QLD Platypus Bay 5 days of fishing excellence

[Decay]

It must have been some time in October 2010 that Andrew “Roo” mentioned to me that he wanted to do a 5 day trip up the North-West beaches of Frazer Island. The beaches that line Platypus Bay are renowned for their beauty and abundant fishing. Organisation was reasonably simple, Andrew, Leigh “Red” and I had already done a practice camping trip to Moreton Island in June of 2010 (viewtopic.php?f=17&t=39589) and I had done a reasonable trip with Red to Humpy Island as well (viewtopic.php?f=17&t=41218). Both trips covered over 100km so I thought I was up to the distances planned for this trip as well as having the right equipment for camping. This time Emma “Red Daisy” would join Andrew and I to show us boys how to fish and camp in style! A week before our departure, Roo, Red Daisy and I got together for a planning session and to organize the gear. We got our orders from Red Daisy and spend the next few days servicing equipment, preparing the AIs and packing. On Wednesday the 9th of March we headed out of Brisbane and stayed the night in Caloundra, early the next morning we were up at dawn to make our way to Hervey Bay. We got there around 11:00 and started to set up on the beach next to the harbor.

Weather was not fantastic but we set off north-west of Round Island then headed East so that we would pass North of Woody Island and on to Moon point. On the way I caught the first fish of the trip, a damned pike, the plague of Moreton Bay, I thought I was free of this menace! Some smart remarks from Roo quickly rewarded him with the second catch of the day….. a grinner…… No, this can’t be happening!
Our first glimpse of Frazer was rewarding, finally Moon Point and I think we were all relieved that our holiday trip had begun, the pristine white beaches from the distance, the clear blue waters and my heart was racing.

And not soon after the first mackerel were fighting over our lures, I think Red Daisy was the first to land one, affirming her position as the head fishing person and although she didn’t say anything I think Roo and I got the message that pike and grinners were not the order for the day.

Birds were working the water so Roo and I moved in, on approach we both saw, first the tuna, leaping, then the tuna JUMPING for their lives…..unsuccessfully. A big splash and clear signs of the taxman. Too late, we were moving under full steam, run the sharks over and get to the remaining Tuna…. But it was not to be…. Just more mackerel.
We were in no rush so after 20 km we decided we would like to set up camp so we could fish for the afternoon.

[Decay]

That afternoon we went for a little excursion and Roo showed me more of the ropes and tricks about catching school and spotty mackerel, under his guidance I was soon handling the double hook ups.
That evening Roo went to the creek behind our camp site to see if there were any flathead about, he attached an ecogear blade and from what I understand, hooked up quite quickly, and then the flathead sort revenge and shook and squirmed and did this……

Ouch, in the end Andrew had to hold still while his wife decided to document the situation for prosperity, finally he was allowed to pull it free…. I couldn’t watch! Best to kick a man while he’s down, so I picked up a rod and went after the flathead while Andrew was rolling around in pain but I was not successful.
Day two. We rose early and decided that breakfast should be mackerel in a coconut milk sauce, yeh, OK, I can handle that. So off we went

A few moments later we had a choice of 4 mackerel, and the winner was….

[Decay]

After breakfast we packed up and headed further East into Platypus bay until the weather deteriorated and we decided to put in at Awinya creek.

Using the new Hobie technology we set up a respite from the rain

That afternoon we discovered a small reef within casting distance of the shore, I couldn’t resist, second cast and I was on, a small Long Tom. A few casts later and I could have sworn I had a follow by a trevally. I told Roo, and here’s the strange thing. I’m used to getting excited and rabbiting on but Andrew apparently listened to my story and how I used to catch Trevally in Fiji, I recounted my techniques and in the end when I finished he did what most people do when I talk…. He turned away and went to talk to somebody else that knew what they were talking about (Emma)….. but the reality was he was mulling it over….. all night apparently.

[Decay]

The next morning Andrew changed his gear mumbling something about Trevally and new techniques. We launched, and right from the start the day was not working for me, my sounder and GPS had packed it in, I got rods hooked up and was feeling the frustration of a “no-go day” coming on, to make things worse, Andrew calls out within minutes, “I’m ON!...... really ON” Yeh Yeh, whatever, I continue sailing Eastwards for 15 min. I trolled and trolled to be rewarded by …… 1 grinner, clearly a day to stay in bed….. Better call Andrew and see how he’s going with his shark. “Andrew, you still hooked up?” …… “Yes!” Hmmmmm, maybe I should head back and see what the ruckus is all about, so I sailed 10 min downwind and he was still on. Well the battle lasted for 30 min and then he pulled this tiny dart out of the water.

A trifling 90cm of Golden Trevally. This fish was a tank! The photo does no justice to the fish, it was almost as thick as it is high! Although it doesn’t seem like it, Andrew was straining to hold it up….. must have been the hook through his thumb the previous day. Andrew claimed this was most likely his biggest fish he had caught and he deserves all the credit in the world for landing it after a huge struggle, Congratulations! ….. damn it!
Conveniently he had hooked it 10 meters from camp so Emma got to see the whole battle (and had a snooze during the boring bits) and the fish before it was safely returned to the water.
Actually, Roo shouldn’t get all the credit for this fish, he later conceded that he used the techniques that I mentioned I used in Fiji, so I’m claiming 5 cm….. this will be important soon!
Anyway, I don’t need him to get too big headed so I told him to get serious about his fishing. Humbled, he put in to have a break and lunch while I stayed out with the hope I could shake today’s boogie man. 30 min later and I had scored 4 large mackerel, then after releasing one and putting the rod back in the holder everything went slow motion…. Ohhh look at that, I left the second lure out, ohhh look at that the lineto the second lure is running over the hook of the first lure that I had just put back in place, ohh what is that splash behind me, right where that second lure was floating, ohhh it’s a masssssssive tuna with what looks to be my lure in its mouth, ohhhhh noooo, the other lure is in the way …..ping….. lure and tuna gone. Grrrrr, back to base for lunch, these things happen and I was happy I had shaken my boogie man for the day. We ate and hit the water again.
De ja vu, I had just landed a mackerel, the second line was still out, the lure was floating on the surface, I put the rod I had just used back in the holder and the other rod goes ballistic. A puff of vapour off the reel and I’m ON.

To cut a long story short. 35 min of battle for this:

Only 80 cm long, take 5 cm from Andrew’s catch earlier that day and that makes both of them 85 cm and I’m equal!......Doesn’t work that way does it? Damn. Anyway, the fish was safely returned to the sea.
Thanks Andrew for the photos and this neat picture of our return that day:

[Decay]

The next day the weather was not pleasant so we left our camp set up and had a visitor just as we were leaving for a fish.

It hassled Emma who was on shore for a while but after a while we ignored it and went fishing. Mackerel, mackerel and more mackerel. We had a break on shore and went out with Emma in the afternoon.
De ja vu…. again, I had just landed a mackerel, the second line was still out, the lure was floating on the surface, I put the rod I had just used back in the holder and the other rod goes ballistic. A puff of vapour off the water drenched overhead and I thought the damn thing would vaporize. I was ON and there was no point panicking, there was nothing I could do about stopping this beast but time was on my side…. Relax….think. I had an Abu Garcia 9000 spooled up with 30 lb monofilament but must admit, I had NO leader (comes back to haunt me on the last day of the trip), so be it, what will be will be. Casually I radioed in that I had a decent hook up and even speculated that I may need assistance with this one. Emma, pulled her rods in and came over to document the trauma that I was about to be subjected to. By the time she got to me I had turned the yak towards the point at which line was still being stripped off my reel and disappearing into the depths of the sea, now I had reduced the pressure on the rod for the first time and actually managed to get it out of the holder. Then the panic set in, I was almost spooled, I couldn’t believe, I hadn’t seen the reel so empty since the day I bought it. So I set off after my sea monster to see if I could recover some line. Only until I got to about 5 kph did I start to recover some line. OK, I’ll try to make this quick, after 30 min I see colour and I thought I had a Spaniard but a second later I realized it was a Barracuda. Emma asks if I can see it and I tell her its under her kayak, “just look down” She does and scrambles back to the safety of her main hull saying something that roughly translates to “Gosh” After a few maneuvers I’m able to slide a gaff in its mouth and ease it up on the tramp.

A quick measure put it at 170 cm, and although I couldn’t weigh this beasty, it is not my first cuda (see viewtopic.php?f=17&t=35105) the last one was 1.4 meters and weighed 24 kg, so a quick calculation puts this one at ~30 kg although I have no other evidence of that.
Emma did take some videos of the last 5 to 10 min and if I can learn how to edit, I will try to mount a video of the session.
Again, the fish was safely returned to the water and we set off home, 10 min later I was on to something even bigger! Now I’m going to cut this really short. It winds out I fouled a big turtle while trolling. A battle that took several hours ensued. We managed to get it the entire 3-5 km back to shore, then I beached my yak after sunset and managed to pull hard enough to straighten the hooks and the turtle was free without any lines attached. I was unhappy that I’d snagged a turtle but all things considered happy that it was away safely. That night my arms were aching, we went to bed in the heavily falling rain but slept well.

[Decay]

The next day we headed to our final destination on our way back to Hervey Bay, Somewhere near Moon Point, a spectacular camp site between a creek and the open ocean…. With a picnic table!

By now I’m sure you don’t want to hear about all the mackerel that we continued to catch so I’ll sign off by saying that the final day was poor weather, we packed up in the rain and headed to Hervey Bay, possibly the last excitement; I had tacked in front of Woody Island and was thinking to myself, this is it, the trip is over, wow, I caught all those fish and only lost 1 lure…….. silly me! No sooner than the thought left my mind and both rods buckle over, both at the point of breaking. I was thinking that this time, in 20-25 knot winds I’m in trouble, the kayak stopped dead in the water and was going backwards at a fare pace. I looked at the rods, there was no way I could get my Abu 9000 out of the holder so I went for the Stradic, at which point I think the Abu busted off, I can’t say for sure (in retrospect this is because I had no leader), I had my hands full, with wind, waves and line spooling out and lines running all over the place. I spent a few minutes trying to organize the kayak for battle and after 15 min this came up to greet me.

Definitely the picture does not do the fish justice, everybody that looked at it said, “what, about 4 ft?” at one stage his head was at the bow of the kayak and the tail at the tip of my Ama, I’m guessing he was longer that the barracuda from yesterday putting him just under 6ft. In the end he bit through the leader on this line and took my lure. I’m convinced that I had a double hook up with two sharks and that the other line had a bigger specimen…. Probably best that I’ll never know for sure. In the end, I lost 3 lures but a trip will worth it. I couldn’t begin to estimate how many fish I had caught. However, I must give credit to Andrew for easily out fishing me for the whole 5 days, for every fish I caught, I’m guessing he caught a minimum of 2 grinners!

My warm thanks go out to Emma and Andrew for a fantastic trip and organization, anybody that is fortunate enough to go out with them is destined for a good trip and great company, they are the camping gurus and perfect companions! I must thank them for their company and to Andrew for great fishing tips, I have once again learnt soooo much from him. So long and thanks for all the fish.

[mehi]

An absolute cracker of a report, thanks for posting

[FishinDan]

Awesome!

Can't wait to get back down that way!!!

[indiedog]

Well done Derek on a great trip and report. I got a quick text from Andrew mentioning the cuda and the golden, but he didn't say a thing about a lure through the thumb!! I'll have to ask him about that one. It is indeed a magic area and I'll get up there again soon.

[paulsod]

There is only one word I can think of to describe your Trip, Fantastic.
Great report, thanks.

[Zed]

Awesome place and report! Emma's a gamer, too.
Envious.

[Murdoch]

Top report mate,
Love the pics too. Shame it rained so much, but the fishing seems to have made up for it.
Keep em coming

Murdoch

[breamfish]

Awesome Report Decay, Great pics

Nice Goldens and that cuda is friggin huge, pitty it wasn't a Spanyid.

[Alster99]

Fantastic pics! Cracking job. Lookout to the competition in the March photo comp!

[blueyak]

The blade wedged into the thumb makes me cringe but i'd probably put up with that if one of those trevally was a promised reward. The barracuda looks so solid, you lot must have sore arms.

Looks like a very worthwhile trip.