Spaniard_King
09-07-2006, 06:57 PM
Hello all,
The weather forecast was too good to pass up so I got a few of the locals (Rob and Willo) together with my son Brandon for a trip to the famous Barwon Banks. Got up Saturday to absolutely wonderful weather, called the guys and started packing the boat. Being the first trip to this area we did as most do and took way too much stuff, plan was to get to the Barwon banks by 4 pm and fish the late arvo into the night, hopefully having a sleep and then fishing the morning.
Hit the road at 10:45 am with our first hiccup just after we got onto the highway north of Brisbane, a brake calliper on the boat trailer had jammed on( aren't boat trailers a wonderful thing) a quick pitstop to fix it had us going again in 10 minutes. Arrived in Mooloolaba around 1 PM with a quick stop at the local shell bowser for $171 in the boat and $90 in the car we were headed for the ramp. By 1:40pm we were heading out of the Mooloolaba harbour. After trying to log on with the VHF and no success I managed to log on with the 27meg ::) (later found out I could hear everybody but no-one could hear us :'( )I had some marks off a local for some bait so we headed for this reef some 34klm off Mooloolaba in what could be described as "AS GOOD AS IT GETS" type conditions (see pics) Made the bait reef in good time only to find very little on the sounder, so after a quick look we continued on another 14.5klm to our fishing area some 49klm from Mooloolaba.
After sounding around the guys soon had baits in the water and immediately hooked onto some pearlies and teraglin. we spent an hour here with non of the target species (Snapper) coming aboard. I convinced the boys we need to look elsewhere so we made our way 4klm to the north to another spot with plenty of boats fishing along the way we new we had to be in the right place. Stopped on some good ground for a few drops and nuthing really happening we decided to go back to the first place and wait for the bite.
We arrived and setup as before except up until now I had not dropped a line, with all the boys fishing bottom bashing rigs and very little current I decided a floater type rig was required. A nice big fat slimy mackerel was despatched, the bait couldn't have been in the water any more than a minute on freespool and it got slammed, wooohoo I was on a good fish a good 5kg snapper being landed. In lightening time willo had the bottom basher stowed and the floater in the water, not before long a steady stream of Snapper was coming aboard with some horse fish being lost as well. Funniest thing I ever seen was watchin willo sending a bait down with his prize fishing rod and reel (Stella worth $1200 and rod worth $800) he was casually letting the bait down when it got hit and he nearly dropped the rod over the side, I had visions of us having to perform CPR on him...LOL
Around 9 the fish bite had slowed and Rob and Brandon went for a kip, willo and I stayed on the rods with willo getting hammered by an unstoppable and just the od squire coming up which we released. after an hour or so Rob got up stating it was hard to sleep in the cabin so I decided to give it ago. The Northerly wind was blowing 5-7 knots and slapping against the hull which did make things uncomfortable sleeping. I lasted till 11pm when we all decided that we went going to make the morning fishing session. We made a quick count of the catch and turned the boat for the Mooloolaba harbour 48.9klm, about 65min later we were in the harbour.
After packing the boat we stopped to top the fish up with fresh ice and made our way back to the coast. Pulled in at home at 4am we quickly parked the boat and the boys headed off for nap.
We all met today around 10 am and cleaned the fish and the boat.... all the fun stuff :o)
cheers
Garry
Pics to follow
The weather forecast was too good to pass up so I got a few of the locals (Rob and Willo) together with my son Brandon for a trip to the famous Barwon Banks. Got up Saturday to absolutely wonderful weather, called the guys and started packing the boat. Being the first trip to this area we did as most do and took way too much stuff, plan was to get to the Barwon banks by 4 pm and fish the late arvo into the night, hopefully having a sleep and then fishing the morning.
Hit the road at 10:45 am with our first hiccup just after we got onto the highway north of Brisbane, a brake calliper on the boat trailer had jammed on( aren't boat trailers a wonderful thing) a quick pitstop to fix it had us going again in 10 minutes. Arrived in Mooloolaba around 1 PM with a quick stop at the local shell bowser for $171 in the boat and $90 in the car we were headed for the ramp. By 1:40pm we were heading out of the Mooloolaba harbour. After trying to log on with the VHF and no success I managed to log on with the 27meg ::) (later found out I could hear everybody but no-one could hear us :'( )I had some marks off a local for some bait so we headed for this reef some 34klm off Mooloolaba in what could be described as "AS GOOD AS IT GETS" type conditions (see pics) Made the bait reef in good time only to find very little on the sounder, so after a quick look we continued on another 14.5klm to our fishing area some 49klm from Mooloolaba.
After sounding around the guys soon had baits in the water and immediately hooked onto some pearlies and teraglin. we spent an hour here with non of the target species (Snapper) coming aboard. I convinced the boys we need to look elsewhere so we made our way 4klm to the north to another spot with plenty of boats fishing along the way we new we had to be in the right place. Stopped on some good ground for a few drops and nuthing really happening we decided to go back to the first place and wait for the bite.
We arrived and setup as before except up until now I had not dropped a line, with all the boys fishing bottom bashing rigs and very little current I decided a floater type rig was required. A nice big fat slimy mackerel was despatched, the bait couldn't have been in the water any more than a minute on freespool and it got slammed, wooohoo I was on a good fish a good 5kg snapper being landed. In lightening time willo had the bottom basher stowed and the floater in the water, not before long a steady stream of Snapper was coming aboard with some horse fish being lost as well. Funniest thing I ever seen was watchin willo sending a bait down with his prize fishing rod and reel (Stella worth $1200 and rod worth $800) he was casually letting the bait down when it got hit and he nearly dropped the rod over the side, I had visions of us having to perform CPR on him...LOL
Around 9 the fish bite had slowed and Rob and Brandon went for a kip, willo and I stayed on the rods with willo getting hammered by an unstoppable and just the od squire coming up which we released. after an hour or so Rob got up stating it was hard to sleep in the cabin so I decided to give it ago. The Northerly wind was blowing 5-7 knots and slapping against the hull which did make things uncomfortable sleeping. I lasted till 11pm when we all decided that we went going to make the morning fishing session. We made a quick count of the catch and turned the boat for the Mooloolaba harbour 48.9klm, about 65min later we were in the harbour.
After packing the boat we stopped to top the fish up with fresh ice and made our way back to the coast. Pulled in at home at 4am we quickly parked the boat and the boys headed off for nap.
We all met today around 10 am and cleaned the fish and the boat.... all the fun stuff :o)
cheers
Garry
Pics to follow