There's No Point Fishing Where the Fish Aren't.

We tentatively tossed some dates around over the next month or two and had a laugh about losing lures and getting spooled by monster fish as well as talking seriously about the logistics of getting a ute, crew and 21’ boat 2,000kms north. I floated the idea of putting the car and trailer on the back of a truck and getting it freighted to (and then from) Proserpine so that we could fly in and pick it up and get an extra six days fishing in (assuming that it was 3 days drive to get from the south of Sydney to Airlie Beach), this seemed feasible. However, Kurt needed his ute for work so this plan was abandoned but is still something that I have in the back of my mind for these long distance trips where time is not only limited but also equals money*.

The joking around stopped when Kurt called me one day and told me that another mate of his, Ray, had, out of the blue, suggested a similar trip and was I serious about all of this? He had barely finished the sentence before I blurted out “Yep, I’m in, I’ll apply for leave tomorrow!”

Planning went from idly looking at Google Earth dreaming about islands and reef systems off the entire Queensland coast to setting a Northerly limit on our adventure and then measuring distances from land to fishy looking structures. I then scoured the internet for old reports from these locations or videos from other people’s exploits from these areas. The next step was to work out which ramps we could actually launch from. This whittled our jump off points down significantly which then in turn limited our destinations. I ended up with three definite jump off points that met all of the criteria. 

Having a number of fishable locations over a one thousand kilometre stretch of coast was key part of this trip. I live at the bottom of New South Wales and have to book all of my holidays well in advance, meaning that every time I book a trip it is a roll of the dice as to whether I end up with fishable weather at my destination of choice. By not limiting ourselves to one particular location we figured that our chances of getting fishable conditions would be greatly improved and once the trip began this proved to be true.

October rolled around rapidly and the week before we were due to depart was spent endlessly checking wind, weather and fishing reports. It looked like we would have a few days with wind up to 10kts around Agnes Waters so that was settled upon as our first destination. 

During this time my sister had gotten engaged and decided on the first weekend of our trip as the ideal time to get married. It was a lovely ceremony on the Saturday and I was on the first flight from Melbourne to the Gold Coast the next day. We continued up to Turkey Beach, arriving the next morning and steaming out the reef with light winds and a small rolling swell, while it was blowing 30Kts at Airlie Beach, our original destination. We spotted some birds hovering in the distance and deployed a couple of bibless minnows and trolled our way towards them, both rods loaded up and we soon had a shark mackerel in the boat. Not the 30kg Spanish that we had been dreaming of but it was a start. Ray took a fillet off it and in no time had a feed of red throat emperor in the esky, that was dinner well and truly sorted. It was around this time that we noticed water coming from under the cowling of the outboard, removing it revealed a split water hose, not what we wanted to see when we were 30NM offshore on the first fishing day of a 2 week trip. This was not good, the outboard had been serviced in the last month to avoid this very situation. We wrapped the hose in silicon tape and slowly motored into a public mooring. 

We had spent some time looking at the Navionics charts the evening before and picked a couple of likely looking pinnacles which weren’t too far from our mooring. The tape appeared to be doing its job, so with high spirits we set off. After a couple of drifts over the first rise Ray who was using bait was rewarded with a solid hook up. It took a lot of thumb pressure for the fish to slow and eventually turn, as we finally got colour on it the leader gave way, leaving us all wondering what this silver bulldozer was.

We did a few more drifts but didn’t see any more action so we pulled the pin, as we were trolling to the next waypoint we noticed a bit of structure and some good marks so decided to have a couple of drops and see what was down there. After Ray’s success with bait we sweetened our jigs with a bit of fish flesh and were rewarded with a few small pearl perch before I hooked something more serious, after a few tense moments we got colour, RED! My first red emperor hit the deck, high-fives all around and another drift, Ray had a nice pearlie at the side of the boat so I stuck my rod in the rear rod holder to give him a hand, just as I got it in the net my rod buckled over, I thrust the net at him and grabbed my rod, a reasonable tussle on the way up saw a nice snapper in the net. Soon after we reached the top of the tide and the action died off so the minnows were sent out the back and we trolled back towards our anchorage, Kurts’s reel let out a scream and his rod loaded, a short fight saw a lit up wahoo at the side of the boat, I sunk the gaff home and our first pelagic for the trip was in the boat. Boxes were getting ticked!

At around this time we noticed that there was water leaking from the cowling again, a quick inspection showed that the tape had split under the pressure and we were in trouble again. Luckily for us, Kurt had used a piece of 10mm hose, about 25mm longer than the piece that was split, as the cover for the point of the gaff, the pieces were swapped and we were back in business.

The next day had us fishing in amongst the islands and bommies of the reef before heading back to port with a change in the weather predicted that afternoon. The weather app was right and the heavens opened as we reached the Bruce Highway, at least we didn’t need to wash the boat down.

We were due to get some good weather in the Whitsundays in a few days but with a bit of wind and rain thrown in periodically, our plan was to hide from the wind behind the islands and then head out to the reef on our last couple of days as the wind was predicted to die off.

We spent a couple of days reorganizing the boat and travelling while the weather was bad, in that time we found a fuel line that was just about to fail so we bought a meter of 10mm hose, replaced the fuel line and gaff cover and had plenty spare in case anything else happened. We suspect that the hoses perished due to the mechanic using a particular type of anti-corrosion spray on the engine which is known to degrade rubber hoses.

We made it to the Whitsundays and our first day amongst the islands provided us with a good taste of the fast fish that Kurt and I had been longing for since that fateful day in December. Another mate of mine, Tim, arrived in the afternoon to spend a few days fishing the saltwater to give himself a break from an unsuccessful barra trip. 

That evening it started to rain, we sheltered in the camp kitchen, drinking beer, eating sickening quantities of fresh longtail sashimi and telling tales, both tall and true, while the backpackers muttered darkly over their 2 minute noodles, tinned tuna and cask wine. 

The next morning we were up at 4am and the rain was hammering down, we retreated to the camp kitchen again and looked at the weather apps, drank coffee and watched the rain come down. Ray had had his fill of light tackle sports fish the day before and generously offered to stay at camp so the boat wasn’t too crowded. Eventually Tim had enough sitting around and cajoled Kurt and myself into the boat “If it’s too bad, we can always come home”. It rained and blew for almost the entire day but the fishing was absolutely on fire. We were fishing with a variety of spin outfits from 5000 sized reels and 40Lb braid and leader on 7’6 7-15Kg rod to 10000’s matched to custom US composites rods but we were all fishing with the 155 and 110 Wayward Bottle Rockets with single hooks not only because of their effectiveness but also because of the spectacular aerial strikes that they draw. Getting multiple shots at the same school, double hook ups and airborne tuna were the orders of the day. We returned to camp elated and regaled Ray with stories of the days events. We were excited to have him out there with us the next day as the weather was due to clear so it should be even better. 

Unfortunately it was not. The tuna obviously favoured the overcast conditions as the next day they were very spooky, often requiring us to park and wait and hope that they popped up within casting range or if we were travelling we only got one shot at them, if we were lucky. 

The weather window that we were hoping for at Airlie didn’t look like it was going to open until the day that we were planning on leaving, we could have fished it, but it would have been meant a very long day on the water and then trying to make up time as we travelled.  

We made the decision to start heading south a day early and catch this patch of calm weather as it moved up the coast.. Ray was keen to head straight up to the marks that we had found the week prior and stock up on reef fish before heading home while Kurt and I were keen to have a final shot at the bluewater so I could get a wahoo or ‘proper’ tuna. This was the first time in the trip that we had a difference of opinions like this, we ended up coming to a compromise, but it highlighted the need to be open about what each individual’s goals are prior to undertaking a trip like this. Nobody wants to spend their hard earned time and money on a trip where they don’t get to do what they want and not enjoy themselves.  

*This was factoring in loss of income due to time off, if one is self-employed or loss of leave if one is not as well as the cost of fuel, accommodation, food and general wear and tear on the vehicle and trailer.