Rainbow Beach Family Fishing Classic July 2012
With the Toyota Fraser Island fishing comp no longer running the Rainbow Beach Family Fishing Classic has fast become its replacement. It attracts a huge number of fishermen who fish from the beach and boats and most importantly aims at giving a great family environment so the kids can enjoy it also.
Although I have fished this comp in the past, I have been a little apprehensive to do it again as the weather is usually less then favourable in July and the fishing is often poor that time a year in my opinion. It is also a perfect time for some fishermen to ping you while fishing your favourite spots. These so called blow flies think it’s easier to find the boats that have put in the hard yards and rip their spots off instead of finding their own reefs. A big pet hate of mine but a lot of fishermen do it and it’s just a fact we have to deal with.
Putting these small things aside it’s a great comp and very well run. Everyone involved does a fantastic job and I couldn’t think of a better place to have it than Rainbow Beach.
This year the crew consisted of my old man Terry, Foxy and his dad Milton. It blew a good 40knots for the first 5 days so offshore wasn’t an option and we spent some time up the passage fishing and site seeing around the area. It also gave me a chance to sell my “Double Island Point & Beyond” DVD each night at the comp site and catch up with stack loads of people.
The two old boys, Terry and Milton and Dave “foxy” in the background
Setting up at the comp site before the crowds turned up.
The last few days of the comp produced some decent weather and we managed to sneak out a rough bar and fish in close for the afternoon before heading wide as the weather improved during the night. We only managed a couple Cod and Gold Band Snapper that afternoon and I was surprised that we hadn’t found any Snapper considering we were in the right areas and also using live bait.
I headed wide that night due east of Double Island Point and fished the many marks I had in that area but it was soon apparent the fishing was going to be very slow as there was hardly a fish showing on any spots we looked at. I worked my way up along the shelf area that night before throwing the anchor out for a sleep.
The next day I worked the many marks I had in the area for mixed results but I was very mindful of the boats in the distance and was not going to fish any good marks just in case I got pinged on them from other boats. I hunted around for hours trying to find some new ground and by the afternoon I used a lot of our fuel supply up so I headed for a mark that I was hoping would produce some fish. Straightaway we hooked a couple reds around 8kg and the next drift both Milton and I had a couple of big fish on but Milton straightened a hook and I pulled the hooks on my fish. Only could this happen during a comp but that’s fishing and it wasn’t meant to be. We managed to pull some good reds after that but nothing of the size we needed and the biggest going around 11.5kg.
With fuel getting low I headed back in close that night to chase some Snapper. We found some good Snapper the next morning but they were around the 7kg mark and not big enough for a place in the comp. We headed for the ramp with minimal fuel left and had covered over 420km in two days.
The fishing was pretty slow and we had put in a big effort to find some quality fish. We still had an enjoyable time and made many new friends and caught up with many old ones.
I would highly recommend this comp to anyone and it will continue to grow and possibly be one of the biggest comps in QLD.
Regards,
Greg Lamprecht
