Stockton - multi day trip

[Restyle]

Gday raiders, headed up to Stockton for a multiday trip to chase variety of beach species with 2 other mates. Our plan was to stay rather mobile, moving from spot to spot during the day mostly to stay mobile and explore the beach. We would try and stay at one spot during the night as we pull out the heavier rods to target jew.

We left Friday Afternoon and arrived at the entrance to beach and deflated tyres by 4sh. Spent about an hour going up and down the beach looking for a good gutter. The sand was very easy to drive on this time. the swell was rather small so finding any holes, gutters, etc was difficult but after finding a nice one down the southern end of the beach as the sun sets we set up and throw a line in. A few 35-45cm tailor on the sunset bite but not much else. Salted bonito strips did the damage. With 2 of us fishing & the other cooking up a few snags for dinner.

After a nice feed we setup our heavier beach setups and throw out a mixture of baits ranging from squid, yakka, salted bonito and pillie. Throughout the night I went through well over 15 rigs - all of which were getting sharked and the entire rig cut off about 5-10cm from the swivel. Only fish landed during the night was a banjo shark which was quickly released. We decided to move to a different area of the beach which we saw earlier to chase the sunrise bite.

At this new spot, the sunrise bite produced the first few salmon of the trip - although not big they were great fun, especially after loosing too many rigs the previous night. I was rather tired and my mates having woken up, I had a nap inside the car while my mates fished on & had brekky. they caught 1 tailor and a few dart. I wake up after a couple hours and the bite dies off so we pack the rods up and head north. A few vehicles arrived by now but we do manage to find a new spot, the beach up north was very flat and devoid of life. A lot of beach worms here but we didn't pull any out as we had no idea if it was allowed or not. Fishing was quiet, a few fish here n there but nothing too amazing.

We pack the rods up again and just cruise around beach and dunes for a good chunk of the day before heading out and getting more drinks, ice for the esky and munchies. We re enter and head south and find a gutter not too far south from out first spot. fishing was was decent with the late afternoon bite producing salmon & tailor with dart, flathead mixed in as well. We kept a few tailor for bait for the night and cooked the flathead up. We were quite hopeful for this night as we had a great spot to fish out off. 

As the night fell and the tailor backed off, our baits would yet again get sharked over and over and over again. I finally put some wire on and a slab of tailor but nothing was having it. My mates caught a small bronzy and a few banjos which were thrown back. 2am rolls around and there was not much around and all of us were really tired & the cold westerly picked up so we finally head over to the camp grounds we booked so we can set up our swags and light a fire to be greeted with the biggest bonfire I have ever seen with flames well over 10 meters tall and about 15 cars all having a party. Didn't even bother reclaiming our campsite so we headed back to out gutter and set up there. I slept like a baby while my 2 mates stayed up abit longer before falling asleep. We packed all our stuff up incase someone would jack off our stuff. We all woke up 6am fished for an hour and warmed up. The morning bite was rather dead, probably because we saw 20 odd dolphins.

We left that morning and came across a few groups of cars camped out along the beach. 

Overall, a great time out on the sand, exploring the beach in beautiful nature. Got abit chilly at times but that was fine. fishing wise, a lot of tailor and salmon with a few dart and flathead mixed about but nothing to amazing pilchards and salted bonito is what did the damage. there was not much that was massive but nerveless, great fun to catch and more importantly a great time in nature! There were a few people on the beach with a few large groups of 10 odd cars camped out. these larger groups had rubbish scattered everywhere. doubt they picked it up. With this being my 2nd trip to Stockton beach, I was confident on another meter plus jew but that confidence drained away after loosing 50 rigs. 

Didn't really get photos of any fish, didn't bother having my phone on me near the waters edge, so you get some scenery to look at from the trip.

Edited May 8, 2022 by Restyle

[Larkin]

It’s good to get out of the rat race sometimes. 
nice pics - love the beach sunset!
 

 

[Little_Flatty]

Stunning trip out. Have to admit I was a bit surprised you weren’t bothered by a big mulloway, knowing your track record, but nice to see you managed a good feed and a bit of sport, all the same.

[Restyle]

14 minutes ago, Little_Flatty said:

Stunning trip out. Have to admit I was a bit surprised you weren’t bothered by a big mulloway, knowing your track record, but nice to see you managed a good feed and a bit of sport, all the same.

Would’ve had a decent chance if I didn’t get demolished by sharks haha. I am keen for some more Jewies tho after abit of a hiatus on the fishing because of work 

[BigHorse]

great report, sounds the the jew werent on the chew though!

just saying you probably know this but i'm pretty sure you can take both worms and pipes from stockton beach, they are a much better bait off the beach.

shame to hear about the fire, i thought fires where banned on stockton beach, with all of the indigenous heritage, hopefully they took home their rubbish, if not who knows how much longer we will be able to access that beautiful peice of coast land before the shut it down.

[Yowie]

At least you pulled out a few fish, had a feed of them and a good time, that's what counts.

[Rebel]

Super story & a great trip.

Top photos.

Well done.

[Isaac Ct]

Great adventure, shame you couldn't land a Jew but plenty of nice fish caught. Well done.

[Pickles]

Sounds like a great time with mates  @Restyle, a good feed and bythe look of the photos a top evening. Those sharks are a blinking nuisance when you not targeting them.

[Restyle]

On 5/9/2022 at 7:06 AM, BigHorse said:

great report, sounds the the jew werent on the chew though!

just saying you probably know this but i'm pretty sure you can take both worms and pipes from stockton beach, they are a much better bait off the beach.

shame to hear about the fire, i thought fires where banned on stockton beach, with all of the indigenous heritage, hopefully they took home their rubbish, if not who knows how much longer we will be able to access that beautiful peice of coast land before the shut it down.

Cheers mate. not too fussed about the jew, but more of getting up there and spending a few days. I wasn't too sure if you were able to take worms or pipies and had poor reception to search it up so i just left them be. As for fires, you are allowed to light them in certain areas, but i would say a literal bonfire and 500kg of pallets is not allowed. Its pretty toxic to burn some pallets because the timber is treated with CCA.

On 5/9/2022 at 8:22 AM, Yowie said:

At least you pulled out a few fish, had a feed of them and a good time, that's what counts.

spot on, nothing beats a fresh Flathead that was swimming about 10 minutes prior. cannot beat it.

20 hours ago, Rebel said:

Super story & a great trip.

Top photos.

Well done.

cheers mate!

19 hours ago, Isaac Ct said:

Great adventure, shame you couldn't land a Jew but plenty of nice fish caught. Well done.

Caught a nice jew up there the first time i went, couldn't possibly expect one every trip it would be great though

15 hours ago, Pickles said:

Sounds like a great time with mates  @Restyle, a good feed and bythe look of the photos a top evening. Those sharks are a blinking nuisance when you not targeting them.

once the sun dipped below the horizon, it got cold quickly. at one point we all had 4 jackets on and 3 pairs of trackies. its the feet that killed me, cold sand almost like walking on ice.

what made me rather annoyed about the sharks is they'd run off like a jew before the line goes slack & once i throw abit of wire on they'd not even touch it. i assume they were mostly small bonzies but who knows whats swimming out there

[xerotao]

1 hour ago, Restyle said:

As for fires, you are allowed to light them in certain areas, but i would say a literal bonfire and 500kg of pallets is not allowed. Its pretty toxic to burn some pallets because the timber is treated with CCA.

Im pretty confident you arent allowed to have fires on stockton beach, only at the designated camping area at Ganyamalbaa beach camping area. And only in the provided fire pits.

Im regular fish there with my young family and the amount of hoons and especially at night puts me off stockton beach.

Worms are plenty there. Gun bait for bream and whiting. But all i seem to catch are shovel nose sharks on them

[Restyle]

5 hours ago, xerotao said:

Im pretty confident you arent allowed to have fires on stockton beach, only at the designated camping area at Ganyamalbaa beach camping area. And only in the provided fire pits.

Im regular fish there with my young family and the amount of hoons and especially at night puts me off stockton beach.

Worms are plenty there. Gun bait for bream and whiting. But all i seem to catch are shovel nose sharks on them

yeah the camping area is where we booked for a couple nights for when we needed rest, I really dislike how they have it organised as it’s not exactly near the beach so you cannot really camp and fish at the same time and there are always a bunch of Loud mouths near you making noise and being a nuisance all night. You also get quite abit of 4wd cruising past aswell which puts you on edge at night with suspicious people 
I see no real problem with camping along the beach front other then a minor safety hazard for other drivers, but the beach is very wide. rules are rules I guess

i find there’s a lot more hoons during the day and most of them dune bash. Rangers are non existent there. Of the 2 times I been now I seen numerous people camping along the beach, fires all along the beach front and hoons fanging up the dunes. I have also come across someone abandoned burnt tent & chairs and other crap.

[xerotao]

43 minutes ago, Restyle said:

Rangers are non existent there. Of the 2 times I been now I seen numerous people camping along the beach, fires all along the beach front and hoons fanging up the dunes. I have also come across someone abandoned burnt tent & chairs and other crap.

Usually there would be one patrolling ranger car going up and down the beach during the day. But afternoon onwards i dont see them anymore