The Mad Moreton Week, Year 3

Had the Triton all packed on thursday night and after a few hours sleep we caught the 5.30am barge from Fishermans. Acouple of smiley pies and a cup of tea later we were on the beach at Tangas.
The middle track was rougher and softer this year. A LOT.
Hit eastern beach just after 7am. But.....no beach. High tide was after 9am but the huge seas of the previous week had made a mess of the dunes. There was enough room for 2 4wds but 1 of them would have had wet salty tyres. And in a couple of spots on the run to Blue Lagoon both would have been wet. And dodging the piles of dune grass was fun.Some were as big as a bogged Rav4.

Set up camp. Had a few cold ones on the dune that was a 10foot cliff and checked out the beach.

One long drain stretching in each direction as far as you could see.
Interesting.
Collected some pippies and a few worms and finally wet a line at about 2pm.
DART. Ranging in size from "how the hell did you get that in your mouth" to "Geez what a great livvie for sharks".The biggest was 43cm.
All were thrown back. Greazy slimey things.
Pippies=dart,worms=dart,pillies=dart,mullet=dart.O h and 1 90cm longtom. Later with the sun going down and into the night, not a lot except a couple more DART.

Saturday.
Went back across to Tangalooma to meet the rest of the crew. That track is worse than the other one.While waiting for the barge,about 9am,decided to try some squid off the beach behind the wrecks. First cast,,40cm squire..HUH.
Second cast,,42cm squire..HUH HUH.
Third cast,,,,,shovelnose shark,,shit.
Then....not a touch till the barge arrived.
Back to the eastern beach and watched the others set up camp. With many a helpful comment from us.
Down to the beach in the arvo for ,,,,more dart and a huge 26cm bream.
Tried a late night fish. 11pm to 3am. Not even a dart.

Sunday.
Headed down to the southern end of the island. Alot of exposed rock and the drain just kept on going. Got 1 33cm bream on worms.
Back for lunch and a nap,then an arvo fish in front of camp.The drain was starting to get a few holes in it. Goodie. More dart, Damn.Back to camp about dark. Just sitting down to dinner about 7pm when the 4 blokes who were still on the beach arrived back.
WITH A
55cm TAILOR.
YAHOO.
You never saw a camp clear so quickly.
Back 3 hours later with ....nothing.
Alot of mutterings about bringing it over frozen with them.

Monday
Up at 3.30am for a visit to the loo when I thought "this looks great". So headed down to the beach. Afantastic light show from the line of storms out to sea just added to the beauty. And the 36cm and 38cm bream helped as well. Both caught on pillies. Back to camp at 8am.
We all then took a run to Yellow Patch and North Point. Walked up onto the rocks near Honeymoon bay and sat entranched for over an hour by a pod of whales about 500metres off shore. It must have seemed strange to see 12 grown men playing rock, paper,scissors. But someone had to go back for the esky. If youve ever fished off the rocks there you know theres a ledge under water running about 10 mtrs out.then a 10mtr gap of sand and then another rock about 5 mtrs wide. On this day , for about 15 minutes there was another rock 10 mtrs past that. this one was a whale just minding his own business. And no inane commentary.
Half of us then did some fishing while the rest went for a swim and checked out the backpackers.all up we caught 2 more bream. Should have went and checked out the backpackers.
Went into Bulwer for some more brown ale and stuff to keep it cool.
Most of the crew went back to camp but we headed down the western beach and tried a few spots for nothing. Got back to in front of camp just after dark to find everyone with a line in the water. Checked the buckets,,,6 tailor all around 50cm,,,lets go. Next 2 hours saw a dozen or so landed with mine being the biggest, 59cm . That was fun on 15 pound line.

Tuesday
Early morning again for 1 bream at 35cm. Oh well.
Some definite holes and channels in the drain now.
Went down the southern end again and caught some ...DART.
On the way back saw some fish in the waves. An hour for 5 more tailor.
Down in front of camp after dark for 3 more tailor and 2 flathead.something different.Only one was mine.

Wednesday
Another early morning for 3 more bream all around 35cm. No tailor. they probably dont like to get up early.
Packup camp and head for the barge.
Home.
Hot shower.

A good week for all, with some decent fish
All,except the squire and some dart were caught on pillies.