Evans Head 2021

[NAGG]

Hi All

It's been a while since I've put up a trip report (haven't done any) but here is the trip from the past week .

Evans has become an annual trip since May 2017 when I first visited the place - the fishing is generally great ...... 2021 didn't disappoint .

a mate (Steve B) from the old barra days joined me this year ..... & I know he was keen to get himself a big snap ...
I've certainly talked the place up.
I arrived a day earlier at the tail end of a big blow & the seas were up - reports were a little scarce with the odd snapper around ..... but little in the way of bait ( no slimies). My reccy trip which covered a 100km had me a little concerned as with the exception of mack tuna in plaque proportions gave up nothing - So when Steve joined me last Saturday I passed on my concerns & suggested we start wide at my old rimo location & go from there.

Day 2 (Sunday) - with crew ...... Yep the mack tuna decimated us at "the patch" before we decided to relocate to the southern reefs where with the exception of a few trag ..... disappointing.
Day 3 - Once again went wide & it was Mack Tuna again before relocating to North Evans where we managed some more trag & a coupe of squire ...... we did however get a few snip offs which pointed to the odd spottie (spotted mackerel0 being around .
Day 4 - Headed to North reef after trying for some livies (no success on both front) till relocating south - where we picked up a nice rise which held fish & decided to mark it ..... eventually we went back to this location (Steves Rock) & ended up with a half decent result of some squire , moses snapper , parrot & I picked up a couple of spotties on a floating pilchard.
Day 5 - Did pretty well the same as day 4 with a similar result then we relocated further south in the South Evans reef area where we had a pretty decent session fishing floaters on ganged hooks or mackerel rigs or spotties We named this location "Joe the camera man". because pretty well everytime Steve went for a camera the fish was lost ...... so finally the trip was turning for the better ( still no snapper - so to speak) Back at the ramp - Steve picked up some intel on snapper in very close in an area I hadn't fished - so that was going to be the plan for Thursday)

A DAY TO REMEMBER : We headed down to the Jerusalem Creek area & tried to find these snapper - the water was pretty discoloured & unappealing , so I suggested we go back to "Joe the camera man" where we fished for 3 hours for a couple of spotties plus a couple of trag & with the bottom of the tide upon us I decided to go & tuck in around South Evans Reef in the shallows to fish floaters down a cube trail . This move turned out to be a master stroke as it was game on pretty well straight away. This is a shallow area & the bombie was breaking nearby ..... "tiger country" & my favorite way to fish. There is something special about fishing floaters in several meters of water on a baitrunner. - It was bedlam ....... the spotties were hammering us but so too were something else & we had lost a couple of decent something -till Steve landed a decent jewie of 10kg . then we had a quadruple hookup on spotties landing 3 . I had a bit of fun on a longtail tuna (sashimi) - We named this spot "Carnage Corner" Steve finally got himself a decent squire & the fishing continued through the afternoon with more bustoffs , snip offs , spotties landed . it was interesting as we had spotlocked & cubed - several other boats were trolling live yakkas but didn't seem to be doing any good - one boat from Victoria came over (we'd chatted to these guys previously) & they asked if we had enough ice (nice of them) - we had actually run out of room in the 100lt mackerel box & more ice would be good . We accepted the bag of ice & gave them a couple of spotties in gratitude . We fished on landing more spotties . With a full ice box & the sun getting low we pulled the pin on what was one of the best days I've had ... Steve certainly rated it as his most enjoyable & decided he would head home the following day (Friday) as he had more than enough fish & he had some family stuff on the weekend.

with Steve leaving that morning (Friday) i decided that I would still go for a fish & hit the water at gentleman's hours (8am) in blustery but sunny conditions .

CAN IT GET ANY BETTER ?? - It better because I said to Steve to take all of the fish home

Straight down to "Carnage Corner " did a little sounding & found a bit of a gutter just a few meters away from where we fished the day before. The conditions looked prime for snapper so snelled floaters were going to be the choice till the mackerel turned up . I hit spot lock & never moved for the rest of the day ...... & why would I 6 jewies landed (90-105cm) All but one released , several spotties , many squire & a handful of decent snapper up to 70cm - there were plenty of Jew & big snapper that blitzed me through the reef .... snip offs on spotties ( I went through 8 mackerel rigs) It just continued & if I wasn't landing a fish , releasing fish , retying leaders it was full on for 6 hours . With more than enough fish to clean I was happy at around 3pm to put cue in the rack , sit back & enjoy a beer ...... deciding that I had found nirvana & I would pack up a day early and head home.

a memorable trip - new locations fished & intel gained on this superb fishery
'll check the dates today & book again for 2022.

Chris

too many mack tuna.jpgSpotties.jpgDouble spotties.jpgSteve 10kg jew.jpg1m spottie.jpg
Nice haul.jpgkeeper jewie.jpgbest snapper of the trip .jpganother jew.jpgJewfish release .jpg

[shaungonemad]

It looks like you had a good time well done.


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[disorderly]

Great report..Blue skies and heaps of fish...how good is that...!..and nice to see a few Jewies about...some big spotties there too...its almost mackeral mayhem time for us up here as well..

Do us a favour Chris and get yourself a Go-pro and some mounts..the new one the missus bought has like 16 voice commands to take video, photo's or whatever...means you can just have it mounted on a post, body, head or wherever and dont have to mess around trying to get some footage when the action is hot ..and it has a waterproof case..

[Ducksnutz]

Great report as usual Chris! Thanks for sharing.

[Dignity]

Awesome report, great time out enjoy more is all I can say.

[NAGG]

Great report..Blue skies and heaps of fish...how good is that...!..and nice to see a few Jewies about...some big spotties there too...its almost mackeral mayhem time for us up here as well..

Do us a favour Chris and get yourself a Go-pro and some mounts..the new one the missus bought has like 16 voice commands to take video, photo's or whatever...means you can just have it mounted on a post, body, head or wherever and dont have to mess around trying to get some footage when the action is hot ..and it has a waterproof case..

thanks for the heads up on the go pro - that said , I had 2 with me and both played up ...... the voice control does sound good to me though .

Chris

[Volvo]

Thanks for the post Chris and a great read it was . Nice Pics to go with it also , glad to see you had a good trip..

[bluefin59]

Great report thanks . Matt

[bondy99]

Great report, Good effort. I would like to do that myself when I'm more finacial before I pass away.

[NAGG]

Do us a favour Chris and get yourself a Go-pro and some mounts..the new one the missus bought has like 16 voice commands to take video, photo's or whatever...means you can just have it mounted on a post, body, head or wherever and dont have to mess around trying to get some footage when the action is hot ..and it has a waterproof case..

Silly me

I didn't realise till the other day that my Go pro 6 has voice command worst still I found out just after I bought the Go pro 9

All good though as I pretty well paid for the camera on redeemed rewards points & having 2 new / newer cameras on the boat will be much better anyway.

Chris