Fitzroy reef

Gday fishers how are Yas. Looking to head out to Fitzroy reef and around that area and was chasing a little bit of advice on fuel amounts and anchoring over night in the lagoon. Boat is a 18 ft Haines with a 130hp 2 stroke yammy. Cheers in advance.

In the Bunker Group? Out from 1770?

Been a few years now but anchorage is OK in big lagoon.

Bombie in entrance on outside that you need to look out for but it just might be too deep for yr boat.

The coral outside on the eastern side was all barren and dying on my last visit.

About 70nm from Bundy and 35 from Round Hill.

Ch 82 VHF marine repeater gets you into Gladstone VMR.

No mob phones out there.

Cheers mate. Was going to head from 1770. My working at the moment so any time weather looks the goods can go. From gold coast.

I did a run out there from 1770 in October.

Fished on the way out at several spots, then went out several km past Fitzroy. Then came back to Fitzroy and fished close by before heading in.

My boat is a Surtees Workmate 5.5 with a Suzuki DF115 on the back.

The trip back was 20% great conditions then turned to shit as we ran into a 15 knot SE change that wasnt predicted. So it was right on the starboard bows. So an hour 45 trip turned into 2.5 hours. Our predicted fuel use on the way back went up by about 10 litres due to the conditions.

My Simrad Tripintel tells me we did 165 kms for the trip. And used 82.4 litres. Average just on 2 km/litre and that’s just a tad below in my long term fuel economy. Had we stayed overnight I guess we might have used another 20-30 litres running from spot to spot on top of that.

Your Yammy 130 2 stroke would use substantially more, you should have an idea of your average economy and be able to do some approximate sums from that. I would guess somewhere around 30% more fuel on the Yammy.

Remember the one-third rule: allow 1/3 of your fuel capacity to go out and fish around, 1/3 to get back in, and 1/3 in reserve. I had 145 litres on board so was well within the safety margin.

Hey Eddies, how long are you looking at going for?
Inside the lagoon is gravely coral so you will want a good sand or sarca anchor with a long chain. I kept drifting with a short 1m chain but have no worries with 5-6m of chain.
It’s roughly 70km to Fitzroy so prob 70L of fuel out and 70L back. My old 2 stroke was about 1L per kilometer.
Plenty of close reef around Fitzroy you can explore so prob 200L for an overnight trip.


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As indicated above, you need to know your fuel economy. This is for both calm and rough seas.

Then use your navigation system to plot / measure distances / route.

We all can do this for you, but it is a basic responsibility of the skipper to know what's doing. If you are unsure or unable to undertake this, the advice given above is good.

Your boat and motor will use about 1ltr per kilometer. Given it is 70k's out and 70k's back, you can count on doing at least another 70 buzzing around for 2 days. 210 k's is at least 210ltrs. Now add uncertainty of usage should bad weather hit, etc and that to me is another 20%, so for me, that be taking 250litres.

Always log on and off with VMR Round Hill ( 81 & 82 ) and update them if you stray too far away from your nominated destination.

The bar is really shallow on the low tides so try and avoid that situation.

cheers LP

Ch 81 (on Mt Watalgan near B'Berg and 70 nm away) only just makes it to Fitzroy Lagoon for high profile vessels (antenna on mast).

Stick on Ch 82 for general working. Round Hill VMR can access both repeaters easily.

The MSQ network via Gladstone Harbour also gets out there on Ch 16 etc for night coverage.