Sept/Oct round-up, inc NQ salty Barra

[craigie]

Have not posted a report for some time, so will be giving a run-down of whats come over the gunnel in the last 4 weeks.

Have had a couple of good sessions on the School Mackerel in Southern and Central Moreton Bay. Floated Pillies and slugs worked a treat.
Most of the fish were between 55 and 75 cm with just a few throw backs mixed in with them. Always good fun on light spin outfits and some heavy leader.

[craigie]

Good numbers at times

[DaneCross]

Good stuff Craigie, was beginning to wonder where you've been hiding ;) Now bring on the spotties - hopefully its a good season for them...

[JB]

Good to see you bak craigie, those doggies dont taste too bad at all :). You blokes sure look like ya got a good haul. I have been meaning to try chasing them for a while, a lot of blokes troll the paravanes / spoon setup , but i find that too much effort. Floating pillies and spinning sounds like more fun.

See you on the bay this summer mate, as DC said bring in the spots.

Hope you got that boat of yours preped up for some zippin about DC ;)

Jas

[craigie]

My mate Andy and I had been talking about doing a charter with John Gooding, owner and operator of "Outlaw Charters".
John runs a 680 Haines Hunter equiped with twin 140 suzzies. He caters for small groups up to 4 people and is based out of the Manly Boat Harbour.
After months of delberation we were booked in for a midweek live bait session on the 65 - 85m grounds out off the south passage bar.
Turned out to be a cracker of a day with the AJ's and Kingies on the chew.
We landed quite a few to 12kg's, but were comprehensively blown away but many larger models as the live baits were slammed and smashed off in 5 seconds of furry when least expected :'(.
John knows his stuff and gave us all a great day on the water.

Now planning A Mackerel trip with him later on in the season.

[craigie]

Non stop action was the order of the day

[craigie]

Andy with his hands full ;)

[craigie]

I'm hooked up to yet another solid Amberjack

[craigie]

Andy with 4 kg's of "Livey eating" Pearl Perch.

[craigie]

Plans had been laid down earlier in the year for a trip to the North leaving Brisbane on the 7th of October.
With the boat hooked up, our destination was Townsville. There I would meet up with Danny Brooks (owner of Tackle World Townsville) who would show Andy and I some of his fav spots in the local creeks.

We had always considered the trip to be more of a bucks party prior to Andy's wedding in Townsville on the 15 th of October (he has a very understanding new wife ;))

We left on the Friday night and drove through to Mackay, arriving the next morning, where we procceded to hunt down the boat ramp to launch the 5m Quinnie.
A quick chat to the locals and we were headed out to the Islands 30k's offshore hunting Mackerel & Reefies.
20 knot + winds made life a bit wet & bumpy but we pushed on and anchored up in the channel that runs between Keswick and St Bees Islands.
Apart from a School Mack for the Esky, it was a string of undersize reefies being released to fight another day.

Note the fire-power in the rod holders 8-)

[craigie]

Our neigbours for the night, "Reel Screamer" & mothership.
We were hoping for an offer to come aboard for a Chardy ::) ;D

[craigie]

Sunday morning we spend a few hours trolling around for a Spanish at a little rocky outcrop off the south East side of St Bees Is.
No luck, so we head back to port, running across feeding spotties and Tuna close to the entrance of the harbour. Its slug time, but after a few bite off's and blown fish we continue back to the ramp.

Boat on the trailer, we head for Townsville, arriving Sunday evening very tired but optimistic about the next days fishing.
The winds were still going to blow so it would be a creek mission into cleveland Bay.

An early start Monday collecting live prawns before we anchor ourselves off a prominant snag in Crocodile creek.
We land our first Barra for the trip, but only a little fella around 50 cm and it's released. A little later a second Barra then a couple of solid Tarpon. Nothing for the esky but still having fun.
Next fish is a Fingermark around 33 cm, then a monster Pikey Bream just under 40cm.
I send a live Mullet out and gets slammed with 2 minutes, bloody hooks pull before I get a look at it, Bigger Barramundi ???????
We troll lures for a while to no avail and call it a day.

Tuesday and Wednesday will be spent with Danny Brooks fishing the creek systems south towards the Burdekin.
The wind is still blowing 20 knots, so it's still our only option, and proves to be a very memorable couple of days !!

I won't waffle on too much, think I'll just let the pics doing the talking !!

[craigie]

Apart from numerous little cod, we lured a Jack and some quality Barra, while the live bait produced Fingermark, Salmon and Grunter.

Still trying to post a few more photos ??

[craigie]

I can't hold my tongue any longer :P, I scored a 100cm+ Saltwater Barra while trolling a snaggy mangrove bank.
It jumped a couple of times and almost came clean over the transom during one of it's leaping fits.
Danny was kind enough to video and photograph it for his segment on WIN news (Townsville) last Friday Night.

I'll try again later to get a photo up of it. It's only my second Barra landed and a PB that will be hard to beat in the salt !!

[DaneCross]

Awesome stuff Craigie. I was wondering why you took two hours to finish your report, now I know, you were building the suspense! Great fish, can't wait to see the photo, no doubt you're all smiles ;D [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]

[JB]

Sounds bloody unreal cragie , bring on the photo of it.

[aquarius]

Great report Craig........Mate the Barra sounds awsome......can't wait to see the pics.
You have been busy the last month....fishing and more fishing..lol
Hope to catch up with you on the bay this summer.......that is if i can catch you in the red rocket.
Cheers Brent ;)

[bugman]

I'm sorry Craig,

Without phtographic evidence - how can we beleive you ;D ;D ;D

Sounds like a cracker of a month. A 100cm salty is an awsome barra - shame the winds wrecked the reefie trips but we'll have to catch up for a beer to discuss finer details.

Brett

[Spectre]

Brett

Looks like its ridgey didge...have seen the photographic evidence. !! :o :o

A bloody awesome 'silver plated' Barra...I am sure you will hearing plenty more from Cragie on this one. ;D ;D ;D ;D

Danny from Tackleworld at Townsville sure knows his way around the local haunts when it comes to finding a good feed of fish & crabs. !!

Cragie is workin on more photos ASAP....

Cheers
Phil

[bugman]

Phil - is that similar to "trust me I'm a journalist"

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[craigie]

Still having trouble posting more pics :(
Is there a limit per thread ????

[outsiderskip]

hi craige
john is a good charter operator
iknow john he also fishes with palemero a lot
at the patch giant ajs and kingies there
looks like u had some fun


cheers pete

[bugman]

It seems I should have kept my mouth closed :-X

[bugman]

Looks big

[bugman]

more

[bugman]

more

[bugman]

I'll let Craig explain

[bugman]

more

[bugman]

doesn't stop

[bugman]

Fingermark

[bugman]

craig and the finger

[bugman]

nice haul

[bugman]

what's this

[Scott15]

grunter bream(javelin fish)

[craigie]

Thanks Brett 8-) 8-)

It's amazing how much mileage you can get out of 2 nice Barra ::)
The larger fish which I was fortunate enough to land, measured 102cm, while Danny (Takle world Townsvile) is holding up the 75cm model he trolled up.
Both fish were caught in consecutive Trolling passes over a snaggy mangrove section of the creek.
We had some tense moments landing the big mumma, Andy gaffed it through the lower jaw and hauled it on board and as we searched for a space in the boat to lay it down, it gave a whacking big kick of the tail, flicked itself off the gaff to land back in the water :'(. The Lord was watching over me that day as the lure and knots all stayed connected and we were able to successfully get it onto the floor second time around ;D (We have it all on video 8-))

The other pics show a couple of nice fingermark to 60cm caught Livebaiting with Herring in the same location where we caught the Barra the day before.

The Grunter Bream were caught with local Fishing Guide Andy Mead at a secret location out near Cape Cleveland. Also caught Live Baiting, with some of them reaching 60 - 70cm in length :o :o.

DC, JB, Brent,
Thanks guys, had some hot action on the water lately, hope it continues 8-) My Barra tales are starting to drive people mad, the smile is still very wide :D
Bring on the Macks !!! might be time to do a bit of Beacon Bashing !! Saw a few Spotties off Mackay Harbour, buggers stole a few of my slugs ::)Red Rocket didn't go north, so she is itching to blow out a few cobwebs ;)

Specture,
Yes mate, Danny from Tackle World was very helpfull, needless to say our successfull trip depended on him in the end. Well worth looking up if anyone is travelling up that way, or lives there.

Pete (Outsiderskip),
Good operator is Mr Gooding, would not hesitate to recomend him to anyone looking for an offshore charter catering to small groups who want to target quality fish. Plenty to learn from blokes like him ;)
Looking foward to chasing a few Spaniards with him at a later date.

Brett,
Yes mate we will have to swap some fishing stories over a few beers, may even cry into them at missing out on some of the Red Emperor action from the 1770 M&G.



Hmmmm, hows the weather looking for this weekend ????????? ::)

Craigie.

[Daintreeboy]

awesome craigie, what a trip mate!!

[flattymattyb]

Hi Craig,

Bl**dy hell you pair have been hard at it, great report and fish. I am still getting over andy's stories of his last trip up north for "work" ::) and now this. Sounds like a great trip and hope the wedding went well for them.


Matty

[Smithy]

Hey Craig was Andy just about to head off and skipper the Amy Dee for the Giant Black Marlin Season or was he giving it a miss this year? Nice bloke. Have had beers with him at the Gold Coast and Cooktown on some game boats.

[craigie]

Matty,

yes mate, been a manic few weeks of fishing. All credit to the new married man, as he is like the Energizer Bunney, no stopping him when he's on a mission.
Saw all the photos from his last trip, 20kg Spaniards by the boat full. We were wanting to get out and try for them this trip but the wind blew 20 knots every day and confined us to the creeks, what a shame ::)
The wedding was a blast, Andy arranged the wedding vows in such a way that Deb (his wife) had to agree to respect his rights to fish !!! :o :o 8-) What a classic !!

Smithy,

I droped your name while speaking to Andy Mead the fishing guide, he was a bit fuzzy on it but i'm pretty sure he remembered you from the Cooktown Comp.
He has just become a dad, so Lizard etc may be out of the question for the near future, although he was keen to hear what was going on up there.
Things can get a bit confusing as the mate I travelled with is named Andy Mead as well. So quite often Both Andy Mead's hung out together, thank heaven's for nick names. They are actually good mates with Brissie Andy chartering Townsville Andy whenever he is in the north.

Did you recognise the game boat we photograhped off mackay, he said he was from SE QLD.


Cheers Guys,

Craig.S.

[craigie]

Just bumped this up as a few people had asked where it was.

[chiefsimo]

Great pics and story! Very nice Barra!

Do u have any contact details for the Outlaw Charters ? email / website ? Thanks.

[craigie]

Chiefsimo,

John Gooding (Outlaw Charters) can be contacted on 3822 9527 or mobile 0418 738 750.

You won't be disapointed !!!

Regards
Craigie.

[mattooty]

Awesine repport. SAw the start thinking it would be about schoolies but it travelled directly east to sea then back in and then the report headed north to hit some massive, beautiful barra. Great report and great fish.
Matt