Island Head Creek and Shoalwater Bay

[Beam_and_dry]

Heading up for a week using Island Head Creek north of Rockhampton as a base. Just wondering if anyone has fished or crabbed that area?

Also, we intend to do a bit of fishing around the Clara's and Split rock and would like to hear of anyone who has fished that area.

Cheers

[lucifer]

Top spot mate. Fished it last august for a week,mostly out of Port Clinton though. Fished the Claras on the way down and got a heap of reefies. Trout,lipper,cod all the usual. Had the luxury of my girlfriends fathers boat M.V.MIKAT. as a base. Crabs are plentifull and large. You might have to remodel your pots depending on where you normally fish. Just open up the mouths on them and you wont have any worries. I suggest you study the green zones too as a fair bit of it has changed. Just know where you are going and watch the tides if you are not used to them. You should have a good trip if you plan it carefully. When are you going up? I wouldnt be going until May or June. At least then you should get some good weather. Best of luck anyway and keep an eye out for the snapping handbags when you are crabbing.lol

[Beam_and_dry]

We are heading up for the New Moon in early May. I have the GBRMPA green zones in electronic format on my laptop and can interface with our GPS....so no excuses!

We will also have the luxury of my Dad's boat as a base in Island Head Creek. A 52 foot ketch rigged motor cruiser called Nordlys.

Did you only fish around the Clara's and other major structures or were there other bombies and structures around the area that also worked well?

Cheers

[lucifer]

We fished fairly wide one particular day and all that showed on the cmap was a shoal. It was about 50 ft deep and didnt even rate a mention of a name. The skipper had seen it many times but never fished it till this day. It was worth the wait! We fished it in the daylight and it was on for young and old. Can only dream of what night time would be like. Just look for little shoals and out of the way places. We usually go to a reef and have a good look around it for about 1 to 2 km. We have fond some really good ground doing this. Found one spot out between two reefs as such and it was 6 bombies all in a row. not a huge area but loaded with fish. Two of us had a spear on it and nailed some 18lb trout. I dont have the marks for this but I can try and get them. How big is your boat and what range have you got?, cause I think this mark is about 70km from Indian hd. If I can get it I will pm you.

[Beam_and_dry]

Marks would be awesome! We will have two 5.6m Quinnie legends (centre consoles) plus the mothership which is 52 foot. The quinnies are certainly capable of those distances.

When you mentioned Indian Head.....was that the Fraser Island Indian Head? I was hoping for a few more spots up around Island Head although we will be bringing Nordlys (mothership) back down to Urangan after this trip.

Onc eI come back from up that way, I will reciprocate with some marks that we find etc.

Cheers and thanks!

[lucifer]

Sorry mate I meant Island not Indian. Thats my stuff up.

[Beam_and_dry]

No worries. Cheers