stockton beach

[Restyle]

Bought a 4wd from sunshine coast in Queensland, really good condition, low Kms and ran in to zero dramas on the drive down to Sydney. Have to say the roads in Queensland are built for the future traffic wise & in great condition. so i thought to christen it off a beach, and what a better beach to do it on other than Stockton. The car (2008 pajero) never been off road, stock as a rock so after throwing a platform awning, set of driving light and some basic recovery gear i was off with one other mate. everyone else has commitments which sucked. 

Plan was to leave Sunday and return Tuesday and the weather forecast was set to be shit but that wasn't going to stop us, fishing wasn't even the main focus anyway wanted to test out the car and see how she would perform of the beach. A set of stock highway terrains down to 15psi and it handled the sand perfectly. didn't get stuck or get close to being stuck once. 

We left Sunday 11am and got there just on 2pm so it was a good dive up, sussed out a few gutters but structure was difficult to spot because of the 30km south easterly. The swell was right up on 2-3 meters as well. Threw lines in for the sunset bite them to get washed up down beach so we moved somewhere else for a few thumper salmon and tailor, usual beach catch. as night fell the wind got stronger so we moved to the campsite which someone took so we camped somewhere random on the beach. Wasn't too ideal has we hadn't seen anyone on the beach since dusk.

Following morning after some brekky i threw in a line but there was plenty of gooey weed in the water which was impossible to get off the line and once caught around the top guide it was impossible to reel in. Didn't catch much besides dropping a tailor in the waves. By midday we moved 100 meters down the beach to reserve a deep patch for later on and hopefully away from the weed. As dusk fell a brief shower came through but with the low tide turning i threw some lines in for another handful (although smaller) salmon and a 40cm bream. Unfortunately the wind forecast was wrong and as the tide came in so did the weed and so did the 40km north easterlys which were predicted to be 15km from the south if i remember. 

With the tide near its peak and large plunging waves almost at out tires we decided to head back home that night instead of moving somewhere else. didn't bother taking any pics of the salmon & tailor, just quick hook removals and throwing them back in the surf, in hindsight i should've cut one up for bait.

 

[Larkin]

That weed is the worst! Time to pack it in when that stuff shows up.

Nice bream! And congrats on the new car!

 

Edited April 26, 2023 by Larkin

[bessell1955]

A good work out for your new vehicle.

[Pickles]

Great report Chris - I’ve been “beach adventuring” several times to Fraser Island and had a ball. When that weed blows in, it makes fishing nigh impossible - I often wonder how the fish can see to feed? That bream looks like a beauty though👍

[Yowie]

A long way to go to buy a vehicle. 🤣

At least it was a good one to buy.

Nice beach bream. Tailor and salmon are about the beaches now, so something better than nothing considering the conditions. Strong wind kills the beaches with the side drifts and weed.

[slothparade]

Awesome bream, and some nice pics. And congrats on the new rig. If your keen on taking up 4wd send us a message, we do a range of tracks suited to easy to difficult. 

Just a quick tip for stockton and 4wds, watch temps. I melted a turbo there and unfortunately have paid the price on a recent trip with a cracked cylinder. And another thing, the sand will get into every part of it. Make sure you wash the chassis, and everything. Otherwise you will have massive rust issues in the future. Just hope my mistakes will help you.  

 

[Rebel]

Top report.

Super photos.

Well done.

[Restyle]

6 hours ago, slothparade said:

Awesome bream, and some nice pics. And congrats on the new rig. If your keen on taking up 4wd send us a message, we do a range of tracks suited to easy to difficult. 

Just a quick tip for stockton and 4wds, watch temps. I melted a turbo there and unfortunately have paid the price on a recent trip with a cracked cylinder. And another thing, the sand will get into every part of it. Make sure you wash the chassis, and everything. Otherwise you will have massive rust issues in the future. Just hope my mistakes will help you.  

 

sounds like you're flogging it around abit to much. if you're in a auto and can throw it into a "manual mode" i sat in 2nd and 3rd sitting at about 2000rpm and let the car do the work. no need to floor it unless a section of beach is abit soft. As for tracks, i might to the occasional fire trail here and there but i mostly bought the car to tour around aus to various beaches (particularity south Australia) and fish hard, so my mods would suit sand more then rock hopping.

The wash is always the worst part and spent a silly amount of time hosing out underneath and giving the car a solid clean inside and out along side all the camping equipment. Hopefully ill get back up there in a month or so weather & schedule permitting. 

[slothparade]

12 minutes ago, Restyle said:

sounds like you're flogging it around abit to much. if you're in a auto and can throw it into a "manual mode" i sat in 2nd and 3rd sitting at about 2000rpm and let the car do the work. no need to floor it unless a section of beach is abit soft. As for tracks, i might to the occasional fire trail here and there but i mostly bought the car to tour around aus to various beaches (particularity south Australia) and fish hard, so my mods would suit sand more then rock hopping.

The wash is always the worst part and spent a silly amount of time hosing out underneath and giving the car a solid clean inside and out along side all the camping equipment. Hopefully ill get back up there in a month or so weather & schedule permitting. 

wasnt doing aything particulary stupid main issue one of the pervious turned up the diesiel delivery all the way up so i had huge temp problems. found autos tend to have a bit more engine temp problems on sand. mines a manual, usually will use high range and 3 max, rarely used low range on stockton, though i have the adgantage of rather large tyres. No problem at all, ive gone for a super tourer build so does a bit of everything, just always looking to add more people to the group, the more the merrier. will admit the last trip we probaby went a bit silly, every rig went home on tow trucks. 

side question, how do you get your beach rods around on and off the beach? I got in trouble for the rod holder (sasuage maker) on the bullbar, but didnt want to strap the rods to the roof. is it just best to leave everything broken down and then rig up when you get there? 

its best to be over the top with preventative maintiance, otherwise it will come around to bite later. i always go over the underneath with the pressure cleaner then quick spray with the hose and get into the noocks and crannies an then the chassis rails. good luck, have you tried down south, heard there is the ocasional good jew fish 

did you happen to see the land rover that caught on fire? just wondering what happened. 

[Restyle]

46 minutes ago, slothparade said:

wasnt doing aything particulary stupid main issue one of the pervious turned up the diesiel delivery all the way up so i had huge temp problems. found autos tend to have a bit more engine temp problems on sand. mines a manual, usually will use high range and 3 max, rarely used low range on stockton, though i have the adgantage of rather large tyres. No problem at all, ive gone for a super tourer build so does a bit of everything, just always looking to add more people to the group, the more the merrier. will admit the last trip we probaby went a bit silly, every rig went home on tow trucks. 

side question, how do you get your beach rods around on and off the beach? I got in trouble for the rod holder (sasuage maker) on the bullbar, but didnt want to strap the rods to the roof. is it just best to leave everything broken down and then rig up when you get there? 

its best to be over the top with preventative maintiance, otherwise it will come around to bite later. i always go over the underneath with the pressure cleaner then quick spray with the hose and get into the noocks and crannies an then the chassis rails. good luck, have you tried down south, heard there is the ocasional good jew fish 

did you happen to see the land rover that caught on fire? just wondering what happened. 

stockton isnt as soft as people make it out to be theres plenty of nearby beaches 10x softer (mungo) 

rod transport, being in a wagon ill split them down and have then in the back sitting over the rear seats. If i need to move a few hundred meters ill stick the rod out the passenger window but wouldn't do that on the highway. 

As for the south coast there isnt as much in terms of drive able 4wd beaches, but plenty of track access beaches which do have some solid jew off them at times.

I knew a old work mate who's catch ripper jew off brou beach in bodalla using quads but i dont think its 4wd accessible but there are few good beaches that around are closed because nationalparks have absolutely ruined them with stupid fees, camping restrictions and other rubbish. 

 

Anyway, i didn't see a land rover on fire, surprised it wasn't a jeep, but i did see a AWD Mercedes stuck down to the rails on some sand erosion struggle to get pulled out by numerous serious rigs and the tide was coming in.  

[slothparade]

15 hours ago, Restyle said:

stockton isnt as soft as people make it out to be theres plenty of nearby beaches 10x softer (mungo) 

rod transport, being in a wagon ill split them down and have then in the back sitting over the rear seats. If i need to move a few hundred meters ill stick the rod out the passenger window but wouldn't do that on the highway. 

As for the south coast there isnt as much in terms of drive able 4wd beaches, but plenty of track access beaches which do have some solid jew off them at times.

I knew a old work mate who's catch ripper jew off brou beach in bodalla using quads but i dont think its 4wd accessible but there are few good beaches that around are closed because nationalparks have absolutely ruined them with stupid fees, camping restrictions and other rubbish. 

 

Anyway, i didn't see a land rover on fire, surprised it wasn't a jeep, but i did see a AWD Mercedes stuck down to the rails on some sand erosion struggle to get pulled out by numerous serious rigs and the tide was coming in.  

Yeah I guess it's with all the people who don't let the air out. In saying that 37s don't really need much air knocked out. Can think of a few way softer than Stockton. The trick was choosing the right bait and late night / early morning. Yeah Stockton's pretty restricted which is a shame and at $30 almost per a beach permit for the others you kinda have to pick one and only fish that beach. Found heading up north on Stockton some spots can get fairly soft, mate on 35s was caught out. 

I've been cutting and rewelding trap door on my cargo cage so that I can run rods through. Do you have your rigs pre made so that when you get onto the sand your ready to go or do you tie on the sand? I've seen people strapping them to the roof but I thought you would have wanted a towel so you don't put to put stress on the rod and damage it? 

Sorry about all the questions, just trying to gather a bit of info on different ways to transport rods around as I've had a few get damaged now. 

Had a mate that used to do comps all around there,. Couldnt ever get the exact location but the beaches hold good jewfish. 

Ahh, yeah there was a drowned ranger and a on fire land rover. Was it the white merc? Surprised it wasn't a jeep 😂. I was towing my mates rig as he blew his engine and then my engine went up the mates Hilux did the rear locker and turbo. 

[xerotao]

On 4/27/2023 at 3:17 PM, slothparade said:

did you happen to see the land rover that caught on fire? just wondering what happened. 

I did. Well kinda. During the day saw a large bellow of smoke on the southern end (i was near gan gan). Saw 2 rangers with harzards on going towards smoke. Then saw rfs with flashing lights. Then the Nissan Patrol beach recovery. Didnt think too much about it. Only to leave around 10pm the lavis lane to head hime. Drive past them with the burnt out landy on a car trailer with the patrol towing it.

 

not too sure what happened. But can only assume something electrical shorted and burnt. Poor guy

[xerotao]

On 4/27/2023 at 4:24 PM, Restyle said:

Anyway, i didn't see a land rover on fire, surprised it wasn't a jeep, but i did see a AWD Mercedes stuck down to the rails on some sand erosion struggle to get pulled out by numerous serious rigs and the tide was coming in.  

I was 100m from that. Was a couple of landcruiser utes that pulled them out

[Restyle]

3 hours ago, xerotao said:

I did. Well kinda. During the day saw a large bellow of smoke on the southern end (i was near gan gan). Saw 2 rangers with harzards on going towards smoke. Then saw rfs with flashing lights. Then the Nissan Patrol beach recovery. Didnt think too much about it. Only to leave around 10pm the lavis lane to head hime. Drive past them with the burnt out landy on a car trailer with the patrol towing it.

 

not too sure what happened. But can only assume something electrical shorted and burnt. Poor guy

Explains why I didn’t see any rangers the whole time we were there, 

On 4/28/2023 at 8:15 AM, slothparade said:

Yeah I guess it's with all the people who don't let the air out. In saying that 37s don't really need much air knocked out. Can think of a few way softer than Stockton. The trick was choosing the right bait and late night / early morning. Yeah Stockton's pretty restricted which is a shame and at $30 almost per a beach permit for the others you kinda have to pick one and only fish that beach. Found heading up north on Stockton some spots can get fairly soft, mate on 35s was caught out. 

I've been cutting and rewelding trap door on my cargo cage so that I can run rods through. Do you have your rigs pre made so that when you get onto the sand your ready to go or do you tie on the sand? I've seen people strapping them to the roof but I thought you would have wanted a towel so you don't put to put stress on the rod and damage it? 

Sorry about all the questions, just trying to gather a bit of info on different ways to transport rods around as I've had a few get damaged now. 

Had a mate that used to do comps all around there,. Couldnt ever get the exact location but the beaches hold good jewfish. 

Ahh, yeah there was a drowned ranger and a on fire land rover. Was it the white merc? Surprised it wasn't a jeep 😂. I was towing my mates rig as he blew his engine and then my engine went up the mates Hilux did the rear locker and turbo. 

Mud tyres get bogged easier as they dig in like a shovel and to be fair, the beach is so restricted because so many morons go there which ruin it for everyone else, same for most parks but the amount of empty bottles and other rubbish on the beach was pretty sad.

premade rigs are asking for tangles unless you store them in a cut of section of pool noodle, just tie up on the beach, gives you the confidence your line had no nicks, knots are strong and ready instead of losing a fish because of a older knot