I don't have time to go into it too much now, but heres a few basics, will tell you more in person.

1) Heaps and heaps, all the west side and some of the gulf - just drive into each access on the west side and you will be able to tell which ones look fishy.

2) 5 inch placcies or small poppers 30's-50's, also shallow divers on the flats when they're feeding our around structure when not (varies)

3) Any skirted lure, 5inch through to 11 being most appropriate, change your sizes and colours accordingly, black and pink/white have always worked best for me.

4) Your 26 fter won't fit the local creeks, but may over the other side, but I wouldn't bother as tides will make it hard work for you.  If you have mates in another car get them to bring a tinny.

5) Booze is a few bucks extra, figure if you want to put more fuel in at $ and more pain on your car, versus paying a few extra bucks here (you also can buy to what you drink, not have to drink what you've got)

6) Bout 12 n.mile from Bundegi to south tip, never really measured it.  Think its about 30 to Peak.

7) See comment in other thread re tantas ramp, yes you will have dramas with the tides we get in April.

8) Turquoise Bay, Oyster Stacks, Murions, Gulf - lots and lots.

9) Everyone has different theories re-tide and catch rates, if you don't go you never know!  I just adapt my fishing to whats biting or not biting. ;)

Will try and catch up while your up here.

Cheers,
Adam

thanks Adam, appreciate it mate.

This might be a little ignorant, but the Marine sanctuary zones as shown on this picture, Am i right in saying the 'green' zones are Sactuary zones which are non fishing, the rest are ok? or am i way off the mark?

Bodie,

Spangies will be my No. 1 targe like you when I head up in May. I'll be throwing HB like roosters, tangos, skin deep, luckycraft pointers and a few other minnow/surface lures. Will look at retro fiting the trebbles though. SP will be anything from 4-6 inch with anything from1/4 to 1oz TT jigheads. Will be throwing minnow, paddletails of various brands like slam/gulp/atomic/berkley) and snapbacks. Snapbacks are always prefered due to their resiliance but glue them to the jighead. Will also be trying prawn imitation SP (Gulp and slam) and these should be killer. Looking at using a 5-8kg raider with a Sol or Certate 4000 with 10-15kg braid myself. 

Looking for sandy patches with gravel/coral and away from bommies as these attract other fish such as cod/trout etc (not that I wont mind catching them but spangies first  ) Plenty of trevs around also.

If I had your size boat then I would be hitting the islands out beyond the murions, like peak and beyond and even look at overnighters. Alternatively head east to the eastern gulf and fish the flats. Plenty of big fish come in over the flats and wilderness island now has a camp but you could overnight yourself. Supposed to be best flats fishing around......

Will be targeting billies but my deckie has more experience here so looking forward to learning myself.

The back of peak holds good fish in 20-30m and plenty of reds, rankins etc over there.

Dont discount live baiting as this works well. If the sharks arrive move on.

Tandi as Adam says may be a problem for your boat unless high tide. Last trip it took about 10 blokes to load an old glass boat onto the trailer and pull the now bogged toyo off the ramp........frustrating... You can always come around from the marina or bundegi ramp. 

Taking our own booze as Boags is sometimes hard to source.

Coral Bay may be worth a trip with the new ramp; it has great launching and plenty of ground.

Going to be doing heaps of jigging myself so looking forward to that.

We arrive the 9th May.

Green is no-go

thanks for the info Damo,

So green is the only regions which are no go by the sounds of it?

What about aroundt he north west cape? is that a no go zone too?

Cheers

Bodie

When was that map dated, there is one other sanctuary there thats not displayed, actually 2.  Theres one that covers the navy pier and one that covers the area where 'North' west cape is written on that map.  I'd suggest getting an updated version from DEC or grabbing one when your up here.

no Dramas thanks adam, just found this one on oen of the online fisheries sites.

From memory some areas only allow trolling and not bottom fishing.

The maps were always user friendly but only guides so be careful and good to allow a buffer distance.

The santuary zones on the west side had markers on land to identify the boundaries, well they did last time I was there. These were easy to see.

1. I caught spanglies off the shore all through the park, like Adam said just go for a look and pick a fish spot. Some sanctuary zones allow shore based fishing too. I mainly used soft plastics when shore based, they are more versatile from shore than hards I think.

2. I had heaps more fun catching spanglies on shallow running hard bodies like C’Ultiva Savoy minnows etc. You get some great visual strikes and they love coming off the bottom to hit them. I didn’t have much luck on poppers but didn’t use them heaps. If you’re set on placcies, chartreuse Atomic paddle tails in 4” but just use an extra strong jig head, the lighter ones tend to open up when you need to stop a fish.

3. I ran 2x15kg outfits and a 24kg outfit and never looked like losing a fish due to line capacity. I started trolling a mix of Richter Soft Oscar and Oscar juniors but ended up settling on 2 Soft Oscars and a bigger Williamson hard head. Colours were either pink/white, lumo or black/red.

4. Didn’t spend enough time down there in the creeks, sorry! Just go for a look one day, there’s plenty of islands and reefs if you can’t get into the creeks.

5. Booze, buy it there, over the whole cost of your trip it’s only a tiny bit more. Saves the car and room driving up.

6. I went to the Murions a fair bit from Bundegi in my 4.3m, just gotta watch the weather. The shallow sides of the islands fish similar to the inside of the reef, I didn’t do a heap of bottom bouncing so there’s plenty of others on here who can help more than me. As for distances, marina to top of north Murion 24nm, Bundegi to the top 18nm, then Peak is another 6.5nm

8. Launch at Tantas and go for a snorkel around any reef areas outside of the sanctuary zones. Pay attention to what you see, this is how I found my spanglie spots. I found the snorkelling out of the boat with friends heaps easier than going to the popular land based spots and looking at other people looking back at you.
9. ??? I just fished when I could and didn’t plan any trips around tides except for launching and retrieving.

Good luck, might see ya up there!
ps. as for the wish list, good luck. If you spend enough time trolling for marlin you should be a good shot at the dollies, YFT and sails. Spango's should be easy enough, reds can't help you with, and if you do some bottom bouncing you should get your trout.

Way too much to type mate, pop in for info!

Will pop in next Week ryan, for a beer or 3 aswell :)