Game Day's Epic Adventure - Harvey Bay to Hamilton Island

[Colorado]

Have not posted for a long time but I have just spent the past 7 days driving a 35 Caribbean ‘Game Day’ from Harvey Bay to Hamilton Island with the boats owners Greg and Andrew Turner and thought it was worth sharing. Spent a day light tackle fishing around Rooney’s and off the Breaksea Spit for Black Marlin. It was very quiet in comparison to the past month as the fish shut down. We only had 4 Marlin bites on the Gar baits but managed to have some fun with the Mac Tuna, Longtail Tuna schools as well as some Spotty & Spanish Mackerel on the trolled Gar. Next we headed wide and trolled some heavy tackle gear to Lady Musgrave. Got a nice Blue Marlin wide of the Breaksea Spit along the way. Spent some time around Fitzroy Reef and got some nice Coral Trout and Red Throat reef fishing as well a few nice fish spearing. We had to cover ground as we were on a time limit to get to Hamilton Island. Only spent a few hours throwing Poppers at the reef edges and trolling along the way managing to have fun with GT’s, Spanish Mackerel, Scaly Mackerel and some Rainbow Runners in some amazing conditions. Awesome adventure and can’t wait to go again. Have a look at the YouTube clips from the trip.

Part 1 - Trolling and Reef fishing



Part 2 - Reef Popping for GT's and Mackerel

[Pimp A Shrimp]

Colorado

Have you got any fuel burn numbers, hours driving, avg speed etc?

Also did you just stick to the main channels, or did you traverse through the islands?

ta

[Colorado]

From what I can recall Urangan to Roselyn Bay via Lady Musgrave/Fitzroy reef we used about 700-800L mainly trolling with only about 5hours at 18knots. From Roselyn Bay to Hamilton Island via the reef we used a out 800L over 2 Days but that was mainly running at 20knots. Average figures for fuel consumption are trolling at 6-7knots the boat uses 15L/Hour at cruising 18knots it goes to 60L/Hour and at 22knots it is around 75L/Hour.

[Colorado]

We mainly just went in a straight lined it when not having a fish. We had no issues with navigation as the boat is well set up with Garmin electronics and the latest charts.

[cuzzamundi]

Great vids/action - didn't like the songs, though.

Water looks a bit green out at the Bunkers - was it, or is it just my eyes? How was the vis spearing?

Looked like a great trip, either way mate.

Cuzza

[Colorado]

Cuzza, water was a bit green with lots of coral spawn. Visibility was about 8-10m with about 15m plus further north making for better spearing.
I will let my kids know about the song choice. They like pick the songs because they don't like my old school choices.

[cuzzamundi]

Haha, good stuff, mate - tell 'em they don't make songs now like they used to!!!

Yeah, that's a bugger about the greener water. Pretty reliable for good vis out there, usually. Still, good you found some blue water all the same.

Cuzza

[MEG-A-BITE]

Looks like you had plenty of action, great report. What depth of water did you find the GTs in around Musgrave?

[Colorado]

The GTs were further North right on the edge of a small reef. The drop off was 1m down to 18m.

[The Doctor]

Looks like a great trip mate, plenty of good fish and well done on the video.
Cheers
Dave

[Horse]

Great video and nothing wrong with the music choice

[Smithy]

Good one Leigh!