Inskip Point 2007

On the 16th and the 17th of June , the club held a combined trip to Inskip Point with the South East Queensland Flyfishers. The trip was a real success with plenty of tuna, calm conditions and a lot of tuna and did I mention there were a few tuna around.

We got to the boat ramp at around 6:30 am and braved sub zero conditions as we motored to where the tuna were rumored to be feeding very hard. I was fortunate enough to hitch a ride with SCSWFF member Brian Hastings . We were unable to fish the Saturday but we made it to Tin Can Bay boat ramp on Sunday morning . The plan was to meet up with the other guys on the water.

The day before ,I had a phone call from Kim our fearless leader. He told me "get up here mate ,its going off Ive got 5 longies and a couple of macs already", this was at 9:30 am . Needless to say Brian and myself were pretty amped about getting on the water and we weren't dissapointed . As we approached Inskip point we saw schools busting up everywere ,it was shaping up to be a good day.

It didn't take long to identify the two differnent species of Tuna in the area , Mac Tuna and Longtail Tuna, and it also wasn't hard to see what they were eating. The bait in the area was in plauge proportions. There weren't many times while you were at rest when you didn't see bait under the boat . The majority of bait appeared to be between 30mm -50mm long , not exactly "micro bait" which made Fly selection easy. On our boat we had success with two patterns in various sizes and colours , I had success with surf candies in white and hot pink tied on a Gamakatsu #2 SL12S , while Brian was using a grey over white polar fibre minnow on a 2/0 SL12S. Upon aproaching other guys on the water these flys or similar seemed to be what most fish were caught on.

Success on the day was dependant on a variety of techniques . Boat driving was very important on the Sunday as the fish seemed to have been pressured a bit from the slaying the day before . The fish seemed to go down very quickly when a sudden change in revs occured in the area , it was absoloutly paramount to anticipate the schools movements and place your boat in front of the direction they were headed , chasing them proved fruitless. At certain stages of the tide the longtails were pushing masses of bait up aganist a long sandbank situated out the front of Cowrie creek . They were crashing bait in small pods and large schools that stayed feeding long enough to get a cast in . This behaviour made fishing for them very predictable , it was a simple matter of placing the boat on the shallow side of the bank and drifting along the drop off . The longtail were feeding just where the water deepened making it a short cast to put the fly in amongst them. This proved successfull for Brian, nailing three in quick succession

As you can see the smile says it all

As good as the fishing was on Sunday , we heard that the Saturday was much better (should have been here yesterday), in a lot of ways . The longtails on Saturday were a lot easier to aproach and were more willing to eat flys . The action sounded fantastic , however it proved too much for some . Kim phoned me again on Saturday evening and asked me to pop over to his house and grab another two rods , I said "no worries , do you need to talk about it ", Kim didn't have alot to say on the matter. On Sunday Brian and myself saw Kim aproaching us with what appeared to be a two peice rod over his head, as it turned out it was a rod Ian Brocherie kindly loaned him. Ian's Rod will now be easier to pack for the trip home , that was rod number three.

I guess Kim wasn't saying "say cheese" when he took this pic

Brian hands Kim rod number four for the weekend

Above all I think most members had a good trip from our club and the Gold coast club. The fish were definatly thick for those who braved the cold conditions , with some good sized fish caught and released . Some got spiked and straight on ice . Brian and I enjoyed Sashimi on the way back to the ramp and had plenty to take home . Thanks for the feed Brian.

Here are some more Pictures of the weekend

My 13.5 kilo snodger

Brian with one of the mac tuna. They were all big, with most going around 5-6 kg

Mark (Squiz) with a couple of nice Longtails

And here is a couple of action shots

and finally , a fish that didn't break one of Kims rods

Report By - Chris Adams