Im not sure where to start this report, as I havent reported for so long. Too busy this year and not enough fishing, but we finally got away and headed north for a week. 8)
We had no real plans and no itinerary so stopped wherever we liked.
I'll just mention the places and highlights as we have only just got home and need to sort all the mess out!
Carlo 2 nights - fishing in Tin Can Bay. Nice to be close to Rainbow Beach just up the road. Caught a few smallies, including some kind of long toothed gar thing, but the place looks really fishy, so I expect our timing was just wrong. This toothy thing was also the first fish on my new G-Loomis, always good.
Stopped for 10 mins at a little town heading further north, and then we scratched like all get out for the next 3 days because of the sandfly bites. Later that night I reread the tips from Hairymick - "Give Toogoom a miss, too many sandflies"...:shock:
Woodgate 2 nights - fishing in Theodolite Creek. I remember hearing about this Creek in Hairymick's past reports. It is absolutely amazing. It is beautiful at high tide, low tide, in between, morning, afternoon, it doesnt matter. You can have a swim on the beach then wander down to the Ck and chase Mangrove Jack, which we did!
I caught my first Jack here in the arvo at low tide but alas it was not from a yak... :roll: Still it was a pleasant surprise - went 36cm.
Next day went out in the morning with the rising tide and enjoyed the Mangroves. A stunning place. A couple of good flatties came aboard that day for dinner.
1770. Stayed 2 nights in a nice cabin here and went down to Round Hill Creek for some fun during the day. Another awesome place. Got my first Barracuda on a yak, went about 60cm! This was after he had taken 3 sets of gear from me. I refrained from opening him up to retrieve my lures...
Also of note was a Sand Bass, new to me but I found it in the book later on. It fought like a ripper, making me think I had caught something much, much bigger.
Once the tide had turned around Round Hill the fishing was awesome. I would sit there and whack a new lure on and dangle it in the water while putting my scissors away, and fish would come to the surface and start nipping at my bloody soft plastics!
Pedaled home during a spectacular Qld sunset.
We had to head south now, as we were booked in for the Hobie Bass Bash at Lake MacDonald (more on that later).
We stayed on Lake Baroon for the next couple of nights and fished twice a day. The Bass were going OFF! I caught everything on my trusty (and now tattered) spinnerbait.
Taking a tip from Kilkenny I headed to his Spot X, trolled around a bit and then ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz............ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz.......This thing just kept going for ages. Fearing that whatever it was would get too far away I tightened my drag a couple of turns then the Hobie started to pick up speed. I had 10lb braid so I was pretty safe, but its great to be towed around a lake by a huge fish.
I fought this thing for about 10 minutes, with more spectacular runs, thanks to the Hobie though I could actually chase the fish and make up some ground on him. I finally got him to the boat and was wrapped to see 52cm of Australian Bass. Measured and released he took off showering me with water.
Baroon is beautiful, the nicest part actually being fishing restricted but its worth the pedal anyway. Will be returning for sure.
So we've had a good run, travelled over 2000kms with the yaks on the roof, pedaled maybe 100kms, caught a swag of fish (only 3 kept in total), and got some great photos, all before school holidays which is a bonus.
We found a heap of other places that we didnt stay but could easily spend a week there. Thanks to those that offered suggestions for camping spots, all advice was excellent and accurate.
The pics are in no particular order.
Cheers,
Jake
We had no real plans and no itinerary so stopped wherever we liked.
I'll just mention the places and highlights as we have only just got home and need to sort all the mess out!
Carlo 2 nights - fishing in Tin Can Bay. Nice to be close to Rainbow Beach just up the road. Caught a few smallies, including some kind of long toothed gar thing, but the place looks really fishy, so I expect our timing was just wrong. This toothy thing was also the first fish on my new G-Loomis, always good.
Stopped for 10 mins at a little town heading further north, and then we scratched like all get out for the next 3 days because of the sandfly bites. Later that night I reread the tips from Hairymick - "Give Toogoom a miss, too many sandflies"...:shock:
Woodgate 2 nights - fishing in Theodolite Creek. I remember hearing about this Creek in Hairymick's past reports. It is absolutely amazing. It is beautiful at high tide, low tide, in between, morning, afternoon, it doesnt matter. You can have a swim on the beach then wander down to the Ck and chase Mangrove Jack, which we did!
I caught my first Jack here in the arvo at low tide but alas it was not from a yak... :roll: Still it was a pleasant surprise - went 36cm.
Next day went out in the morning with the rising tide and enjoyed the Mangroves. A stunning place. A couple of good flatties came aboard that day for dinner.
1770. Stayed 2 nights in a nice cabin here and went down to Round Hill Creek for some fun during the day. Another awesome place. Got my first Barracuda on a yak, went about 60cm!
This was after he had taken 3 sets of gear from me. I refrained from opening him up to retrieve my lures...Also of note was a Sand Bass, new to me but I found it in the book later on. It fought like a ripper, making me think I had caught something much, much bigger.
Once the tide had turned around Round Hill the fishing was awesome. I would sit there and whack a new lure on and dangle it in the water while putting my scissors away, and fish would come to the surface and start nipping at my bloody soft plastics!
Pedaled home during a spectacular Qld sunset.
We had to head south now, as we were booked in for the Hobie Bass Bash at Lake MacDonald (more on that later).
We stayed on Lake Baroon for the next couple of nights and fished twice a day. The Bass were going OFF! I caught everything on my trusty (and now tattered) spinnerbait.
Taking a tip from Kilkenny I headed to his Spot X, trolled around a bit and then ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz............ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz.......This thing just kept going for ages. Fearing that whatever it was would get too far away I tightened my drag a couple of turns then the Hobie started to pick up speed. I had 10lb braid so I was pretty safe, but its great to be towed around a lake by a huge fish.
I fought this thing for about 10 minutes, with more spectacular runs, thanks to the Hobie though I could actually chase the fish and make up some ground on him. I finally got him to the boat and was wrapped to see 52cm of Australian Bass. Measured and released he took off showering me with water.
Baroon is beautiful, the nicest part actually being fishing restricted but its worth the pedal anyway. Will be returning for sure.
So we've had a good run, travelled over 2000kms with the yaks on the roof, pedaled maybe 100kms, caught a swag of fish (only 3 kept in total), and got some great photos, all before school holidays which is a bonus.
We found a heap of other places that we didnt stay but could easily spend a week there. Thanks to those that offered suggestions for camping spots, all advice was excellent and accurate.
The pics are in no particular order.
Cheers,
Jake
