So I’ve just got back from Hervey Bay in QLD, what a trip, seriously wrapped!!

So we  picked up our RV and had a week of fishing, the plan was to hit up the Urangan Pier most days, 1770 later in the week, and do some guided charters.  When we got to Hervey we were greeted with 30+knots winds which had made the water around the coast as dirty as id ever seen, this immediately put a spanner in the works and made the first few days pretty hard going. We found it hard enough to get live bait which I couldn’t believe; first fish of the trip was a 62 black jew, my first jew fish of any kind.

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The arsenal

After a few tough days we got out on our first day of our guided charters. Let me tell you, this guy, was BY FAR, the biggest dickhead any of us had ever meet. He was the most unfriendly, negative, unhelpful, sooky person possible and I tell you, if he hadn’t of got us onto fish I would have killed him. I knew something was up when I mentioned his name to the local tackle shop and they all went quite. Not only did he refuse to chase any kind of mackerel, he sooked it up whenever we wanted to chase the tuna because they, and i quote "bleed on the boat", and he demanded that we released fish even if we hadnt got a good photo (this is after he had taken his happy snaps)... UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!!!!!

The guide from hell!!

....Anyway!! First day on the boat saw us chasing blue fin and Mac tuna schools with some pretty good success. Got a few big mac, and a stonking blue that went 15kg and took 50 minutes to get up on a 4000 size reel. He went straight in the esky and onto the plate for the next few night’s dinners. As the first day out was pretty cloudy we didn’t get a chance to do any sight casting on the flats, the weather was going to be alot better the next day so we decided to cast some poppers at some tidal eddys to try and raise some fish. We ended up boating a little kind, a couta, and just missed out on hooking some huge queenies. Not sure why but they just couldn’t find the hook, got slammed about five times.  

Day 2 of the guide saw us chasing a few more tuna in the morning, then we went off to jig some plastics over some hole out in the middle of no where. As Hervey is pretty low on any sort of structure this little hole seems to draw the fish. We ended up getting a few decent brassies on light gear. We killed a little more time chasing some tuna until we got the tide to hit up the flats for the real reason we got the guide. 

After being assured by our guide that we didn’t have the right conditions, that our sunglasses weren’t good enough to see, and that the fishing hadn’t been that great of late, i did start to worry a little as to what the fishing was going to be like. My worries were quickly put aside as within the first 5 minutes I donged a 6kd golden on the head on the move and hooked up, seconds later my mate hooked up as well... Double!

Double!

Bens first sight casted golden

After Ben got his fish up and my fish got lost with leader in hand at the boat we moved on, the other boys got into a few  fish and then it was my turn on the rod again. We came up on a school of stingrays which looked a certainty to have fish around them. I had a cast, then BANG, a big golden came out of the rays and smashed my plastic, ben had his cast, ON, another double hook up. These fish were about 7-8kg, awesome fish that went super hard on 3500 and 4000 size reels. I boated my fish first and was wrapped, probably the best fishing experience of my life, especially sharing it with your best mate. Definitely recommend this style of fishing to anyone, what a buzz!

My first "landed" sight casted golden :)

The next day saw the wind get up again this meant we had to stick close to shore, we got a ripping 85 cm flattie on a soft plastic, but that was it for a few days. Eventually we took a risk and got the ferry over to Fraser Island to fish the Kingfisher bay jetty, I had heard some stories about this place, but really we only went there to get out of the wind. What a decision! It is the best landbased platform I have fished from, thats taking Broome jetty and Urangan pier into consideration. Amazing place, there is sunken barge just off from the pier used as a wave breaker... let me tell you that the fish know exactly where to go when there in trouble. Got busted off about ten times!! The first day saw us get into some jews, tailor, some monster flatties, and Huge golden trevally. I hooked up to a big golden that stripped about 30 metres of locked drag from my catalina 4500, Finally got him up after he wrapped me around every pylon at the place only to lose him again with leader in hand and the bogas almost in his mouth. He was so cooked that ben reached out an grabbed  him by the tail but he was to powerful to hold, and with one final effort threw ben of him :( we estimated him between 10-12kg, massive for a golden, and would of easily been my PB and arguably best fish ever. I was pissed, and let the boys know about it. Hahaha, i got over it pretty quickly though as I nailed my PB flatty of 87cm (im 6’5 so you can imagine how long my arms are). We spent a few days on fraser, I cant wait to get back there. Such a cool place with some awesome fishing, even with the 6500’s and matching jig rods we were still getting dusted.

That pretty much was the end of the trip, had a ball, lots of laughs, met some good guys, and some absolute twats, most importantly got some awesome fish and some great memories.. Hope you enjoyed the report!!

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