LuckyFil

Yeah got that right. Ah well makes for good story if nothing else

Thanks Rick

Just back from a van trip as far as 1770 in QLD and inland to Carnarvon Gorge. Did some rock and beach fishing at a few spots, mainly Hat Head, Broken Head and a kayak charter at 1770. The kayak charter at 1770 was fun using their peddle powered kayaks flicking plastics in the estuary for flathead. The fish were firing that morning and between the three customers we landed about 10 fish in the first hour from 65cm down to a couple at 35cm but most around 45. (no pics of these as hard to do in the kayak) Landed a nice 40cm bream and 47cm drummer off the rocks at Hat Head using cunje. There weren't a lot of fish around but what was there were good sized. At Broken Head (a bit south of Byron) there were plenty of bream off the rocks but lots of small ones amongst them. I did land an odd fish I've not seen before and hoping a Raider can help with an ID - see pic It was around 40cm long and weighed maybe a kilo. I caught it on a pipi on the edge of sand close to rocks . It looked like it could be edible but as I didn't recognise it I threw it back. Had a great session with some big tailor off the beach at Brunswick Heads one evening. Average size was 50cm with a couple at 52 mixed in with a few bream and tarwhine The tailor went down well in the smoker next night. Speaking of tailor I was spinning up a few off the rocks at HH and hooked what I thought must have been a better sized trevally or kingie, it hung deep and had plenty of weight. Finally got it to the surface in the wash and it was a monster tailor, never seen anything like it. It stuck its head and shoulders out of the water did a big shake and out flew my lure. I just stood there for a few moments , gutted. The guy in the tackle shop at Ballina had shown me a pic of a 10lb tailor he'd caught that week with a beer can beside it for scale. I reckon mine would have been close to that one. Ah well the one that got away... Back home now and hoping to get a drummer after the big swell drops later this week. Cheers Fil

Just left Brunswick Heads after a few days in the van. Saw a huge school of blackfish in the side creek near the van park. No one fishing for them (I’m not a blackie fisherman). Hopefully they’re in the other rivers now as well eg Macleay and you’ll get som at SWR

Congratulations after all the effort! I'm keen to give the soft vibes a go for jewies after discovering how good they are on the flathead. Fil

Great report and good to see your persistence paid off. Its nice getting a fish or two in a spot you know produces but I really enjoy prospecting new areas that just look like they should hold fish - a bit more of the hunting aspect I guess and seeing whether your instincts are right Fil

The earlier pics were taken with a Canon 6D and a 24-105 lens. We used the auto setting most of the time as its simpler when shooting in a boat under less than perfect conditions and also took plenty of shots of each fish to increase the chances of getting a good one

but all the previous pics were from my sons big SLR. I'll ask him what it is. I know he's also got a very good lens worth as much as the camera

Surprisingly these last ones were from my old iPhone 5!

A few more pics from the trip

Had a couple of days up the central coast this week. Took the old Quintrex out in the bay around the Rip Bridge and Hardys Bay and had a flick for flathead. Wasn't feeling too optimistic given the cold weather, although the water temp is still not too bad - around 19 degrees I'd say. Put in lots of casts with the soft plastic wriggler tail and soft vibe for nothing. Eventually got weight on a long cast I'd sent out into deeper water using the vibe. It turned out to be a 55cm flattie which was quite pale colour as he'd come off the sand. That was it for the day. Went out again 2 days later - the boss said it was too nice to stay in doors so encouraged me to have another go. Tried around half tide rocks (inshore side) for zip. Went back to same place where I'd scored a couple of days before and picked up 1 in very shallow water at 47cm (maybe the water's a bit warmer there?) , drifted a bit further along that edge and scored another one that took me all over the bay before I netted it. This one was 55cm. Both fish much darker as they came off the weed edges. Caught them both on the wriggler tail this time and both swallowed it deep so I was lucky to get them on the 8lb leader, but I did back the drag off quite bit and played them as gently as I could in the strong current. No pics of these 2 as it was damn cold and I wanted to get back home ASAP. So pleased to see there were still a few around despite the cold weather. Cheers Fil

Thanks for all the positive comments. This was our eleventh year in a row up there. I first heard of the houseboat operation in Weipa from Fishraider members (Hookerbruce and others) who generously shared plenty of information about fishing up there , so its become a ritual to post a report after each trip to recount our adventure each year in case other's want to do the same. Fil

Yeah he was pretty stoked especially as he was solo in the tender that day so had to fight then net it himself. I caught a big one on a prawn bait a few years ago and I was using heavy bottom fishing gear. It nearly pulled me out of the boat- so it would have been a real challenge on fly gear!

sorry about that - problem with the links

deleted these links - didn't work!

A few more pics

Just back a week now from the annual trip to Weipa on the houseboat and tenders. The weather was strangely cool for up there due to the cold front that swept across the whole country - had to wear a T shirt under the long sleeve shirt for the dawn outings a couple of times! Worse was the bloody wind that didn't stop for the whole week and while not strong (10-20 knots) it caused a large ground swell from lower in the Gulf that meant off shore fishing more than 1 km was not possible. Despite this we managed some good fish with plenty of queenies (a few over the meter mark), various trevally (golden, gold spot, tea leaf, diamond, small GT), a cracker Blue Bastard (unique fish to the area like morwong) caught by the fly fisherman in our crew, heaps of grey mackerel (broad bar?) a few spanish, coral trout, mangrove jack and tusk fish. As usual some of the best fish were lost to sharks, but being confined to inshore fishing these weren't as bad as when you're offshore chasing the bluefin. The good thing about fishing in shore is we often used the light gear, which really made the drag sing on my Daiwa Sol 2500 when playing a metre plus queenfish in shallow water! A great bunch of guys onboard meant we had a lot of fun apart from the fishing. A few pics below Cheers Fil

Very entertaining report and great pics - love the socks and thongs!! Congrats on the jewie that's quite a feat on the light set up - well done. Fil

Sounds like a top session! Sent you a PM Cheers Fil

Ditto to all the other comments - outstanding range and size of fish! Do you have to think about ciguatera up there with the bigger fish e.g. the wahoo? Cheers Fil

Top catch mate - not one but three beauties!

Nice bag of fish especially including the ones you let go! I'm assuming you weren't in the river given the bonito? Hows the water temp? Any sign of the red weed? I'm hoping to spend a couple of days at Hat Head on the way up to Byron next week and also hoping the red weed isn't back again as it came in last time I was there and buggered the fishing

Good effort for little guys to manage dollies and good of grandad to take them out . More Fishraiders in the making. Are you heading up to Weipa this year Bruce? I'm booked in for the week commencing 1 June. Looks like they've had a good wet this year with their three cyclones, unlike the NT that seemed to miss out on most of the rain. cheers Fil

Yeah I've seen a small turtle in that area a few times, he was only a little bigger than a dinner plate when I saw him a few months ago but seems to go up and down that shore fairly regularly. Hopefully he survives the boat traffic and doesn't get whacked by a prop. nice sized bream by the way must give the garlic chicken a go! cheers Fil

I also meant to say that's just rewards for getting up at 4am. It's a great time to be fishing but sometimes hard to do it😬