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Travis Heaps

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Local Trip CQ
February 20, 2010, 09:00:52 PM
Headed out for a trip on Wednesday.  We had watched the weathe all week and although rainy the change wasn't due through till thursday arvo so we packed for an overnight camping trip.  As we took off though the bureau changed their forecast to say the change was due that afternoon??  This caused a change of plans and we cancelled the overnight plans.

The weather was fairly ominous, there's a photo of the weather around here somewhere - that is the direction we ended up going.  It rained most of the time we were out and it was a good chance to test my more gees in rainy weather theory. 

First spot Pat hooked up to his first GT on popper - a lil one but good start.  Then off the next spot Warwick missed a strike from a whopper...it looked like someone had dropped a 44 into the water from about 3m up!  We then moved around and kept missing missing fish - the best part though was these strikes and fish were coming from spots we had popped in the past for no luck. 

Then out to ole faithful but only had one pass before we spotted working birds and chased them.  For no result it turned out.  Next spot I missed a strike straight away and we then continued around in the opposite direction to which usually go.  Next part of this spot nothing and we slowly moved around to the front edge and BAM - stacks of bait flashing and it was on.  We missed a lot of strikes but Warwick landed a nice fish and we nearly had a triple hook up on bludgers, landed 2 but.

Next spot the tide was slack and we wasted some time with SP's - turns out i'm the honeycomb cod king of the world.  We also discovered what happens when you sit around in one spot long enough waiting for the tide to turn - the wildlife starts to think you a piece of the landscape  ;)

We then moved onto our next spot and it looked like zero was happening but we lobbed one out - BAM.  What the - missed it and then missed it again, and again  :o  It clued on after that and we had some fun on small GT's on light gear. 

Next spot was one we hadn't fished before but it looked prime.  I cast and my lure was politely slurped off the surface.  I then stated it wasn't too big which was followed by ZZZzzzZzzZzzzzzzz.  It turned out to be a nice fish 118cm length and 88cm girth...it was a super fat fish, as they all had been which was good to see. 

We then headed home around 630 and it was flat stick the whole way - hmmm 15-20 knot change I don't think so.  To top it off the next day was flat as as well- as originally forecast, i'm not sure what the bureau dude was smoking when he issued the forecast on Wednesday lunchtime...we lost a day fishing because of it but hey, at least we still got a few  :)

Nathan Cefai

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Re: Local Trip CQ
February 21, 2010, 12:03:42 PM
Great report mate,well done..

Angus Hulme

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Re: Local Trip CQ
February 21, 2010, 12:55:42 PM
G'day Trav, very nice work mate......some beaut fish there. Pity you missed out on the extra days fishing hey.

No doubt you'd have wanted to convert a few more missed bites into boated fish, but that's what makes us more determined the next time around, I suppose?

What lures were doing most of the work? Any of Wozza's stickbaits get a run?

Cheers mate
Angus

Luke Wyrsta

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Re: Local Trip CQ
February 21, 2010, 02:16:01 PM
What hook configurations are you using?

Great fish btw  ;)

Tom Grubb

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Re: Local Trip CQ
February 21, 2010, 06:48:01 PM
nice one trav, the bird photo is a classic. what sort of depths are you popping in down there?
PoPpInG mAd

Jay Burgess

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Re: Local Trip CQ
February 21, 2010, 07:00:27 PM
Nice work Trav, good to see that you're getting out. I reckon we've had the worst summer in history here, non-stop strong westerlies been cranking for months... haven't popped locally for over 3 months.  >:(

Graham Scott

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Re: Local Trip CQ
February 22, 2010, 09:53:32 AM
Hi Travis,
Good trip. I love those dull days too.
We went out the monday before you on 10 to 15 north forecast and got hammered by 20knts and 1.7m seas. Was goig to pop up my usual way but too rough, nannies OK though.
With that floodwater on top everything goes nuts, see if you can get out again in the next couple of weeks.

Travis Heaps

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Re: Local Trip CQ
February 23, 2010, 09:29:42 AM
No doubt you'd have wanted to convert a few more missed bites into boated fish, but that's what makes us more determined the next time around, I suppose?

What lures were doing most of the work? Any of Wozza's stickbaits get a run?

Hey Angus, always nice to convert some more of the missed strikes - I think i'm going to try working the lure slower maybe?  Succesful lures were Heru Tuna 100 in pink and Cubera 125 in red/white.  Also some teeth marks in and Orion Bigfoot 140, think that was all.  Not much need to change lures as they all seemed to be working.

Cough - Wozzas Stickbaits?? ???  ;D  We had some success over the weekend with an update to the shape and weighting so the are swimming really well now  :)

What hook configurations are you using?

Great fish btw  ;)

Hey Luke - baker rigged belly and single off tail all debarbed.  Either SJ41 11/0 or SJ51 11/0 for belly hooks and Jobu 8/0 or 9/0 or Sj51 11/0 for tail hook.  Keen to try some of the SJ41 13/0s Fishhead have in stock...the 51 11/0s are looking a bit beefy for my liking these days.

nice one trav, the bird photo is a classic. what sort of depths are you popping in down there?


Thanks Tom, yeah the bugger just flew down and had a bit of a rest - his survival instincts were either serverely lacking or finely honed, I haven't decided which yet.  As for depths It ranges from 5m-30m off the points we fish, it's always around rocks though.  Although we were casting at some tasty looking structure on this trip as we were sitting in 3.0m of water which would have been a fair ole fight had we hooked up  ;)

Nice work Trav, good to see that you're getting out. I reckon we've had the worst summer in history here, non-stop strong westerlies been cranking for months... haven't popped locally for over 3 months.  >:(

Cheers Jay - I thought you'd been a bit quite lately.  Bloody weather hey - we've actually had not a bad summer over this way I thought, managed a couple of trips at least.  On the plus side for you at least the fish won't have seen a popper for at least 3 months by the time you do get out - they'll be going off hopefully!

Hi Travis,
Good trip. I love those dull days too.
We went out the monday before you on 10 to 15 north forecast and got hammered by 20knts and 1.7m seas. Was goig to pop up my usual way but too rough, nannies OK though.
With that floodwater on top everything goes nuts, see if you can get out again in the next couple of weeks.

Gday Graham, yeah the dull days are the go I reckon.  Bummer about your trip - I hate fishing rough weather, it's the travelling I hate actually - so slow.  We had the perfect run home Wednesday night, didn't touch the throttle for 20km just about.  Yeah am keen to fish this floodwater again, maybe some jigging if we get the weather to let me run out a bit farther.  If we get good weather i'll be out next week for sure - i've got 130 litres of premium unleaded sitting in the shed from over-investing in this trip just gone - my wallet will feel like it's practically a free trip  ;D ;)

Angus Hulme

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Re: Local Trip CQ
February 23, 2010, 10:32:43 AM
Cough - Wozzas Stickbaits?? ???  ;D  We had some success over the weekend with an update to the shape and weighting so the are swimming really well now  :)

Sorry mate, should I be calling them "TravWoz" stickbaits?  :-\ ;) I just don't want anyone missing out on getting the credit for lure making and design!

If you have any pics of the updated versions, I'd be very keen to see them at some stage