QLD: What dreams are made of: Fraser Island west coast trip

[eric]

Next time, get the fish to use rubber hose rather than a rod.

Leaves no marks, on the skin at least.

[indiedog]

I've been nice and civil up to now....... Bastards!!

So Derek didn't catch his much desired tuna???

[Dave73]

Brilliant stuff, more please!

Also glad there was no screams of "a dingo stole my Hobie' echoing throughout the campsite...

Cheers David

[Decay]

Not true. Derek is actually a hobbit

Bah, everybody knows that Red is a computer guru, this is all photo trickery!

and he had to circle around for an hour and a half, 2 minutes after our lures first hit the water, waiting for me to reel in my yellow.

So what if I had to circle Red for 1 and 1/2 hours to catch his oversize pilchard, he should have used a more sensible rig! I AM NOT jealous, anyway, a New day, New start

Sunrise on a fresh start to a brilliant day!

Let me set the facts straight!
Have a look at this pathetic shot! Ohhhh the strain, doesn't your heart bleed for Red

Red's rod straining to breaking point

Yeh right! Now have a look at "The Big Catch"

Some factual footage:

An extremely disappointed Red walks up the beach, knowing he can't break my spirit and will have to resort to photo forgery!

[Decay]

Yep.. and I guess he's going to call this one a mutant yellowfin pike.

P1010171-small.JPG

Bah, that's not a cuda, this is a cuda!

Not a mutant pike but a real cuda!

[Squidder]

What an epic trip Red and Derek, way to make fishing in southern Australia look fairly tame....

[DougOut]

excellent work Men ...... nope, I stand corrected ...... Brilliant.

[liam8227]

Am I the only one watched the video and expected a gorilla playing drums to pop in?

Great trip guys. However the pic of you both standing side by side looks like a father and son pic...

[carnster]

Awesome stuff guys gee those yak rally move.

[BrisbaneJamie]

.............

[RedPhoenix]

Yeh right! Now have a look at "The Big Catch"

I had to take pity on you, and get a shot of at least one crappy fish in my photo reel, otherwise yours would feel lonely.

Day two dawned, with a ripper of a sunrise. I'd show you the picture over the ocean, but DK conspired to be having a pee right in the middle of the shot, so here's a view over the river to the rear of the campsite instead.

The dingos wandered in today, checking out the campsite up the beach from us that had recently been vacated - I suspect they may have managed a couple of scraps, but unfortunately, once dingo's know there might be food in the area, they tend to stick around; so we did a re-check of our gear to make sure that there was nothing that they could break into, before we headed off fishing today.

South was the call, and we wandered a few kilometers down the beach, where DK managed a couple of ripper golden trevally, and I picked up one or two myself. Don't tell him, but I suspect his best might have pipped mine by at least a few centimeters. The man can fish.. if anyone repeats this, I'll deny it though.

Derek caught mackeral after mackeral, and kept one for dinner. I caught a couple myself, then hooked up to something very interesting. It was on the rod with the 8 pound line on it (pfluger salt + daiwa something or other rod.. redback, I think), so it made for a very interesting fight. This was the same rod with the broken mount point for the reel, but the cable ties were doing their job well.

Unfortunately, all thoughts of a potential warranty claim went out the window when I made the rookie mistake of sticking the rod in the holder for a moment while I reeled in my other line. Rod bent over the outriggers, and snap.... there she goes.

Bugger. And perfect timing, here comes DK with the video camera. Can't even hide the rod, since it has a whopping bloody big fish on the end of it, still tugging away, and peeling line. I suspected a tuna, but I eventually worked out it was a shark.

A big shark.

A 1.8m black tip reef shark.

While DK was filming, I pulled out all the stops to try and bring him to the surface. The shark wasn't very happy when the top half of my rod went down the line, and poked him in the eye, but he calmed down after a moment or two, and I was able to bring him up for a good splash show on the top of the water.

It's at that point, I decided to give up the ghost, and just try and break my line off, lure and all - which didn't take very long with the increased pressure.

So, with a couple of mackeral for dinner, and 4 or 5 trev's boated and released, we headed back to base for the evening, with only a small leaping queenie to disturb the trip back (got off).

Back to base again, to chase the dingos away, and to cook up mackeral, with chocolate fudge cookies for desert.

Red.

[sbd]

Happy happy.

Can you eat barracuda?

[andybear]

Wow!

Just so good. I have watched the video twice, and I'll be watching it again. I loved it!

Cheers andybear

[Dave73]

Happy happy.

Can you eat barracuda?

Only if there was nothing else left to eat on Fraser island (including mangy dingoes), and you stuck seaweed up your nose to disguise the smell...
Think pike, only worse....

[KingDan]

I was wondering why I hadn't read much from you guys recently. This has been on of the most entertaining reads for awhile and has re-invigorated me in ticking a trip like this off my bucket list, well done.

Dan