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gofishin
27-10-2011, 09:58 PM
PBA Annual 1770 trip,October 2011

The annual PBA trip to 1770 was held between 15th to 22nd October. Unfortunately, for the second year in a row it was a blow-out, except for one day – hence there is not too much to report on! Sunday the 16th (which was the first ‘official’ fishing day of the trip), was the only day suitable for fishing! The rest of theweek was 25 – 30kn or more…deja vu October 2010.

I could only get 2 days off work, and when my deckies pulled out, I ended up leaving the boat at home and going up as a decky on Ocean Pearl, a 685 Explorer + Yam 300 V6. They had been up there for the whole week prior (with good weather the whole week), and went hunting for new ground. They got some nice fish including reds to12kg, trout to 7kg and a 12kg Cobia.

With a 5 – 10kn variable winds forecast for Friday, a last minute change of plan was required! I went up a day early, on Thursday night, as did two other club boats. However, a very decent storm up there early onthe Thursday night saw winds at Heron Island recorded up to 85km/h, and this whipped up the seas quite a bit. When Iarrived at ~0100 Friday morning it was still pretty blowy, and I started to have doubts about fishing that day!

Friday 14th
At 0600 at the bar it was 10 – 15kn NE with a run-in tide, but the seas outside were pretty wild, and were obviously carrying a lot of ‘baggage’ from the storm! The bar was OK considering, but for the first few miles out it was pretty lumpy, with the waves/swells closely pitched and standing right up (and often breaking). However, we knew that it would only get better the further away we got from land.

I fired off a few dozen shots of the smaller boats following us out, Hells Bells and Tachyon. The conditions always seem to look better in photos (of what they were – I think anyway), however as the following pics attest, you can see that the smaller boats were working pretty hard. [Look for the Targa/aerials of the 3rdboat – this is sometimes all you could see of the 17 foot Tachyon]. Unfortunately I missed the ones where the HH prop was clear of the water, after a no-back mongrel wave passed leaving nothing under the boat, and without the skipper even trying to get some air. It is interesting to observe the HH hull working in the seas, and the 580 HH Breeze handled the conditions very well. Some of the shots were rapid fire, others were singular etc.

http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2478.jpg

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Cont… (can’t fit enough images)

gofishin
27-10-2011, 10:00 PM
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2530.jpg

http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2531.jpg

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http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2535.jpg


Conditions abated the further we got out (as expected), and weather-wise it turned out to be a fantastic day. Fishing wise, it was hard work getting a feed though! We covered ground from Bolt to Fitzroy, inside and back down the outside, and only had 4 or 5 decent keepers in the box by ~1500. Marks that had produced good fish 2 and 3 days prior were deserted. The other boats found it the same – either no shows at all, or else the fish didn’t want to take the baits.

By 1530 we were back down the outside, ending up at a favourite reef of mine, when the fish came on the bite. All three boats were in different areas, but the other boats reported a good bite starting at approx the same time. We left them biting after 1700, with 20 fish in the box, and headed back in pleasant conditions, crossing the bar just after dark. The tally was two reds (5 or 6 put back to grow bigger), a BM cod, a parrot or two, quite a few RTE and a few Hussar that didn’t go back as bait.

The skipper’s first red
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2540.jpg

The skipper’s second red
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2546.jpg

The kill tank looking healthy
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2550.jpg


Saturday was a bit blowy, so we cleaned fish & boats, and did a bitof tackle prep etc to ‘re-charge’ our batteries for a big effort on Sunday. Another 685 Explorer, Gigantor, had come up on Friday night. They got a bit of kip and headed out very early on Saturday for a two-day trip, encountering a storm for their efforts. They ended up doing pretty well by Sunday arvo, pulling around 6 reds for the two days plus a lot of other fish.

cont....

gofishin
27-10-2011, 10:04 PM
Sunday 16th
With Saturday’s weather being a bit blowy, and predicted to carry in to Sunday morning – and with Friday morning’s weather still fresh in our minds – we decided on a later start than normal, and planned to fish the reef until dark for compensation. DOHHH! When we got up at 5am there was no wind at all! The conditions were great, with hardly a ripple on the bar, so we all thought that we should have left earlier– but hindsight is always great isn’t it?

For those Ausfishers’ that have forgotten the ‘September 1770 M&G’ already, here is a reminder of some sights and what a ‘nice day out’ looks like from Round Hill Creek! No big waves this time though!

http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2574.jpg

1770 Charter Boat about to cross the bar, which hardly had a ripple onit [0640]
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2588.jpg

A shot of the HH with no big curlers to tackle…
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2597.jpg

The bar was flat-as, and the ocean only had a slight swell, so it madef or a fairly quick trip out to…errr….spot X. We heard other boats talking about a thick ocean fog, and found it just inside the islands. It was actually very thick in places, and even though the HH was close behind us, we could only see him on RADAR! It was a bit eerie, and we slowed down a bit ‘just in case’.

We had the lines in just after 8, and got a few in the box after the first drift, but it certainly wasn’t what we had hoped for. I dropped a real good fish which eventually buried me in the reef – bummer! By 1000 we had a nice red on board, a BMC and a few other decent table fish, but were being plagued by Hussar. From here the fishing slowed down quite a bit, with the occasional decent fish or two between a few dozen Hussar. However, we had done OK as by ~1230 we were into the second kill tank. Did I mention we caught lots of Hussar?? We did! Twice we also caught two on a two-hook (closely snelled) single dropper rig!

Fishing was slow everywhere, and by 1300 quite a few boats had come out to check out our haunt. During quiet times there’s nothing like the enticement of two boats on the horizon is there –“I wonder if they are catching anything out there…”

With the bite very slow and drift lines becoming congested we ventured off to look for something a bit more promising. After a bit of sounding around we found some of those welcome ‘red’signs on the sounder, and the skipper plucked another one off the bottom from his favourite corner of the cockpit. The bugger had been on fire all day, let alone the Friday, and couldn’t put a foot wrong! We got a couple more decent hook-ups but couldn’t stay connected. We pulled a few more BMC, RTE and a parrot or two before it again slowed down.

By now most boats had gone from our original spot, so we ventured back to to see if the afternoon bite would fire again. It didn’t, save for another few hundred Hussar, but we certainly tried hard. We got a few ‘non-Hussar’ keepers, but the only other decent fish was a big Sweetie for the skipper… “what, not Red???” we said! By now we were well into the second kill tank, so we had done quite well for the day. We fished until around 1730, but on this day the extended stay and night-time return wasn’t really worth the effort, as the fish did not come to the party! It was a fairly pleasant trip back though at 50kmh, as the conditions were very good! We crossed the bar around 1915, with the HH close behind. The RADAR again proved its worth, and we later reflected on a good day with a nice coldie in hand – both hands! A few other boats caught a red or two on the Sunday, including Flash (bobp) and Salty, but in general most boats reported low catch rates.

I came back to Brissy Monday arvo, and sadly the rest of the club didnot get out again all week either, as the weather was rotten Monday thru Friday (and beyond)! Oh well, there’s always next year! October next year might be alittle difficult for me to get away for the week, September might be a lot easier – so I might have to swap shirts and attend the Ausfish romp, I mean '1770 M&G' ;D in September…

Cheers
Brendon

The first red of the day
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2628.jpg

Any action guys...? Conditionswere pretty good!
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2633.jpg

No red fish this time skip...! :P
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2636.jpg

http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2641.jpg

http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2644.jpg

A nice sweetie – again it was the skipper.
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2649.jpg

The Hells Bells tally,including the big cod that could not be revived.

http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2653sml.jpg

Kid
28-10-2011, 07:34 PM
We were up there in August and the weather was ordinary as well.

I can only imagine how frustrated you must of been.

Cheers

Brent

robsue
29-10-2011, 01:23 AM
who won the pool comp?

gofishin
29-10-2011, 06:27 AM
who won the pool comp? Was that the one where the boys were drinking beer in the pool all week coz they couldn't go fishing... ;D Not sure but I know a few who would have given it a good shot :-X.

Fishing comp results will be released at next meeting, but with only one day's fish being counted I would say the Ocean Pearl skipper would just about 'scoop the pool' of trophies.
Cheers

Reel Blue
29-10-2011, 08:26 AM
Great read, great photos. I too have a cruisecraft explorer. How do you find the kill tanks keep ice? I have never used them to hold fish figuring an esky would be better to keep ice and that the kill tanks might be hard to keep clean.

gofishin
29-10-2011, 01:17 PM
Hi Martin(?), yes I remember you have a 685 Explorer + F250(I think!!) – asked me about prop selections a few years back. I assume you got it all sorted?

Anyway this Explorer has the kill tanks insulated, and theywork fairly well. Both days up there weleft the fish in them overnight before cleaning them the next day – still plentyof ice left too. I think CC put ~12mmfoam around them & glass them over before fitting them to the floor, thenfitting the complete floor module into the hull. They hold ice a bit longer than mine (685Outsider, which have no foam around them) as unfortunately I was not aware thiscould be done when I had it built. Ihave also left fish/ice in mine overnight, and it seems to hold temp OK, butyou need to top it up beforehand.
Using them works very well, even in the Explorer which has a hugecockpit anyway. In my boat I use one asa chilled bleed tank mostly, but also use them/the other as iced storage forfish etc. As my cockpit is much smallerthan the Explorer, and I have the fridge module etc, there is not too muchspace for eskies.:(

Once finished, most people just drain them into their bilgesections & then out the bungs – but I’m a bit anal about minimising anyfresh water entering into this area of the bilge, which also contains theflotation foam. I use a small bilge pump& ~3m flex hose hooked in to a DC outlet. A couple of extra clean water flushes & they are clean in minutes,& nothing goes into the bilge!
Cheers
Brendon

Reel Blue
29-10-2011, 01:48 PM
Thanks Brendan. I don't think mine has the extra foam either. I ended up settling on the yamaha 19 pitch prop instead of the original 17. I have nearly done 400 hours and love the boat and motor. Cheers, Martin