Well - 5630km later Lucinda 2019 is done & dusted .. It would have been better to have spent more than 6 days there but work commitments & limited holidays only allowed for a run & gun trip.
An uneventful run from Penrith up to Gin Gin to pick up an old mate - a quick kip and we off & 14hrs later were setting up camp on Easter Saturday at Wanderers Caravan Park Lucinda .
The weather gods were not going to play the game with 10-20 knots forecast - but that wasn't going to stop us from getting out to the Palm Islands or the reef .
Over the next 4 days we managed 1 trip out to reef (Bramble) & 3 out to the islands in pretty crappy conditions . The fishing while never being mindblowing was worth the effort (very wet) with some quality fish coming aboard including my 12lb trout . With limited experience fishing offshore in the region it was good to get the lay of the land & find some marks in preparation for a future (longer) trip. . A single little session at the loader saw us meet the local grouper & a couple of other unstoppables .
Day 5 deserves it's own place in this story overnight the winds dropped & we launched in calm conditions where we pointed the boat straight out to the SW corner of Bramble reef & sat on 25knots all the way. An early shark had us moving to were we fished on day 1 (Eastern side of Bramble) where we managed just 1 legal trout we put this down to calm conditions & very little run . We made another move (had some lunch in preparation for the tide change) - A couple more legal trout & the ever present red throat at least had us coming home with a feed - some fun on tea leaf trevally until the tax man turned up .. calling for another move . Now mid afternoon we fished some floating baits which were able to entice a bite from some decent red throat (2.5-3kgs) & some more trout till we ran out of bait & power for the leccy . Pleased with the final result - we toasted the trip & pointed the boat west arriving back at Lucinda after dark.
In summary - Lucinda is a great fishing destination with plenty of fishing options - Rivers , creeks , sugar loader , islands & reefs . Whilst conditions were marginal we still managed to get out and fish offshore (nothing dangerous) no one else put in the effort .
The 615WR Barcrusher did a fantastic job of getting us out & back . being a CC we did get wet at times . Minn Kota spotlocking was the bomb - even in 15knots we managed 5-7 hrs fishing before the LiFePO4 batteries shut down (as they are meant to do) . Average fuel burn was 50lts / day (last day 110km / 59 lts)
Wanderers Caravan Park - Great location & facilities being just 1km from the ramp . Walk to the pub for a really good steak - Fuel & bait available from 5am ( good quality bait)
Certainly a great destination & well worth the effort .. I'll certainly be back next year .
Chris
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Originally Posted by Almako
apparently they have a colour change phase which is either a grey colour or the Chinese "Footballer" which I caught . 