# One Week in Iluka NSW



## ArWeTherYet (Mar 25, 2007)

Headed off with the missus and kids and a stack of kayaks to our annual pilgrimage to Iluka on the north side of the mouth of the Clarence river.









Fished the river and some creeks for a few small flathead on sp's and hb's and some little Tailor on poppers.
















But the weather was just too good most mornings to miss the opportunity of going off shore at Woody Head.  









Must of had at least five mornings of glassy conditions with little if any swell  . There seemed to be plenty of fish activity between Woody Head and Shark Bay. There were reports of Spanish Mackerel (but I didnt hear of any one actually catching any), there were a few reports of blokes getting Cobia (a 30kg one was exposed to have been caught in Shark Bay and I did see a bloke pull out of a very full esky a 10kg one......dont know how many others were there), Spotty Mac's, Long Tail Tuna and there was a report in the local paper of a 12kg Snapper being caught in close off Woody Head :shock: . I gave it a go a couple of times dodging all the stink boats dragging behind all sorts of lures and at one stage a whole dead Tailor (38cm) and apart from getting into a few bait sized Bonitos on Rapala flick baits I didnt get a hit.










So I mainly hung in close around the shallow reefs, off Woody Head, to target the Snapper. Best one I managed was 62 cm's










Also several around the 35-40 cm mark.










All were caught at, or very near to waypoint 38. Tried a lot of other locations as well for nothing. 









There were plenty of legal sized Tailor around close to the rocks and actually had them swimming past me in small schools of a dozen or more in very shallow water in the rock pools. Caught a few using Slash Bait's while waiting in the water to use the boat ramp

Had a great time, but it was stinking hot a lot......too hot to fish past 9 am. So a good swim during the day helped cool things off and a play in the beach break on my little Sea Bay, was a hoot.......just wish the thing would stop landing on my head when I flipped it :twisted: :lol:


----------



## grinner (May 15, 2008)

great report paul, good to see a maroon 4b, very pretty fish that bonito, great snaps of the snaps, that is a beutiful looking little mal wave there

sounds like a great trip, the glassy conditions may have prevented u deploying the sail

cheers pete


----------



## paulo (Nov 1, 2007)

Good report there Paul. Wasnt the weather a treat for the most part of last week. Id forgot youare there this time of year.
Chrushie and I were at Sandon just south of you. We fished the Sandon Shoals for three days for one big run and a despooling. Perfect conditions but no fish. None of the stinkers were catching either. Sounds like there was more action at Woody Head than Sandon though.


----------



## mattayogi (Feb 11, 2007)

Gotta be happy with those snapper!

Looks like you were surfing at Frasers Reef. My favourite surfing haunt  .

The land-based boys get snodger mackerel, tuna, you name it off the rocks at the Bluff and Frasers so give it a go around there next time.

I can't wait to get out on my yak there!

Matt


----------



## ArWeTherYet (Mar 25, 2007)

Pete no wind no sail

Ken its just like the Griswolds, in fact, not too many years ago we use to take our 1979 Valiant when on vacation.

Paulo I'm surprised that Sandon didnt fire up, looks very fishy and I was thinking of heading down there sometime to give it a try. Whats the camping ground there like? I also think the area from Black Rocks to Evans Heads looks good, I was going to try launching from Black Rocks but the tides weren't right in the morning for driving along the beach.

Spot on Matt, great little beach for a swim in a Northerly.


----------



## bazzoo (Oct 17, 2006)

What a great setup Paul , love the camper , i think i need on , gee you have a hive of kayaks similar to mine lovely report mate


----------



## DougOut (Dec 31, 2006)

a Great Holiday Report Paul 8) 
I can just hear the Kids in the back of the 4b
Daaad, are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet ;-)


----------



## HiRAEdd (Nov 12, 2005)

I love going down to Iluka. Been a few times offshore there at Woody Point. Gotta say though, sunrise, a few clicks off the headland, solo in a yak, pretty nerve-racking hehe. I saw a Sail Fish jump clear out of the water off the Bluff one year. That'd be cool to catch from the yak!


----------



## ArWeTherYet (Mar 25, 2007)

Bazz the camper van is a great set up, it can carry the weight of a couple of kayaks on top and is easy to tow. We usually keep a set of kitchen stuff and pantry stuff in it all the time, so its only a mater of hooking up and away you go. We have a full annex, but you you can get a roll out side tarp which only takes a couple of minutes to set up. The biggest down fall of it is, the kitchen benches are too low for us tall blokes.....and the missus needs to do all the cookin and washing up. ;-) .....OK I still do the washing up. 

Doug thats the inspiration for my user name after having 4 kids and the youngest is 9, I'm very used to the repeated "How much further"?. :twisted:

Gavin....says the man who likes to dangle his feet over the edge of his big Malibu........I can assure you that there are plenty of grey coats cruising around Redcliffe, it's just that the water is so murky around here you dont see them.


----------



## HiRAEdd (Nov 12, 2005)

ArWeTherYet said:


> Gavin....says the man who likes to dangle his feet over the edge of his big Malibu........I can assure you that there are plenty of grey coats cruising around Redcliffe, it's just that the water is so murky around here you dont see them.


Yeah, ok, u got me there. I guess it's all just a perception thing. I spose if it happened off Redcliffe though, there's a good chance someone would see, maybe even come to the rescue (mental image of bloke on X-Factor screaming like a banshee) whereas a few k's off Woody Head with not a soul in sight, my demise would be a certainty.


----------



## paulo (Nov 1, 2007)

Paul, camping there is good&#8230; well as good as it gets in National parks. They have proper flushing toilets (ie no smell) but no showers. There was plenty of tank water (drinkable) and a black bag shower does the trick.
Only 40 campsites available and you cant book so first in ...yada yada. They sell juice, ice, milk, bread and marj between 11-1pm every day but its only 10kms back to Brooms. The ranger also let us charge our SSs and phones for zip too. The boat ramp is in the campground but you can launch from anywhere on the beach. The bar is a doddle to cross but a bit choppy on the runout. If the surf gets up its an easy beack launch in the lee of Plover Island. The river is the clearest I have ever seen. We could see the bottom clearly at 2m deep. Some good coffee rock and weed beds around the mouth and deep holes but the fish see you coming from a mile off. We also caught flatties, big pike and trevally in the river but not in any size or numbers. Having said that it was the busiest week of the year with people and boat traffic so we are probably lucky to have caught anything.

We were also disappointed by offshore. The place has lots of rock and rubble and the shoals are only 2km away from the launch spot. The water temp was very cold and no surface action or boils. No birds working either. Large schools of pike around the mouth with nothing nailing them and I bridled a few up without a touch. We towed Xraps, Laserpros, boomerangs, spoonbills and vipers without so much as a touch. Got the one big hit on a 6" plastic. In hindsight I should have stuck closer to shore and used more plastics in 8m of water but after the despooling we were down to one plastics rod and two trolling rods between us.

We had wanted to go to the Pinnacle about 7kms out but locals stories of 4knot currents out that far put us off. We also had no way of knowing what the weather was doing. I must learn to use my vhf properly. Next G coverage OK. I could send and rec'v text messages but no phone calls. All in All a top place for a few days.


----------



## ArWeTherYet (Mar 25, 2007)

Thanks for that info Paul. I have been to Brooms Head, but not to Sandon. Will check it out next Christmas.....damn thats another park permit I'll have to pay for. Hate NSW, petrol's dearer, you have to pay to fish and pay again to access National parks.....QLD should just annex everything north of Coff's :twisted:


----------



## paulo (Nov 1, 2007)

ArWeTherYet said:


> Thanks for that info Paul. I have been to Brooms Head, but not to Sandon. Will check it out next Christmas.....damn thats another park permit I'll have to pay for. Hate NSW, petrol's dearer, you have to pay to fish and pay again to access National parks.....QLD should just annex everything north of Coff's :twisted:


Paul, Like the NSW fishing permit I bought an annual pass for all NSW NPs (excluding Kosiosko (big deal). It covers you for all access fees to every park for the year.
The country parks pass is $45 and covers all of these 
Bald Rock National Park - visitor information
Ben Boyd National Park - visitor information
Blue Mountains National Park - visitor information
Boatharbour Nature Reserve - visitor information
Boonoo Boonoo National Park - visitor information
Booti Booti National Park - visitor information
Border Ranges National Park - visitor information
Bouddi National Park - visitor information
Bournda National Park - visitor information
Brisbane Water National Park - visitor information
Budderoo National Park - visitor information
Bundjalung National Park - visitor information
Bungonia State Conservation Area - visitor information
Burragorang State Conservation Area - visitor information
Crowdy Bay National Park - visitor information
Gibraltar Range National Park - visitor information
Hat Head National Park - visitor information
Kanangra-Boyd National Park - visitor information
Kinchega National Park - visitor information
Limeburners Creek Nature Reserve - visitor information
Mebbin National Park - visitor information
Morton National Park - visitor information
Mungo National Park - visitor information
Munmorah State Conservation Area - visitor information
Murramarang National Park - visitor information
Myall Lakes National Park - visitor information
Sturt National Park - visitor information
Thirlmere Lakes National Park - visitor information
Tyagarah Nature Reserve - visitor information
Victoria Park Nature Reserve - visitor information
Warrumbungle National Park - visitor information
Washpool National Park - visitor information
Willandra National Park - visitor information
Yuraygir National Park - visitor information

It may not suit if you only get down there on annual holidays but Im down there once a month usually so it works out well.

Having said that I support your calls to annex everything north of Coff's ... though South West Rocks would be nice too


----------



## AJD (Jul 10, 2007)

Great holiday report there Paul. The conditions looked fantastic. I spent christmas 2007 there and iluka really is a magic little spot. Looks like you had a ball. Congrats on the snapper they would have been a great feed. AJD


----------

