Fraser Coast
| Date: | 11th February 2006 |
| Time: | 5:00am - 8:15am |
| Tide: | High 8:01am (Burrum Heads) |
| Launch site: | Burrum Heads |
| Water temperature: | N/A |
| Lures/baits used: | Hard bodied lures and Soft Plastics |
| Report: | Since I figured that I only had about two hours to fish, and the tide was rising, I didn't fancy heading back upstream to the previous day's areas, than be faced with a paddle back against the last of the run-in tide. So since this was my first visit to the area I thought I'd troll along the drop-off towards the mouth then cross over and cast around the banks before heading back to camp. Apart from a turtle and a couple of jumping Stingrays (I'd forgotten about them!) there was no activity, so by 6:35am I decided to head back, with a couple of lures out the back just because I can't help myself. |
| A minute or two into the crossing and my light outfit went off. While the fish happily went on a 50-60 metre run I pulled in my other line and parked my paddle. I regained some line before the fish headed off again on another long run. At this stage I was guessing I'd probably hooked a Ray. There's only so much pressure you can apply with a a 4-6lb rod and 4lb Fireline. I know that theory say "pump and wind" but this was largely a case of "pump and try to wind but just have the fish take up as much as you have pumped". | |
Fifteen minutes into the fight and things go slack and you wonder whether
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| Next the fish heads towards the bank which is looking significantly rockier than it did before, but at this stage I've managed to narrow the gap to about five metres, but still have no idea what I'm connected to. | |
| The fish comes back out into open water and after 30 minutes I finally get colour and identify a Trevally. At least I now know I'm not fighting a Ray! It's circling now but still down about 1.5m and using its side against me. Twice I get it circling on the surface and the second time try to tail it, but it dives again. At one stage I get confused when I see my lure, a fluoro yellow Scorpion 35 with black bands, some distance from the fish before realising it's actually a small fish. As they say, "match the hatch". | |
| Finally, after 45 minutes, I lead the fish alongside the kayak, tail it, and it comes aboard without a kick. A solid Giant Trevally just shy of half a metre. These fish just never give up! It took me another fifteen minutes to paddle back to where I'd first hooked up. At least I've finally learnt to tie good knots! | |
| Submitted by: | Tony |
| Date: | 10th February 2006 |
| Time: | 5:30am - 12:00pm |
| Tide: | High 7:24am (Burrum Heads) |
| Launch site: | Burrum Heads |
| Water temperature: | N/A |
| Lures/baits used: | Hard bodied lures, Soft Plastics, and Bait |
| Report: | Fished the North bank of the Burrum River a couple of kilometres upstream from Burrum Heads. |
| Mick got Flathead, Grunter, and Moses Perch, while I got a Flathead, numerous small Moses Perch, and lost a Bream at the side of the kayak. | |
| Submitted by: | Tony |
| Date: | 17 & 18 October 2004 |
| Time: | 17th 3:00-4:00pm & 18th 9:00-11:00am |
| Tide: | Low 4:57pm & High 12:33pm (Tin Can Bay) |
| Launch site: | Tin Can Bay - Kauri Creek |
| Water temperature: | N/A |
| Lures/baits used: | Hard bodied lures, Soft Plastics and Bait |
| Report: | With the annual "blokes fishing trip" this year being done "in style" on a 10 berth Houseboat rented from Luxury Afloat at Tin Can Bay, three of us decided to carry our Kayaks on board to access the shallower water that neither the Houseboat nor the tinnie supplied as a tender would be able to access. |
| As it turned out, however, we picked the worst weekend in the year for this trip and spent most of our time in anchorage to ride out the 20-30 knot SE to NE winds, heavy rain squalls, and thunder storm cells that lashed the area for most of the three day excursion and prevented us from exploring the Great Sandy Strait as planned. | |
| Unfortunately, because of the stormy weather conditions, we managed to fit in only two very brief Kayak fishing sorties that left us yearning for more. | |
| 17th 3:00-4:00pm | Three of us headed from the Hedley anchorage to the inlet that leads to Little Stony Creek to throw soft plastics along the mangrove edges. During the half an hour we fished there I caught and released a 40cm Dusky Flathead with one of the others catching and releasing a small bream. |
| 18th 9:00-11:00am | After a wet and windy night at anchor only two starters were interested in Kayak fishing this morning so we decided to stay close to the Houseboat and fish the rising tide as it worked across the sand banks and into the mangrove fringes opposite Hedley anchorage. |
| Within two hours, between us we had taken five Dusky Flathead ranging in size from 42 to 58cm and six whiting from 25 to 36cm. I was casting a black beetle coloured Micro-Min that took all the Flatties whilst my colleague used locally pumped yabbies very lightly weighted to take all the Whiting. | |
| We decided to keep the four largest Flathead and five largest Whiting to feed the mob for Tuesday's breakfast. | |
| Given the good result for such a small amount of fishing, we left wondering how good it could have been if we'd actually had good weather for any reasonable length of time. I guess we'll have to do it all again one day to find out for sure. | |
| Submitted by: | Ross C. |
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