The BeaR
01-07-2009, 11:36 PM
Hi All...
Hervey Bay being the windy little area that it is, and only having a 475 topender which has served us well over the many years, we need to look for those magic days, and come Tuesday (yesterday) was one such day, variable winds and only 0.5m swell offshore. Magic.
This time of year in Hervey Bay is the start of Snapper season, and the platypus bay area is one of the places that these fish move into. This was the first time Deb and I have gone into this area and with the reports of a few fish coming from the Rooneys area, this was the direction we decided to put our efforts into.
Leaving from Burrum Heads, taking an easterly course, without turning the steering wheel at all, and 34nm later, there’s Rooneys Point. This is really a big bay to get across.
So now for the fishing….I was fortunate enough a little while back to be given some marks for this area from our good friend John Meiers, where in his previous fishing trips he had managed some good fish.
It didn’t take much sounding around before we came across some small schools of scattered bait, but there were fish holding midwater. The rods we had with us were as usual the S10’s with Certates, but more importantly was Deb’s new S10-H with a split grip, which was made up especially for Barra fishing, and a little S4 BeaR with a certate hyper custom 2500R that I put 8lb fireline on for me. This was going to be different for me, and certainly proved to be a lot of fun.
Within the first couple of casts, the line started to peel off the little reel as the line was still sinking with the bail arm open. A short fight and 4.5kg of Snapper was in the boat, which was a good start, because it was exactly what we had come out to get. We ended up bringing home 4 fish of this size and just releasing the rest.
While just drifting around in the same area, we also noticed a few schools of tuna. At first we thought they may have been Longtail, so moved over for a closer look. Using the same 5” Gulps we had on for the snapper, Deb put a cast out there with her new rod and allowed the lure to sink a little. On the way down it was picked up by something. This is great fishing, cast out, do nothing, get something. After a short little battle, Deb had her very first yellow fin in the net. These were only little rats but they were absolutely everywhere. Deb managed 4 fish in total and I even managed one on my little S4. You got to remember 8lb fireline and 40lb leader…a lot of fun, well at least for the 5mins it took to get it in the boat.
All in all, this was just a magic day in Hervey Bay. When you can run a small tinnie at 25kn there and back without taking a pounding, you can really appreciate how good the day really was. We are certainly looking forward to doing it again.
Eric&Deb…
Hervey Bay being the windy little area that it is, and only having a 475 topender which has served us well over the many years, we need to look for those magic days, and come Tuesday (yesterday) was one such day, variable winds and only 0.5m swell offshore. Magic.
This time of year in Hervey Bay is the start of Snapper season, and the platypus bay area is one of the places that these fish move into. This was the first time Deb and I have gone into this area and with the reports of a few fish coming from the Rooneys area, this was the direction we decided to put our efforts into.
Leaving from Burrum Heads, taking an easterly course, without turning the steering wheel at all, and 34nm later, there’s Rooneys Point. This is really a big bay to get across.
So now for the fishing….I was fortunate enough a little while back to be given some marks for this area from our good friend John Meiers, where in his previous fishing trips he had managed some good fish.
It didn’t take much sounding around before we came across some small schools of scattered bait, but there were fish holding midwater. The rods we had with us were as usual the S10’s with Certates, but more importantly was Deb’s new S10-H with a split grip, which was made up especially for Barra fishing, and a little S4 BeaR with a certate hyper custom 2500R that I put 8lb fireline on for me. This was going to be different for me, and certainly proved to be a lot of fun.
Within the first couple of casts, the line started to peel off the little reel as the line was still sinking with the bail arm open. A short fight and 4.5kg of Snapper was in the boat, which was a good start, because it was exactly what we had come out to get. We ended up bringing home 4 fish of this size and just releasing the rest.
While just drifting around in the same area, we also noticed a few schools of tuna. At first we thought they may have been Longtail, so moved over for a closer look. Using the same 5” Gulps we had on for the snapper, Deb put a cast out there with her new rod and allowed the lure to sink a little. On the way down it was picked up by something. This is great fishing, cast out, do nothing, get something. After a short little battle, Deb had her very first yellow fin in the net. These were only little rats but they were absolutely everywhere. Deb managed 4 fish in total and I even managed one on my little S4. You got to remember 8lb fireline and 40lb leader…a lot of fun, well at least for the 5mins it took to get it in the boat.
All in all, this was just a magic day in Hervey Bay. When you can run a small tinnie at 25kn there and back without taking a pounding, you can really appreciate how good the day really was. We are certainly looking forward to doing it again.
Eric&Deb…