Fraser Island - October 2012. Part 1

I thought I would throw up some freshness in between fishing trips to keep the reading material up.  Me and my partner went to Fraser Island on what is now our annual week long pilgrimage.  We go up chasing the big Tailor that travel right up the east coast from down in our neighbouring Southern waters of Victoria and N.S.W to spawn.  There is a closure on their main spawning grounds for a period of 2 or so months so this offers them at least a little reprieve.  The good news is we did get onto a few Tailor from the beach but the majority were on the smaller side of being legal and as they were mainly caught on our first and second nights we threw them back as they don't keep well for long periods.

We spent a few days on the Eastern side fishing and swimming in the surf while looking out for the man in the grey suit and eventually ventured over to the Western side at Awinya creek.  Awinya was an awesome spot and not a person around for miles.  It did take a few hours to get there from our camp just South of Indian head so that might explain that.  It's a relatively featureless beach so I sought out some features that might hold fish.  I tied on a 5" squidgy plastic on a TT jig head and flicked a few times into the creek mouth which was now flowing with fresh, tea tree stained water.  After a few flicks of what I thought might have been an over sized plastic a nice little lizard took a liking to it and put up a nice fight on my light tackle.  60cm and so close to breeding season, I removed the hook and made her pose for a photo before she gingerly swam off looking for a real meal.

The scenery was pretty awesome, crystal white beaches, blue water and a pretty clear sky it was hard to leave but I wasn't too keen on travelling the beaches on a high tide so off we trundled.

The final day we were there it was our mission to take back some fish to the folks for lunch and to say thanks for minding the mutt while we were off adventuring.  As the sun was setting on the final day we put the last of the pilchards into my bait belt and walked down the beach.  The bait was getting very old by this stage and was nearly falling apart before I could get it on the hooks.  After a few hits and only one just legal Tailor I was down to the last pilchard and feeling lowsy I couldn't even supply lunch!  I fired it into the gutter and prayed it stayed on the hooks and as soon as it hit the water, bang it was on.  The fish darted for the open water and I played it hoping that all my knots would hold and I could get it in to redeem myself.  Sure enough after a little tussle I got him on the sand and wiped my brow, thank god for that!

All in all it was an awesome trip and at least we got stuck into a few fish!  Stay tuned for part 2, a follow up from the week after camping out of a boat on the western side near Ungowa.