Hervey Bay Inside Fraser pre-Cat2 storm

[Essence]

Annual Hols been and gone:'( but what a different year this trip was!
I think summer has arrived. The water was crystal clear, could see the whales coming a mile off (funny moment when a disorientated sea snake came to surface when a whale dived:D )
Plenty of boats and reports with the usual tuna, flathead, bream g.t's whiting etc but scarce reports on the reef fishing.....
Well I'll let the cat out the bag, it's parrot, sweetlip and really good bait schools of whiptails time8-)
Moon ledge and humps, Gatakers, 8 mile, Arch cliffs reef's all worked well.
A current at times caught us by surprise (never put 2 no 6 sinkers on before:-* ), but once the bait was back down there, on came the bite.

This year Dreamdays was towed up instead of the tinny, just to see what the reef fishing further out was like and gee whiz am seriously thinking of selling the tinny!
Go if you can!!

[Aquarius]

Sounds like a great fishing holiday Dreamdays.
The wife and I were visiting Hervey Bay last month.
Fished Gatakers landbased due to strong winds but if i may ask a question how far out from the boat ramp do you have to travel to get into a feed of reefies?
Cheers Brent

[Essence]

G'day
For gatakers, the reef is easy accesible on a calm day with a tinny, same as here just go to 10m line from gatakers ramp turn left or right find the bait school find mainly parrot and if its cold, snapper.
But, tow the glass up and... go out to the fairway lead from the marina and turn left. from start at the marina to stop is about 18 clicks. It was end of the 8 day calm, by the time I went between gatakers and burrum 8 mile didnt really have much water time to have a good look, however the parrot, sweeties and cod were perfect pan size, all 4cm over legal and just not to big not to be sweet.
I realised pretty early on, you don't have to go out far to get a good feed for two or three days and heaps of catch and release fun.
The bay still has it, the zones are a out and out nuisance, more freeways for the fleet than protecting anything really. If you want further info, just pm but I am back at reality from tomorrow!

[bluefin59]

Thanks for the report dreamdays me and the wife are heading up to hervey bay on the 7 sep for 10 days i hope we have as much luck also where do i find out whhere the green zones are mate thanks for the info matt..............

[mark johno]

Gday Dreamdays,

Heading to Hervey mid October, would appreciate any offshore marks.

Mark johno

[Scott nthQld]

blufin,

You can gat free green zone maps from most of the local tackle shops (inc BCF) in areas that are affected by the zoning, just walk in off the street and ask, simple as.

[Essence]

GPS marks are only good on the day you are there. Same fishing nous required no matter where you are, look at contours, find the lumps and drop-offs locate the bait schools and you are laughing.

[roydsy]

We were there last week in the category 2 storm... no fun.

lucky bugger!!!! I couldn't have timed my 8 days there more poorly. 1 fishable day out of 8 and it was a shocker. Fisheries reported 25/30 boats returned with no caught fish..... terrible times.

Anyway, I will be back.