Yesterday morning I took Tania and the boys for a quick trip across to the weedbeds before having to go into the Townsville Boat Show at Townsville Marine. The plan was to head out the front of Alligator Creek in 3-4m of water and toll some lures for a couple of hours. It was never going to be flat conditions but a quick trip first thing we though was the go.
We put the boat in at the newer Barnacle St boat ramp right on first light and proceeded through the 6knot zone. Once clear of the river we had good run to our spot with light 5-8knot wind chop. We trolled the area until about 8.30am and only managed a handful of Grinner! While the water quality was quite good, water temp is still about 24.4 degrees. Coupled with weak tides I don't think the Mackerel are in there just yet. There were a couple of other boats doing the floating pilly and burley trail thing, but I don't think they saw any action either. I would like the see that water temp get down closer to 19 or 20 to get them into the shallows.
It did, however, give me a chance to check out the new sounder combination add to the 485sf. I'm now running a Humminbird 998HD on the console and a 798HD on front casting deck. Networked with a single ethernet cable, the units share waypoint and transducer data. It will make it much easier to work lures from the bow of the boat while being able to watch the sounder.
The Townsville Boat Show was fantastic yesterday, with big crowds there at lunchtime when I visited. Nick and boys from The Sign Guys put a wrap on Emmanuels 485sf with everyone watching, and Gary from the NQ Fishing Show had his boat on display and spot at length about the up and coming billfish season. Its all on again from 8.30am today. So head on down and check out the massive under cover display area, free entry, free face-painting & free jumping castle. Plus on water boat tests, including the massive 8m Hooker with 350hp V8 Yamaha! Free bus shuttle service to the marina for the water tests!
