Hi guys,
Just returned from my trip up the Qld coast. Spent the first few days from 6/10 at 1770 watching 25-30Kn of SE blow it's rear end off. Gave up on 1770 and went up to Tannum for a couple of days. Out of frustration my wife and I finally headed out for an overnighter, took 3 hrs to get to Masthead (sea wasn't pretty). She'd had enough by late arvo so we spent the night in the lee of the island. After anchoring securely and thinking about preparations for dinner, bugger me if a little zodiac didn't pull alongside and a guy from a yacht anchored near us asked us to come over and join him and his wife for drinks and dinner. What an absolutely fantastic gesture and a great couple they turned out to be. I've had my faith restored in some human nature. Next morning we headed out to Heron Island, I'de had a week there on a field trip at the research station years ago but my wife has always wanted to see Heron, so after being met at the wharf by their wharf attendant I asked if we could come on and see the resort staff about accommodation. After a quick call to the manager we were unceremoniously told that we weren't allowed on the island. Way to go Heron Island. They must have missed PR lessons during hospitality training. (faith in human nature takes another blow) Anyway we went looking for a lee shore for a dive and I was astonished at the spot I went to on the eastern end of Wistari, it almost convinced me of the benefits of green zones. We swam around a sand and rubbly patch between and over shallow (2-4m) reef patches right across from Heron boat channel followed by schools of 5kg Spangle's and 5 - 10kg trout, red throat, cod, mackerel, 2-3m sleepy sharks, reef sharks, cobia, even a 5kg red emporer and more. One of the best snorkelling spots I've been to. Just about made the flogging on the way out worthwhile. On the way back in along the nth side of wistari I thought I was looking at hundreds of what looked like 7-8kg cobia surface feeding, I couldn't quite get close enough to confirm it from the boat so I jumped in and swam toward the action to find that it was 8kg milkfish by the hundreds slurping plankton with the manta rays. What a day it turned out to be!
After returning to Gladstone and dropping the minister for finance off at the airport and picking up my decky the next day the serious part of the adventure began. Next stop was at a mates place at Hydeaway bay nth of Airlie then on to Lucinda the next morning. Quick preparations and we were off to Brittomart reef for a quick afternoon fish. We stopped on the way out at a mark that a local guide gave me as a swap for one of my marks, and I'm thinking 'sure he's gonna give me accurate co-ords' you all know how it works. Two drops, two nannies. (faith in human nature slightly restored). Bommie hopped through the NW corner off Brittomart amongst the sheltering trawlers for a four nice trout and a pair of macks. Back into Dungeness and made ready the next day for a spearing trip the following day with another mate and his son from the foothills at the sth end of Hinchinbrook Is. Hell, this guys back yard is 6 acres of Hinchinbrook rainforest. Out to some of his favourite spots and first fish up was his sons 6kg Jack. Then we all scored some top trout, I nailed a dark tailed sea perch? The resident 3m bull shark nailed my perch as well but I still got most of him. Luckily the 3m tiger that was there last year and is also a resident wasn't around this time but we were followed by a 150kg groper most of the time, I'm so happy that big boy is friendly. With the trout population thinning and thebullsharks starting to get agro we called it a day.Attachment 111403
After a day of R&R we headed to mission beach and out to Potter reef. All new to me so we just did what we did at other reefs and tried a few likely looking bommies and shoals until settling on what looked to be an interesting bit of bottom to an unitiated southerner. Out went the pilly under a float and got down to bottom bashing . We did well with 8 Lge mouth nannies, one nice red, a few good trout, a cracking rosy and various other reefies. Then the pilly went off and I thought ho-hum here's another Spanish, picked up the rod and then all hell broke loose as a sailfish danced all over the place for 15min until my mate did a great job of billing him and lifted him in for his 15 seconds of fame and let him go. We looked at each other stunned and thought the same thing, did that really just happen?Attachment 111404
Thinking that was gonna be hard to beat we went in feeling pretty elated.
Next stop Port Douglas or more accurately Wonga beach up near the Daintree. We made ready and out to a wide spot off St Crispin where I've had good results before. At last the *&$%^ sou easter was gone and it was flat as a fart, an absolute glass out.The deep shoals along the shelf edge there are endless but so are the taxmen. After a couple of nice reds and nannies all we were doing was feeding the mongrels and I won't kill fish for a stinking sharks benefit so we went closer around morning and evening reefs to do other things, played with some plastics, looked for new ground and then anchored for the night. As usual I floated a pilly out under a float and then caught a perfect livebait sized fusilier, so wanting to keep the fusie alive I just put the rod in the holder and wound the pilly in, I think you can see where this is going. I had just said to my mate" the fusie will probably get knocked off before I get the mack line in" when CRACK-TWANG I looked over the side to see a 25kg mackerel chomping my fusilier one metre away, I could have free gaffed it. So there I am with ten thumbs trying to get another bait ready to feed to this mack, its mate and a cobia about the same size but by the time I was ready they had all lost interest, damn. After a casual start at office hours next day we topped up on trout, had a dive for crays and went in a bit earlier than planned to find very little water over the Daintree bar but still managed to get in. Props pretty shiny now. We met a few of the local lizards in the river, one actually surfaced beside the boat when I switched off to drift nearer to him.Attachment 111405We did another trip from the Daintree then headed sth again back to Lucinda. The place has a magnetic attraction for me, so many options. This time we went to Pith reef in flat calm conditions again but I started to get concerned when we passed 4 trout boats working trunk reef over on the way out. Be nice to travel 50Nm and find the place worked over but when we arrived there was only one other rec boat there and 40m vis. what an amazing reef, the coral is pristine, the fishings good, good anchorage, good diving, good weather, Christ what more could we ask for. Spent the night there, the highlight was my best red to date at about 10kg and some cracking red throat. Attachment 111406 Anyway that's the bulk of it, a bit long winded but we've had a ball. I'll probably post some other recollections as they come back to my worn out memory. There was a few other trips out along the way but I've rambled enough. Luckily I've got a few days to recover before work and I can tell you I need them, when you fish, fish hard.
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