PBA 1770 trip for 2015

[gofishin]

PBA were up at 1770 this year for the week 29/8 – 5/9. The weather wasn’t bad, save for a couple of blowy days, but the fishing was bloody tough in comparison to previous years. Following is a report and pics from my boat (shortened version, probably a bit too much dribble in the full version for Ausfish J). Some boats got some reds, and Grant (Moonlighter) got a cracker PB that also gave him the ‘Red cash pool’, otherwise, the fishing was below par for (probably) all the boats.

Some pics and stories from Karma C….!!!

Yep, another PBA 1770 trip is done-and-dusted… all too soon... but maybe it was the ‘short’ 10 ½ months since the 2014 trip that made it seem not that long ago that we were up there last year! A bonus is that I can say I have been fishing twice within a year, and both times at 1770 !

The down-side is…. that it will be 13 & ‘a bit’ months till PBA are back up there in October next year. Hmmm, up to 12 months between trips I have managed ‘ok’ with since Oct 2012, but 13 months…!!!! That’s just asking a bit too much I reckon.

This year I smashed my previous record for the boat not being used!! Bad skipper! Actually no, it was renos and family/school stuff, more renos, and on the rare possible boating occasion – cr@p weather! But let’s not talk about depressing things! A few weeks prior to the trip I siphoned all the old fuel out into 2 jerries (lucky only ~38L, and not a skerrick of water/moisture in the tank, jerry’s or separator), put 20L fresh 95 in (to run the engine - then filled up at Bundy on way to Agnes). Also arranged for Jim McK. (aka Capt. Rednut) to service the Yammy a few weeks before the trip (thanks mate, purring along sweetly) – so all was good.

Trip & tackle prep… was really a non-event, but that’s a log story thanks to some bad ‘lurgies’ that ended up in ‘the mother of all lurgies’ – pneumonia! My deckies were a bit worried early on but I said “don’t panic, one way or the other I will be going to 1770 – just hope it’s not in a box for a ‘one-way fishing trip’! ”

The Saturday night BBQ was great, as usual, and as a bonus there were a lot of snags left over – for a windy day sausage sizzle lunch during the week.

Sunday 30^th Aug
Sunday we hit the ramp… err… bad choice of words maybe… we arrived at the ramp just after 5 and wondered where everyone was. Maybe the rain had kept everyone in bed? Unfortunately there was a bit of action on the ramp, with a boat ending up on the concrete (boat latch incident – terrible horrific noise of a 6m glass boat sliding down the concrete!). My deckies helped get her back on, and the slight delay saw us out the bar just after 6, with ample water over the shallow stuff, and on our way to Fitzroy in seas that were a little joggly but still comfortable at 20-22kn.

The anticipation was high for a good day’s fishing… but the fish had other ideas, and I think had all just been to the dentist – as they all had lock-jaw!! It ended up being pretty hard work getting some colour in the esky, and even my trusty school Red spot in ~60m off Fitzroy didn’t even produce an undersized Red, maybe not even a reefy that morning – can’t remember now!

Out wide it wasn’t much different, and even the shows on the bottom weren’t as good as previous years…! Bummer!! It was hard work, but we eventually put together a half-decent feed. Boat drifts were like a lottery wheel – all over the place – with current winning over wind all day, but drifts still all over the place.

A few fish from Sunday, including a runt Rosy that should have put its mummy on the hook instead. No action pics (bad skipper!?!).... but, there wasn't actually that much action.





The 200L esky looked a little bare for a day at our spot out wide. We blamed the (bad) moon period!




Monday – fish cleaning day, chill-out day, and prep for an overnighter Tues/Weds.

Tuesday/Weds – Fitzroy overnighter for a lot of boats.
Think we made the ramp around 5.30 (tide restrictions over the shallows inside the bar) and hit the calm seas around 6. The seas were great and it was 30-32kn out to Fitzroy, yeehaa. Think we had to slow down a little further out, but it was still pretty good conditions.

Yeehaaa! Calm seas, Round Hill disappearing in the background, and a fast wake – that’s what we all like to see (oh, and the odd camera-shy decky).





We hit my 60m grounds off Fitzroy again, for pretty much zip – again! The 100m area wasn’t much better, but at least we were catching the odd half-decent fish – but had to put in the effort with currents fishing in 85 – 110m. It got quieter and we ended up north of One Tree looking for some fish before working our way back down to Fitzroy, and found the odd good lump with a few fish, but still nothing like previous years. Bloody moon! But we were looking forward to the afternoon bite period, maybe they would bite then…??

A nice new bump, but it only produced a lone Pearly!





We made our way back down, catching the odd fish, and ended up back at our main grounds, and further south, in fact all-around for the rest of the day – but it was hard work all day.

The following are two different shots, ~20mins apart, showing some decent country, but the fish still (mostly) had lock-jaw. Last year it was one or multiple hook-ups over the ‘good spots’, this year it was many drifts without a decent fish (the Hussar were still biting though ).









The afternoon bite got a bit better, and we put a few more fish in the box, including some nice Pearly’s and the odd squiry snapper – the only day we saw them out deep (unusual). Here are a few pics from Tuesday afternoon…

Is it a Red…??? Nah, bummer, it gave up too soon, must be a Cod, or a ....!





A lil ‘rosy’ Rosy…





The skipper in action… on a long brown Red. Luckily we didn’t lose too many fish to the tax man, but we did have one funny story thanks to the taxman, a tangle, a bite-off, and one decky pulling up the bottom part of the other decky's rig, the other decky's fish, and his own fish - while the other decky pulled up limp line.





The waiting game…





We moved back in to my 60m area late afternoon, and hoped that the fish would come back on the chew. Nope! Maybe the afternoon/evening would see them come on the chew for the night…??? Nope!


The ‘angry ball of fire’ disappears…





And disappears further… with Dale waiting for a Red…. Red, what Red ???





We stayed out after dark with absolutely no change to the bite, in a 60m area that had previously produced well for me over a few years, for Reds and reefy’s, but it wasn’t to be – so we headed in to the lagoon for a pleasant night’s sleep – and to recharge the human batteries for the following day. The fish would have probably had lock-jaw all night anyway!

Thanks to Lucky Phill’s Fitzroy entry marks, some ‘diversion guidance’ from PBA boat Salty once inside the channel/lagoon (for the shortcut over to the other club boats), and Dale up the bow with a good torch (the human forward-scan sonar), we made our way over to the other club boats without a scratch and rafted-up for a catch-up and some dinner before we motored away a little and dropped the pick for a pleasant night… dreaming of Reds maybe.

The motley-crew on the Haines mothership, and the skipper playing up!





Is it a RAAF squadron doing a night run over Fitzroy… or UFO’s…? No, it’s the moon and a long exposure time on a joggling boat inside the lagoon.





Wednesday saw us up early and 1^st to leave the lagoon I think. We looked at some new ground but ended up out deep again, hoping for a change…! Nope!!! The Hussar were chewing but the real fish were still playing very hard to get, with only the odd good fish coming up amongst the Hussar. Some pics from the morning…

#1/3



#2/3


...cont

[Moonlighter]

As Brendon mentioned, I got my PB red on this trip on the Tuesday. Despite that, that was the hardest day fishing I've ever had at 1770. We put in 10hrs solid fishing, plus travel time, for 3 fish in the esky. The red was the only thing that made it worthwhile.

i put it down to being 3 days after the full moon, plus NW winds. The red bit late morning when the wind swung around a bit to the NNE, but even then it was hard, grinners were the only thing biting, and a few small Samson fish.



By contrast we got a nice mixed bag on the Sunday before that, including a couple of school reds, nice Maoris, plenty of good budgies, and a decent bag of redthroats from the shallows.

We did better but still pretty hard work on the Wednesday. Went deep first and got some nice pearlies and Maoris and goldband, but then the current and wind started to play together and the drift got unmanageable. The last drift I had at least 250m of line out and damn it, had a decent 3kg budgie grab the bait so had to wind it up - took ages.

That finished me off, I mutinied and we then went in shallower, but struggled. Ended up in the shallows where we bagged some more RTE and picked up a nice little 6kg Spano on the pille while it was floating back. So a reasonable bag, but nothing special.

I was standing on the ramp on day 1 when the other club boat crashed down onto the concrete right beside us. That was the worst sound I've ever heard.

Overall, a most enjoyable trip, but I wouldn't ever schedule a trip up there on the back end of the moon again.

Plus, we finally resolved the big question: a 685 Cruisecraft/250 Yamaha is no match for a 2301 Seaswirl Striper/300 Zuke in a big following sea.😆

[gofishin]

... cont from previous...

#3 / 3




Yeah, this one is a bit better Craig says…!




A nice bit of colour for a change! Pity there weren’t more of them! (red or orange fish !!)




With so many shows on the sounder, and with many ‘Pearly type’ shows for no joy, out of frustration Dale whips out his 30lb plastics rod and sends down a pink shine despite the ~105m depth. As soon as he hits the bottom, before the bail arm even gets back – BAM he’s on, and up comes a nice Pearly. He goes straight back down – BAM same again, but a bit bigger this time. You beauty, we have cracked the code we thought… errrr… maybe… err... maybe not! He got another Comet Cod on a plastic, but think that was about it as it shut down again. Bummer!

Tried in close to Fitzroy on the way home, where Short Fuse had been doing ok with the RTE and the odd Trout, think we got one legal RTE and an u/size cod before heading back a bit early to try and find some ground on the way home. It had got pretty lumpy and it was very uncomfortable doing a grid pattern into a nasty 15-20 when we had to turn around each time. We didn’t find anything decent but Craig caught two undersize Reds, as we wasted a bit more time fishing/waiting for enough water over the creek sandbar. Crossed the bar just after 6 and had no problems over the sandbar, but were idling with the donk up. A few boats had polished their skeg 20 – 30 mins earlier, so I was glad we left it a bit later. Lucia came in just after us with three nice Reds on board – good for you Sil, ‘bout time you had some good luck mate.

Here is our catch for the overnighter. Not too bad, but quite down in comparison to previous years given the effort involved. But as they say, “that’s fishing” .




Thursday was a boat and fish cleaning day (oh, and a PBA sausage sizzle lunch), as Friday’s weather (after a Thursday blow) didn’t look anywhere near good enough for a pummelling and then a big late night clean up! Besides, we had some leisure time organised at a Café on Friday morning, and then a nice dinner at our friends’ house (fellow TCC 685 owners) with some fantastic Wood-fired Pizza’s. Further, the deckies had to leave around 5am on Sat to meet a Brisbane arrival deadline anyway.

It was another memorable PBA trip, but it ended all too soon. Thanks to my deckies for another great effort for the week, and for the good company. Let’s do it all again next year . Oh, and thanks to the Mrs for some nice hot meals after some long days at sea.

Cheers
Brendon (onKarma Cruise’n)

[feral cat]

Good trip fellas and a good read. Love that country up there.

[Feral]

Wow, great report, love the captioned photo's as well

[gofishin]

Weird! When I view thru Tapatalk there are paragraphs and text missing, but thru Safari it is all there ??? WT?

[goona]

Great write up. Looks like you had a great time well done. Can be a bit on and off at time there