Hinchinbrook Magic!!

[Talina]

Hey everyone,

Well last weekend I was fortunate enough to do a trip up to the magnificent & World renowned Hinchinbrook Channel.

For those of you who haven’t heard of Hinchinbrook, its about 2hrs drive North of Townsville & the same distance south of Cairns.

Hinchinbrook Island is Australia's largest island national park with an area of 393 sq. km. Rising to 1121m in the centre of the island, the area consists of rainforest surrounds & granite rock which go right down & is scattered right throughout the estuary system. On the mainland side, the Hinchinbrook Channel has 16 creeks that feed into it’s waters as well as the magnificent Missionary Bay which consist of another 9 creeks to the North East

There are 2 main Gateways into the Hinchinbrook, one being Lucinda to the South & the other being Cardwell/ Port Hinchinbrook to the North.

With the area offering so many fishing opportunities to anglers from Billfishing/Reef/Pelagic fishing to the East of the Island to your well known estuary fishing like Barra, mangrove jacks, salmon etc within the many of creek systems, Hinchinbrook can only be known as a “Anglers Paradise”



Last weekend I made the trip up with a couple of good friends, Stav & Theona who I’ve pretty much grown up within the Game Fishing Club. My Mum & Dad also brought there boat up, as well as a couple of family friends Ellen & Gary. We had planned to launch from the Northern end of Hinchinbrook Island at Port Hinchinbrook and we were staying at a good friends of ours Rod “Matho” Mathieson’s House Boat which is permanently situated within the Marina.

After the 2 hrs drive North from Townsville we launched at about 8am Saturday Morning & carried the gear around to the House boat….

Now when Matho originally brought this houseboat, he explained to me that it was like 2 shipping containers on top of each other, so I couldn’t believe my eyes when I found out this was it (I think he was having a go at me at the time )

Absolute Luxury

Mum & Dad on the deck of the house boat – We just drive the barra boats up & tie up

Leve1 inside – Kitchen/Living area

One of the upstairs bedrooms & its view

Well after we unloaded all the gear, we headed out the Marina across the bay en-route to Missionary Bay

Team Runamuc leads the boats out

Do you think I’m happy to be there

Mum & Dad

Gary & Ellen

Cruisin across the bay with Hinchinbrook Island in the back ground

Theona had advised me earlier that she wasn’t real experienced in lure casting so instead of going straight into the creeks, I decided to pull up short & lure some of the rocky flats that are scattered throughout the area (Nothing for Theona to hit ) It was perfect timing as we arrived right on high tide, which allowed us to get right up onto the flats & fish the oyster rocks which line the shore…

5th cast & instant success….I got the first little rat of the day & it wasn’t long after that Theona got hers too…

With the tide starting to drop, we played around with some little barras for the next hour or so before we ran out of water…They were all around the 40-45cm mark & although they werent quality sized fish, the little ones are always good fun J

From there we ran across to one of the nine creeks within the bay…We decided to pick a snaggy bank & work our way up hoping to entice some more little barra out….Ha ha well that’s when Theona’s in-experience came in, SNAG, SNAG, SNAG…So I decided to persuade her to put a little popper on & flick it out the other side, as there were little Trevally’s & tarpons breaking the surface in the middle of the creek…After a few casts, that plan didn’t work either as Theona started to target the poor Koala’s & Possums up in the trees on the OTHER side of the creek…..Was great entertainment, ahhhhhh good times!!

Theona hits the spot J

Yep, there is a lure up there somewhere

After about the 3rd time, I thought it would be a good idea to go to Plan C…its nearly low tide. Let’s get some live bait & fish the incoming tide…I think that was going to be allot easier J

Dad told me about this rock that he had found in the middle of one of the creeks years ago that has produced some quality fishing in recent trips, so we decided to try & find it & drop some baits on it….

Check this out

We didn’t really have as much run in the tide as we would have liked but we still had a good little sesh as we were kept busy by nearly every species in the creek

Please excuse the sarcastic smiles – As mentioned, these two are Game Fishos (their Spoilt), so when I asked to take there photo with these smaller fish, they weren’t to happy about it (I think I was told about 50 times “Don’t you show these to anyone”)….At least you Active Anglers would appreciate them J

The breams were that brutal they were killing our 20cm + mullets (we caught about 20 of these)

Cods

(Another 20 of these)

Grunter

(About 10 of these)

Trevally

About 50 of these

Mum trolls up a nice Barra………..CUDA (Fuc*in Cuda)

We had couple of good sized mullets buckle over, with obviously quality fish on the end but with 30lb braid / 50lb leader, they were easily popping us off on the sharp rock

BOY I CAN’T WAIT TO GO BACK WITH SOME BIGGER GEAR J

Garry & Ellen ran across to another creek & managed this nice 80cm model caught on a plastic prawn – This was the biggest of the trip

After Day 1 we headed back to the house boat for the afternoon, where we cleaned up, had a drink or 10 & enjoyed the fantastic sunset over Hinchinbrook Marina

What a spot

Runamuc chills out after a great days fishing

Chillin out on the deck

Me looking at the magnificent Hinchinbrook Island in the background

Me & Mum

What a sunset

Can’t have a sunset without one of these J

Entrée (Blink & they were gone)

Day 2 & we awoke to another beautiful day in paradise

(Sunrise with a 40ft Blackwatch cruising past)

Check this out for glamour weather

We had left the crab pots over night, so we had planned to race across the bay to pick them up & be back for a bacon & egg cook up…As we picked up all of our pots, Mum & Dad disappeared into a little side creek for about ½ . We later caught up with them & as we approached Dad was holding up 10 fingers & then another 4….They had just caught 14 little barras (the bast*rds )….My Dad is very sneaky like that!! All were only rats though, which provided them with a good little ½ hour session…

Unfortunately we weren’t really successful with the crabbing side of things, as we had open pots with no baits…..Bloody Share crabbers J - they could have at least left some beer in the pots for us J

Oh well, we cruised back across the bay, it was absolutely glamour weather & we were entertained by a couple of the resident dolphins which were hanging around in our wake…

Could you honestly want to be any place else J

Cruisin back into the harbour before packing up & going home (Do we have too L )

If you have never been to Hinchinbrook before, I thoroughly recommend it to anyone…Nothing more really needs to be said, the above photos say it all!! As it truly is a sensational area to visit! You could honestly spend a month up in this place & still not do everything that is available!



This weekend I’m off to the Southern end of Hinchinbrook to fish the Lucinda Light Tackle Billfish Tournament….Runamuc gets a rest & Oi Bud will hit the water. My TEAM CORONA buddy Joe “TWO UTES” Zammit will flying up from Melbourne to fish it with Todd & I, who are defending our title from last year…Lets hope those Billfish are a little easier to catch the those dam Sooty’s!!!

With glamour weather forecasted & reports of Billfish (especially Sailfish) around in good numbers, fingers crossed we have a great weekend!!! Stay tuned for the report next week!!

CHECK OUT LAST YEARS REPORT HERE

CHEERS GUYS

[goob]

sensational T!!!!!!! i've just turned bright green with jealousy!!!!!!!!

[adidaspeteman]

You lucky thing, the place does look pretty damb nice!
Living it up Girl

[cambo77]

Its awesome up there hey Talina.
My oldies live right on the water at Cardwell. Its certainly is hard to leave to come home

Cam

[Talina]

Yeah absolutey love it Cam, its a magic spot thats for sure! & so so much to do up there! I'd love to just take a month off, have a big boat & a little boat available & just explore the place!

Good to hear your Mum & Dad are there also...thats handy as you could just drop little Cooper off there while you go fishing!!

[mKs]

Really nice Talina, nice pictures.

[Nath]

Thats unreel a few of my mates here in the bay do the hinchy run each year sadly i havent been able to go yet but god i cant wait until i do

Awsome pics T thanks

[Stingray]

Hi Talina,
Well what can i say, what a great little report, and it surely has got me going as me and 5 mates will be there for 7 days from the 11th october and after your report i can't wait (Missionary Bay here i come.)

Cheers Stingray.

[happygilmour]

Great stuff T,

as usual top report and some quality pics. Sorry to hear the big fish dkidnt want to play but there is always next time. I am definately going to chresten the boat on its maiden voyage after refitt on the channel!!!!!

Cannot wait thats for sure.

Did you find the water dirty up in the creeks. I have heard from some locals that missionary bay area fishes its best on the smaller neap tides when the water is cleaner and not so muddy. Who knows but i plan to check out the theory.

Any standout lures?

regards

[chewy01]

T i reaally love how you Northerners go about yuor business...Geez u do it tough