OVERNIGHT CHARTERS

• Deep Sea Fishing Charters

Overnight deep sea fishing charters

Our 18-hour, overnight deep sea fishing charters are a special, rare and true overnight experience. Truly a great way to experience a very unique and different kind of deep sea fishing adventure! Obviously with an 18 hour duration, there is a LOT of time to fish.  However, aside from the massive amount of time, these charters are designed completely around a number of key elements.

1. We make sure we get as close as we can to the best Moon cycle as possible!
2. We ensure we get to the first fishing location to take full advantage the Sunset fishing period.
3. We focus purely on those fishing reefs known to work well for true late night fishing.
4. We always work on moving to another reef for true Sunrise fishing (unless the fish are still going strong of course!).
5. And we always work towards making the best use of the tide changes during the charter!

Given the length of time, and the type of fishing you get to do on these trips, we recommend this trip to those highly experienced with Deep Sea Charter Fishing. Or if you have fairly good experience, those wanting to get such experience. In general we travel up to 35NM offshore on this type of charter. No shorelines are the norm, not the exception here! And once the sun sets, you need a solid amount of experience on the water to be able to really enjoy the time!

Our overnight deep sea fishing charters include a great, hot dinner, breakfast with bacon, eggs hashbrowns, sausages and more (Both commonly prepared on our BBQ aboard) as well as other snacks, soups and nibbles. There is even an espresso coffee machine on board for that burst of caffeine at 2AM! There is formal sleeping accommodation for up to 6 people at once. (In reality this charter is not designed for a lot of sleeping! 😉 ). Given the shared nature of the accommodation, we recommend doing this trip with a friend or family member so that you can each work out who gets to have a nap when. (This is known as “hot-bunking”). Its also not uncommon for people to bring a sleeping bag or swag as they prefer to sleep as close to their rod as possible!

But what really gets most regulars excitement up is that we take only 12 passengers on these charters! With just 12 passengers on a boat, designed to be comfortable with 23, you have a massive amount of room on deck. Absolutely everything is done and designed to provide a really special experience for those aboard!

Overnight Deep Sea Fishing Charter dates are made available in May for the winter of that year.

Book in advance to avoid disappointment!

The biggest difficulty with, and ipact on, overnight charters is the weather.  The team here at Sunshine Coast Afloat do absolutely everything possible to avoid and minimise this affecting our customers. Unfortunately this means that in up to 50% of the cases we cancel the trip as we feel the weather is likely to impact negatively on the trip. These trips are designed around the customers enjoyment, and that means ideal conditions! This is the main reason we only run these trips during the winter months.

In summer the Queensland weather is “unpredictable” at best. Afternoon sea-breezes tend to be far stronger than we would like. And a summer afternoon or evening storm is almost common place! Not the conditions we want to take our customers out to sea in! This means that we really only have 4 months to work in – June, July, August & September. We look at October as a 50/50 proposition and make a call in late September if we feel it  will work or not.

Operating in just the Winter period has two massive advantages.

1. The weather tends to be a lot more predictable and pleasant.
2. Winter time is big Snapper time, and this species LOVES to feed at night!

So we plan our trips according to the 2 key moon phases each month.

1. Three to four days before and after the night of the FULL moon.
2. And then as a backup in case we have to cancel, Three to four days before and after the night of the NEW moon.

Each of these trips may be slightly affected by already established bookings and we then work around those as best we can.

Step 1 from there – usually late March to Early April – we set the dates and inform our regular customers and any potential customers that have requested early notice. (Click the form on the right to ask for early notice). With so few trip and spots available for these trips this is we believe the best and fairest way to look after those people.

Based on the timing,  you would think that, everything going perfectly, we could run 4 trips a month = 4 x 4 = 16 of these trips…… Not so much. Reality is we cancel as many as that proceed. So that then drops to 8 trips per year at best. Often one of the 2 trips in the month will then fall into mid week which can often be a touch difficult for most. So reality is 4 to 5 trips, at best, per year. Multiplied by 12 people per trip leaves just 48 to 60 spots every year!

We can take more people out on a single weekend with standard trips! Thats why these trips are SOOOO Special!!!!!!

Of course we always have Crusader 1 properly prepared for night fishing!

Proper night lighting – Both on deck and underwater “squid lights”, comfortable clean sleeping accommodations, and every season a few other new surprises continue to make sure our night charters are something very special indeed!

We have set a departure time around 3 to 4PM and a return time of around 9 to 10AM. Making this a massive, 18  hour long, deep sea fishing charter!

We have a number of (closely guarded) locations that have, over time, proven themselves as fantastic night fishing locations. These charters will be targeting Snapper in particular, but large Pearl Perch and other night predators are certainly in our scope as well!

Booking restrictions:

As already indicated, these charters are far more restricted in passenger numbers than “Normal” charters. We want to make sure you have a massive amount of room when on deck and if needed can have a very comfortable rest/sleep in quality onboard accommodation as well!

As such, 12 passengers is the absolute limit on these charters.

Bookings are recommended by groups of at least 2. Because of the much longer time frame of the charter, and the fact that the the sleeping accommodations are of course shared, we feel that this charter will work much better with people that know each other. Also with sleeping its always is more comfortable to not have to share a bunk with a stranger!

Inclusions:

A hot BBQ evening meal is included, as is a substantial breakfast, espresso-coffee, tea, and even hot soups! (It is winter-time remember). As always water and soft drink are included, as well as other snacks throughout the charter to ensure your stomach never distracts you from the fishing! We will have a full crew complement on for this trip (1 more than we would normally have for 12 people) to ensure you are looked after properly. And of course as always all bait, tackle, use of rods and reels is included.

There is no crabbing on these trips. This is aimed at true fishing enthusiasts! (And the traps would be down WAY too long to catch anything anyway)

Cost:

At just $540.00 per person it is about the same as the hourly rate per person for a 5 hr charter but with only half the number of people on the boat! 

The costs are based on the number of people per trip (being 12) and the amount of time out on the ocean (18Hrs). As we are taking only half the possible passengers on these trips the hourly rate Vs a standard day trip is a little higher but the value for money more than makes up for that we feel!.

All legal fish are your to keep, return or share. Kept fish will be “Gutted and gilled” for you by our crew, and put on ice.

So call us now or click the booking button and book your group for an unforgettable night of deep sea fishing at it’s very best!!!

Please note- These charters are a winter  option only, and available a max of 6 x per year. No Spanner Crabbing on these trips!

For a detailed “itinerary” for this charter please click on the Itinerary tab of this page.