North West 2006 in full living colour !!!!

[craigie]

Thanks guys, It was a very memorable trip to say the least

Yes Dale, with Morrie a full time chef on-board is a huge bonus. Cooked up a storm and we ate like kings.
As mentioned we ate a lot of fish while on the Island.

We did bring fish home. One whole fish (either a Reddie or a Trout) and 5 or 6 packets of fillets each. This can vary from year to year.
This was all caught in the first week of the trip. Anything caught over the last 5 or 6 days (not much due to the weather) we ate over there.

[S_Bend]

Fantastic report. I used to go there back before gas freezers, etc were required. Magical place back then and it is great to see it has not lost its charm - or its fish. Your writings sure brought back a lot of memories - one day, I hope to take my sons up there as my Dad took my brother and myself years back.

Cheers.

[revs57]

Congratulations Craigie...both on a fantastic trip and an awesome report...great pics mate and some ripper fish.

the sheer planning and catering for the logistics would almost be a full time job, any wonder the bloke planning it takes a full year to pull it together for everyone. But at under a grand each for two weeks of paradise it really makes for a viable holiday.

You've got me thinking...

Cheers

Rhys

[Anne-T-Dote]

G'day Craigie and gang,

Sorry it's taken me ages to respond but even though it has been a while I still feel this report deserves more credit than I can dish up, so I will give it what I can.

Absolutely sensational. What a magnificent trip and what a HUGE amount of effort that has gone into planning it. The camp set-up is phenomenal. Craigie, I organised a NW trip a few years ago and honestly it took that much effort that I haven’t been able to bring myself to do it again (just ask Ed), AND our camp wasn’t a patch on yours so I can only try to imagine how much planning your trip took. Congrats to everyone involved – ESPECIALLY Jeffie.

You guys may have inspired me to give it another shot – but that could also be to do with the fact that the quality of fish you guys have pulled is FAR superior to what we got – we didn’t get any legal reds and the trout we boated we could’ve counted on one hand. Most of our catch was red throat and tuskies, with the odd spanish mac and shark mac and one decent sized spanglie. So my hat comes off to you coz getting there in that capacity and with all the right gear is hard enough, but then being able to pull quality fish like those takes skill of a whole other level. Well done indeed.

Bad news RE the boat that didn’t float during the storm. Keep us posted on how it all goes insurance-wise.

Once again, BLOODY AWESOME MATE!!!

Macca

[johnmclaughlin]

Hi Craigie,

I'm heading up there myself on 24/9 with my 13 yr old son + mates and their sons. None of us have been there before and don't know quite what to expect. We're all rather novices. I'm trying to get my head around the logistics + what to take etc.

Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated.

johnmac

[Reefmaster]

Fantastic mate.
Looks like everyone had a ball with some great fish to make it all that much better.

Gotta love the reds mate. They start to become a brute fish when you get them around that 8kg mark.

What depth you mainly get the reds in?

Cheers Greg

[Slider]

You'd probably need 180 cartons of beer with Barry Stjnquist in the crew.

Good to see a good trip had by all.

Lindsay

[Chrisco_stew]

Greg: I think it was about 50 ish meters. Depending on where you swung around to on anchor. They were mainly on top of a big trench that runs through the area. 45 m down to 58 - 60 m. Looked pretty tidy on the sounder.

Chriso

[Jim_Byrne]

Ripper report, and no doubt heaps of fun and awesome memories!

Look forward to hearing next years report!

Cheers

Jim