Reply With QuoteThat's a nice effort fellas nice reds as well congrats. And thanks for the report it was a good read
cheers ScottScott
I had been keeping an eye on the weather forecasts for a few days and after seeing a few of the forecast sites all agreeing that a few nice days would be coming up, the brother and I decided on a quick trip to 1770.
We towed the cat up on Sunday night arriving in Agnes in the early hours and grabbed a couple of hours sleep before heading to the servo at 5am for fuel, ice and a servo breakfast of coffee and a burger. While we were at the servo, a Cruiser towing a 2400 Kevlacat with Ausfish stickers rolled up to the bowsers. Turned out to be Mark (Te Whiti) and we had a chat for a while about where we would be fishing and in Mark's case spearing. Was good to catch up with him again after we did a few trips chasing the banana prawns earlier in the year.
After launching the boat, we managed to grab one of the few remaining trailer spaces in the car park. Our first plan was to have a play around in the shallows around Lamont chasing trout on soft plastics. Working the reefs in depths between 10 and 20 metres we managed to land a few legal trout, keeping 3 and releasing a couple of others deemed to small to keep. Over the course of the day, a steady stream of red throat sweetlip also fell to the plastics, but we decided not to keep any and all went back. The red throats really got into a feeding mode on sunset and it was a fish per cast for half an hour or so. We pulled the pin and raced across to join the flotilla anchored up for the night in Fitzroy Lagoon.
Tuesday started with a trip out to the 100 metre line, but the current was running hard and the wind had us drifting from the deeper water up into the shallower stuff, so it was a battle to keep sinkers from snagging up. With only a few pearl perch and a brown maori cod to show for our efforts we headed back to the 60 metre reefs to chase a few reef fish. Our first drift quickly saw half a dozen good reef fish hit the deck including a nice 4kg coral trout for me. Ray also caught a very good sized maori and a spangled emperor that would have given the 5kg mark a nudge. Moving around saw a few more keeper fish in the ice box as well as a number that were returned to the water. I then hooked up to another good fish and was very happy to see a nice red emperor come to the surface. Ray got the net under it in quick order, and I had a smile that would have been hard to remove for a while after that.
Over the course of the afternoon, we caught a few more good reef fish including brown maori cod and several venus tusk fish in the high 40cm range that were deemed to be keepers. We ran back to the shallows for another quick afternoon plastics session catching and releasing a number of fish before once again cruising into the lagoon at Fitzroy for the night. That night, the wind died away completely and the water inside the lagoon was as still as I have ever experienced it. Lying inside the cabin of the cat, I could not hear any noise from water slapping against hull, and the boat could have been on dry land for the lack of movement. Probably the best nights sleep I have ever had on a boat.
Our plan for Wednesday morning was to fish a half day and then get back into the creek well before low tide to ensure we could get across the shallow stuff just inside the bar. We worked an area where I had a few GPS marks and while there were plenty of shows on the sounder, the fishing was quite slow. Ray had picked up a new spin rod prior to this trip. Built on a Samurai NV9 blank he was keen to give it a work out. The first good hookup for him turned out to be a very nice sized trout so the rod was christened in fine form.
We grazed away across the morning catching an odd fish here and there with most of them throw backs and just on 11am, drifted across a very good show on the sounder. Just as I remarked that one of us had to get something from that, Ray hooked up and I quickly called it for a red. It was a bit of a nervous wait as we had lost a few fish to sharks over the morning, so it was a very relieved skipper when the fish went into the net.
After the obligatory photo session, and icing down the fish we decided that we really did not need to catch any more fish to call the trip a success. After giving the boat a good clean up we started to make our way back in, stopping for a quick fish on a mates super secret red spot. No reds in attendance, but every bait to the bottom was quickly smashed up by some huge grinners, and with only a lone maori to show for a half hour effort we called it a day. The last of the bait supply was tossed, and I got the deck hose out for another clean up while the deckie did the driving duties for a while. Final tally was 33 fish kept including the 2 reds, 5 trout, 5 maori cod, 4 pearl perch and a bag out on venus tusk fish. The remainder of the tally included red throat sweetlip and the spangled emperor. With the boat back on the trailer and the gear stowed for the trip home, we stopped off at the servo for another 20kg bag of ice to ensure the catch remained in top condition for the trip home, and armed with another mug of coffee, cranked the music up on the car stereo, and enjoyed a good trip back to Brisbane.
Cheers
Jeff
That's a nice effort fellas nice reds as well congrats. And thanks for the report it was a good read
cheers ScottScott
happy days ahead summer is coming
Very jealous well done.
Great read mate.
How good is fishing.
Rob
Great report & a top read Jeff.
Tony
Thanks for the report Jeff, another enjoyable read from you. We tried to call you on the radio a couple of times about 2-3pm on the Monday with no luck so we generally switch it off for a while....with 3 on board we bagged out on trout to 5 kilos and got our bag of crays as well....As you mentioned the Red throats were out in force as well which was good to see. Speak soon.
Mark
I think I remember you saying you need to do another trip to 1770. Why was I thinking November or Feb next year? That's light years away in your calendar Jeff, thanks for sharing!
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Nice report. I dream of fishing like that
Hi all. Thanks for the positive comments.
Hi Mark. I had the radio on for the first part, but was hearing very little over the radio. I tried to do a call mid morning, but got no feedback on release of the microphone button, so figured the repeater was probably not working so I turned the radio off. Then forgot to turn it back on again until right at the end of the trip. I saw you catch on the photo you sent me. What a great effort. You got some lovely fish there and the crays certainly looked impressive. I will give you a call during the week to have a chat.
Hey Brian. The trip simply came out of nowhere. I was watching the weather predictions thinking we might try for a day under the Cape chasing snapper on plastics. When I mentioned to the brother that the weather was looking good for a 3 day window off 1770, he was immediately keen. We made the decision to go on Saturday night, and departed here just after dinner on Sunday night. So good when we can both go on a trip like this at a moments notice. Best way to get the right weather window. We are planning a week up there early next year. Grant (Moonlighter) is chasing up some info from one of his mates to work out when to go and we will be booking the usual house for a week. Of course, if the weather comes good again in the near future, we will be back up there for sure. We want to do a lot more work on chasing trout on the plastics.
Hi Still Dreamin. I also used to dream of these trips. I did my first trip up there as a guest of the Power Boat Anglers Club about three years ago, and then joined the club and have done the annual trip with them each year since. Highly recommend to everyone who wants some assistance to get the experience to do these trips to look at a club like PBA, or else, get involved in this forum's annual M&G up there. It shortens the learning curve dramatically and you meet some great people by getting involved in these trips.
cheers
Jeff
Hi Jeff, I was also at 1770 around that time. We found the Tuskies pretty thick and bagged out on them on the first day. Did you find any worms in your Tuskfish? Ours all had small brown worms in the flesh.
Finicky. Every one of the tuskies we caught had those brown worms in them. By the time they were filleted and the worms trimmed out, some of the fillets looked more like Swiss cheese.
They still taste great though.
Came very close to hooking the boat up this afternoon and heading back up. The forecast looks pretty good up there for the next couple of days.
cheers
Jeff
Are the worms a northern thing? I have caught plenty of them off Brisbane/Sunshine Coast and never seen them. Have only done the one trip to 1770, and never saw any in the ones we caught up there. Be pretty hard to miss them in that white flesh.
Hi Bremic. I'm not sure just how far these worms extend. I have found them in venus tusk fish as far south as Double Island Point.
Interestingly, we caught a number of tusk fish on the same patch of reef back in August during the PBA week at 1770, and none of them had the worms in the flesh. This trip was only about 5 weeks after the August trip and pretty much every tuskie had the worms in the flesh. Some of them only had one or two, but others had lots, particularly in the lower half of the fillet - down close to the stomach area.
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