Epic 1770 Holiday

[Fixation]

Well it was time to venture north again for our annual family trip to 1770. I can remember the first time Dad took me up there. It was before GPS’s were a standard feature in every boat (we didn’t have one) and we got some good oil off some guy we talked to at the caravan park. We put our trust in him and headed off a compass bearing for a set mileage and stumbled across some ground. The old black and white lowrance at the time indicated some growth on the bottom and we dropped the pick. We then proceeded to fill the boat with lippers, hussar, cod and parrot. It was a great trip and stays vivid in my mind. This is what keeps bringing us back here each year for the past 16 years.

Chaos 1st trip
The forecast wasn’t the greatest so we left the ladies at home and the old man and I left with nervous guts knowing the creatures that lurked in some of the holes and ledges that we knew about. The wind was blowing about 10-15 knots and white capping from the SE but was fishable so we put the hammer down and travelled a fair distance to the first area of interest.
As soon as we motored over a spot close to another waypoint we generally fish the sounder lit up and some nice red blobs appeared close to the bottom. Anchors away and we swung round onto some nice looking territory.
Livies were deployed and within seconds of reaching the bottom the vibration on the line indicated that the livies weren’t happy with what they saw when they arrived at their destination. Lock the drags.
We decided to name the mark Chaos as rods doubled over for the next 30 minutes or so and more fish were lost than caught. I think the old man rigged up about 5 or 6 times in a row at some stage through this. We were mainly hooking large trout and they were steam training us into the bommies.
After the first 10 minutes of being bricked I decided to lock the drag to full on the tyrnos and not give them an inch. That’s when we started to get a few off the bottom.
The tide started to run and the trout went off but then I got a nice red and the grassies came on the chew. We bagged a good few then the sharks came in for a look and everything shut down. We shifted round and gathered some hussar, parrot and lost a few more good fish. This was a good 1st trip we thought to the holiday.

[Fixation]

Brother in Law Blooded - Trip 2.
A 5/10 knot variable was finally forecast and the boat was fully crewed. Mum came along and my brother in law came out to get blooded for the first time.
A long but comfortable trip out saw us at a new area to check out. We sounded round for a bit and found some bottom that looked reasonable so the pick went over and we started fishing. It was very slow at first and I think this was due to the stage of the tide and the time of day it was. We shifted a few times and finally came to rest on a nice show.
Dad deployed a livie and hooked onto a nice maori straight away, then a nice cod. So I chucked on a trout lollie and it sunk to the depths. As soon as it hit the bottom the livie went into a panic and something big snavelled it. The drag was fully locked so it was against me and the fish to see who won. I thought it might have been a chinaman at first but then we got colour and a nice trout of 8.4 kg surfaced. We bagged a few more nice grassies, parrot and a heap of hussar then the wind got up cause of a storm forming to the south so we pulled the pick and headed in for the day.

[Fixation]

The Darkside – 3rd trip
A 15/20 knot SW/S was forecast so we waited to see if it would drop off at lunch. We got a little impatient so we headed out but stayed in close and got some bait. The wind slowly started to drop but not enough to warrant a trip out wide. We went over and checked out an area in close that we’d never been to before.
As we got close to the mark the sounder lit up on a nice show so we got pretty excited. I worked out the drift direction then we went back and dropped the pick. We deployed our baits and they got smashed straight away on the bottom. We all thought you beauty! We started to fight the fish up but the tail motion indicated our worst fears. We’d anchored on a big school of trevors.
Trevally after trevally were caught for the next 1 ½ hours. I decided then to convert to the dark side and try some rubbers.
The trevs bit hard on the chooks. I tried all sorts. In the end I tried some white glow in the dark ones in 6”, they bit on everything. Eventually I caught something other than a trev - a nice little scarlet and a couple of little squire. My old man hates plastics and continued to use bait and we finished off with just a feed of sweeties for the day.

[Fixation]

Droppin out – 4th trip
With another dodgy wind forecast we left mum at home again and headed wide. This time we wanted to go back with some heavier tackle and try to beat some of these big trout we’d been hooking.
We had a 2 hour window before the current was going to cause us grief so we hammered out to the spot. This gave us very limited fishing time.
The bite was red hot. Again first drop smashed. So I got out the broom stick with 70 lb on burtha - a 10” alvey.
Adrenaline ran with the next drop cause I knew I had a good chance of landing one. My rod doubled over and I cranked into a nice one. This trout wasn’t getting away. Dad got a nice size one too but he continued to get smashed up on 50 lb. We wished we’d brought the deck winch now. The trout went off the bite and the grasssies came on and we got into some nice ones. Then the current eventually became unfishable so we headed in.

[Fixation]

Origin glass out - 5th trip.
We by the looks of the chart this was going to be our last trip out. It was a variable forecast so we headed out and got some livies and headed to an old spot we’d fished in previous years – we nick named it Chinatown cause of the amount of giant chinaman we’d caught there before.
First couple of hours we got nice sweeties, trout to 6.5 kg, hussar and parrot. Then the china’s arrived. Mum broke her back on one. I loaded the tyrnos up on a few.
Dad finally won the chinaman award. He caught 3 consecutive china’s in a row. The china crown had a new owner. We all went back in with broken backs driving in complete glass out. Very memorable.

[Megafisk]

Hi Fixation - you gotta love 1770!!! great fish - great posts. What's your best recipe for trout?:D

Megafisk

[Angla]

You must be absolutely stoked. It sounds like this has been a great year for the anniversary trip. That big trout is a horse.

Great report and write up with top pics to match.

Chris

[Dean1]

Awsome report awsome fish awsome glassout just bloody awsome. Bet you all had a load of fun, congrats!

[Local_Guy]

awesome read and great photos. glad you enjoyed your time in that small part of the world

[kitty_cat]

the smiles in the pics say it all awsome report

[dayoo]

Great fish, good report, beautiful pics, well done.

Cheers
Barry

[Frank OO]

Hi Craig,

Now that is a fishing trip. I love it when a plan comes together.

Great work mate. Talk to you soon.

Frank OO

[Pistol_P]

Awesome.....Some top quality fish there.

Love the trout.

Great report.8-) 8-)

Pete

[wags on the water]

Thanks for the report on fishing 1770. Sounds like everyone had a great time and some nice fish on ice.

Cheers,
Wags

[scrubba01]

Great report, I hope you have left a couple up there for us we are going up for another trip in a couple of weeks. Some very nice Trout there but not too many Reds did the weather keep you inside the reef or were they not on the chew?

[Spot82]

Some monster trout there and good catches, well done. Great report too, thanks.

Out of interest what were you using for livies? Yakkas?

[Fixation]

Hey scrubba01,

This holiday we deceided to target trout. Generally fished in shallower water. The reds don't like to play round those areas. The only time we fished deep was on the first trip. Hence only time we got reds.

Regards,
Craig.

[Fixation]

Hey Spot82,

We mainly used live and dead yakas, mullet fillets, fresh hussar fillets and ballie bream cut up.

Regards,
Craig.

[Big_Ren]

"Epic" is certainly the word. Thanks for sharing such a fabulous report with great pics Craig.

Well done mate.....you'll be eating tasty fish for some time.

Cheers
Paul

[scuba01]

well done craig:D spewing i couldn't make it, just would've been to hard with the new arrival and all (you will understand in a few months time) good to see you got into a few. will have to get out soon!!!!!!

I just got a big load of msa steak if you wanna do some swapsies ha ha

talk soon
steve

[Liberty]

Wow.........

[Gazza.Boyne]

Craig,

Fantastic report with some great photo's, thanks for sharing it

[Vindicator]

Fixation you are the MAN, and well your father hes the old MAN! What a great trip and equally great report. Well done on the monster trout, certainly is a beauty.

Cheers
Kezza

[pilchardjones]

great report fixation.
thanks for sharing. keeps us all going - hanging on till next trip.
steve

BTW when you are rigging live yakkas for reefies, are you fishing them on a paternoster?

[keenfishr]

awesome mate!!! some beautiful trout aswell as all the other fish. sounds like a rippa of a trip

[Fixation]

Hi pillchardjones,

We rigged them on paternoster's mate. Make sure you got a nice size lead on as well to keep em on the bottom.

Regards,
Craig.

[jimbo59]

Great fishing,top story too.

[beachturkey]

Fixation - fantastic pic's of awesome catches!
I fish out of Turkey and the distances you are travelling would probably be similar from there! I would like to target the wider grounds, and have an 18'6 Easyrider with 150 litre fuel to a 90Merc 4 stroke, which is slightly underpowered (seperate problem!)
Where do you get the livies?
I have normally fished Rock Cod Shoals, which can be anything to 1 1/2 hours, depending on surface etc and have the range to do probably double the distance! How far do you travel for your fish? NO GPS MARKS!:-X Just distance or area as a guide for where I might consider in future!
If you like, I could do you a deal on accom in exchange for a few pointers and assists for learning more about the area, if you're interested!:)

[cptpott]

Hey fixation, what a teriffic report, it has made my otherwise crappy day just reading it. Well done!

[Dantren]

Great report Craig,

What a memorable trip for the family.

Can you recommend a boat friendly rental property for a weeks trip to 1770??

Thanks, Dan.

[pickers]

come on August , pickers is hitting 1770 with a mate and we're going wide...real wide.
can't wait.
top report mate , bitchin' fish too.
pickers

[Reel Nauti]

I just loved every minute of that read! Great pics and story. Lot's of memories there for evermore with Mum and Dad.

Good on you and congratulations

Dave

[twotins]

Jee's Craig, youve been a busy boy love the snaps, sounds, and looks like all plans came together good onya mate. Cheers Shawno.

[Sea Legs]

Hey fixation,

Great report! Good to hear you had a great time and got out wide...

Tight lines,
Bro

:P

[jarhead]

What an awesome trip. Hope ours is as good in september. Thanks for the top read and pics.

Cheers Wal

[seapup]

Hay Craig you got it right by calling it EPIC as thats the only way you could descripe a trip like that! Top s##t mate well done!
Cheers,
Benny.

[revs57]

Great stuff Craig, i know its been a while but you've certainly made up for your tim e away for the water...just hope there is a few fish left for the rest of us!

Some cracker trouties there my friend...and that red is no slouch either

Give naomi a g'day for me

Cheers

rhys

[Fixation]

Hey Rhys,

Will pass the well wishes on. I have left some extremely big ones up there for you mate. I think we lost 4 good fish for every 1 landed either to sharks or just being too big.
Only got 6 weeks left now and the little anchor boy arrives.

Talk to you soon mate.
Regards,
Craig.

[reel scream]

Great read, great fish great company by the sounds of it. Thats why we put ourselves out to go hunt and gather;D .

Sounds like a little one is on the way? All the best, and if the first, enjoy the sleep deprived nights.
PS Breast is best as no point in us getting up:-X ;D

Cheers Scott

[polky]

Fixation, man some nice fish in that lot, good to see the family all got invovled, been on the end of some of those trout and they don,t give you a second chance. Good report excellent reading. Polky.

[business class]

What a trip, would love to get up there and do that one. awesome report

Cheers
Matty