Shoalwater Bay??

[Simon Thomas]

Hi,

In a couple of weeks I'm heading into the Shoalwater Bay area with a group of mates.  Whilst the plan isn't to focus primarily on popping, we want to do a bit.  We haven't fished the area much before and was hoping for a few pointers on locations to get us started.  I have read several times about a rockbar in Island Head Creek (?) that is good for GTs.  Does anyone care to elaborate a bit more on its location.  Any help on any spots would be very much appreciated.

Cheers,
Simon

[Vic Levett]

WE ARE HEADING UP TO STANAGE ON ABOUT THE 6TH OF DEC WITH A STOP OVER AT HARVEY BAY    READ A REPORT ON ANTHER SITE AND THE ROAD IN SEAMS TO BE AT ITS BEST. FROM WHAT I HAVE RESEARCHED RE GTS IN THE AREA ,FISH PROMINENT POINTS WITH PLENTY OF CURRENT, BAIT AND WAVE ACTION AND U YOU SHOULD FIND A FEW . WHEN ARE U PLANNING ON LEAVING ?
REGARDS
VIC

[Warwick Joyce]

Get yourself a marine zoning map, you will quickly see where you cant fish, then its not hard to work out where to fish Trust me once you are there its easy to see where to fish when the tide is running. Also beware of stong tide passage, its named that for a reason

[Simon Thomas]

We are leaving Gladstone on the 8th Dec and heading back on the 16th Dec.  We have a 60' charter boat as a mothership and have 3 * 4.5-5m tinnies to fish from.  The sure does seem to be alot of yellow zones in the area, which will isolate the places to fish as stated.  Hopefully  the good spots will be obvious to us very amateur GT fishermen.  One of my mates who is going along is calling the GTs "oversized crabpot bait", so if I catch anything worth posting about I think I know what it will be called!!!

I was really hoping to find out a bit more about this rockbar in Island Head Creek.  I'll have to look closer at the charts and Google Earth I think.

Cheers guys,
Simon

[Ken Best]

Simon,

You can't miss the "rock bar" The whole entrance to Island Head Creek has it on the northern side. You will know it when you see it. Most of it is out of the water on all tides.
Don't discount the near islands to this area either, they all hold good fish and not only GT's. There are most mackeral species as well as trout, cod and other reef dwellers.

If somethin doesn't work dont be afraid to try something different. And the bottom fish up there love 7 inch Gulps in most chicken flavours!!

Hope you have fun

Ken

[Travis Heaps]

We are leaving Gladstone on the 8th Dec and heading back on the 16th Dec.  We have a 60' charter boat as a mothership and have 3 * 4.5-5m tinnies to fish from.  The sure does seem to be alot of yellow zones in the area, which will isolate the places to fish as stated.  Hopefully  the good spots will be obvious to us very amateur GT fishermen.  One of my mates who is going along is calling the GTs "oversized crabpot bait", so if I catch anything worth posting about I think I know what it will be called!!!

I was really hoping to find out a bit more about this rockbar in Island Head Creek.  I'll have to look closer at the charts and Google Earth I think.

Cheers guys,
Simon

The only reason you'll miss "the rock bar" is because it's not that exciting.  Definitely a good spot but they won't be jumping into you're boat or anything.  It's easy to pick the spots once you get up there - research more on where to find GT's in general rather than where to find GT's at Island Head Creek, will stand you in good stead where ever you go.

[Graham Scott]

Simon,
All advice above is spot on. With regard zoning you can fish in the yellow zones, only limit is 1 hook or 1 lure. Be careful of some of the green zones. There is about a 90m shift between the published latitude and the maps, (points on the land), this is due to a datum shift, maps are on AGD 66; Lat is on WGS 84. Sounds like nothing until you figure out where the boundary is at Strong tide passage, Delcomyn and Cape Clinton. The zone boundaries are basically 90m further north than where they look like on the maps.

We have been catching heaps of nannygai, red emperor etc up the coast, even had a nannie last trip spit out one of my Gulps from about 3 weeks earlier! Wasn't so lucky second time around. Also heaps of coral trout around the 6kg mark and big eatuary cod(brown trout). I'd recommend taking a dropline to use to release the big cod, they don't vent very well and its a shame to kill more than 1 or 2. If their eyes pop I think they're gonnas, but if its only swim bladder they can be lowered down on a weighted line. If you catch a big cod still attached to about 20 snapper leads, can you return the sinkers to me please?

[Travis Heaps]

Simon,
All advice above is spot on. With regard zoning you can fish in the yellow zones, only limit is 1 hook or 1 lure. Be careful of some of the green zones. There is about a 90m shift between the published latitude and the maps, (points on the land), this is due to a datum shift, maps are on AGD 66; Lat is on WGS 84. Sounds like nothing until you figure out where the boundary is at Strong tide passage, Delcomyn and Cape Clinton. The zone boundaries are basically 90m further north than where they look like on the maps.

We have been catching heaps of nannygai, red emperor etc up the coast, even had a nannie last trip spit out one of my Gulps from about 3 weeks earlier! Wasn't so lucky second time around. Also heaps of coral trout around the 6kg mark and big eatuary cod(brown trout). I'd recommend taking a dropline to use to release the big cod, they don't vent very well and its a shame to kill more than 1 or 2. If their eyes pop I think they're gonnas, but if its only swim bladder they can be lowered down on a weighted line. If you catch a big cod still attached to about 20 snapper leads, can you return the sinkers to me please?

Sounds promising Graham...heading up that way on the weekend hopefully, fingers crossed but it's all looking good at the moment.  Love to run across that nannys again but not holding my breath (god bless my little sounder   )  Got to be good for GT's though I reckon...only problem is my mate THE CURSE is coming argh

That poor ole cod...still anchored to the one spot i'd say!

[Graham Scott]

Good luck Travis,
I haven't been back chucking poppers since our trip. The nannies have moved on from where we found them, but still in the area, keep an eye out, you never know. I reckon that big cod probably rubbed off those sinkers in about 2 mins flat, and he's now sitting down there laughing at me.
The trout are really on the go...not a bad plan B.
Looks a good tide for GT's.