Little boat of Double Island point

[Lucky_Phill]

The circle of life. I suppose at some stage we must all think about why we do it and for how long. A little bit of research and making good on a promise to myself, I fished off Double Island Point on Sunday. Sounds simple, but let’s work through it. Alarm set for 2.30am….. woke at 2 and headed out the door, as 99% of gear was packed the night before. Seems NFI’s are all snoozing at this time, that’s a win. Really heavy fog coming into Gympie and 9 degrees outside. Push onto the Freshwater Track, stop, deflate tyres and traverse the 16k’s of sandy corrugated road to reach the eastern beach a smidgeon before sunrise. Head north along the smooth sand, over the Leisha Track and onto the sand at Double Island Point lagoon area, some 3 and a bit hours since departure. Drive around looking for a launch site and settle on one near the lagoon entrance.

Launch and off I go but not having been through here before, a tad wary. All go and program GPS to spot X. At this point I’d like to say that once again, weather forecasters got it wrong. I persisted through a 10knt SW wind, which .4 chop, but 1mtr swell. Over the next 2 hours I boated a couple of vermin ( Rock Cod, Raymora etc ). Whales popped up close to say G’day, as did Dolphins and a big ass jellyfish. A couple of other boats in the area, mush bigger than mine, of course. Ventured out of my way north, but no good. Took a punt and back south and east of Wolf Rock and saw the sounder show me some hard bottom structure………. Ok I’ll bite.
Decided on a Pillie for bait and bazinger…. Pearl Perch hits the deck. The new few drops, same thing and with a bag limit of 4, I am done. I’m cold, a tad wet, sort of tired, bit knocked around from the choppy conditions. Usual mishaps going on, so pulled the pin. The weather improved on the way back and by the time I reached the lagoon entrance, it was smooth sailing.

Retrieve A.S.H and make tracks for home, but once I hit the eastern beach, I changed my return route and decided to utilise the low tide and Cooloola & Teewah beaches for the run home via the car ferry over the Noosa River. This route is 33k’s shorter than back through Rainbow Beach Rd, but cost $22 on the ferry, plus the 12 minute wait to get on, but I did negate the 16k’s of crappy Freshwater Track… at 10 – 15kph.

Made it to Club Algona about 3pm. Wash Maxxienne and A.S.H, unloaded, fish filleted and cuppa by 5. So, is it worth it ? Awake since 2am… driven over 7 hours by car, over 4 hours in the boat, all for a 4 fish, although plenty of meat on ‘em, good feed. I suppose it is, off-road driving, beach driving, seeing a sunrise over water, Whales, Dolphins, Stingrays, masses of mack tuna, birds everywhere including Osprey’s over the beaches and of course the NFI P’Platers doin’ what they do on the beaches. I’d hate to be doing this shit when I’m 60 +……….. it’s a young mans game !







cheers LP

[chris69]

Well done getting some pearl perch in a small tiny just a long way to get them.

[Dignity]

I do love that area but I will launch at TCB and do an overnighter in the lagoon. It is closing up by the time I get there in maybe 2 weeks time I'm pretty sure the lagoon will not be accessible from the water.
Glad you got out though.

[Dignity]

Just been watching the progress of the DI Lagoon over the last few weeks and it appears to be nearly closed. The other thing is beach drivers beware, there has been 2 landslides in that period, one 4x4 got through and the slide came down just after it had passed.