Approx Weight - Swains GT

[Ben Rivers]

Another Photo of the GT

[Brandon Khoo]

85-90kg?

[Travis Heaps]

85-90kg?

Nah, you're thinking of the photos the Japanese anglers take.

[thomas + williams]

Where did you head out to the swains from? I remember heading out from stanage bay as a kid and baiting for trout and there was some absolute horse gt out there. Even eating good size trout on the way to the boat!

[Ben Rivers]

Where did you head out to the swains from? I remember heading out from stanage bay as a kid and baiting for trout and there was some absolute horse gt out there. Even eating good size trout on the way to the boat!

Head out on Mothership from Gladstone. Some definite monster GTs out there. Bust me off every-time!

[thomas + williams]

What were you chasing out there? It's a pretty incredible place!

[thomas + williams]

If your into catching a few monsters and your from Gladstone it's definitely worth heading into shoalwater! It's a very incredible place!

[Graham Scott]

What do you call Shoalwater?

[Brandon Khoo]

It's a bloody long way from Gladstone. Not just a matter of turning the corner!

[thomas + williams]

Yeah I'm aware of that, if your on the cap coast and don't mind towing a boat in the 100km of dirt to stanage it is very accessible!

[Graham Scott]

Shoalwater Bay is a funny place. When I used to go there it was the mud and mangroves at the mouth of Head Creek and a bunch of other creeks.
Now "Shoalwater Bay" seems to go north past the Marbles, across to the Percy's and down the east coast past Island Head Creek , almost down to Yeppoon.
Still a fantastic place to fish mainly courtesy of the limited access thru the military training area.
Stanage Bay is a bit confronting, 165 km north and 40 years back

[Travis Heaps]

Shoalwater Bay is a funny place. When I used to go there it was the mud and mangroves at the mouth of Head Creek and a bunch of other creeks.
Now "Shoalwater Bay" seems to go north past the Marbles, across to the Percy's and down the east coast past Island Head Creek , almost down to Yeppoon.
Still a fantastic place to fish mainly courtesy of the limited access thru the military training area.
Stanage Bay is a bit confronting, 165 km north and 40 years back

That's courtesy of Nomad I think Graham.  Not that they charter there any more but if you google "Shoalwater Bay" the first thing you find is "military training area"...makes for a less attractive proposition to the common trailerboater than if it had been advertised as the Marbles or similar imo. 

[David Noble]

I did my time with the military, got to work a bit at the area at Shoalwater during navy clearance divers live bomb detonation training. Most of the explosive training we had to go to the bunker as shrapnel could (and did) enter the camp site.  Went out a long way on the zodiac one time to see the 500lb bomb 'go bang' from offshore, good 70 meter water spout!
Back on the beach in the tidal zone where the bangs occured, it looked like a war zone dotted with craters and strewn with dead fish. (threadfin, etc)
Any GT or other fish would have got quite a head ache, it was quite disturbing....

A few dugong got blown up also...

Totally off topic, sorry, back to the Swains!

[thomas + williams]

Yeah during bombing you could feel the blasts through the water for miles! It would have to send those fish a bit silly for a while! The fishing down that way is unreal when you can access the area.

[Graham Scott]

Hi David,
I assume you are referring to Big Bang Bay at Triangular Island....good spot for Coral Trout!

Strong Tide Passage is about my favourite spot ever, even named one of my boats "Strongtide". In spite of a bit of Instant Death from explosives, there is no doubt that the lack of general access to the area is the greatest environmental protector that an area can get. It is far and away the most pristine and fish rich area I have experienced on the east coast of QLD. 3.5kg mudcrabs, remember catching Trout up to 3 kg in a small mangrove lined creek that runs dry at low tide, thought that was awesome, until the next trout got eaten by a 30kg cod, or trolling along the beach at Supply Bay and went past one isolated bommie in about 2 metres of water only to have the bommie casually swim over and destroy my barra lure.

Guess we are getting way off topic here..

Nice Swains GT Ben,
I reckon 24.25kg!