Fishin’ Maggie

I saw a cartoon last week called “Under the Dome”. It was a picture of Townsville under a Stephen King novel style Dome, with heavy rain everywhere outside the dome, lightning and storms smashing against the dome, while we were snug and dry inside. It really feels a lot like that at the moment. Savage energy sucking humidity but very little rain. Sunday the 7th  had the first “feels like 44 degrees” on Weatherzone that I have seen this year. Now that’s ridiculously hot and humid.

Imagine then, leaping enthusiastically into a small uncovered tinny (Wok) at 3pm after a day’s work and motoring off for an afternoon fish. You definitely earn every fish you catch, let me tell you.

We just got the quote to repair our Yanmar motor on our big Savage and it is nearly $20k, (OUCH!) so that boat may be out of order for a while, while we find a rich relative. I may be reduced to the fishing with the 3m 4hp for a little while, but with the weather the way it is there are few reef trip opportunities anyway.

While the weather is crap, don’t forget our wonderful Townsville Barra Farm to hone your Barra skills before chasing the big one around the Island. With Barra up to 1.2m in the big lure only ponds, and plenty of smaller Barra in the other ponds for the kids to catch, it is always a fun day on the mainland. The website is www.barrafunpark.com.  They have a fun kids water park, cable skiing, BBQ’s and picnic areas and are reasonably priced.

Congratulations to Jye V. who cracked a perfect Barra in the mangroves on lure to start the 2016 Barra ball rolling. Fishing the Tinny with Josh, the boys set some crab pots, and motored off to chuck lures for a while. The big Barra completed some fantastic aerobatic manoeuvrers, before being brought to the boat for Pics. Great Fish Jye
Matt J. will always wonder what he might have had on his line late last week. Sitting quietly fishing with Scotty on the Concrete block at Nelly Sunday night, Matt hooked “the big one” on a 6lb 4’ Tackle Rat combo. Never one to give up. Matt spent 1.5 hours fighting the monster before finally losing it in a frustrating snap off. Mangrove Jack? Trevally? Shark? Matt will never know and is going to upgrade his gear with his birthday vouchers. Happy birthday Matt.

It’s always great to be back on the island, after a trip down to Sydney and Coffs Harbour. The weather was a lot milder than here, and of course the fishing was much quieter, on the odd occasion I had a chance.

When I was in Sydney visiting my children, (after the surprise engagement of my daughter Cassie) I managed to get one fishing session in, for Rainbow and Brown Trout. Talking earlier about sitting in a tinny fishing in the stinking hot sun, well this is the exact opposite.  We rose at 3:30am, keen as mustard, 2 kayaks strapped to the Mazda 3, as well as tackle bags and food preloaded the previous night. After a quick stop to the 24 hour Macca’s for 2 large cups of wake up, we headed up the Blue Mountains. After driving 1.5 hours in fog, we arrived at the destination, a pristine lake nestled in the valley, with only a few coffee cups and beer cans on the shores showing evidence of previous anglers. We had 2 kayaks, one a state of the art Hobie Revolution fishing Kayak with Mirage foot drive and all the bells and whistles, (my sons rig), and the one I had hired from Emu Plains. Mine was a $200 when new, which was a long time ago, no name, bum wetting piece of cheap Chinese plastic with no rod holders or plugs . The air was crisp and cool and the water soaking my butt was freezing. We paddled quietly off to play with some elusive Brown and Rainbow Trout.

2 hours of the serene outback fishing that you see on the fishing shows followed, with water birds aplenty and the tiny plop noise of fresh water native turtles taking a breath. Trout were elusive and my butt was frozen to the seat with the cold water gradually soaking my shirt as well. We hooked up two brown Trout and were prepared for a great days fishing when 2 things changed. The first was a blisteringly cold wind that started at 8 and was 15 knots by 9am. The other game changer was the sudden appearance of ski boats and jet skis, pouring into the lake from somewhere and roaring past at 60knots plus. Any kayaker knows how bad boat wakes get, and I reckon the boat wash was bigger than our waves during Yasi. Couple this with the wind and no foot control pedals, and my kayak had become uncontrollable.

In addition my lures were going in places no fish can swim, so needless to say we gave up and paddled back to the car. The trip back was harrowing. Try crossing a channel with speedboats and skiers flying past both directions at breakneck speed.

I think I will stick to Kayaking the Island for now, especially now the bigger croc has been caught. Hopefully there will be no more reports from Cockle Bay of Crocs for a while.
This week I’m off to catch a Barra, (after work and home duties of course.)Wish me luck

Until next time gone Fishin’…. be back at dark-thirty
Cheers Dale
Fish’n N Fuel’n
36 Mandalay Ave, Nelly Bay 4778-5126

For all of your fishing and sports hire gear. We hire and sell fishing rods, and snorkel equipment, plus sell bait, tackle, ice spear fishing equipment, toys, party, pool toys, and BIKE HIRE, SEGWAY TOURS and convenience supplies. Check out Kooler 24 hour Ice 7kg plus $4.  New BIKE section. Rod and reel repair available.