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George Pang

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Some Fraser fun...
December 15, 2008, 01:45:06 AM
For a good fishing trip you need -
1. Time off work - tick
2. Wife's permission - tick
3. Good weather - tick. The BOM predicted 10-15kts NE-NW for 3 days, and fingers crossed it should be spectacular fishing weather.
4. Good tides - tick. 3 days leading up to the full moon.

So pack up the boat, fishing gear, camping gear and head off. I ran into Gav Platz (TienFly) up there , who runs a fly guiding business, who tells me there are al ot of pelagics up at rooneys (mack tuna, spotty mackeral, and longtails) and he's even seen a 20-40kg black cruising the shallows. Great! I thought, I've got a plan B if the spit is unfishable.

In the water at 0400, and its a beautiful day with flat seas. The sun coming up greeted me as I stop over at rooneys and then push onto the Spit. I make good time, averaging 22kts and reach the spit at 0800. As usual there are large 1.5-2m pressure waves pumping up over the spit, which I meander over. Onto the GT reef, and all I can say is MAGIC! The water is crystal clear, with flat seas, so flat that the water appears oily as it pours over the spit in tight pressure waves. This is going to be an AWESOME day!

I stop off the reef to rig up, and look down to find fish congregating around the boat, about 10-15 8kg cobia hanging out the back, schools of small fish in the immediate area swimming around the boat. I setup my three outfits I'm going to use with an Orion BigFoot, a nomad stickbait, and a popper setup with a a bills bug. I normally rotate though so there's some variety and I dont kill myself with exhaustion. 

After about 30mins, I get first crashing strike onto the Orion. It a single and makes a good account of itself for 15-17kg fish. A quick pic and back into the water. Second strike is on the bills bug, but its a short strike, about 10 25-30kg fish slam and boil around it in the distance and follow it towards the boat then dive off into the depths. So the very next cast, I grab the orion and cast in the opposite direction. It immediately gets slammed, and it feels like a bigger fish. Up comes a 25kg typical fraser GT, and a quick pic before release. Through the day, the orion seems to be the gun lure, with the poppers (which also rotated through - Jai, R2S, cubera to name a few) raising a fewfish, but they seemed to draw timid strikes.

With my arms aching and cramping, I took a break with soft plastics. But it didn't turn out that way. Immediately slammed by a thicklip trevally. It pulled very hard for a fish its size. There where 100's of them around. And after several smashed up plastics, time for a break from these guys as well. I need some fitness training!

So time for a troll and a lunch break, went for a short troll and an explore but didn't turn a ratchet. Back onto the GT reef, with several more decent fish on board, including what I think is a turrum (I'm not sure, but it was about a metre long, softer less prominent head, with distinctive black speckling.) The cramps hit again, as every time I'd lift a fish for a photo, my arms would cramp up!

All up about 40 GTs seen (several schools of 7-10 fish), 15 strikes, 6 GTs 15-30+kg, ?turrum and several smaller reef fish.

Back to rooneys, dinner and a well deserved beer!

Day 2, white caps on the bay, so the Spit was a miss. I got out the skirts and trolled Fergesons and rooneys for billies. There was bait everywhere and mack tuna and spotties crashing left and right. After about 1,203,421 10-12kg mack tuna, I'd had enough. Changed to a mackeral spread with an Uzi and 2 rapalas out the back. Several spotties later, I had worked my way down to wathumba. The rapala went off, and it had some weight, without the little head shakes of mackeral. After about 15mins, it finally surfaced with a bang. An 80-100 kilo (thats right 8-0 kilo, approx 2.2-2.4m bill to fork length) black marlin crashing and head trashing behind the boat.  I could feel the braid whipping in my hands, and prayed the lure would stick. It did, then it took off. AMAZING - in 12m of water. Luckily, the take was not on the two 8kg outfits, but on a GUSA dragon and Tiagra 16 with 130lb braid.  After about an hour I had my first glimpse of the leader, but it was way too green. Off it went again. After 2 hours, it was still going strong, and my back was about break in half. It was me or the fish, so I pushed the drag up past strike, as far as I dare given that on the end was not a large stainless singles but VMC trebles. It was now in 6m of water, and I could see circling on its side it on the sandy bottom. After 3 hours and 5 nm I was losing light fast and was running out of options, so I tried to drive it up onto the beach which was only 400m away. I had it into 3m of water, when pop, one hook out, quickly followed by another pop, followed by the final pop. All I could do was one big sigh....


George Pang

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Re: Some Fraser fun...
December 15, 2008, 01:49:10 AM
Some more pics...

Cam Foley

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Re: Some Fraser fun...
December 15, 2008, 07:37:15 AM
Choice read pitty about the stick face
AKA STELLAJIGGER
KINGFISH INTERPRETER

Brock Arifovic

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Re: Some Fraser fun...
December 15, 2008, 07:40:57 AM
George,

Great report, sounds like you got up there for the good weather & tides, also looks like you had some fun with all types of fishing, i hope it is that good when i get the chance to fish there early next year. What sort/size of boat were you in? Also what sort of gear where you using? Rods etc.....

Did you manage to see any larger GT's in your travels there? or were the mainly around the 15-30kg mark?

Travis Heaps

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Re: Some Fraser fun...
December 15, 2008, 09:16:09 AM
Great report George, thanks for the read.  Do you fish by yourself?? If so you must have your work cut out for you.  How did the Nomad stickbaits fare against the Orion in terms of amounts of fish tempted?

Shame about the billie - least it gave you a good fight and you saw what it was.

Joey Falconi

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Re: Some Fraser fun...
December 15, 2008, 09:35:36 AM
Looks like you had an awsome trip mate... All I can say is "I'm Jealous"  ;)

Nathan Cefai

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Re: Some Fraser fun...
December 15, 2008, 09:43:38 AM
Greta report mate and great pics,look like you had a ball...Great conditions i should add :o :o

Peter Lowe

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Re: Some Fraser fun...
December 15, 2008, 12:52:46 PM
Hi George,

Absolutley Awesome - Reading that has me pumped - we are thier in 2 weeks for 7 days, cant wait.

Shame about your billy - 3 hrs wow, what an effort.Some nice GT's and fun all round ah.

Now the questions please -

Your boat - looks like a tinnie ? - how much fuel can she take and how did you tackle that ?
Crossing the spit - never done it - any advise or marks to follow ?
Any advise on what you would do differently next time ?

Did you see my 70kg GT ?  :D

Thanks for any feed back in advance.....

Kind regards

Peter



 8)

Mick Cunningham

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Re: Some Fraser fun...
December 15, 2008, 02:43:12 PM
Hi George,

Absolutley Awesome - Reading that has me pumped - we are thier in 2 weeks for 7 days, cant wait.

Shame about your billy - 3 hrs wow, what an effort.Some nice GT's and fun all round ah.

Now the questions please -

Your boat - looks like a tinnie ? - how much fuel can she take and how did you tackle that ?
Crossing the spit - never done it - any advise or marks to follow ?
Any advise on what you would do differently next time ?

Did you see my 70kg GT ?  :D

Thanks for any feed back in advance.....

Kind regards

Peter



 8)


back off crazy pete 

that 70kg is mine  :D :D ;D

i maybe catch up with you see how i go .

Brock Arifovic

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Re: Some Fraser fun...
December 15, 2008, 05:25:32 PM
Crazy,

So your off in 2 weeks, who with & what boat? do you have plenty off lures in stock?  :D :D.

Also make sure you have a spare rod ready to go just incase the action gets a little HOT

George Pang

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Re: Some Fraser fun...
December 16, 2008, 09:49:09 AM
The boat is a Quintrex TopEnder 560 with 115 4s. 120L underfloor, but I carry another 180L for refills back on the island.

I was mainly trialling some new purchases, but I used
1. Komodo Dragon SW10000
2. RippleFisher GT82LC SW10000
3. Carpenter SP78UHL SW10000
4. ValleyHill Kamaja GT83P S6000GT

Probably the largest fish I saw was 35-40kg which had a half hearted swipe at my bills bug, but mainly they were the 25-30kg class (typical for fraser).

I often fish by myself, as I work shift work. I don't advise it unless you are comfortable fishing a long way from shore (20nm), are confident in your boating skills and equipment, and have a healthy respect for the sea. The safest thing to do is go out with some one first, before going on your own. Peter, are you comfortable (not that you ever get comfortable) doing bar crossings?

In regards to the nomad vs orion debate - the orion definitely outperformed the nomad. I find the nomad stickbait a too buoyant, even with the massive hooks, and tended to pop out now and again. The orion sinks and is brought up to the surface with the rod action. I think soaking the nomad stickbaits for a day or two may help this by waterlogging the wood. Having said all of that, the nomad has a much better flash when worked.


I have fished the spit for several years, and have a general plan. The things I would do different -
1. Better fitness
2. Take powerade with you. I drank 3-4L by noon. When the conditions are this good, it is stiflingly hot.
3. Bring more plastics, pre rigged.


Brock Arifovic

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Re: Some Fraser fun...
December 16, 2008, 07:41:05 PM
Looks like you have been doing some buying, what are your thoughts on all these rods? & which did you run your stickbaits on?

Peter Lowe

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Re: Some Fraser fun...
December 18, 2008, 08:38:49 AM
Thank you George, I appreciate your input.

I am curious as to how much fuel you would typically use going from Wathumba up to the spit, carrying the extra 180 ltr is a must i am sure.

The crew going are more than comfortable going out wide and we cross bars all the time as well as have a very healthy respect for mother nature so fingers crossed all goes well.

It's up to the weather gods now to look after us.

Hi Brock - we are going in a very similar boat to Georges 5.5mtr with 115 etec - goes well amd very economical if driven right. Their will be another boat coming along 7 mtr glass 200 verado which is even more capable so we should be ok.


Bring on the GTs ah....

Hope you all have a safe and Merry Christmas and a Happy New year.

Kind regards
Peter

 8)

George Pang

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Re: Some Fraser fun...
December 19, 2008, 11:10:07 PM
Peter,

I used about 170-180L for 2 days, with one trip to the spit. From rooneys, the spit is about 20nm and I would realistically budget on 60-80L for a days fishing from Rooneys as I never switch off my motor.

If you are leaving from wathumba add 10nm each way. The difference is that it is inside the bay, so fuel economy is far better, but still thats an extra hour total travel time to and from.

Staying at Wathumba is magic, the water is so clear on the incoming tide with hordes of bream and whiting at your feet. I take it you are camping there - north or south bank? Just bring lots of Bushmans as the sandflies can be murder! Also on the North bank, there is a storage 'cupboards' off the ground as dingos can be a problem. I have had all kinds of things chewed up, anything which remotely smells of fish, including my favourite hat! The dirty Buggers!!
The other thing I've learnt the hard way is the creek completely dries on the big tides, less than 1ft of water. So don't refill when you get back, as the boat will list, and fuel will drainout of your breathers - and you need every drop!

When you're fishing up there - stick on VHF 22, its the repeater that is monitored by Bundy and Hervey bay. Often they are some big boats out there, trawlers and commerical vessels, so you're not alone.

I love it up there it is one of the most beautiful parts of the world. If the weather gods smile on you, it will be a mind blowing trip!

Good Luck!

George

PS I'll start another thread about my impressions on some tackle for Brock.


Brandon Khoo

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Re: Some Fraser fun...
December 19, 2008, 11:19:41 PM
oh Gawd, don't do that, George. The last thing Brock needs is more gear!!  :D
If it swims; I want to catch it!