Haji
02-08-07, 09:44 PM
My long awaited trip to Fraser Island did not live up to expectations as rain and a strong South Easterly wind that would blow a dog of a chain made a mockery of fishing and found all the leaks in my mate's tent. Good how the bottom of a touring tent is totally waterproof so that any water that comes in just builds up so that by morning, when you hop of your stretcher bed you are standing in water. Improved his humour at breakfast no end!
We lasted three days, with little to no fishing but drove accross the island at Waddy Point (16.5 KM's) to visit the Western side of the island. Very pretty with a tea coloured creek and huge sand flats. As the tide was out we walked the flats looking for Whiting "snorts" and Flathead "lays" but did not find any which seemed strange given the abundance of nipper holes.
The Eastern side beach is registred (and policed) as an 80 KMH road and has sight seeing planes landing on parts of it at regular intervals. Travelling along the beach is generally limited to within 2 hours either side of high tide although we managed to get along the top (and softer) part of the beach in high range 4WD without too much trouble.
The inner bush tracks can be a bit hairy with deep wheel ruts that caused the Prado's bum to drag on the middle section of the track. We reduced our tyre pressure to 18 PSI as soon as we got off the ferry and found that to be a great help. We pulled two 4WD's out of their "bogged to the axles" situation using a standard snatch strap, no problem! Both the bogged vehicles (a Landcruiser and a Nissan) had failed to let their tyres down with predictable results.
We saw a number of regular visitors to the island towing sizeable boats through the sand and even some Pop Top caravans. One Haines Hunter 19C cabin boat got stuck trying to get up the bypass around Indian Head, the last time we saw them they had broken one snatch strap and were planning to unhitch the trailer, snatch the vehicle out and then try to snatch the boat and trailer. I think they may have been there for some time!
Leaving the island we thought we would try South West Rocks (thanks Bass for the info on Seal Rocks, next time!) Camped in the Big 4 Caravan Park at Arakoon which is A1!. We fished Smoky Cape beach from Smoky Cape to Hat Head for a few large Whiting and one lonely Bream (good size and full of roe). Beautifull water and surroundings but few fish, pippies and beachworms were reasonably abundant although I still have trouble catching worms before they pull back in there holes.
Found a small Fur Seal pup on the beach and advised the NP&WLS thinking that they would make sure that the pup was AOK and able to fend for itself or, if it wasn't fully weaned (or hurt in some way) to take care of it. Unfortunately all that they did was to put a pencilled (and illegible) sign on the beach apparently drawing attention to the prescence of the pup. As the sign was placed about 1/2 KM from the pup and could not be read without getting out of the car it was about as usefull as a pocket in a hankerchief!
Sad to say that the next day we found that the pup had moved higher up the beach where it apparently died during the night. So much for our proffesional carers of the enviroment!
On my last night I decided to fish the wall at the entrance to the Maclay River at a spot known locally as "the Jew Bite". Got some small blackfish from the Co-Op and butterflied them to use with a large hook directly through the lips of the bait and a second "stinger" hook at the back of one side of the bait. Looked good enough to eat myself and swam beautifully in the current.
Arrived about 1 1/2 hours before high tide, ideal moon and a brilliant night. The sort where you just know there are going to be fish caught. And they were, but not by me Dammit! Three brothers (locals) joined me at the "Jew Bite" about 1/2 hour before high tide bringing a large container of live Mullet and proceede to lob their live baits within 10 metres from my carefully prepared butterflied Blackfish. No contest! Within 45 minutes the Jewies had homed in on the live baits leaving my offerings well alone (except for one very tentative touch) with the result that the locals hooked three and landed two very respectable Jewies. The first one caught had the angler (not a young man by any criteria) hopping along the large and irregular stones of the wall like a ballet dancer as he followed the fish some 200 plus meters toward the entrance. Most impressive!
The third fish (the largest one) took over 1/2 hour to land as it screamed toward the entrance almost to the end of the wall before heading across to the Northern side of the river.
No fish for me but a great night nonetheless. The attached pics (if they work) show parts of Fraser including our camp site and resident dingo followed by Smoky Cape Beach, mate Peter and his "catch", the Seal pup and fishing the wall with yours truly holding the two Jewies caught by the locals who refused to themselves be photographed with their fish.
There's no such thing as a bad days fishing!
We lasted three days, with little to no fishing but drove accross the island at Waddy Point (16.5 KM's) to visit the Western side of the island. Very pretty with a tea coloured creek and huge sand flats. As the tide was out we walked the flats looking for Whiting "snorts" and Flathead "lays" but did not find any which seemed strange given the abundance of nipper holes.
The Eastern side beach is registred (and policed) as an 80 KMH road and has sight seeing planes landing on parts of it at regular intervals. Travelling along the beach is generally limited to within 2 hours either side of high tide although we managed to get along the top (and softer) part of the beach in high range 4WD without too much trouble.
The inner bush tracks can be a bit hairy with deep wheel ruts that caused the Prado's bum to drag on the middle section of the track. We reduced our tyre pressure to 18 PSI as soon as we got off the ferry and found that to be a great help. We pulled two 4WD's out of their "bogged to the axles" situation using a standard snatch strap, no problem! Both the bogged vehicles (a Landcruiser and a Nissan) had failed to let their tyres down with predictable results.
We saw a number of regular visitors to the island towing sizeable boats through the sand and even some Pop Top caravans. One Haines Hunter 19C cabin boat got stuck trying to get up the bypass around Indian Head, the last time we saw them they had broken one snatch strap and were planning to unhitch the trailer, snatch the vehicle out and then try to snatch the boat and trailer. I think they may have been there for some time!
Leaving the island we thought we would try South West Rocks (thanks Bass for the info on Seal Rocks, next time!) Camped in the Big 4 Caravan Park at Arakoon which is A1!. We fished Smoky Cape beach from Smoky Cape to Hat Head for a few large Whiting and one lonely Bream (good size and full of roe). Beautifull water and surroundings but few fish, pippies and beachworms were reasonably abundant although I still have trouble catching worms before they pull back in there holes.
Found a small Fur Seal pup on the beach and advised the NP&WLS thinking that they would make sure that the pup was AOK and able to fend for itself or, if it wasn't fully weaned (or hurt in some way) to take care of it. Unfortunately all that they did was to put a pencilled (and illegible) sign on the beach apparently drawing attention to the prescence of the pup. As the sign was placed about 1/2 KM from the pup and could not be read without getting out of the car it was about as usefull as a pocket in a hankerchief!
Sad to say that the next day we found that the pup had moved higher up the beach where it apparently died during the night. So much for our proffesional carers of the enviroment!
On my last night I decided to fish the wall at the entrance to the Maclay River at a spot known locally as "the Jew Bite". Got some small blackfish from the Co-Op and butterflied them to use with a large hook directly through the lips of the bait and a second "stinger" hook at the back of one side of the bait. Looked good enough to eat myself and swam beautifully in the current.
Arrived about 1 1/2 hours before high tide, ideal moon and a brilliant night. The sort where you just know there are going to be fish caught. And they were, but not by me Dammit! Three brothers (locals) joined me at the "Jew Bite" about 1/2 hour before high tide bringing a large container of live Mullet and proceede to lob their live baits within 10 metres from my carefully prepared butterflied Blackfish. No contest! Within 45 minutes the Jewies had homed in on the live baits leaving my offerings well alone (except for one very tentative touch) with the result that the locals hooked three and landed two very respectable Jewies. The first one caught had the angler (not a young man by any criteria) hopping along the large and irregular stones of the wall like a ballet dancer as he followed the fish some 200 plus meters toward the entrance. Most impressive!
The third fish (the largest one) took over 1/2 hour to land as it screamed toward the entrance almost to the end of the wall before heading across to the Northern side of the river.
No fish for me but a great night nonetheless. The attached pics (if they work) show parts of Fraser including our camp site and resident dingo followed by Smoky Cape Beach, mate Peter and his "catch", the Seal pup and fishing the wall with yours truly holding the two Jewies caught by the locals who refused to themselves be photographed with their fish.
There's no such thing as a bad days fishing!