Seventeen Seventy BnB Trophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . by Mick Clutterbuck

Bruce Sparkes-Carrol with nice rosy jobfish. Helaine Wilesmith scored a great 4kg coral trout.

Rob Schomberg was happy with this fantastic coronation trout.

Offshore reef fishing fanatics WANTED

One of Brisbane’s oldest deep-sea fishing clubs with a 100 percent safety record has vacancies for new members. Owners of suitable vessels encouraged. All levels of experience. Those without own vessels also invited to apply. Approximately 15 deep sea trips per year. One week-long fishing holiday to Town of 1770. Monthly meetings, video shows, guest speakers and free nibbles. 4WD beach fishing and camping. Inshore fishing also on the agenda.

Interested? Then call Darren (0413 511 436) or Robin (3269 5013).

POWER BOAT ANGLERS REEF FISHING CLUB INC

Seventeen Seventy BnB Trophy

DESPITE the grim weather forecast for the start of the week, most members headed north early on the Saturday hoping for a Sunday pre-fish session before kicking back for a few days waiting for another window of opportunity.

Sunday turned it on with most boats at the ramp at about 4.30am, eager to be first to their secret spot.

Karma Krusin lead the boats out of the creek in the dark on a lowish tide and headed for the Boult area, while the rest of the fleet headed north.

The wind wasn’t too bad with the occasional white cap but the residue from the gusty days prior kept speeds down.

Terry tried a few spots on the way to their traditional 60-70m grounds wide of Boult but could only manage a lone trout, a few reef fish and two big slimy catfish.

Pressing on and heading wide, they were met by 2m swells outside the reef that saw the accompanying boats of Darren and Warwick disappearing in the bottom of the troughs, bar the roof mounted aerials and rods.

Once out, they prospected over a wide area for several hours with very little result, so they headed back in closer to the Bout area.

Finding some new ground, the lumps held good fish and it wasn’t too long before the box had a nice colour to it.

Dale found a new secret trout bait and was putting them in the box one after another, much to the disgust of Craig and Terry who could only manage the odd tuskfish and redthroat emperor.

Dale soon passed on a secret bait and Craig started nailing trout almost instantly – still don’t know what the bait was though.

A few longer drifts found more decent lumps and the box started looking reasonable.

A double hook-up of cobia with another big model swimming around the boat had the fishos super excited and busy.

A few more drifts over the paddock on the way home topped off the day with a few nice grass sweetlip and another trout for Dale.

The next four days were restricted to socialising, trailer repair and more socialising due to the weather.

Friday was looking good and the majority of crews planned to make the most of it by doing an overnighter.

Boats arrived at the bar at around 6am expecting to have to wait for a bit of water but the deeper dog-leg northwest section of the entrance proved to have good depth.

Most headed to Fitzroy with a fairly pleasant wind though a confused lumpy sea that was enough to keep the speeds down again.

The Sea Ya crew of Bruce Sparkes-Carroll, Stefan Slomka and his brother Martin decided to do their own thing and head out wide for change.

On the first drop in 65m the fishing was * continued P53

Power Boat Anglers by MICK CLUTTERBUCK

* from P52 hot, as long as hussar were the target.

They sounded around and eventually found a decent bump that produced a few nice maori cod.

Gear failure on Stefan’s part put paid to one of the better fish and he was left wondering what might have been.

The sea soon flattened allowing a trip out to the 90m mark to see what was happening there.

They found a slight show of fuzz on the bottom which produced some nice snapper, pearl perch, redthroat and a quality rosy jobfish taken by Bruce.

The species variety was completely different to what they were used to inside the reef but after a few more drifts the fish turned right off, apart from a huge shark that gave Bruce a decent work out for a while.

Elsewhere Karma Krusin started the day with a few drops around the Fitzroy bommies that didn’t produce enough to get excited about.

They ended up spending the day in the 5060m area further north and, while not setting the world on fire, the fishing was reasonably steady with a good mix including quality trout and a couple of red emperor for the skipper.

The last fish of the day had Craig huffing and puffing for a good while with thoughts of an oversized red, though it revealed itself as a 1.2m cod, which was released boat side.

The night in Fitzroy started with a beautiful sunset with Karma and Obsession rafted up sharing a few cold beverages, good food and plenty of banter.

The highlight of the night was the shower of space junk from the disintegrating satellite Starlink 1855 that spanned nearly the entire horizon.

Saturday morning, Terry and crew were back out in 60m of water and onto a fairly decent bite producing more good fish for Dale, the trout whisperer.

They left them biting to try their newly found Boult grounds on the way home but hardly got a touch there or out in the paddock.

Thankfully they had done OK over the past day and a half and while a few more fish would have been nice, they certainly weren’t complaining with what they already had.

Near perfect conditions saw another fast run home in order to catch a falling tide at the bar and allow time for the clean-up before departing for the big smoke the next morning.

Though I’m sure no one really wanted four consecutive non-fishing days, there were a few plusses for the week too.

Over the three days when most boats got out, fishing conditions were fairly good despite the at times slightly lumpy conditions and everyone was able to catch a great feed with some decent trophy fish to go around.

The weather predictions were also mostly spot-on for the whole week – bad when predicted bad and good when predicted good.

Overall another excellent week, so onward and upward for next year.

Note that meetings occur on the first Wednesday of every month at the ‘Club Manly’ (bowls club), 26 Faine St Manly from 6.30pm for a 7.00pm start.

Upcoming meetings are Wednesday November 3 and Wednesday December 1.

Until next month, safe boating. find us on facebook

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Helaine Wilesmith and a monster 12.3kg red emperor.