Qld coast trip

[Doug_Hanning]

Few fish from a trip on the central coast of qld. This is me with 13.5kg trout.

[Doug_Hanning]

Me with 16kg trout.

[Doug_Hanning]

My bro Dan with trout and cod

[Doug_Hanning]

Mate PJ with 24kg wrasse

[Doug_Hanning]

Finally me with string of cod

[Screen Name]

Yo Doug.......Those are some awesome fish! Where is "the central coast of qld" or rather what is qld? How deep were you diving? Was it rocky bottom? Great fish.

[Steel Shootin']

Excellent stringer. Thanks for posting those on the forum.

I was especially interested in that wrasse. A lot of people think our local hogfish is related to the snapper family, which it is not. It is a wrasse. Although the wrasse you show is different in many ways, including color, if you look at the shape of the head and mouth you can see the similarity to the hogfish.

Man, that water sure does look purdy.

[Platypus]

qld = Queensland

[richhermes]

damn, you have an ugly Wrasse!:D

[Slay Ride]

Baby got wrasse! And a big wrasse at that!

[Marcus]

What does a wrasse eat? The mouth shape is odd and I find myself strangely attracted to it...:)

[richhermes]

Originally posted by Marcus
What does a wrasse eat? The mouth shape is odd and I find myself strangely attracted to it...:)

Marcus is a wrasse-man!

[Marcus]

Gonna get me a license plate that says it, "WrasseMan". :)

[fishkilla]

nice fish guys

[Doug_Hanning]

We were mainly diving 5-15m because the viz was usually less than 10m. These were all taken freediving. We were diving around continental islands about 40-60 km's offshore. The bottom was rocky with coral growth and coral bommies. One day we went a further 60km off the islands to part of the great barrier reef called the swains. This is were I shot the 16kg trout and we shot two 13kg and a lot about 5-8kg. This area is all coral and we were diving on the edge of the reef that dropped from 2-20 metres. This whole area is about 10 hours drive north of brisbane and is hardly ever speared. It can only be divid for a few days each month because of 6m tides that stir the water up. On a waning quarter the tides dop to 2m difference.

[inletsurf]

nice bloody fish mate!

[OceanSwimmer]

Great Pics!
Did you take a boat out of Cairns? Was it a multi-day trip? Tell us more!

[Doug_Hanning]

We stayed at a small township called Stanage Bay. It is on the coast between Rockhampton and Mackay. It is right beside a military training area. Off the highway is 100km of dirt road that can be very rough and corrugated. There is about 40 sheds and houses and a pub. The pub sell ice petrol etc. We stayed in a little house for 10 days. The township is right on a large sound. I took my own boat up a 5.5m Stabicraft with a 130hp with 240L of fuel. Its a kiwi design, it's basically a aluminium plate boat that resembles an inflatable, deep vee with pontoons. Will post pic. This area is inside the Swains reef which are part of the great barrier reef that runs down the coast of Queensland. They are about 120-300km offshore. These reefs stop blue ocean water from coming in close to shore but also stop the swell. There are approx 30-40 islands from 20-60km offshore that we can dive. Because of the huge tidal flow in this area the water is often murky but the prolific fish life makes up for this. Our trip was timed around the lowest tides of the year. We dived every day because we had fantastic weather less than 15knts the whole time. We did one mega trip to the Swains 3 hours it took us. We dropped some fuel off on an island 60km offshore the went out another 60km. This place rocked it was all coral drop offs and bommies and the 16kg trout I got on film. We have a sony trv950 with amphibico housing and are in the process of putting together a dvd. The trip was fantastic and we had viz 5-20m depending on the location. Cheers all for the feedback Doug

[Doug_Hanning]

Here's boat.

[jeffe]

Doug_H,
Nifty boat !
All Aluminum ?
How does the finish take the salt water ?
Just curious, i've always fancied aluminum boats.

[Spearchucker]

Man, bet you could get some beer drinkin money for that at Scrap All

[Doug_Hanning]

That was just after an eight hour polishing. It stays nice because I lanotech it and this keeps the salt out. Every 6-8 months I repolish it. Its all aluminium. Just the aluminium above the pontoons is polished. It is self draining and has checker plate floor. Very tough as we have gone 100km + out to sea. You guys have mainly fibreglass boats right?

[munitionfishin]

I'll bet that thing screams....you couldn't put an outboard like that on a fiberglass that size too damn heavy ....matter of fact how does it sit in the water....I am very interested in aluminum boats.....Only thing that really bugs me is how they look and how they will literally fry your ass in hot weather

[Doug_Hanning]

This is in the water. Here in Aussie aluminium boats are very popular, mainly for their durability and lightweight. The floor of ours does not get hot because its self draining and always has a little water on it, from divers getting in. Most aluminium boats ride badly because they need to be quite flat to give them stability. The best thing about stabicrafts is they have a deep 'v' and the pontoons give stability. Hope this answers your query.

[blueh2oboy]

Doug just tell them that youa re afraid to go deeper and get the big ones without the Seppo there to push you. I just got my tickets back to Oz and fly in to Brissy the 15 of December so we need to hit Flattie hard and maybe do a reef trip in January. Did they end up closing the season on Wrasse? They were talking about that last time i was down. We've had some epic trips here in FLorida this summer. Last week we got 24 lobsters and had two 10 lb, and 8 over 7 lbs. This summer my cousin Blake (Rabideath) and i have also shot 12 Mangrove Snappers (Jack) over 15 lbs which is pretty good for out here. not to mention dozens of cobia and groupers and such. Write me and tell me whats up and we'll plan on hitting it hard this summer in Oz. Tell Dan and Brett I said hey. Cam