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Fly Fishing

Chasing Golden Trevalley on the Magnetic Island flats.

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Enjoying one of the many beautiful beaches of Magnetic Island.

Tuesday 29 September 2009

New Boat Ramp Proposal for Townsville

I am finally able to make public a proposal for a new Boat Ramp facility for Townsville. Looks like all our efforts may finally bring about a change. Below is a copy of a power point presented recently in a meeting involving local boating community reps and city council. The delivery strategy document is also available for public viewing. Council have asked for feedback on the proposal, so please use the comment section or the forum to leave you feedback. I will ensure this is passed through to council.


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Monday 28 September 2009

Mission Beach Boat Ramps

Last week I spent 5 days with the family in Mission Beach on a camping holiday. While I didn't really do much in the way of fishing, didn't even take the boat, I did have a look around at what was on offer in terms of boat ramps. And it appears the lucky buggers have it better than us! Well, at least in terms of ramp quality and pontoons. Parking would still be an issue on a busy day.

North Mission Beach seems to have the most suitable ramp for lager craft. It has a 2 lane concrete ramp in excellent condition. There is a lovely floating pontoon that would make launching a glass boat on your own a breeze. The who system is located behind a good break wall for protection from the sea. To find the ramp simply drive through North Mission and turn right at the Eco Village.

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South Mission has a single lane concrete ramp at the southern end of the beach. The ramp itself is ok, but it is VERY exposed to the ocean. While it would be a quick dash across to dunk, getting the boat in and out in chop would be a problem.

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There is also a very good quality set of ramps on the Hull River near the mouth. This consists of 2x2 lanes of ramp with a floating pontoon in the middle. Ideal system. Mouth of the river looks plenty deep enough to provide assess to the ocean.

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There are other 'creek' ramps in the area, but I didn't photograph any.


Sunday 27 September 2009

Townsville Sky Show

We went to the Sky Show last night. Decided do it from The Strand rather than out on the boat. Was a great night Townsville! Here are a few pics and video I took. All just hand held using my little Olympus compact camera.








Saturday 19 September 2009

Afternoon in the Fresh

PhotobucketWith the big tides running this weekend, and me with not enough time to scratch myself, Dad and I decided on a quick trip with the tinnie into the freshwater of one of the rivers. It was a nice afternoon, but the fishing was slow.

We had the boat in the water about 2.30pm, and fished some snags quite close to the 'ramp'. But then we decided to go for a short run up-river. We ended up at a location I have fished and caught Barra from the bank in the past. With the boat I would have thought we were in with a real chance. But it wasn't to be.
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Dad landed one small fish, and I had a roll from what was probably an 80CM+ fish. But other than that, it was very quiet. We worked heaps of good looking timber in 3-4m of water, and eventually even tried a slow troll (something I hate) on the way back. But the fish just were not firing. I would like to try again after some rain and water is running a little.

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Monday 14 September 2009

Jim and Dave's Fishing Adventure

PhotobucketThe following report is compiled by forum member Li'lDave...

A few weeks ago, in response to ScottNthQld’s post asking for someone to take him luring Jimbo had also mentioned that he would be keen to have an afternoon dedicated to flicking HBs and SPs at snags as something a little bit different to him sinking a live bait.

One thing led to another and he’s had commitments for most weekends recently, but the window finally came and so we planned the trip for Saturdays incoming tide at one of his haunts in the Burdekin Delta….  As it turns out it was blowing a gale, so it was always going to be tough to find some snags that both looked fishy and were protected from the breeze.   It was a couple of firsts for the both of us, as I tend to fish the outgoing tides in the creeks around Townsville, and until the weekend, Jim had never gone out for an afternoon with the sole intention flicking lures.

We arrived and had Jim’s boat in the water by just before 1pm, and the creek looked fishy right from the start…  I knew then that regardless of the outcome I would be back in this creek at some stage in the not too distant future, flicking SPs and HBs into the snags on a tide somewhere round the new moon.

So… Jim had informed me on the way to the ramp that he had been out Friday afternoon to set a couple of pots, so at the very least we were looking forward to seeing a couple of muddies.  The tide was pretty low to start, so we slowly pottered along the little creek from the ramp biding our time by slow trolling amongst the snags with a gold 15+ flats rat 2   and a green and gold shallow diving bomber style lure, interspersed with the flicking of a few plastics into some “deep” water snags… for such a small creek width wise there were some VERY deep holes (up to 18 or 19ft in places), and a VERY bumpy bottom….  Despite this, it was hard work with the SPs and I think we only managed a couple of strikes all day doing the cast and retrieve thing, but that’s fishing I guess.

After about an hour and a half we were slow trolling once more, and we were finally on, a good solid strike on my flats rat, before my heart sank…  I had been taken into the snags…  but some masterful motoring by Jimbo brought us back into the picture  and we boated the first, and what was to be the last keeper of the day, a very healthy looking 42cm mangrove jack…..

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By about this stage enough water had come back in with the tide, so we ventured out in to the main creek to check the pots, and flicked a few more lures on the lee side of a couple of snags….  Jim had put 4 pots out over night and we were pretty stoked to find 5 good sized bucks in them just waiting for cooking pot J….

We put the pots back out, mainly because we had a few more hours of fishing left to do, and continued to throw our lures into the snags…  Again we only managed a couple of touches, and I did manage to get the tail of my prong bitten off, but alas the cast and retrieve just wasn’t working Saturday….  So after a couple more hours we decided to troll around a little before pulling in the pots….  At this point it is worth noting that we had been seeing a heap of turtles about during the afternoon, we figured that they have to be after something (turns out it was probably herring, as they were present in their thousands!!)….  We trolled around and then I was on…  well at least I thought so initially…  a snag maybe?…  I slowly managed to retrieve some line as Jimbo once again exhibited masterful control of his hornet trophy, we got right up to it before it dawned that this was no snag, but quite a large Denison of the deep….  Got a view of the leader, then felt the distinct pull and heard the whirring sound of line screaming from my reel…  We managed to get a little closer, until we finally saw colour….  That horrid green of a dirty great big loggerhead turtle!!!  We were too slow in cutting the leader, and she was off again…  We continued to try to retrieve line with the goal of at least getting to the leader and cutting it there…  Alas it wasn’t to be, and after another 5 or so minutes and a worrying time thinking that my rod was going to break, she finally pulled hard enough to break me off…  Well at least it made for a good spectacle for another passing boat, who all looked on in awe as they saw my rod doubled over, and I reckon that they would’ve seen the veins bulging on my forehead from the strain even at 100m away!!

That was enough excitement, so we pulled in the pots, and decided to troll our way back to the ramp….  It was a long time coming, but we were sitting and yarning and checking out the sounder, and not more than 30 seconds after Jim pointed out what he thought to be a fish marking, he was on…  Nothing huge, and he quickly boated what turned out to be a juvenile Fingermark in the 25cm range….  While not a keeper it had the honor of being the first Finger I’ve seen since my long lost childhood….  We managed a couple of more strikes on the troll, but no hook-ups and had the boat on the trailer around 630…

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So not a great success but a great afternoon…  One of the things I like best about fishing is the chance you get to explore some great creeks and new territory, and it’s days like Saturday that remind me that we live in a pretty special place up here….

Thanks Jim for a great afternoon, and I will be returning the favor soon…. Whether it’s in one of “my” little creeks up here in Townsville, or I bring my tinny down to Ayr and we do the same again.

Li’lDave


Fishing the Herbert River

We decided to fish a secret spot (He He) on the Herbert River. As Richard was still chasing fish for his top ten, Liam is off to the army soon and I was after a nice legal sooty for the Townsville Baptist Club Top Ten. We followed our noses and went to an old fishing spot that usually delivers. The day looked good, we arrived at our spot early enough for a morning fish. When we arrived we expected to see a bit of a change to the system from the recent floods, but the change was dramatic. Were we normally fish there was little to no water, and where we normally camp there was plenty of sand and a lot less rock! No problem, we went for a walk and found some nice new runs. As we fished we soon discovered the big fish were having a rest. No problems the little sooties on light rods still make a fuss. Richard found some nice Tarpon up to 43cm, Liam landed his sooty, and I got a couple. All in all a good day, thanks boys.


Sunday 13 September 2009

Semi-successful first fish in the little boat

Today was our first chance to fish the creeks from our newly acquired 3.86 Sea Jay. At the recommendation of Li'lDave we gave one of the smaller Northern creeks a shot. This was not just our first fish from the boat, but also our first ever go at crabbing. We started the morning launching at about 6am and fished the falling tide. Dad was first to land a fish, a small flathead. It came within our first few casts. I had had a couple of bumps, but failed to hook up. Then I landed my fist fish, a 3in cod! Yay. Fishing was slow for the entire run out tide. We tried several different spots along the creek, eventually finding ourselves at the mouth around the bottom of the tide. There were only a few spots with enough water to hold a decent fish, so we worked these while waiting for the tide to turn. The change of tide was what was needed. And over the next couple of hours we landed several nice fish little fish on plastics. Main species were Barra, Jacks, Archer and a Bream. Best fish of the day was a 54cm Barra.

Our crabbing efforts were about as good as the fishing, all TOO SMALL. In the end we must have put back almost 100 crabs for the day. The biggest buck we could manage was about 3mm under size.

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Thursday 10 September 2009

Success in the creeks

Dad went for another short fish in the creeks yesterday afternoon. He was just walking the bank tossing some soft plastics. He managed a Flathead just under 60cm, and a small Barra about 48cm. The pics are not great as he is just using his mobile phone.

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Sunday 6 September 2009

Happy Fathers Day to all the Dad's



Saturday 5 September 2009

Slashers Reef Report - By Ryan

PhotobucketThe following report is compiled by Ryan Krause of Ryan Catholic College. Thanks Ryan.

It was an early start last Sunday morning, waking up at 3am, packing the boat and getting organised before heading to fuel up and make our way to Slashers (Braggs) Reef. We managed to beat the mad rush to the boat ramp, getting away easily into what could only be described as perfect conditions. The calm weather shaved a fair bit of time off our trip and we arrived to Slashers Reefs at around about 6am. We were keen to get into the trout. We tried a few different spots in about 30-40m of water, but weren’t having any luck. We then decided to try our luck in closer to the reef. We tried 20m of water and this proved to be where the fish were. We managed to pick up some nice Red Throat Emperor as well as some nice trout off this one spot. Then things went quiet again.

The trout continued to be on the bite, feeding best on pilchards, whereas the squid seemed to be attractive the Red Throat Emperor. A bit of excitement towards the middle of the day, was a run on the floater we had out. The fish was fought for about 5minutes when it managed to cut the line, mackerel for sure, so we re-baited and put the line out again.

In the shallow water, we could see schools of cobia swimming beneath the boat. Trying to get them excited enough to take the bait just wasn’t working. The metal splices were brought out and after about 50 casts, we managed to get a bite but it didn’t take it. The cobias were not playing the game. About 5 minutes before leaving the reef, this nice Spangled Emperor was caught on squid.

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We then headed for home, but to break up the long trip we decided to stop off at Shark Park and try our luck for some bottom fish or mackerel. We had hook-ups before too long but they, as the name suggests proved to be sharks. With no success at this spot we decided to head for home after a successful trip to the reef.

The cod and red emperor were caught last weekend on a shoal of John Brewer Reef; I just added it because their big!!!!

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Not much to report!

Very quiet day on the water for us today. It was out club comp day today, and this month the competition was closed to Cleavland Bay. We hit the channel markers first up in the hope we would get a few Mackerel on board. But despite the abundance of bait, nothing wanted to touch the metal. We collected a stack of Herring and headed to the mouth of Crocodile Creek for the high tide. I was hoping to catch a couple of Grunter, the last of the species I need for my top 10. Although I missed several runs, I only boated one small Salmon. We left for home about 10am as we have other plans for today. If you have something better to report, jump in the forum and let us know.