 3/O big red hooks & pillies …… with little current we spot locked & started a cube trail. It didn’t take long & we were into some pretty good fishing – Snapper ( nothing under 40cm) , Trag , pearlies
….. the fishing gods were smiling on us ……. Or were they ? Now for those that don’t know Evans Head is home to a bombing range & early afternoon saw a couple of F18 Super Hornets doing practice runs ….. pretty cool to watch - that is till they start doing low passes near the boat
& once this happened a few times , I checked the charts & we were inside the restricted area ……. Doh ! - I said to my brother that “I think they want us to leave” ( good fishing & perfect conditions) …… I will say , we did have radio issues . Anyhow we bugged off & decided with a good bag of quality fish to clean to call it a day.
A DAY TO REMEMBER
My brother spent 20 years in the army as a radio technician / Instructor & so had the radio sorted before we launched that morning ….. logging on & giving our destination as “The South reefs” we were called back while still on the bait grounds saying that the Airforce would be conducting live firing exercises & that we should vacate the area immediately . We replied that we were going to be fishing outside the exclusion zone to the North East - which we did ……. Once we found some decent looking soundings we reverted to what we did the previous day with the same results …… but better . Stan was on the board early with a nice pearly & I followed it with a stonker of a pearlie (3kg cleaned)…. More snapper & then more again
- As we already had a good catch back at camp we decided to be selective & only keep the better eating size fish - you have to love that scenario & for my brother who was under constant tuition couldn’t have hoped for a better day . All this while being entertained by the airforce do their strafing runs . …… It’s quite amazing to hear the explosions followed by the short zip of the Gatling gun ……. 20 seconds after the plane had passed .
Now I mixed it up a bit with some micro jigs & soft plastics - managed a couple of snaps but went back to the pillie …… but now reduced my sinker size down to OO on the baitrunner - this virtual floater soon had the interest of the Spotties which had been scarce according to the local tackle shop - so it was good to land a couple….. snipped off on a few . Even employing a short piece of single strand – I still got snipped off . Eventually we ran out of pillies & decided to see if we could find a longtail for sashimi - no longtail but picked up a couple of mack tuna before we pulled the pin & headed back to fish cleaning duties .
BTW spotted mackerel go well as sashimi .
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES
Another early start with a live well full of slimies & yakkas …… we were hopeful of bigger & better things - A couple of missed mackerel straight up & a couple of snapper which were released was about the highlight for the day - sometimes conditions can be too perfect . We moved around , tried different things & except for some small (40cm) snaps , a couple of sharks taken on the mackerel rigs the day was quiet…… As they say “some days are diamonds & others _ H_ _ “
SOLO DAY
Friday morning I was up at 5am for an early start but this time I would be solo as I bid farewell to Stan who was travelling back to the Gold Coast with a good feed of fish. First up ….. couldn’t catch a livie ( great start) So in messy conditions – I headed South east to check out my old spot from last year ……. 3 hours nothing . OK I didn’t need to worry about a deckie so I decided to do the run north to Riordan Shoals for a look ( everyone had been fishing South) - These conditions were made for the Barcrusher & after the 30 min run I arrived to lots of bait on the sounder ……. The bait jig soon revealed that the place was full of sweep ……. The area looked good for a summer trip or night fish with depths rising to 12 M ….. but not good for middle of the day. From there I headed East dodging the Humpback whale migration & did some sounding in 40M with little grabbing my attention or worth putting an effort into . What to do ? …… A beer & sanga studying Navionics app on the IPAD had me pick a location back south – due east of Evans …… 60M rising to 34 M - As it would the winds turned from NW to SW - so Messy conditions were encountered on the run South ….. but no dramas . Arriving some 30 mins later The sounder soon had me seeing what I was interested in ….. a bit of bait & fish holding a few meters off the bottom . Down goes the pillie & a nice Snap first off ….. Awesome I’m thinking - I managed another couple of snaps on micro jigs in quickly improving conditions….. 2pm ish & I’m thinking what an afternoon can a day get any nicer. ….. it did
THE JOYS OF FISHING A BAITRUNNER
Now this was the scenario that I love (little current , smooth conditions , clear water) – where I can fish one of my favourite techniques ……. Fishing an unweighted pillie down a cube trail - I changed my 4000 Thunnus over to my light Samurai 6-12lb spin stick - dropped leader size & had a ball.
If you haven’t experienced the thrill of snapper taking a floater mid water on light baitrunner gear , you are simply missing out on one of the great fishing experiences ……… the whirring of a reel in baitrunner mode , engage the handle & see what becomes of it - Sure it may take a minute or so to get the bait into the zone but snapper will rise & often the better quality fish are taken. So over the next couple of hrs around 20 snapper were landed, many more missed - Snip offs by mackerel - one landed & a 7kg mack tuna made for a hell of an afternoon……. wIth bait & burley rapidly exhausting - a chill out , far out to sea was enjoyed and as it turned out , my last session of the trip .
Waking to a cold & blowy Saturday morning – I decided I had enough with a good catch to take home – the pin was pulled a couple days early , camp broken for the 9 hr trip home .
Chris
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Originally Posted by Moonlighter
that would be hard to beat on the east coast . 