fishmaniac Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 It has been a long time since posting but here is a quick recap of my recent trip to north Queensland.... I have always wanted to tow the boat up to the northern parts of Australia to explore some of our northern fishing hotspots. It has been hard to get it together due to uni, work, mates not having the time etc. But with my brother and a few mates also heading up and the predicted el nino (weaker trade winds) I took the plunge to tow the boat up and fish with the boys and (after they left) flew the newly wed wife up to continue the expedition. We spent our time between port douglas and the whitsunday islands, targeting all fish that would pull hard. We spun up long tail and mack tuna that were busting up, micro-jigged the reef for coral trout and other reefs, jigged for red bass, GT and job fish and used stick baits amongst the shallows for GT. We also got suck into some spanish mackerel and cobia. Armed with only a set of charts we covered a lot of ground to figure out and find where the fish were holding. I covered in excess of 2000km in my 4.5m boat over the several weeks we were up there. And on the days it was too windy to head out we chased barra in the rivers and lakes or did a bit of sight seeing. We had a great time, and although the fishing was great, it certainly was not a given! We had many days where not too much happened but that is all part of the learning curve of fishing having not gone on any charters. Some of the most notable catches included 30+kg GT, 20-25kg cobia, 130cm spanish mackerel, big coral trout, job fish, red bass, big Barra. One of my brothers mate's also landed a cracker mackerel at 177cm which was extremely lucky given he was targeting other fish and had no wire trace! We went through a lot of terminals as everything up there has bloody nasty teeth!!!!! Also, it pays to have spares for everything (including a starter key for the engine - mine snapped while on the water!) There are sharks everywhere and although it is tempting to target fish such as cobia on the lighter gear it is probably not the wisest option as it will soon be sharked. I had a 4-5m tiger launch completely out of the water and took a 120cm spanish whole. We also caught several small bronzies for a bit of fun. Below are the photos of some of the fish: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REELCRAZY Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 That's awesome fishing mate. So many "fish of a lifetime" ticks there. I Also just returned from FNQ fishing out of cairns. Great times. Congrats Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stimo1076 Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 That is so great well done mate!!! You got the rewards for a massive effort, Fantastic!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farvos Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 Good stuff mate. What was it like towing the boat up there? You from sydney? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scratchie Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 That's an epic trip! Congrats on some fabulous captures. That's exactly what I want to do when I retire, a shame it's ages away! Thanks for sharing! Cheers scratchie!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stapo Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 Woo. That gt is massive. That would kill me. The others look huge as well including the Barra. Quality report mate. What a Holliday and adventure. Do you take charters. Lol. Cheers Steve. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuckyFil Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 Sounds like a fantastic trip with some great fish across a range of species and all the more worthy given you had to locate them yourself with no guide. Good to see the bride getting in on the act with a screamer GT! I was recently up that way bringing a boat back from the Whitsundays. We caught a few good fish (spanish , bluefin, spotted mackerel , coral trout etc) but were confused about the guidelines on what species and what size were safe to eat for ciguatera - can you offer any advice on that? Cheers Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishmaniac Posted December 27, 2015 Author Share Posted December 27, 2015 (edited) Farvos, yes, I am based in Sydney. We drove to the whitsundays in 2 days. But they were long days on the road - 14hrs and 12 hrs (which included 2 breaks of about 0.5hrs each). The drive from the whitsundays to port douglas was 9hrs with one 0.5hr break. I also re-did the trailer bearings and replaced the springs and brake pads on the trailer prior to the trip. Luckyfil, we were aware of ciguatera and from what we understood some species are likely to carry the toxin and very large specimens of predatory species could be carriers. So we did not eat the big coral trout pictured or my mate's large spanish. The spanish around 130cm and trout which we captured up to 65cm were all ok to eat. The bluefin we caught were also ok to eat, considering they grow to over 20kg the 3-5kg fish we caught were only juveniles. There are also known carriers of the ciguatera toxin such as the red bass and chinaman fish. They are 'no take' species due to the likelihood of them carrying the toxin, even if they are smaller specimens. Edited December 27, 2015 by fishmaniac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W4z Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 That's a trip of a lifetime mate! Looks unreal and some great catches. It's definitely on my list to do too. How long did you spend up there? Are you already planning a return trip haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big Neil Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 I admire your sense of adventure Fishmaniac. An excellent report on the capture of so many species. Well done to you, your bride and your mates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cargo05 Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 Great report. It looks like you got amongst a lot of species. I would be interested to know how the boat performed on the water. By the looks of the photos it appears to be a Qunitrex Top Ender. Did you have any hassles with the trailer towing the boat such long distances? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimH Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 Great trip fishmaniac and what a list of species caught. Awesome and no wonder I haven't seen you for ages. Cheers Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juzz318 Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 Dream trip right there and well done on some beastly catches. I don't think i could be any more jealous than i am right now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryder Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 Absolute magic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishmaniac Posted December 28, 2015 Author Share Posted December 28, 2015 We spent just under 4 weeks in total between port douglas and the whitsundays. 6 days were also spent driving! Cargo05 - yes the boat is a 450 Topender powered by a 60hp Yamaha. I have not had any issues towing although i made sure everything was in good order before leaving. The trailer is from boeing (not quintrex). The boat handles well, I have always been very happy with the hull. There isn't any swell inside the reef but when the wind is up it can whip up some fairly nasty chop which you do need to be wary of when driving. I do a lot of offshore work in this boat along the cliffs and out to the shelf back home and for it's size it performs well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike89 Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 I think just about every one of the fish in your pictures is bigger than my all time PB! What an unbelievable haul. I'd love to get up there in a boat with someone who knows what they're doing! Very impressive also that you managed to find the fish in a place you'd never explored before. Great stuff, love the pictures. Really gets me motivated to organise my own North QLD trip. Sadly I'm landbased but a charter would definitely be worthwhile. Excellent report, awesome photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil D Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 It has been a long time since posting but here is a quick recap of my recent trip to north Queensland.... I have always wanted to tow the boat up to the northern parts of Australia to explore some of our northern fishing hotspots. It has been hard to get it together due to uni, work, mates not having the time etc. But with my brother and a few mates also heading up and the predicted el nino (weaker trade winds) I took the plunge to tow the boat up and fish with the boys and (after they left) flew the newly wed wife up to continue the expedition. We spent our time between port douglas and the whitsunday islands, targeting all fish that would pull hard. We spun up long tail and mack tuna that were busting up, micro-jigged the reef for coral trout and other reefs, jigged for red bass, GT and job fish and used stick baits amongst the shallows for GT. We also got suck into some spanish mackerel and cobia. Armed with only a set of charts we covered a lot of ground to figure out and find where the fish were holding. I covered in excess of 2000km in my 4.5m boat over the several weeks we were up there. And on the days it was too windy to head out we chased barra in the rivers and lakes or did a bit of sight seeing. We had a great time, and although the fishing was great, it certainly was not a given! We had many days where not too much happened but that is all part of the learning curve of fishing having not gone on any charters. Some of the most notable catches included 30+kg GT, 20-25kg cobia, 130cm spanish mackerel, big coral trout, job fish, red bass, big Barra. One of my brothers mate's also landed a cracker mackerel at 177cm which was extremely lucky given he was targeting other fish and had no wire trace! We went through a lot of terminals as everything up there has bloody nasty teeth!!!!! Also, it pays to have spares for everything (including a starter key for the engine - mine snapped while on the water!) There are sharks everywhere and although it is tempting to target fish such as cobia on the lighter gear it is probably not the wisest option as it will soon be sharked. I had a 4-5m tiger launch completely out of the water and took a 120cm spanish whole. We also caught several small bronzies for a bit of fun. Below are the photos of some of the fish: IMG_8849.JPG PB253571.JPG IMG_9038.JPG IMG_8798.JPG IMG_8885.JPG IMG_8883.JPG IMG_8890.JPG IMG_8917.JPG IMG_9052.JPG Now I really hate you, In a Nice Way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishmaniac Posted January 2, 2016 Author Share Posted January 2, 2016 Groper, as long as it is in a nice way, it's all good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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