Central Queensland, 24/01 - Gentlemens Hours

[Warwick Joyce]

Note - post written by Travis, so when it refers to me it means travis not Warwick...and Warwick isn't referring to himself in 3rd person - thought I was logged on but obviously not 

Got out again today. Not planned but the water looked really good so we had breafast and hit the water around 10ish.

Crew was the same as yesterday plus one- myself, Warwick, my brother Dale and Warwicks brother Blair - a GT virgin.

Didn't take Blair long to get amongst it though - second cast saw a GT of a few kilos get on board

We moved spots and found ourselves amongst a brewing storm.  It sent a lot of the day makers heading home but we stayed out - the storm staying away from where we were. In the end people that would have copped it the worse were the ones that made a run for it

We made it out to our local reliable spot and had zero luck - with only one headland left to cast we were a bit despondant...where was the faith MC hooked up, a little GT, tuna started busting up everywhere, Blair was next on board with a little GT and then it as my turn. Woohoo - a solid GT Took some extracting and was caught on a skipjack 90. Around now Warwick also caught a bludger trev and we all caught a few of tuna busting up everywhere.

Good day out, especially for an impromptu trip.

[Neale Bird]

some very nice fish there mate!

[Peter Morris]

Love the shot of the big fella.

He looks a nasty one.

Well done mate,

Pete

[Ewan Macleod]

Great fish Travis! love those odd trips where you roll up at 10 or 11am and outfish the folk that have been out since dawn!

[Travis Heaps]

Love the shot of the big fella.

He looks a nasty one.

Well done mate,

Pete

Was a bit nasty Pete - soon as I hooked up I cranked the drag to get him out of the rock bar he was behind, he still took some line though.  Once I got him out I relieved the drag a bit so I didn't pull the hooks and then at the boat I relieved the drag again.  After photos my brother checked the drag before casting again and he couldn't pull any off! Wouldn't have been too far off locked up to start with I think 

Great fish Travis! love those odd trips where you roll up at 10 or 11am and outfish the folk that have been out since dawn!

Tell me about it Ewan!  A little bit annoying though - 4:30am starts for a 3 night, 4 day 400+km Shoalwater trip for no fish and then we get these ones after a 10am start and short ride to our local haunts  ::)typical 

[Travis Heaps]

This is me thinking out loud but i thought i'd post it.

For this trip plus the day previous -

Fuel- 150litres of fuel @ $180
Food - $90
Misc - (oil, water etc) $30

Grand total - $300.

Per person per day $50.

Myself and Warwick are booked onto a Nomad tour come July at $4500 per head which = $642 pp/pday.  I seriously doubt we can have 12 times more fun per day on a charter than what we had on our own trips.  IE - make the most of what you have, chasing GT's is not just for those that can afford expensive charters...you read and you sometimes wonder though.  My view is that the more posts like ours and Jordans from this weekend - ie all GT's small or big, then the more we learn.   

[Angus Hulme]

Top work there fellas. You guys are getting into some nice fish there.....a bit of angling envy here!

[Graham Scott]

Travis, Warwick,

Great report and a good couple of days fishing. I went out on Saturday to lend a hand on a jigging charter. We raised a bit of a mixture but nothing fantastic, however the guys didn't try all that hard either. We caught a few AJ's and trevs then went to a high shoal where I thought they could jig spanish but after the guy with bait started pulling red throat and trout all the jigging stopped pretty quickly.
Ended up with lots nice reef fish. I took home a 6kg amberjack for Aust Day BBQ. We also missed all the rain, being 35 miles offshore helped.

As we thought, looks like the GT's are pretty close to home judging by the photos.
I still haven't found a jig that beats a taipan for catching spanish Mackerel. Most of my knife jigging near spanish mackerel ends in disaster.

On the popping front, I set myself the target of catching a CQ whiting on a popper. Been walking the beaches around Zilzie.  Missed the first 6 strikes until I added a second split ring to the back hooks. Current score is 2 whitng plus a mixture of flathead, long toms, moses perch etc. Took 5 trips to figure out what had a chance.

If whiting grew to 20kg......

cheers,
graham

[Nathan Cefai]

Good work mate,a few solid fish there!!