March 31, 2005 Opal Mining Update - No 47 In North Queensland Fishing Part - 2

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Again just to remind you where we are fishing and we are doing a lot right now in that Missionary Bay Area, just in front of Number 7 creek, which is the creek to the left of where the letter L is.

This day we went out to the Number 7 creek and fished just off the channel marker in front of it, this marker is to show you where the channel (deep water) starts, on the right on this marker is a large mud flat, same as in front of all the creeks here and when the tide is going to be a low one you can get in trouble very easy as the mud flat does come out of the water, as it did this day on low tide. There is a ferry that goes along here during the tourist season, which this is not right now as this is supposed to be the wet season, cyclones and all that, have not had that so fat either, anyway the ferry goes up Number 7 creek and turns into Number 8 creek, then goes right to the end of this creek where there is a boat ramp, from there they walk across 150 meters to the Ramsay Bay and onto the beach for a day out, we have not been there as yet. This water is the calmest we have seen here ever, you would not believe that the fish are biting and biting well when I took these photos and this is a very large bay, in my experience fish normally do not bite in water like this, we used to never get a bit in Broome when the water was becalmed like this, until the breeze came in and put a chop on the water, but not here, this day we had a very good day fishing as you will see later in the letter, the entrance to Number 7 creek is just to the left of the photo, it is a very big creek and we have fished a couple of holes in there without success so far.

This is a photo of the left side of the bay from the entrance and we see some boats on that side fishing as there is another 6 creeks that feed into the bay from over there and I think that they are fishing in front of number 2 and 3 creek, may check it out one day to see how good it is.

And this is a photo of the right side of the bay, in the background is the Garden Island some 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) away from us here, we also there fish from time to time, but have not caught any there on the last 4 outings, again it is so calm it is hard to believe, lucky for us it is overcast or it would be a very hot day with no breeze.

This is to out right, there is a very small creek over there that we have fished, but as we went inside it and caught only small undersized fish and some Black Bream we also got bit rotten with sandflys, there is another spot that can be fished there just outside and to the left of it which has a narrow channel running along it but we would have trouble anchoring and staying on it so have not tried it.

This is a shot of the Goold Island 12 kilometers away, with the Garden Island to the left and Mona Rock to the right of it, that bit of land sticking out on the right of photo is a corner of Hinchinbrook that is called Macushla Point, we also have to try that place as well for fishing and it is a camping place as well for tourists.

This is the biggest we, I have caught this trip so far, it is 56 centimeters in length, that's about 3 inches under 2 feet, I am sure that Pats was bigger last year, but we did not measure it at that time, would like to catch one eating fish bigger if I can before we leave, this is the Grunter, so called because it grinds it crushing plates at the back of its throat and sounds like a grunt, proper name is Barred Javelin Fish and is a member of the Perch family, good eating fish, this is the sort after fish here along with the Barramundi for those that cannot get out the Great Barrier Reef to fish, like me and Pat.

This is the good days fishing from the Saturday above, 19 Grunters and we got 2 Black Bream and 2 Estuary Cod from John the Crabber, so a few more fillets got into the freezer at last.

This is from the Sunday's fishing, 12 Grunters and again 2 Estuary Cod from John the Crabber, they were plenty of fish there today on the sounder, but they were more finicky to catch so we had to work a bit harder to get these, but we still has a good day.

We went out on the Monday and only got 4 grunters, we also caught 4 small sharks and 3 cat fish, we then packed it in and came home early as the tide is a big one and will be the same until Thursday when they change and start to come back together again, so we may do well by the next weekend if the Category 4 Cyclone that is just above Cairns right now does not do anything to upset it round here. Have just about got the freezer full, it could take a couple more fillets yet but will probably leave it like this and start on the other freezer, there will be about 25 kilos in this one when I go home.

We have had 3 days this week 8, 9 & 10 off as there is a cyclone called Ingrid some 600 kilometers north of us, it has caused some heavy swells out on the water here as well as the tides being high right now which is also not very good for fishing, so we will try and go out tomorrow Friday if possible, right now we will do the tourist bit and go to see a place called Mission Beach today about 60 kilometers north of us, supposed to be a pretty place so we will see what it is like and gives us something to do for the day, also I have to stop in a workshop and see about getting the boat & trailer in before we go to get the wheel bearings on the trailer taken off and re-greased before we go back to Coober Pedy. Ended up having 5 days off through this cyclone giving us some high seas, also the tides are wrong for us again, we do try to get out and today we got out again if only to get out for some fresh air, this day we did not catch many fish and those that we did manage to catch where all under size except for one Black Bream, so was another wasted day for us, we had to fish in the Damper Creek, due to the slightly rough seas, as we travel down the channel into a on-coming swell we only have 7 miles to go and when in the creek it is sheltered for fishing, but this creek has not produced for us much this year, the best spot has been inside the Missionary Bay just outside the number 7 creek, but when the weather is rough it is not pleasant to go and fish there, so we just have to bide our time, this fish below is Red Throated SweetLips, it is a member of the Emperor/Snapper family, this fish was undersize and put back.

This in on March the 17th, the weather could not be better than this for fishing but again there was not much around, Pat had a hit on her rod about 5 minutes after we had arrived and started fishing, I think it was Grouper and a big one, in the 100 lbs plus mark, I had to take over in try to get it in, but to no avail I played it for over 5 minutes and it went around the boat once, but then it headed straight for Missionary Bay which was in front of the boat and on the right of photo, then after it had taken about half of the spool out I had to put the brake on to try and stop the fish or break the line and it broke the line at where I have the swivel clip tied on above the hook. Here Pat is playing another fish, looks like what ever is around this day is on her side, not that there was much around as it turned out.

This is what she had on the end of her line, a 4 kilo (8.8 lbs) Golden Trevally, the biggest Golden Trevally we have caught so far and again it was Pat who caught it, seems like she catches the biggest every year, the only other fish we caught other than this was a Remora each, (sucker fish that stick to sharks) not a good day for me, but Pat did alright, we will be here at the Garden Island sand spit again tomorrow morning, we will have to get up at 5 am again to be here just after the high tide, as we fish the outgoing tide and as there is a bigger tide, it should be better for the fish and fishing, so we will see.

This is the sunrise on the 19th, nothing special only took it to show you that we had to get up at 5 am and was at the boat ramp at 5:40 launching the boat, it was just braking daylight when we were going out of the boat ramp to sea, this was taken as I was just turning into Missionary Bay, again the weather was great and the sea calm, still have about 15 minutes to travel yet to get to our spot at the other end of the bay where the creeks are and hope that we can have a good day catching fish.

This is a guy called Peter, he is also staying at the park for a couple of weeks doing fishing, he has been with us fishing for the last 3 days, this is how we used to be before we traded up to the boat we have now, we could not fish in a small dingy anymore, our old bodies need a bit more comfort these days, but he has it well set up for a single person.

Well here we are on the way back from the marker, no fish there to be caught, I also tried another 2 spots not far from there, before we gave it away, here we are heading for the Garden Island to give it a try before heading home, this is a long way round for going  home and has added a few more miles on the trip, as we got about half way to this Garden Island (it was 12 kilometers or 7.5 miles from where we were to this Island) so the whole round trip today was about 36 miles and I have to tell you it was for nothing. Pat and I did not catch a fish, what a waste of time again, this is the third day in a row that we have not caught much, in fact the only fish in that time worth talking about is the Golden Trevally Pat caught, to morrow if the weather is good again in the morning we will be trying a new spot, it is well out and around the top of the Hinchinbrook Island to the right of photo it is called Eva Island (see the top photo) it will be deeper water there and not a lot of people at this time go there because it can get a bit rough if there is a swell up, so we will have to see what the weather is like in the morning.

We did not get to Eva Island, when we got to the corner of Cape Richards the swell was up over 1.2 meters with white caps everywhere and as we had about another 10 miles to go, it was not worth it in our boat, so we fished on the corner of Cape Richards in 54 feet of water for about 3/4 of an hour. On the Fish Finder we had hundreds of fish swimming past, after about 1/2 an hour Pat asked me to turn it off as the beeper was driving her nuts, but we could not get one to take a bait, although we tired 3 rods down at different levels and 2 different types of bait, nothing was interested, as after 3/4 of an hour in the rough swell, we decided to come back and go to the Marker in front of the number 7 Creek in the Missionary Bay, again it was for nothing a we did not get a bite there either. This is the 5th day in a row that the only fish we have caught is the Golden Trevally that Pat has above, not worth getting up at 5 am for I can tell you and doing 30 miles(48 kilometers) for nothing, so we are having the day off tomorrow and going into Cairns. Today we would have liked to go to this Eva Island, but as we did not get back until 11:30 pm last night (Monday 21st) and I did not know the weather forecast for the wind and swell, we went out to the Number 7 Creek Marker again in Missionary Bay, this is on the way to Eva Island but we turn off before on the way to the Cape Richards, it turned out that the wind forecast was for 8 to 13 knots and will be the same for Wednesday and Thursday, so we should make it tomorrow and Thursday if the forecast is correct. We did not start to get any bites until the tide had turned for 2.5 hours, we caught 4 Grunters, 2 small sharks and 1 of what they call King Salmon, which Pat caught, she always catches the unusual ones and big ones, this is fish's proper name is Threadfin Salmon and can grow to more than 4 feet in length, so this is just a baby, but legal as the legal length is 40 centimeters and this is 50, cant wait until tomorrow as there is some big fish caught around this Eva Island when you can get to it, Corral Trout I have been told can be caught there, one of the top eating fish you can get.

Finally got to that Eva Island, dont know how long it took us to get there exactly as I left my watch at the cabin today, problem number 1, it is almost 20 miles on the dot to get there and we fished a couple of places for a while, but did no good, there was fish swimming around but again could not get one to bite, that is a good eating fish, I caught a couple of small fish not worth talking about. About 10 minutes after we had got there, I got on the radio to the Fuel & Bait shop called Port of Call here at the boat ramp, I had been told by John the crabber across from us that the radio would not work from out there, because of the mountains that are in the way, but he was wrong, it did work and the time was 8:15, it was after this I got the 2 small fish, then we decide to move to another spot. When I went to start the engine the starter motor would not engage in the ring gear and it was just wissing around, so I left the ignition switched on and went to pull the starter rope and it came away in my hand, some how the rope had been catching in there somewhere and had been torn apart and some of that fine rope dust had seized up the solenoid and stopped the gear from jumping up and engaging in the flywheel, so thankfully I had Pat there to start the motor and I held a pair of long nose pliers under the solenoid and forced it up while she engaged the key to start it. It worked on the 3rd try and I had to do it 4 times before it would work as it should, then we fished there a bit more, but caught nothing so we came back in and went round the corner of the big island and went to fish back at the number 7 creek, I caught 1 small grunter and that was all, so we came home and when I had got the boat on the trailer Pat noticed that the clock in the 4x4 was 1:08. Not a good day again and we got up at 5:15, which will not happen tomorrow, it will be around the 6 pm mark, but I have to go now and take the cover off this part that holds the starting rope in as it makes a funny noise as if something is loose in there, this is probably why it caught the rope in the first place, there is a spare rope that is keep inside the engine cover but you cannot use it as you have to remove the cover that the original rope was in to use it and this requires tools which I dont carry and would not like to try and remove anyway in rough seas, as you would have to hang over the back of the boat. This is Eva Island, a small island but there is some reef between this island and the big Hinchinbrook Island behind it, I dont know how productive it is as for fish breeding there or if it is old dead reef or live reef, but the 2 times we have now tried fishing there we have caught nothing, the last time was on Good Friday, there was a one time 9 boats around there, including ours and we could not see anybody catching any fish although there was fish swimming around below at different depths.

This one of the more unusual catches I have ever caught, at first Pat thought it was a sea snake, but it turned out to be a Morley Eel, I thought I had a good sized fish on as it had rolled itself into a ball and as I was pulling it in against a fast moving out going tide, thought it was funny as it was not putting up any fight, now we can see why, you can also see that the water is dirty, that is because it is creek water, is sort of clean when the tide is coming in, but on the out tide and when there is a lot of movement in water it gets some mud in it as you see here, lots of fish love this type of water.

A photo of the boat ramp here as we are in the queue waiting to get out, as this is the Easter Weekend it was crowded to say the least and even when we were fishing there was boats every where out there and as we were driving out of the boat ramp there was still more boats coming in to go out fishing, but there were going to be disappointed as there was no fish around, everybody we spoke to had caught nothing that day including us, this Morley Eel above was caught at the Number 7 Creek marker, which is were we came back to from the Eva Island, so again the weather is just great but the fishing was not good.

A sunrise again on the way to the Number 7 Creek marker, this our last day fishing here, this is as we are going round the corner into Missionary Bay, what you can see here is Cape Richards on the far left, again the sea is nice and calm for traveling and it is 13.5 miles to the Number 7 Creek marker from the boat ramp, hopefully we may catch some fish today.

Another unusual fish that we have not caught here before, this a member of the Trigger Fish family, (Leather Jacket) have to be very careful handling this fish as with all types of fish of course, but this one has 3 big spikes to watch out for the biggest is on the top as you can see and the other 2 are directly underneath on it belly sticking out sideways, it is as bad as the Catfish.

This a Squall we just happed to see on the way back to the boat ramp, this is going across the Hinchinbrook Channel back to the boat ramp and as it turned out not a drop hit Cardwell, it has been very dry here this year, the weather people say that the month of February was the driest on record and the locals say that if they dont get some rain soon they may face water restrictions in the near future, as the wet season is nearly over there may be no more Cyclones now to give them lots of rain.

Today is Monday the 28th and we are starting to pack up to go back home, so we have today and tomorrow and after all of the good weather we have had in the past 7 weeks you could have bet that it would rain when we wanted to have dry and warm weather to clean and pack to boat up ready for the trip, they did not forecast this yesterday or we could have put the cover on the boat to keep it dry, now is swimming in water, they say on the news this morning that it is just showers passing through, so I hope they are right, we can get a lot of things ready but will need tomorrow nice and dry to pack things a way, this lot here at packing up today as they only came for the weekend, but they also have to pack up there gear that is wet through and tents are not nice when wet, been there, done that, hope for sun later today or tomorrow and will put the cover on the boat tonight if we have a chance to get it cleaned and dry today.

Lucky for us the rain did not last that long and was all over by 10:00 am, then the sun came out and Pat got on with the job of cleaning the boat and I took the fishing rods apart and serviced the reels ready for the next time, then after the boat had dried out about 2 hours, then we packed the boat ready for traveling back home, just have to fix one back light and check the tires pressure at the first fuel stop in Townsville. Today Tuesday we will be getting the 4x4 ready, have to put the freezer back in, first I have to get the other Fridge/Freezer on power, then transfer some fish over when it is cold enough so that the big Freezer will be a bit lighter to lift, from there loading the rest of the stuff will not take long. The last day out fishing on Monday did produce some fish, we caught 4 grunters, 6 small Trevally which I have kept as whole fish so I can bake them in foil, 1 small shark and 1 King Salmon, which I caught and was a bit bigger than the one Pat caught above, forgot to measure it, but it weight in at 1.25 kilo, these last two I filleted, so all in all we will be bringing a lot of fish back home, some I will be giving to friends who are not so lucky as us and do not get to go fishing. br /> Here are some photos of the Marina at Port Hinchinbrook where the public boat ramp is, those small mountains in the background are on Hinchinbrook Island and the gap in the middle is the entrance out of the harbor, we turn right in front of those 2 houses to get to the boat ramp which is just round the corner about 400 meters.

This is in front of the coffee shop at the marina, where all of these photos are taken from, nice set-up for setting down and relaxing while having a cool drink or coffee, you can se some of the expensive houses in the back ground, this is like a rich mans paradise here with the houses and boats, bit out of my league, but nice to see how the other half lives that can afford it, but give me a chance and I could get used to it real quick.

The main ramp and boardwalk to get to the boats and the ferry, which is parked on the left of photo it takes passengers out to the island on cruses etc.

Some of the boats that are kept here.

The other side of the seating in front of the coffee shop, almost at high tide right now.

Time to pack the 4x4 up for an early start in the morning, want to be on the road by 5:00 am as it is a long drive and day to Mt Isa which is our first night stop, from there on to Alice Springs were we will stop for the night and then on Friday we will be back home in Coober Pedy, the leg from the Alice is the short trip only 700 kilometers, the others are 14 hour days at least.

For all of you that are new to the newsletter program and also for those who do not know and are wondering what the pipes are for on the top of the 4x4, they have beach fishing rods in there and they have been in there for some 15 years now, it keeps them out of the sun which damages the binding on the runners also keeps them in one place and out of the way. Hope you have enjoyed this issue and look forward to the next one, hopefully I will have some good photos to show you in the next issue, of opal with color of course, I am hoping that this will be a good year for us, but only time will tell, so stay with us over the next few months and find out what goes on in our part of the world. But normally it Patricia Until the next issue......... Stay Tuned for the next Issue, who knows what I will have to report. Until the next issue......... and wish me lots of LUCK. Cya Later, Stuart Bird. To return back to the Archived Page for more Updates click, Here!

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