Thousand cheers, broken gears, very dears.....

[ShaneC]

As the title suggests, we embarked on a trip to Agnes that was filled full of fun, flair and topped with a nice covering of grease flavoured misery. I must warn early that this will be a long winded affair, but my expensive psychologist has suggested that perhaps a public report may help me stop getting the shivers at night and put a cease to my 44 gallon drum a night rum habit which has started in the last few days. I am not a regular contributor for reports as such for a few reasons, but I promised Id write one, and I figure this will motivate some, encourage some, and make most glad it wasn’t them…..

Firstly I would like to acknowledge the sheer generosity of a number of Ausfishers. Of particular note are Bull1 (Brett) and marvin (Kev), I wish I could personally thank all of the blokes that were staying in houses where we were squatters for a night, it got us out of a pickle and I really appreciate it. More on that later.

Swano and I left Brissie at 1pm Monday arvo, with big plans of smacking a few fish up and having a ball like we do every time we go to Agnes. We were going great guns belting up the highway with the big Noosa cat in tow, Jimmy Barnes blaring and life just couldn’t be better.

Crisis #1: A B Double decided to have a lay down on the Bruce at Kybong and they put in a diversion just as it decided to piss down with rain. We were following a shitheap truck and a few km into the diversion was a big hill. Old mates rattlebox couldn’t get up the hill, so he stopped to put her in low range and we had to stop behind it. Imagine a 4 tonne boat, a 2wd F truck and a slimy hill and you’ve got yourself a loss of traction!! A slow reverse down the hill and a 200m run up (after inconveniencing heaps) and we were back on the road. I must add not one person gave us a spray of any sort, which I thought was sportsmanlike.

On we travelled to Bundy, Crowded House gracing the speakers, got our ice and refuelled the truck and set sail for Agnes, our plan of fuelling up by servo closing time looking like it would be achieved with hours to spare. Then…….

Crisis #2: As we always do, we pulled up at the turn off to Agnes to walk around the trailer, check bearings and make sure all was hunky dory. Swano “Mate, we have lost a wheel!”. Me “Haha, yeah righto let’s get going”. Swano “I’m serious”……… Somehow, from what we can figure out, a bearing had collapsed, seized up and the wheel, hub and half the caliper had been ripped off, bending the stub axle at a really obnoxious angle. Axle broken!! YAY!!For those that may not understand how we didn’t know, these are non load sharing axles on a tri axle trailer, being towed by a big V8 turbo diesel truck and we didn’t hear a thing. This is when I made a call to Bull, explained we had a shitfight on our hands and he generously offered that if we could limp to Agnes we could park up in their yard and attack the drama with clear heads in the morning. Dave (sorry mate I don’t know your name on here) gave us all the info we needed to find the right guys to fix the axle in Bundy, so first thing we dropped the axle and set sail for Bundy. Daves advice was spot on, we put the axle in for repair but they couldn’t do it for two days, so I organised a mate to pick it up for us and bring it to Agnes and we did what anyone would do. We went fishing……..

I generally like to go for three days but this time two days was all we had. As Swano has posted previously, we had a pretty crazy red bite on an area east of Sykes, we caught heaps and the action was pretty awesome. We also managed to scrape together quite a few species over a couple of days to make a pretty respectable box. We fished various depths with varied success but the fishing was pretty consistent. The weather was fantastic and we got to enjoy what Central Queensland is famous for with Paul Kelly belting out the tunes on the wireless. I am hopeless at taking photos so hopefully Swano might add a couple on here, but he did give me a touch up on the reds, and its not nice to be beaten on your own boat but that’s how the cookie crumbles. I caught up a bit but I think by the end he beat me by three reds.

We headed home at a leisurely 30 knots in the glorious weather and heard from my mate to say the axle had been dropped off. So I rang Bull again and he put me on the phone to possibly one of the nicest blokes I have had the pleasure to meet. He offered us a bed each for the night, a hot shower, cold beer and an awesome feed of marinated mackerel and crumbed red. He wasn’t on hols with the boys, he was with his family, and his hospitality is something that I hope to one day repay with interest. Thankyou so much marvin, it was a pleasure to meet you and Margie and the family, and I hope THAT message tone doesn’t echo around your house for too long lol…….

So Friday morning we struggled the axle back in which was a proper pain in the arse, and headed home. Halfway to Bundy we had a blowout, which was a best case scenario considering the emotional wrecks we had become due to mechanical failures, but we battled on because the Noosa Cat tyre changing team had seen it all before, and we got home without incident.

A trip summary,

LOWLIGHTS: My hangover on Monday morning whilst loading the boat
The hill fiasco
Broken axle
Blowout
HIGHLIGHTS; Good fishing
Good weather
Great mates
Fantastic hospitality from guys we didn’t even know
A grander marlin chasing up a just legal squire from the depths (no photos unfortunately)
Getting home…..

So it seems the highlights beat the lowlights so Ill be back next month. Thanks very much to Bull1 (Brett), marvin (Kev) Margie and family, Dave, Wade and everybody else staying at the Seachange Loft and to the guys I met for the first time, it was great to meet you. Whilst we were not ‘official’ meet and greeters without the help of Ausfishers we would have been cactus.

Cheers all, hope I didn’t bore you too much

Shane

PS I don’t really have an expensive psychologist, I read it on the inside of a Bundy Rum lid……

[Richo1]

Great report, glad you found some good fish and great people!

[Boat Hog]

What an epic tale! That's big boat towing for you in a nutshell mate!

On a positive note you did at least get on the water and get on to some good fish. Well done to those Ausfishers who helped you out.

There's only two things you really could have done to improve your odds ........ 4x4 tow vehicle and a better choice in music.

Cheers,

[ShaneC]

Boat hog you are right on one thing, a four wheel drive effy was on the cards, but I am contemplating a new trailer and unfortunately I have just spent a bomb on new electronics for the boat so it can only be one or the other for now. I have a bit of research to do before making a call....
But, Aussie fish like Aussie music, I have taken notes and the fish like Crowded House over the Vengaboys most of the time. Midnight Oil generally shuts them down but........

[Swanie1975]

thanks for posting a good read to have with my coffee this morn. great music choices (are crowded house aussie?) but i dont think midnight oil shut down the fish - it was you doing your peter garret dance moves on the boat that scared them away ha ha

cheers ryan

[Boat Hog]

Maybe next time AC/DC "Highway to Hell"?! ......

Yeah, used to like Midnight Oil .... now I avoid Peter 'Pink Batts' Garrett at all cost!

[Redhunter]

Shanec the good thing is ya got a good haul of reds, so ya forgett about all the bad things that happened in a trip.
That happend to me two weeks ago i was heading down to tincan on a two day sole trip,got down there at 400am ,it was still dark,jumped out of the truck to put me sounder gps into the boat, i thought gee the boats leaning, jumped back into the truck and moved it into the light near tincan jetty
looked at the trailer, what the f....... the bearing had collapsed and the weel hub had sherd of and stud axle grounded about two inches of the bitumem,i limped back home and ya could hardley feel i was mising a wheel scarey stuff.Fix it up,45sq axle with hubs and bearings u bolt kits,two new disk pad sets, 2 centre bolt springs,hand bolt cable set and shackle bolt bushes and shackle plates finely back on the road yesterday.

steve

[champion]

Great story Shane
Shit it could of been a lot worse, its always good to know people.
......but why does it always happen to you ?

Joe

[PinHead]

some mishaps Shane..but you did fare better than the shy guys. Good to see the positives.

[fishfeeder]

my last trip to 1770 for the M&G I had to buy 5 new tyres and Rims to get there after two flats from tyres deciding they were to old to go any further... never knew tyres had a used by date on them... do now.

Good to see you got there and back, Ausfish is full of fantastic people willing to go out of there way to lend a hand.....

Cheers
Brett

[ShaneC]

I have the gift champion haha. You'd swear I never maintain my stuff wouldn't ya?? I never used to service my stuff and nothing ever went wrong, now all I seem to do is maintain stuff and it always breaks. Something in that hey. I guess when you do the hours I have to do and the kms I do on the road these things will happen....

[Tinshack]

Hey shane, good the trailer shop helped you out mate, glad i wasn't there with you turning your big rig with only 2 axles! Great catch of reds, again! Cheers Dave.

[Bull]

Cheers Shane glad I could help out in the small way that I did. You are certainly right about the Ausfish crew being a top bunch of Guys and Gals.
You turned a shitty trip into a good trip with some rippa fish.

Cheers Brett

[TREVELLY]

A great read Shane - would be awesome with a few pics - but you still painted a very good picture

[SWANO1]

Its taken me a few days to scrub the red smell coupled with the grease and oil from being on the pit crew out of my system but looking back it was worth every second of the nerve testing journey on that piss poor excuse for a road from bundy to the promised land. Rippa of a trip and any of you that have been lucky enough to fish on shanes boat know what an excellent shipman he is , able to pull the boat up on a 10cent piece drift after drift, the only thing is that he dresses far to inapropriatley(sp)to capture him on a sd card he's a bit like rob the dentist but if you study the video you will see one of his didgits make a cameo. scraped up a few pics even the young fella wanted to share in the spoils.
Cheers swano