Frazer Island Help

[Just_chips]

Whiting are also very plentiful on the western side of the Island around moon point. We have had some very memorable sesions on summer whiting over there during the September school holidays with the fish biting like diver whiting and catching up to 50 quality whiting in a couple of hours. The trick is to have a good supply of beach worms as we have found that they just weren't interested in pipis.

Same rules apply as to fishing for diver whiting, just keep moving till you find the schools, if the size is down you can often move on and find a school of better quality fish.

Be careful travelling the beaches on the inside as they often have sinkholes and you will rearely see another vehicle to help you if you do get bogged.

Kev

[Cheech]

We were up their camping in September last year, and there were a reasonable amount around. We camp just north of Cathedral Beach. Heading up again in 2 weeks time for 2 weeks. Going to the same area. Was a great gutter about 4k north of the shop.

We like that area as it is past the main towns so traffic is a lot less.

We had no weed at all last year in September. Good to hear it is clear again.

[Slider]

Raddish, the reasons why I say that there shouldn't be any weed this year are - the floods and big seas we had earlier in the year largely killed off the algaes. Good winter rains have helped further and the expected average to above average rainfall and big seas that come with the rain systems this summer will inhibit any blooms. If however the rains don't come and a hot northerly influence rather than soueasterly trades is predominant, then the algaes (hincksia sordida and auralus australis) could well bloom again. I don't think this is very likely tho. Is all temp and nutrient related - the Noosa and Mary Rvrs which seem to be the main contributors of nutrient have had a good flush and accumulated nutrient has deposited on the beaches during the 'foam' months earlier this year.
I agree that tailor would be available at Waddy at xmas and have caught greenbacks at Browns and at Deepwater sth of Agnes in Jan. We've always enjoyed good tailor fishing here at Teewah from xmas til April (til last few years) as the greenbacks are schooled up and migrating south. However my point was that further south around Eurong etc, would have more schools north of there, heading south in Nov than would Waddy which increases the likelihood of finding fish at the southern end.

Phil, there are 2 licenses that can be used from Ngkala to Sandy Cape lighthouse, tho they tend to get around Rooneys a bit. These are N1 licenses and become void on death of the license holder. It is mainly the license holder from Tewantin that nets the cape with the other being mainly active around Tin Can. This same fellow from Tewantin, nets this beach heavily and just destroyed things here again and he regularly nets the Noosa Rvr where he took a couple of tonne of trevally last thurs. He works on a cyclic basis between river prawns and fish in the Noosa, beach mullet, tailor and other species along Teewah and Rainbow beaches and Sandy Cape for whatever is available - mainly whiting and tailor. As long as the overall 120 tonne quota for tailor hasn't been reached, then he can net tailor as bycatch. I have video footage of tailor, trevally and whiting being netted at the cape in 2006 and they always seem to be up there when I am for the same reason - they've spooked the hell out of this beach and head up there to find fish.

Not as detailed a response as I wrote last week and if anyone has any questions on how nets spook fish or on the algaes then fire away.

Lindsay

[Just_chips]

We have been going to Fraser in September school holidays for the last 6 years and we decided to try go to Airlie Beach in July this year instead. That horrible weed has ruined my fishing aspirations time and again, but we still managed to have a great trip in afantastic part of the world. I can't believe that the year that we don't go is the year that Fraser may stay clear of that horrible sticky smelly brown crap. I have started the campaign at home to be up there at this time again next year but if for whatever reason that weed returns you will probably hear my tantrums in Brisbane.

Kev

Kev

[Cheech]

You really sound like you know what you are talking about. Thanks for going to the effort again to re-write.

What I do when I have started writing a long post is to each now and then pres Ctrl A to select all, and then Ctl C to copy to clipboard. Takes 2 seconds. Repeat as the post grows. This stores your content, so if you do move out of the post before posting it, just go back in and hit Ctrl P to post back in from clipboard.

Raddish, the reasons why I say that there shouldn't be any weed this year are - the floods and big seas we had earlier in the year largely killed off the algaes. Good winter rains have helped further and the expected average to above average rainfall and big seas that come with the rain systems this summer will inhibit any blooms. If however the rains don't come and a hot northerly influence rather than soueasterly trades is predominant, then the algaes (hincksia sordida and auralus australis) could well bloom again. I don't think this is very likely tho. Is all temp and nutrient related - the Noosa and Mary Rvrs which seem to be the main contributors of nutrient have had a good flush and accumulated nutrient has deposited on the beaches during the 'foam' months earlier this year.
I agree that tailor would be available at Waddy at xmas and have caught greenbacks at Browns and at Deepwater sth of Agnes in Jan. We've always enjoyed good tailor fishing here at Teewah from xmas til April (til last few years) as the greenbacks are schooled up and migrating south. However my point was that further south around Eurong etc, would have more schools north of there, heading south in Nov than would Waddy which increases the likelihood of finding fish at the southern end.

Phil, there are 2 licenses that can be used from Ngkala to Sandy Cape lighthouse, tho they tend to get around Rooneys a bit. These are N1 licenses and become void on death of the license holder. It is mainly the license holder from Tewantin that nets the cape with the other being mainly active around Tin Can. This same fellow from Tewantin, nets this beach heavily and just destroyed things here again and he regularly nets the Noosa Rvr where he took a couple of tonne of trevally last thurs. He works on a cyclic basis between river prawns and fish in the Noosa, beach mullet, tailor and other species along Teewah and Rainbow beaches and Sandy Cape for whatever is available - mainly whiting and tailor. As long as the overall 120 tonne quota for tailor hasn't been reached, then he can net tailor as bycatch. I have video footage of tailor, trevally and whiting being netted at the cape in 2006 and they always seem to be up there when I am for the same reason - they've spooked the hell out of this beach and head up there to find fish.

Not as detailed a response as I wrote last week and if anyone has any questions on how nets spook fish or on the algaes then fire away.

Lindsay

[Slider]

Thanks for that Cheech - I'll take your advice for sure.

Yeah mate, I have had a fair opportunity to get to understand the algaes. I moved to Teewah full time about 10 years ago and have had several lengthy stints of living here before that. It's where I've grown up in effect and I've always loved the place and is where I consider home. When the algae arrived in spring of 2001, none of us knew what the hell was going on - we'd never seen it before, tho Cliff Andreassen says he saw it at Fraser in the late 80s. I'm inclined to think he saw 'dick weed' and not hincksia, but anyway. So when the weed didn't disappear until autumn of 2002 with the onset of cool weather and then returned again in spring 2002 when the northerlies kicked in, we started to get really worried. With the netting during winter shutting down our fishing and then the hincksia doing the same during summer, it was beginning to get really serious. My reason for living beside the ocean had gone and even looking at the surf was painful. Swimming in it was out of the question and I may as well have been living in Gympie. I even considered selling up and moving north - to where there are fish. About that point, I hooked up to the internet and started doing some research on the affects of netting and on algal blooms. There was a heap of info on the hincksia and the chaos it had caused particularly in the US, but nothing that could explain what was happening re the netting. However, when you get the opportunity to watch developments day by day and year by year, you do tend to put things together.
In Feb 2004, we had a low come down the coast and whip up big seas and flood the Noosa. As the surf cleared after a week or 2, there were brown patches in the surf, but they were bait schools not weed. The next 2 and a bit months were full on with tailor, mackerel, tuna, trevs, etc between Teewah and the mouth and at Rainbow. Then the first mullet nets were shot in early May and that was the end of that.
That's when it became apparent that big seas and a flood could clean up the algae. However, it wasn't until August last year before we had another flood and the nutrient levels in the Noosa had accumulated in the meantime. All that nutrient flowed out into Laguna Bay, the sun came out and a bloom of auralus australis was triggered. This algae is microscopic, but turns the surf zone initially green, then brown and deoxygenates (utrifies) the water. Fish don't like it and rarely come into it. I noticed that the full length of Teewah Beach and Fraser were afflicted and also Hervey Bay. Fraser also had hincksia along its full length. The Noosa Shire Council were oblivious of the bloom until I took samples to them in Nov which concerned me when they were responsible for water quality in the Noosa River.

I knew that at some stage we would get a normal wet season with lows and cyclones to really clean up the surf and fully flush the rivers and finally last summer we did. However, with this being the first opportunity to assess fish stocks without the presence of algaes since 2000, I was dismayed at the lack of fish when things did finally settle down in April. The lack of fish can be attributed to a few things, algaes included, but I have no doubts that netting is the main contributing factor and continues to be. In my opinion, another 2 or 3 seasons of netting here and elsewhere and there may be no recovery possible for tailor in particular as has happened plenty of other places around the world.

The algaes will come back - nothing could be more certain. But with a couple more good wet seasons and prevailing south easters, it might be years before we do see it again.

Lindsay

[knuckle]

Aqua Rat,
I fish up there in October every year and find that the later in the season the better the quality of the Tailor, they may not be there in the numbers as earlier in the season but the quality is definitely better.
As far as reef species go, try around Indian and Waddy but have not seen many caught but the rocks are definitely the go.

Slider,
Thanks very much for that usefull information on the weed seem to have run into it every year for about the last 10 years with the exeption of 1 year.
Great to see the pro netters gone. Saw them pull in about 14 tonnes of Tailor Between indian and Champagne pools one year. Heartbreaking.

Cheers
Knuckle