Hinchinbrook Offshore

[Alchemy]

Nic and I headed up to fish offshore from Hinchinbrook, launching at Lucinda on Saturday morning. Saturday was a cracker of a day with flat seas and no breeze – a good day to explore this area for the first time.

We headed out to Bramble Reef and found a few red-throat but the trout were slow. Nic managed a good shark mack then followed up with a good Spaniard, but someone stuffed the gaff shot and the Spaniard got the thumbs up to live another day.

We tried a few other spots in the area and got a couple of trout, red-throat and spanglies. When night set in we anchored up behind the reef for a feed and a sleep.

Sunday morning and the wind was up a bit, but not too bad. We fished similar areas as Saturday for a similar result. I marked half a dozen small shows on the way out so we set off to search these more thoroughly.

Spots 1,2, 3 and 4 showed nothing of interest, but spot 5 lit up with a shoaly bottom and fish. I decided to try a drift first up, and Nic dropped her bait down. As soon as it hit bottom it was comprehensively smashed, and so was her 50lb braid. My turn, back to the start of the drift, and strike two! Whatever it was, it was big. I put the 50lb gear away and pulled out an 80lb jig stick with 80lb braid.

Alas, the 80lb wasn’t up to the task either, so out came the Saltiga Dogfight with 47kg braid and 120lb leader. I dropped the pick and we decided to take turns on the Dogfight. After three more bust-offs on full drag I finally managed a 9kg chinaman, followed by a red that was just shy of 7kg, and then a large-mouth nanny around 8kg.

By now the tide was slack and the bite had stopped, so we headed off to anchor in the lee of Pelorous Island, where the seas were dead calm. In the morning we were greeted by a spectacular backdrop of beach and rainforest. The air even had that rainforest smell to it…. absolutely spectacular spot.

Even though the fishing was slow for us, we will be back. Hopefully we can get a few more of those big fellas off the bottom next time.

Dave.

[Alchemy]

more pics.

[skipalong]

awesome pics of the fish in water dave, beautiful, top catch of fish to take home to well done.

justin

[levinge]

Yet again Nic has surpassed herself with the photography.

Well done there guys, glad to see you've been back on the water.

[sleepygreg]

Awesome pics of a great trip. Well done guys (and gals).

Greg

[WestOzDesertFisher]

Awesome pics and fish! That's a horse Shark Mack, don't get much bigger than that one. Good stuff.

[backlash08]

Dave, another high quality report with great pictures, thanks
down here in SEQ we can only dream on good conditions, its been a shocker year for the most

cheers - Craig

[scrubba01]

Hi Dave and Nic
Another great report and pictures glad to see the lawn of death has made a come back. Sounds like you might have been off the water for too long Dave the old gaff skills are getting a bit rusty;D ;D . It has been that long since we have had good enough weather to put a decent trip together I am struggeling to remember what a gaff looks like.

[Ally Jack]

Great fish and photography, that should fill the freezer for a while

Ally Jack

[warti]

Good fish, good photos and great weather. C'mon weather gods i need some trout.

[Fish_gutz]

Some good fish there , love the sounder shots, how do you rate the FF50?
Cheers Andrew

[Benno1]

Thankyou Nic... :D
Thankyou Dave... :D

Mrs Benno1
Sunny

[Nic]

Glad you liked the photos guys. I have been advised that to get those big, deep fish I need to use a big heavy handline. Has anyone else tried this?

[backlash08]

Hi Nic,
Deckwinch with ~150 lbs braid and 200 lbs leader might do the trick, I have one stored on my boat and bring it out in such circumatances and they do work well for dragging things from the depths
cheers - Craig

[Alchemy]

Thanks everyone for your comments, particularly for the pics. Again, Nic took the majority, and all the really good ones :)

Hi Craig, I had a call from a mate down there after he read the report. He seemed somewhat agitated :-/ I'm sure you'll all get an opportunity to repay the favour, but until then I'll do my best to share the love :P

Hi Warren. Glad you liked the L.O.D shot. It actually serves two purposes. The esky is too heavy for me to lift alone, so hand the fish to Nic, then lift the empty box off the boat. While the fish are out we line 'em up for the pic. Then back in the ice while we fillet. Hmmm, the gaff.... was that me :-[

Andrew, to be honest I am not the best person to ask to rate the FF50 as it is the only colour sounder i have ever owned or used. However, I do like it very much. I also have a Lowrance LCX15MT, and never use it to locate fish as the FF50 is far superior to that. A feature I particularly like with the FF50 is the bottom discrimination feature (can be seen in the pics, left hand side of screen).

Regards,
Dave.

[disorderly]

glad to see the lawn of death has made a come back.

Yeah never thought I'd see it with an Alchemy report..but its just to tempting isnt it Nic and Dave...anyone can do those poncy underwater shots but it takes real skill to set up a "lawn of death" shot...;);D....

Damn was I the only one not to land a red on the weekend...It was just so nice to get out though wasnt it guys...:)

Scott

[nickstock]

A fantastic post Dave with top pics to boot from Nic!

Nic - 150 pound mono on a hand line pull most things up from the deep.

Bring on some nice weather to sharpen Daves 'gaffing' skills!

Cheers for a great post guys,

Nick

[35kg jew]

Mate awesome pics and great post. Some nice fish there well done guys!!!

[trueblue]

Glad you liked the photos guys. I have been advised that to get those big, deep fish I need to use a big heavy handline. Has anyone else tried this?

yep, 150 to 200 lb hand line, low stretch good quality mono. if current will allow, use a sliding torpedo sinker direct over the hook (with a little bit of small plastic tube above hook to protect the knot from the sinker. If current requires a larger sinker, use a single paternoster (with a 3 way swivel instead of a dropper loop knot) with the hook reasonably close to the sinker.

To protect your fingers, wrap your index fingers with good quality elastoplast tape, and have some pieces of bicycle inner tube available as well (ie racer bike, with small diameter tube, cut in pieces about 60mm long to slip over your fingers as well if required.

For personal safety, ALWAYS have a knive on a belt around your waist, in easy reach. If you accidentally get caught in a loop of the line, you will need to cut it free in a hurry.

When using a handline, drop to bottom and then chuck the reel into a corner of the boat, right out of the way. When retrieving the line, just pull it up, and let the line lay loose on the floor of the boat, and try not to kick the line around much so that it doesn't get tangled.

The initial bite from a big strong fish (eg trout, chinaman etc) will be pretty wild on a landline because it is very direct, but suprisingly, once the fish starts coming up its not to difficult to pull up, just hard on the fingers.

The best thing with a handline is that by having direct control right on the bite, you can immediately skull drag the fish away from his hole or bomby quick smart and thats 90 % of the battle.

It is very, very worthwhile to have 2 good handlines in the boat up in that area, and switch over to the handlines as soon as you get busted up on rod and reel.

Have fun.

Mick

[Alchemy]

Scott, hang in there mate. Your red is coming soon, though from the reports here it would seem you were one of the few not to land one that weekend :-* (ps, L.O.D. is here to stay!)

Nick, nice weather.... It was nice enough. I just stuffed up :-[

Trueblue, thanks for the tips. I had a mate out last year who caught some nice nannygai on a hand line, but it just seems so unnatural to me. Guess I'll have to give it a go a hope I stay in the boat.