Ivan,
I have been to Stanage Bay a couple of times but with guys who mainly bait fish. Didn't have an interest in Lures back then.
It is a great place, lots of islands and is not fished much except by the locals and guys from around the Capricorn Region chasing estuary species, reefies, XOS Spanish Mackeral and the biggest Mud Crabs on the planet.
A trip there from Rockhampton can take 3 hours depending on the condition of the road in. There is 100klms of dirt after the turn off from the highway. The army use the first half of the road for access to Shoalwater Bay military training ground and can leave it in a terrible condition. Like any out of the way place if you take your time you will get there.
There is a limit on how far south you can go if a military exercise is happening. I fished there a couple of years ago when an Aus/American exercise was on. We had Yank destroyers coming past about 1000m from us and could see jets bombing Townsend Island to the south, was a buzz.
The GT population there probably have never seen a popper especially at some of the far islands in the Cannibal, Duke and Marble groups. There is no reason it shouldn't fish as well as Shoalwater bay does for the Nomad crews. In fact some of the area they fish is accessible from Stanage, but is a long trip.
It is a very pretty area, lots of volcanic plug type islands with pines on them.
The current around the Stanage area can be fast. On large tides the channel in front of the ramp can run at 8 knots!!
There is a large concrete ramp but any wind with an Easterly component blows straight onto it, not much fun at 20kts trying to get a boat out, drive on trailers are great....
There are some Green zones to the north so make sure you have your Marine Park Zoning maps.
If you type Stanagebay.com into Google, there is a website and their phone number is 07 49373145. They will be able to tell you about road condition, military activity etc. They sell all the basic stuff, marine gear and fuel and there is a pub down the road!!
I have stayed at Barra Lodge and Benz Place. Both are houses for rent and have very good amenities.
Overall it is a great place and I can't wait to go back.
Hope this helps,
Ken
