Landbased fishing Whitsunday Islands?

CHUNQX · #1 03-04-2007, 09:31 PM

I'm after information on which Islands in the Whitsundays allow landbased fishing to be done from the islands itself.

I've been to 2 of the Islands so far, Brampton Island and Daydream Island and both allow landbased fishing but are restricted to certain areas of the island only.

I'm wondering about the other islands like Hayman Island, Hook Island, Lindeman, South Molle, Long Island etc..

Emo · #2 03-04-2007, 10:10 PM

Hamilton Island has land based fishing, and as far as I know its unrestricted on the whole island (may want to check this first). A nice easy spot is the mariner, good trevally (golden and apparently some big GT's too so be carefull)

In the mariner I caught some nice Goldens on the light spin outfit and hooked onto some BIG toothy critters which were uncontrollable on my overhead setup I normally use on snapper, even had to buy some 80lb wire trace to stop them bitting straight through the heavy mono leader I started with.... I didn't even get to see what these things were but some lacals suggested Spaniards ??? a couple of other guys were getting spooled by GT's on Plastics.

I tried a couple of other spots around the island without success but I wasn't really well equiped to begin with.

Word of warning.. if you decide to take a charter ask if they use handlines...I was spewing when I went out on one and was given a handline and a piece of squid, only to see the skipper and decky pull out the rods to livebait for spanish macks themselves.....what a waiste of money, these charters seem to cater for novice tourists who couldn't catch a cold.

Anyway, have fun and hold on tight

CHUNQX · #3 03-04-2007, 11:40 PM

Thanks for that info. I don't think hamilton island is one of our preferred destinations though... My wife likes the exclusive resorty type of places...

As for big GTs, I hooked the big GTs 12 times in Daydream Island and 12 times I lost it. No surprise too. I went there with the typical Vic bream setup, 2-4kg rod and 6 pound fireline... Wouldn't stand a chance against most legal fish there. From the jetty, the guys were catching spanish macks, coral trout and the big GTs were very visible, about 12 to 15 of them circling a huge school of scads. I hooked the GTs by catching these scads and throwing them back into the water outside the schools and most hookups were within a minute of throwing in the bait. I'm not planning to target the GTs this time, don't have heavy enough gear but I'm thinking of getting the smaller spaniards and other reef species, fingermark etc..

I have a map that details the areas which are Marine Parks, but sometimes the resort itself imposes a se;f-restricted fishing ban on areas so I'm not sure which resorts allow fishing from the island itself.

Emo · #4 04-04-2007, 12:12 AM

Try not to pay too much attention to what your wife says

I hope she doesn't read this

Cheers mate, have fun on your holiday

Drewy · #5 04-04-2007, 12:29 AM

Spiro has a m8 up there guiding at the moment, it might pay to give him a call. Have a great 1 Chunky!

Simmsy · #6 13-04-2007, 05:24 AM

I use to live on Hayman Is. 5 years ago Chunqx, it was pretty good fly fishing up there on the main flats in front of the resort.
Awesome golden trevally, toooooo big to ever stop on my eight weight but you were able to sight cast to them as they were feeding with their tails in the air.
Caught a few small trevor's over my time there mate and well worth a try.

Simmsy.

yellow door 1 · #7 13-04-2007, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Emo

Word of warning.. if you decide to take a charter ask if they use handlines...I was spewing when I went out on one and was given a handline and a piece of squid, only to see the skipper and decky pull out the rods to livebait for spanish macks themselves.....what a waiste of money, these charters seem to cater for novice tourists who couldn't catch a cold.

Anyway, have fun and hold on tight

I think I went on the exact same charter. Make sure they guarantee to have rods on board. If you arent used to handreels - timing the strike with 50m of line out is a bit difficult.

Learning to use a mono hand line after using graphite rods and braid takes a bit of getting used to. You feel like an absolute spaz.

I got conned into the "this is the way we do things up here". By the 3rd drop of the anchor, I was trying to rest the line on a section of finger that wasnt bleeding.

Big ugly fish make a mess of your "Office Hands" and then that fish gets eaten by something even uglier.

Unless you work with your hands dont even consider handlining. It hurts.

They will try to con you into it but flatly refuse. Handlining is for tough Queensland men not pen pushers from Victoria.

They will say handlining is the only way to keep the fish from making it back to the bottom - but if you dont have the hands for it, you are going to get cut and they will still make it to the bottom

CHUNQX · #8 13-04-2007, 05:30 PM

What if I were to bring my own rods? I was planning to do that anyway but was planning on leaving the bream rods behind (maybe one for fun until I get spooled).

SOL_LADY · #9 14-04-2007, 07:50 AM

Hi Chungx,

If you need any other rod's & reel's,I have many if you wan't to borrow them. "You name it & I should have it"

My Berkley broke

"Boo Hoo" I really loved that rod,but, someone stood on it in my boat "Wildcat" I was not happy

for at least 5 second's

Hopefully they may be able to fix it.
With it's shorten handle,it made it even more "ultra sensitive"

If anyone has one they don't wan't,just let me know.It doesn't have to be a Berkley. I'm open minded

Gae