Days action.

[Dignity]

I decided that instead of laying turf at my daughters place I'd take the opportunity to head offshore for a mental break. Launching was a breeze, I'm getting to love my Formosa Classic 520. The tide was still running out but with a low of 0.9 m the bar was workable and easy crossing.

I headed out to the yellow beacon to score some yakkas, unfortunately the only thing there was big herring and only hard up against the beacon. A jet skier got a few but I decided to move on and try another spot at the bottom of 12 mile and very quickly got a dozen but then they just shut down. At this stage I'm thinking that I should have been fishing instead.

I moved onto the reef I wanted to fish and after 30 - 40 mins of searching I just could not find fish. In the end I decided to do a slow drift using the leccy as there didn't seem to be a lot of run. After 1/2 an hour I scored a nice snapper on a floater, in the same area I've caught them before.

Things went slow again until a big Spaniard (I didn't see it but the run felt like one) took the floater again, ran off with close to 60 m of line and as I was organising myself to follow it the line went slack. Clean cut on the line, bummer.

Moved to a totally different reef and got a nice gold spot wrasse but put it back thinking it needed to be 45 cm, it was just short. Just goes to show the old brain cells need to be used more often as it would have been welcome for dinner.

On the move to this reef I spotted a bit of plastic about 1m long so turned around and picked it up. Looked initially like a 10kg ice bag but on closer inspection it was a clear party ballon, helium balloon that got loose.

Things started to pick up on the fishing front, picked up a nice tuskie but then lost 4 good fish of which one was definitely a good snapper, a couple of possible tuskies and another I have no idea. I need to maybe look at the hooks I'm using as apart from the lost snapper the others were on circle hooks and only got them up about 5 -10 m off the bottom before I lost them while I had plenty of tension and was winding on the lift.

Unfortunately about this time the northerlies kicked in and couldn't get another touch so headed home as the wind was picking up. The tide was still running but there was some serious breakers on the bar, I sat on the back of one and was sitting comfortably there until I glanced back and saw this huge breaking wave fast approaching my stern. Fortunately the wave I was only had lost out of it's force and I pushed over it and got back in safely. The new Bribie Bar is getting a bit hairy, as it gets wider it gets shallower and a sandbar build up that makes it interesting.

Can't post pics so you'll just have to put up with my ramblings.

[Corry]

Sounds like a ripper of a day out, love it when there are options if one method doesn't work. Interesting about the circle hooks, you would think that being circle hooks, by the time you've got them moving they would be well and truly embedded.
I wonder how many other balloons have made their way into the waters now, good on you for picking it up. We went for a day trip, doing the tourist thing out to the reef on the weekend with friends that come up from down south, the amount of stuff we stopped to pick up, from hats that had been run over by boats to plastic everything, it's becoming a chore now to pick it all up.
The bar sounds interesting, is it getting worse over the years is it? We're lucky up here, we don't have bars as such to deal with, would put another complexity into the day I'm sure.
Good to hear that launching the new boat is getting easier and easier, makes it more pleasurable to get out when it's not a challenge at the ramp. Are you driving it on and off the trailer, or winching? I looked at the 520 Formosa's a few years back when looking to replace our Top Ender, I love the beam they have.

Great to have a read this morning about a fishing trip, need more of it here, thanks for that

[Dignity]

Corry, the bar when it first became navigable was nice and deep but as it got wider it started to shallow. I'd post a pic but this site won't let me anymore but here is a link I found that might give you an indication of what it looks like. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/wrvydUMUem7a7g9y/

I'm not driving the bost on/off yet as although it's on a Tow Catch trailer there never was a Tow Catch attached and watching how the Formosa Tow Catch works it could cause me grief. As the tide rises, swell from the bar hits the ramp and may likely launch my boat for me if it pushes the boat forward. Took some visitors out a couple of weeks ago and they were already feeling sea sick just standing on the pontoon as it was going up and down quite a bit. The council has to bring in a bob cat every week to shift sand that builds up on the northern side of the ramp and gets to over 400 mm in depth. Got bogged pulled the 4.2m Dory out a couple of months ago, the tyres went down to the concrete and of course just spun even in 4wd. Had to use the paddles as shovels to be able to get going. This was near the top of the tide, I'd launched at low tide and it wasn't an issue then.

[Lucky_Phill]

Thanks for the report... I'll have to get up there again soon.

From what I gather, that new bar changes daily... but each time I have crossed it has been tame..... ish.

cheers LP

[disorderly]

thanks for the report sam..Glad to hear you are happy with the new boat and that does sound better then laying turf..though I actually dont mind laying turf...its a pretty good feeling when you are finished and see the end result..!

Do you guys get the afternoon northerlies down there this time of year as well...?...its par for the course up during summer here though not dangerous just uncomfortable and wet if you havent allowed for right direction for the trip home..

[Dignity]

Lately we seem to get northerlies too often and generally offshore it's not to bad as heading home on a SW direction so it's not too bad. What I found odd was the tide still was running I'm with still nearly an hour to the top but plenty of stand up waves more like an outgoing tide.

I'll try and put up more reports but most times I find another project that needs doing and by the time I remember I figure it's not worth it. Yes, I'm getting used to my boat, implemented a few changes here and there and a few more to come.

[Volvo]

Good report Sam and i also am glad to hear your Happy with the new tinny, aswell as a feed to boot .

[Dignity]

Well my brother hadn't been out in my new boat and there was a small window of opportunity to get out yesterday before those pesky northerlies blew hard. Out on the water at daybreak, my brother hates getting up that early but I love it and off we headed to chase some flat ones as he is definitely not a keen offshore person. The first thing I noticed was the car park was near empty which is ok by me. It was dead low so it gave me an opportunity to see the the land (sand banks) lies, it does change constantly. We went south down the Passage to a small creek which empties out to near nothing but being wide that leaves 2 narrow channels that create some nice eddies at the edge of some deeper water, often get a feed there at this time of the tide as the last of the bait is pushed out but while plenty of jelly prawns were skipping nothing was hitting them nor our SP's.

Moved on to another spot at the end of a long sand/mud bank and finally a few small ones were landed, kept a 49 cm for dinner. Then my brother was into a rather nice flattie, around 70cm, too big to take but would have been a nice photo opportunity. His drag was way to tight and when he got it to the boat he lifted it's head a couple of times and with a few flicks of it's head the line parted.

This was around 7:30am and a NW breeze of around 7 knots had started up and not another touch. About this time the thing I realised was that apart from those few jelly prawns there was very little bait around and a complete lack of birds, no white herons, cormorants, shags or even sea Eagles and ospreys around, didn't bode well for us.

By 9am it was blowing a good 10 to 12 knots, mostly from the NE and getting hard to flick SP's, I probably would have headed home but he wanted to stay on so I searched around and tried different areas that normally produce but nada, not even pesky bream and the breeze was steadily increasing making it hard to find a spot to fish comfortably.
There was a spot where I rarely got fish but at least there was some protection from the wind and a few small ones were caught and released until another 47cm hit the decks, kept for dinner. Then once again dead quite and I decided to pull the plug.
Back at the ramp it was interesting as the nthn side was full of sand and as it's easy to get bogged we used the sthn side, apart from the fact that it was too much effort to retire the fenders and mooring lines to the starboard side. Now my method of approach is to get in close with the stern, lasso a cleat then hard turn on the steering wheel and slowly put the boat nose in to the pontoon and throw the front line across a cleat. It seems to work for me but so far none of my guests seem to want to try and lasso the cleat, they all want to lean over and wrap it around. Well on the third try I took it off him saying I thought the knot was working loose and just flicked it out and job was done. The wind by this stage was above 15 knots with an incoming tide so everything was against me, maybe I'll get a tow catch but then my guests aren't that nimble and I've still got to get them to the pontoon. As I regularly fish alone it seems to be a waste of money.

At the end of it all we both ended up with dinner and it's always nice to get out.

[marto78]

A mate of mine has recently bought a house at Golden Beach and I've been itching to drag the boat up there and have a look outside that bar

[Dignity]

A mate of mine has recently bought a house at Golden Beach and I've been itching to drag the boat up there and have a look outside that bar

Happy to assist if you come here.

[marto78]

Thanks Sam I mite take you up on that