QuintrexII
06-03-2007, 12:41 PM
Hi Guys,
Chartered a boat out of Airlie beach for5-6 days last week (early easter trip). 36 ft mono cruiser (governed to 8-9knts)
The weather was ordinary to say the leat. 25-30 s/e's for first few days the 25+ wind warnings for the last few days.
We were basically restricted to the western side of Hook and Whitsunday Isl for the duration of the trip. But also managed to spend some time up the northern tip of Hook and around hayman.
Water was very dirty...very dirty, and rained 50% of each day - had over 2m of swell some days even on the western sides of the islands.
We trolled everywhere we went - tried out the gold Lively Lure Mac bait, whole range of skirted lures and some RMG Scorpion crazy deep lures in 3,5 and 8m depths - not one fish picked up on the troll all week. even tried the old trusty rapala red heads.
Tried out some secret spot X's from previous trips, but all we managed was lots and lots of 20-25cm reds, a couple of 45cm Nani's for the table.
I kept a couple of rods rigged up with 20 & 40g metal slices in case of bait ball action and it wasn't until later in the week that I started to throw these around in the inlets. These gave us our best success (20gm) with some schoolies and a couple of sweetlip and trevally caught (that's before I ran out of 20 gm slices (think we lost 6 by the end).
There is still lots and lots of bait ball action up there - especially at the northern end of hook - between Hook and Hayman, but with the1-2+m swell and the big deisal cruiser, could not get close enough without spooking them.
A beautiful part of the world, regardless of the time of year, but unfortunately, not a lot in the fishing stakes to report.
Had a ball hand feeding the massive Wrass (about 8ft+) up at Manta ray bay, and alos exploring some of the waterfalls that have formed on the islands from all the rain.
Chartered a boat out of Airlie beach for5-6 days last week (early easter trip). 36 ft mono cruiser (governed to 8-9knts)
The weather was ordinary to say the leat. 25-30 s/e's for first few days the 25+ wind warnings for the last few days.
We were basically restricted to the western side of Hook and Whitsunday Isl for the duration of the trip. But also managed to spend some time up the northern tip of Hook and around hayman.
Water was very dirty...very dirty, and rained 50% of each day - had over 2m of swell some days even on the western sides of the islands.
We trolled everywhere we went - tried out the gold Lively Lure Mac bait, whole range of skirted lures and some RMG Scorpion crazy deep lures in 3,5 and 8m depths - not one fish picked up on the troll all week. even tried the old trusty rapala red heads.
Tried out some secret spot X's from previous trips, but all we managed was lots and lots of 20-25cm reds, a couple of 45cm Nani's for the table.
I kept a couple of rods rigged up with 20 & 40g metal slices in case of bait ball action and it wasn't until later in the week that I started to throw these around in the inlets. These gave us our best success (20gm) with some schoolies and a couple of sweetlip and trevally caught (that's before I ran out of 20 gm slices (think we lost 6 by the end).
There is still lots and lots of bait ball action up there - especially at the northern end of hook - between Hook and Hayman, but with the1-2+m swell and the big deisal cruiser, could not get close enough without spooking them.
A beautiful part of the world, regardless of the time of year, but unfortunately, not a lot in the fishing stakes to report.
Had a ball hand feeding the massive Wrass (about 8ft+) up at Manta ray bay, and alos exploring some of the waterfalls that have formed on the islands from all the rain.