We're baaaaaaack!
Hi everyone, Erika here posting for my husband Marc. Been away from the board for a while because we had moved to Australia! Queensland to be exact, in a little resort town called Noosa about an hour and a half north of Brisbane. And boy do they love to fish! Queensland is the only state that doesn't require a fishing license. We lived in an area called Noosa Waters, on a canal system right in our back yard. From there we can access the main (Noosa) river from a lock system and on a good day go out through the bar into Laguna Bay and various reefs.
We started our fishing experience with a pair of fishing kayaks. Night fishing seems to be the most productive for mangrove jack, moses perch, and trevally. There's also a nasty looking fish called a hairtail, everything there has teeth! To quote John Wayne "Everything in these woods'll either bite ya, stab ya or stick ya!"
Soon after we bought a 5.2meter tinny with a 30hp motor, now we were traveling in style! First night out on the new tinny and we both caught keeper mangrove jacks. Bream are everywhere and considered a bread and butter species. Flathead kind of look like our lizard fish but much bigger, a hoot to catch on light tackle and plastics, and very tasty.
In the canal in our back yard we've caught 4 different species of trevally and these huge mud crabs. Taste as good as a king crab! I'll have to save my first crab story for a barbecue though, it's a long and silly story. It's a real blast to see and hear the trevally feeding early in the morning, throw a fly or popper in their midst and hang on! Little speed demons. And if your lucky you may even hook into a queenfish.
Surf fishing is a lot of fun too, I've never been in water that warm! You can drive on the beach, dig for pipis (small clams) and fish for swallowtail dart, bream, flathead, tailor and whiting. In Laguna bay they catch Spanish mackerel, blackfin tuna, jewfish, and cobia. We didn't fish much in the bay, I was too chicken to cross the bar in our tinny. We did manage once, the crossing was like glass. But I've watched many boats cross and was afraid we wouldn't be so lucky. Plus we were only allowed to go out 2km from shore without an eperb. There's a neat website that shows updated videos of the bar crossing: http://www.fishingnoosa.com.au/noosabarcrossing.htm anyone willing to try with their Blackman?
Another fun fact about Queensland is you only need a boating license if you have over 6hp. Kids can putt all over in a tinny with a small motor, who needs a razor scooter? There's a lot of boats where we lived too, nice big catamaran cruisers and tons of small boats. There's even an annual classic boat regatta in the local marina, beautiful wooden boats.
It was definitely an experience, and we do miss the fishing. But we miss home, friends, and family more. And yes, we missed our boat. It looked terrible when we got home, over a year of neglect, dirty and oxidized. But we're working on getting it all prettied up again and ready for fishing in So Cal!
I've got lots of pictures posted on the Boca Pix website. Not sure if I should transfer them here? let me know!
Bream
Queenfish
Moses Perch
Double Island Point
River Mouth
http://www.bocapix.com/showgallery.p...=500&ppuser=46
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