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View Full Version : 6 Days on Glorious Moreton Island



mowerman
16-08-2007, 08:04 PM
Boarded the Micat at 8.30am Friday the 10th, for the annual mates Moreton Island Camping Fishing and Verbal Abuse everyone around the campfire trip.
Perfect weather, which could not be said about the smiley pie for breakfast. Could have used it for a doorstop.

Finished setting up camp just south of Blue Lagoon.
Went for a run up to the cape and wet a line in a few of the holes on the way.
1 decent bream and a few dart were the rewards. Most of the holes looked like they would hold decent fish at high tide though.
After dark myself and a mate tried the hole in front of camp.
First cast and 1 40cm tailor. These holes might be better than we thought. But they were few and far between. After 2 hours we had 3 tailor and 2 bream .
Time for bed..

A quiet and slightly hungover saturday morning untill we headed south to middle track to await the arrival of the rest of the crew. They eventually turned up and we directed them to where camp was "left at the first dead Turtle" while we headed south to find some decent gutters.
4 or 5 good gutters until the Rous Battery then they turned to holes nearly all the way to the end of the island. Tried a couple of the more likely looking gutters on the way back to camp. A couple of bream and some dart but not a sniff of tailor.
Everyone had a fish in front of camp that night. Ended up with half a dozen tailor and more bream.

Sunday breakfast of tailor and bream then off to the southern end for us while the others went north. Fished a good gutter till about 1pm for more bream and dart then a mate says to me "see them in the bottom of that break". Yep, tailor, surfing their way into the gutter. A bit hectic for the next hour or so as 4 of us bagged about 15 and lost that many as well. I had 2 shake the hooks while they were 2 feet in the air. A lot of fun though. Headed back to camp at about 4pm for some more bait, filleting session and a feed before going back to the same gutter for a night fish.
You know how it is when you find a decent piece of real estate and then the riff raff move in, Well the rest of the mob followed us back. A bit crowded with 15 blokes fishing the same gutter but everyone ended up with a few.
The tailor were steady but not flat out with the occaisional bream taking a pillie as well. By 9 pm the bites had stopped so everyone headed back to camp.

Ah ,,the turtle.
Pitch black nite, theres the turtle, turn left, track over the dune and into camp.
Mate behind in his old cruiser got to the top of the dune and realised he was still in 2wd. Put it in 4wd, reverse back down for another go and, in his words," something went crunch pop." CRAP. He run over the at least a week dead turtle. We made him go back down and run thru some puddles before he could park anywhere near camp. He spent the next day driving thru as much water as he could. Bleedin hell, what a stink.

Spent monday morning talking crap and filleting the nights catch and watching the mate washing his cruiser in the first break.Remembered the camera this time. Headed down the southern end in the afternoon but there wasnt much happening apart from a few more bream and 1 whiting that I didnt get a photo of. It measured 41cm and the bloke who caught it thought it was a tailor before he landed it. A big fat horse as thick as your arm.
Had a quiet nite a camp but some of the others did a long session and got a mixed bag of tailor,bream and dart. Just steady they said.

Tuesday morning, who orderd the 20 knot SE with showers.
Everyone headed to yellow patch to get out of the wind but only a couple of small bream were caught.
Decided to do the round trip thru Bulwer and Cowan and down to Tangalooma.
Watching the boats inside the wrecks and a mate throws a line in. Bang it goes and he lands a 40cm squire. More attempts were made for a couple of throwbacks.
Back to camp then down to the southern gutters after dark. Spent an hour for a couple of bream then the water filled with weed. Bloody wind.
Went back to the gutter in front of camp for a couple of hours before the weed arrived. More bream.

Last nite in camp so it was a bit of a late start on wednesday morning..OOOH my head. No fishing done but got most of our camp backed before the steady rain started.
Back home to a nice hot shower and my own bed..Oh and the family.

This is the 4th year and in terms of number of fish, the best yet. But there wasnt much size to the tailor. All were around the 40cm mark with the biggest at 45cm. In previous years the numbers were down but there were fish to 65 and 70cm.
Bream were everywhere. I think there were even some in the bore pipes. They took worms, pippie, squid, pillies, mullett the lot. Same as on Straddie a month ago. We had a limit of 28cm and there were alot from that to 35cm. A dozen or so went to 40cm with 2 at 42cm.

I did get some pics. The first 3 were after the mate and my sunday night session and the other is about a third of 4 other blokes monday night.

Sorry for the ramble

358 days to go......

Horse
16-08-2007, 08:27 PM
Its a great spot to get away from the crowds. I have never done particularly good on the fishing front but love the place

SWANY22
16-08-2007, 08:45 PM
sounds like it was a good couple of days there and the fish were a bonous.

OB1
17-08-2007, 04:59 PM
Great report Mowerman,

Nothing like a camping trip with the boys - there always seems to be a few good stories to come out of every trip - whether they be fishing or otherwise.

Ollie