We now have a 6.7 meter hooker/225 suzuki for charter. The boat has a capacity for 4 anglers and a top speed of nearly 100km/h. This boat will cater for serious offshore plastic and fly anglers and is riggeed with all the latest lowrance HDS and side imaging units.
Last week I fished with ‘fish’ Philiskirk, Ben ‘notso’ Bright and Neil Shepherd at weipa for a week trying for my first permit. Finally after losing 1 fish after 15 minutes and missing 2 other bites I landed one. Ben caught 3 for the week under tough conditions. Thank’s guys!
Lincoln and mark drove up from tewantin for a day on soft plastics. The boys caught 4 big goldys, diamond trevally, bludger trevally and a few others. Snapper were elusive on the day but large numbers of whales and dolphins kept us amused!
August 21 is the australian federal election, all anglers, hunters, campers and general outdoor people BEWARE. Senator Bob Brown (greens) who has a good chance of holding the balance of power has recently came out with a press release, please check this.
http://www.marinebusiness.com.au/news/comment-show-us-the-science-senator-brown basically he has stated that they intend to close 100 percent of the coral sea and a minimum of 30 percent of the rest, furthermore they intend to ban all animals from shows i.e. ponys,cattle,bulls and poultry.
Remember if you vote labor or green this has a very real chance of happening.
Mark Bargenquast
This winter season has been great with plenty of snapper, big golden trevally and a few other species on plastics, the next month will see water temperatures start to rise and some good surface action and some fish on the flats, here are a few captures from the past week.
Simone and Elisa from All Pool Servicing Hervey Bay had never caught a big Golden Trevally so we went for a quick run in the boat and they caught one each. The bigger fish was estimated at over 10 kg and both were released unharmed after a quick pic. Good fishing girls!
I recently had Scott and Natasha from Hervey bay fish a morning session with me on the bay, Natasha caught a 7kg snapper, a small GT and scott landed this 120cm trevally, first thaught was a big diamond trevally but the more I look at the pics it could be a pennant trevally. I have emailed Dr Julian Pepperel and Shane Griffiths so hopefully we will know for sure soon, either way it was a real trophy and was released.
I must confess, I hate winter. It’s just too cold! Fishing deep fly or plastics is the best option for this time of the year and some great catches can be made, these are some of the fish that were taken this week by clients.
Hervey Bays annual run of snapper has started with good numbers of fish throughout the bay. Over the last full moon clients have landed plenty of these great fish with the best day 9 fish being landed up to 7.5kg. Most fish are released as they enter hervey bays shallow waters to spawn. Longtail tuna and golden trevally are other species that are regular catches when fishing deeper reefs during winter and on light line can be a real handfull.
I just had the opportunity to fish for atlantic tarpon in Belize, central america. After 34 hours travelling in planes………….we arrived. After jumping off several fish, pulling hooks and nearly getting spooled by a 150 pounder I finally landed an 80 pound fish. Bonefish were in plague numbers with schools of 100 everywhere but only small. Snook, permit and jack creville (similar to our GT’s) were also sighted everywhere.
The interesting fact about this great fishery, this is a THIRD WORLD COUNTRY where commercial netting is TOTALLY BANNED and all tarpon, bonefish and permit are 100% protected and must be released. Now what about our smart state! The Belizian government has realised the importance of the tourist dollar and millions of dollars are spent from travelling fisho’s every year in this tiny country.
