Bush 'n Beach Fishing Magazine Location reports & tips for fishing, boating, camping, kayaking, 4WDing in Queensland and Northern NSW
The Seventeen Seventy trip to contest the Bush ’n Beach Trophy saw 13 club boats attend the annual week away.
As usual, a few arrived early to get some preliminary intel – including checking out the new channel in the mouth of Round Hill Creek, which caused some concern on the first crossing in the dark.
Conditions looked good for most of the week and, at the briefing session at Commodore Dave’s place, many a plan was hatched for overnighters and double overnighters to all points of the compass, while others elected for a simple shakedown before heading out on a big trip.
With John, Brad and Gary onboard, Freyja arrived at the ramp, where Salty was already being let off the trailer by star deckhand Terry, who had come all the way from Perth for the trip.
With the tide high, they left the creek on the previous year’s track without issue and headed northeast, intending to fish around Boult Reef.
At the Outer Wides, the conditions weren’t as per the forecast, with the wind pushing a solid 15 knots.
Before going any further, Rob elected to stay in the area to see if it backed off.
Blackers and Dale in Offshore Account passed on the way to Fitzroy, while Lucky on Holey Doley arrived in the area with Craig and Paul, who also elected to wait and see.
The fishing was very slow but as the shows looked good and they were hoping for a bite period, they persisted in the area, collecting only grinner and trigger fish.
Freyja moved out wider and found some good trout they were calling 6kg plus, so with only a couple of tuskfish onboard, Rob elected to head to the area.
Once there, Terry and Rob could barely raise a scale, while the other fishos continued to have a ball.
With the wind backing down, Freyja decided to move closer into the Wides for a look.
Salty kept looking further east, however with nothing to show for their efforts, they headed back toward the Wides.
John radioed that Brad had caught another dinosaur trout, while Terry and Rob continued catching annoying triggers.
Rob noticed his motor was cranking differently a couple of times, but all seemed to check out fine… until the next drift, when he hit the key for a clunk, then nothing.
The wiring was checked with no issues and, after further fault finding and a few more attempts, a red motor symbol popped up on the Suzuki’s gauge, which meant game over – locked out.
John provided the tow back to the bar, where Volunteer Marine Rescue Round Hill took over to bring Salty safely through soon after dark – big thanks to Ruth and the team for their assistance.
The crew definitely wouldn’t have made it in safely without VMR and, due to the change in the position of the channel they were unaware of, they would have been left floundering on the bar.
A heads up to anyone boating in the area, log on and off with VMR when you’re there – it helps them as well as you.
Monday dawned with all boats bar Salty headed out for their overnighters, and because conditions had settled, all headed north – some as far as Broomfield Reef.
Rob got stuck in to diagnosing his motor problem and with a bit of consultation, landed at a faulty starter motor.
The VMR team referred him to Cary at 1770 and Agnes Water Marine, who helped out with a few things, including sourcing a replacement from Bundaberg, which they picked up the next day.
Tuesday saw John and the crew headed for a double overnighter and, if all went to plan, Salty would meet them at Lady Musgrave Island lagoon that afternoon.
Cary reported back that the tank test had passed, all faults had reset the tank and the boat was good to go.
Rob was underway by 2pm and managed some nice trout and redthroat emperor before catching up with the other boats in the lagoon for the night.
The next morning, they hit out at sunrise, boxing a few fish in the shallows before heading wider to the shoals.
There were good shows on the rises, with hussar and stripies on the chew, but not the trout they were looking for.
Heading away, they found a good show on a small rock, so lines went down.
Rob got the familiar tug from a red and finally landed a decent fish slightly under 7kg – while not the monster they were looking for, a nice fish nonetheless.
Freyja came over to say they were headed wider.
They didn’t realise however that they’d been followed by the shark that, as it was taking their fish, had prompted the move in the first place.
The next red made it only 10m off the bottom before it was converted into a shark, which couldn’t be raised and required a deliberate bust off.
The next move was to head in close where they had a good session, leaving them thinking that they should have stayed there in the first place – that’s fishing though!
Next morning, after a good night’s sleep, Freyja and Salty headed wide.
The current was up and, combined with the wind, the electric motor was tripping, so it was back to the old-school parachute anchor.
The fishing was steady, with some cracking tuskies to nearly 3kg, and Terry finally nabbed his red – not huge but still legal.
Heading out to see Frejya, they stumbled on a school of pearl perch and, after finally sorting out the drift and getting a couple, John radioed that he was heading in.
Back on land, the rest of the boat crews reported that the earlier trips up north had for the most part gone very well, so opted to sleep in and clean fish and equipment on the Friday.
Saturday saw many boats return home because they either had or were close to bag limits.
Though as Terry had flown across the country for a fishing trip, that’s exactly what they’d be doing with Rob and new deckhand Paul.
Boult was the destination and proved to be a good choice, with nice tuskies hitting the deck, along with some good school reds on the first drop.
Constantly moving spots, Rob dropped a big grinner head down and was hit fairly hard.
First thinking ‘shark’, he wasn’t that excited, but when it started banging its head, his opinion changed and a nice red appeared from the depths – with nothing chasing it, for once.
Onboard, it was called 10kg plus, yet pulled slightly under nine on the official lie detector.
They tried a few more spots, however with packing to do, it was time to head for home.
The wash up for the club was 1770 Champion – Dale McClurg, Largest Red Emperor – Rob Schomberg, Largest Coral Trout – Brad Freeman, Largest Sweetlip – Brad Freeman and Largest Pelagic – Dale McClurg.
Meetings
Any interested parties are invited to come along to our monthly meetings, which occur on the first Wednesday of every month at ‘The Club Manly’ (bowls club), 26 Faine St, Manly from 6.30pm for a 7pm start.
The next meetings will be Wednesday August 7, then on Wednesday September 4.
Until next month, safe boating.
