Bucks day!!

The wife and I are very different in some ways. Whereas she had 3(!) hens nights with various friends in various locations, I did not want one. Strippers? Might as well drink non-alcoholic beer. But she was insistent on me doing something… hey no worries what about a chartered fishing trip?

We set off in glorious weather, having been assured the tides were not ideal. First place we hit a few of the boys pulled up some thumper trevally. The guide was dissapointed and we moved on.

At this point I was thinking of forming a mutiny. Firstly I hadnt caught one yet. What if that was it? Secondly they cook okay if they arent refridgerated. Thirdly nummas/cerviche is awesome. Fourthly how sure he could be we could get others? But no, he wanted it for bait…. so me and Chops (a fellow Trevally lover) waited.

Second place we got, nothing.

Third place we went to, a few of the boys hooked Nannygai. Success!! And a few more… soon we were smashing them! But not poor old me….

Eventually I got onto a 42cm one. Can’t complain. I took a break as I was hogging the rods. I found out later the rod that I had was ordinary, but in 60m of water I couldn’t tell.

Soon my mate tired and I grabbed my rod again… got a slight nibble and I increased the pressure and hooked the fish. Suddenly my whole body was clenching trying to hang on… he pulled off some line, which was funny as the drag was so tight I broke it easily on a snag. I wound and winded. Over and over. We were fighting sharks, and I was doing such and ordinary job of getting him up quickly I didn’t think I had a chance. Wound and wind. Over and over. Soon my whole body ached. The skipper was shouting to me to stop being a princess and ignore that lactic acid. Easy to say… this might seem dramatic but
a) I like a good story
b) It was a really ordinary rod and reel
As I wound that bad boy up inch by inch I was hoping it was something decent otherwise I would look the fool. Part of me wondered if I had a small shark as it kept taking line, and that drag was DAMN tight.

When I got it to the surface…. far out… an impressive (68cm) Coral Trout!!! When I got it in the boat, I mean, wow, what a rush. I remembered why I love fishing, why I love the Whitsundays, and that bait fishing / bottom bashing isn’t all bad!

From then on I hit the beer (my first, stop judging me, fishing comes first on these things) and let everyone have a fish for a while. My cousin pulled up a mammoth Nannygai, otherwise everyone was pretty much hitting one after the other. The trick was getting them past the sharks. I spent a bit of time teaching the newbies what to do, one particular highlight was pulling a fish past two sharks who were charging it.

Soon a few people got tried so I hit the end of the day, managed another 2 keepers and a 50cm sweetlip, which was pretty damn cool.

What a trip!!!

Got:
Me: 68cm coral trout, 50cm sweetlip, 3 40-55cm nannygai
Everyone: Lots of nannygai! And some Trevally. One more sweetlip.

Story of the trip:
Clearly my coral trout. I was so stoked with it. The wind was dead, the ocean was blue, just a great trip all around.

Snaps

Trevelly!


Me with my Coral Trout!


The old man looking happy


Cousin Gareth with the biggest Nannygai of the day, think around 80 to 90

Land based on Hammo round 1

So I was getting married and for various reasons (mostly how much we love the Whitsundays) the wife and I decided on Hamilton Island. I had an epic welcome BBQ to cook on the Sunday but that was for the afternoon… the morning I decided I had to get some fishing. Me and some mates had a look around and found an interesting section of rocks with the incoming tide, it looked promising. Turned out it wasn’t that good, but hey, who can complain about that scenery.

Got:
Me: Tiny cod (lures)
Aaron: Nothing (lures)
Chops: Tiny cod (bait)
Julian: Bluebones x 2, tiny, (bait)

Story of the trip:
Getting there looked impossible it was so steep… seems some clever locals had decided to tie a rope around a tree which made it so much easier! I cannot tell you how much I love the Whitsundays.

Snap

Hydeaway Bay for a wedding

Spent the week in Hydeaway Bay for a wedding, was a great trip. A few boats hanging around, including a cat, plenty of fishing and crabbing.

No fish were caught but we got heaps of mudcrabs, and tons of oysters. There was a small island that had basically been untouched, and we could pop over there and get our bag limit, and bring them back for everyone.

Some highlights include getting stuck on the sandbanks and getting to push a boat, some captain (who was also getting married) allowing his crew to through out 10 crab pots completely collapsed, and a bonfire on the beach ‘let’s try to run as far as we can up a palm before we fall off’ contest.

Good times!

 


Fishing in Queensland, love it!

 


Swimming off the catamaran


Fishing at sunset

Whitsunday Fishing on Catalyst

Always scary fishing at the end of December in Airlie, and sure enough, we got rained on. But it wasn’t too bad and was one of the best trips we had done.

As soon as we moored up I dropped some bait over the side and pulled up a 45cm sweet lip – my favourite. No one could believe that was where I got it, but hey, I’m just a pro.

If I hadn’t gone so hard on the piss the first night I might have been able to fish a great spot where my mate Judda pulled up Indonesian Snapper after Indonesian Snapper. All thanks to my home burley I will assume.

Good fun.


Got some huge crabs


Never thought I would be uploading this photo on a website, check out the abs

Dugong Beach Trip

A good friend of mine was having a 30th, so they decided to do a camping trip at Dugong Beach on Whitsunday Island. It is home of the famous Whitehaven Beach, but it is a huge island, and one isn’t really accessible from the other. “Damn” I thought.

Well I turned out to be wrong. It was, and still is, the best place I have camped. The beaches were amazing, great sunset, fishing (I only managed a small bream, despite the all the effort), crabbing, a great bushwalk up to a lookout that could only seen to be believed.

Not trying to sound conceited but the photos taken are not photoshopped in anyway, taken on the “auto” setting of a Canon Powershot D10. It looked way better than they seem.

And the trip was great, great chat, lots of people, everyone just having a ball. How could you not? The place was paradise.

 

 


Sunset fishing, I just got a bream


View from the Beach at the camp site


Crabbing unsuccessfully


View from the top of the walk


Me at the top