Page 48 - Demo

TFeam Cruise Craft Tannum Sands sortie
OR many years, So, after discussions of TCC members to- Fish Photo’ competi- fishing for about four Team Cruise with a group of ‘new’ gether, and as it was tion, and showed off the hours, we managed a Craft has been Team Cruise Craft late notice for every- soon to be winner’s tro- nice haul of reef fish.
attending the an- members and getting one, I wasn’t sure we’d phy, explaining that the With conditions fore-
nual Boyne Tannum HookUp fishing com- petition each April.
the go ahead in early October, we set the dates for the trip as No- vember 3-7.
be able to do it. However, after only
winning photo would be displayed for six months on Team Cruise Craft’s Facebook page.
cast to worsen, we de- cided to head for home at 11am, after driving past each crew and tak- ing a quick photo of their best fish.
Unfortunately, this year we were unable to attend due to COV- ID-19 restrictions.
With only a couple weeks to plan, the next step was to get a crew
seven phone calls, we had five confirmed members with crew!
With the weather pre- dicted to be average, we launched at 8am on Wednesday and steamed out to a patch of reef called the Pea- nut, slightly south of North West Island and about 70km from Tan- num.
A mix of nice reef fish were caught including this cobia.
Peter Clark winner of the Best Fish Photo trophy.
We decided to head for home after driving past each crew and taking a quick photo of their best sh.
Page 48 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, January 2021
We headed home be- fore sundown, stopping off at the Rock Cod Shoals for a quick sun- set session before head- ing back to the ramp.
When chatting to the members and crew, those who hadn’t driven in conditions that rough before were impressed with their boats, and it was great that they were able to test them.
The TCC members were Terry Donohue – Explorer 720HT, Brad Briggs – Explorer 720HT, Hoa Cheng – Explorer 720HT, Pe- ter Clark – Explorer 720ST, Glenn Gretton – Outsider 635HT, and Nathan Nagy and my- self in Wynnum’s DE- MO Explorer 720HT.
Heading back from Fitzroy Reef took about 3.5 hours as conditions were very average, par- ticularly the shallower areas about 30km from base.
We headed off on Tuesday morning and arrived at the Tannum Sands Holiday and Caravan Park later that day.
While the weather continued to get bet- ter and better as the day went on, the fish- ing was a little tough, though each boat man- aged a few nice species.
The best way to de- scribe it was a washing machine, though noth- ing our Cruise Crafts couldn’t handle.
The vibe was great, with all TCC members meeting each other for the first time.
On Thursday morn- ing, we had everyone launch at 2.30am be- cause we wanted to be at the fishing grounds on sunup to get the morning bite.
On Friday morning, everyone recovered from the previous day and the TCC members gathered in the park for a big filleting ses- sion.
That night, Nathan and I put on a barbe- cue for the members and crew, so we could chat, share ideas and let everyone know of the planned fishing itiner- ary.
A 10-15 knot norther- ly wind was predicted, strengthening around mid-morning.
It was a great chance for everyone to tell their stories about the fishing over the previ- ous two days, and to have a laugh.
For the first time, we decided to run a friend- ly little fishing ‘Best
To be protected from the wind, we decided to fish the southern side of Fitzroy Reef – around 90km from Boyne Tan- num.
Getting out was quite slow, but well worth the long and uncomfortable trip because the fishing was fantastic!
We also presented the ‘Best Fish Photo’ trophy to the winner, Peter Clark – skipper of his Explorer 720ST Seagem – for the photo of him holding a very nice redthroat emperor.
Though we had no marks to fish from, our Garmin sounder showed plenty of fish, so everyone spread out and drifted around.
We had great feed- back from all the mem- bers, and I’m almost certain everyone has booked cabins for next year’s Boyne Tannum HookUp in April 2021.
On the first drop, Na- than and I had a mon- ster trout and a nice tuskfish, and after
Check out bnbfishing. com.au for more photos of the trip.
Brent Ferguson
www.bnbfishing.com.au