chewie Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 (edited) I have just returned from a week Bareboating the Whitsundays. What can i say but it its a fantastic place to go boating and the fishing is awesome! Having been planning the trip for quite some time i took all the gear i could possibly use as i didn't want to let any chances slip me by. The weather was great and the wind changed direction half way thru the trip allowing us to visit both sides of the Islands comfortably. We had a great time fishing the area mainly using lures. some memorable sessions included tangling with some big Mac Tuna, i Managed one to 81cm on my 4-6kg Shimano Raider Rod before my GF got spooled after about 15minutes when a suspected big shark grabbed the tuna on one of its last dives. I've never been spooled before and its a pretty shit feeling as you can see it happening all of a sudden then suddenly your left with a smoking spool and the last image of the backing burnt into your brain. Chasing these speedsters was a fun challenge in a boat that went 8knots! The flats fishing was awesome! we had one session catching Big eye and golden trevally to about 40cm on our 2-4kg outfits sight casting around the mangroves to hoards of hungry fish while watching sharks, rays, turtles, big shovel noses, milkfish and mangrove jacks cruising around under us. what an amazing sight to have all to yourself.(ps- the gf totally outfished me in this session and i am jealous not to have caught a Golden Trev!) I really wanted to catch my first spanish mackeral and put in a fair bit of time in the pursuit. I trolled on most days between anchorages, fished baits on balloons out the back of the boat and fished bommies where i got absolutely dusted up by a big GT. The GT's were awesome to see and proved to be fish of a thousand casts. when you got a follow from a pack of the brutes over a meter long it gave you the shakes and enough of an adrenalin hit to forget about your fatigue from casting the heavy gear! On the second last day my efforts with the Spanish paid off where it all happened in textbook game fishing style. trolling a big Qantas colour diver i saw a lone bird dive into the water in front of the boat. As we past over the spot the sounder showed a tightly packed bait ball and then watching the rod out the back we got our hit. and although not a big fish, it was so nice to finally put the research to good use. We caught fish with most styles of fishing we tried from plastics to Baits. I did put in a bit of time with some skirts in the hope of a small black marlin or a sailfish but they didn't read the script. For a Holiday, i cant recommend it enough. its comfortable boating and there is heaps to do. we managed over 20 species of fish with 2 species of squid (including a very aggressive long thin arrow squid that hunted in packs) and even caught mudcrabs in the mangroves. Although the fish were not large for their species they were easy pretty easy to catch. The wildlife is awesome with turtles, dolphins and tonnes of fish to see. the friendly batfish are simply amazing as they wait to be fed pieces of bread at the back of the boat and yes, i was good and didn't feed them any bread with a hook in it. A couple of things i found was that the humidity is hell for braid tangles casting light lures and the Asari Mahi metal lures with the single owner hooks proved the best piece of gear i took up catching heaps of species. I'll pop a few shots into the fish id section to get the names of a few weird fish we caught from our QLD raiders. tight lines Chewie Edited December 20, 2011 by chewie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FishFever Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 Awesome post, been to hamilton island myself. Both land based and charter fishing was amazing. Your giving me the itch to get back there. Glad to see you succeeded with the Spanish mackerals, great work. Merry Xmas mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobsta01 Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 Looks like an awesome time mate. congrats. The fish in the 7th photo looks real strange, almost looks like a boot print on its head. Maybe it was stepped on Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Squidy Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 Hi Chewie, Just opened your report to have a read at work, looked at the first photo and thought "I know that place for some reason" I then look to my right about a meter and it all became clear. That calander literally arrived in our office and got put on the wall yesterday. What are the odds?!?! I take it as a sign that i MUST go and fish this location Anyway, top report with some great fish in as beatifull a spot as you could hope for. Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chewie Posted December 20, 2011 Author Share Posted December 20, 2011 Thanks for the replies guys. That weird looking fish is a remora close up and it's pretty easy to take post card shots up there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashameller Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 Mate great post. And awesome photos! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prawn* Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 well done definetly on my bucket list to do!! WTF this fish looks like some one stood on it and lost there sole off there shoe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodgey Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 well done definetly on my bucket list to do!! WTF this fish looks like some one stood on it and lost there sole off there shoe A great photo of a remora! Congrats on a terrific trip mate Cheers Hodgey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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