Gedday Ausfishers,
Next w/end, I am going up to a bloke from works property on Stewart Island behind Fraser, just north of Gary's anchorage. We have been there before and it is a great set up. 10 x 10 solar powered shed, gas fridges and cooking, combustion stove etc. Boy heaven my missus called and I have to agree!!Now the bloke from work went up there the other w/end to mow and cleanup and brought back some photo's. One of these show's the spot where we are going to anchor now being occupied by a large croc trap!!!
I know you nth qld boys will probably have a smirk, but for us Brissie lads that only normally have to worry about blue bottles and cutting your toe on a oyster shell at the ramp, this is a somewhat worrying development!! We are still going obviously, but wont be whiting fishing till all hours up to our knees in water, or swimming to retrieve the boat if anchored deep!!
Now to really get us in the mindset please feel free to share any croc encounter stories you have, amusing, scary or bizarre.
My closest experience so far was taking my missus and dog for a stop at an island just out of hervey bay marina while on hols at Toogoom. About 10 minutes to walk around, great little spot and all good on the day. The first Sunday I get home and there is photo of same island showing a large croc slide right about where we anchored for our stop. That is as close as I want to come myself. There are sneaky big buggers, don't play by the same rules as sharks(I stay on land, you don't bite me!!) and just a little scary!!
Look forward to reading your stories......I think!!!
Cheers......Terry.........
It always amazes me in these times of technological gadgetry,none of these "sightings"are ever accompanied by a photo.Apparently there was one sighted off Shelley beach last week. It always pays to be vigilant but it all seems a little contrived.Reports are that there is no evidence of crocodile activity in the area.So,if you see one,take a bloody photo.
Paulo
I read that one guy on Fraser threw his castnet over a croc only last week. It was in the paper. Theres been other sightings by members on fishntales website. theres a lot of credibilty to the spate of sightings around Fraser and up the Mary. Just because we dont have a pic doesnt mean that they arent there. Which island at Toogum had a croc? A pic you say? Jee, Ive been fishing there at night lately....The one near Goodies downstream? Your not getting confused with the croc on Round Is are you?
No Gecko. I said the little island out from Hervey Bay marina. Couldn't think of the name but your right, it is Round Island.
Cheers.....Terry........
I have a holiday house at Poona, about 10km south of Stewart Island, and upon turning up at the ramp a couple of weeks ago, noticed that a crocodile warning sign had been erected. I really wasn't worried about a croc encounter until I saw the sign. Despite having lived in Darwin where you can get them crossing roads, it is hard to get used to having them so far south.
Stu
PS. Hey Andrew....been following your adventures in Paradise on Fishntales as well and note your increasing exploration and knowledge of the area. I hope to move permanently to Poona by the end of the year, so love to catch up when I do
Cheers Stu
Well we northerners certainly have to be careful... don't want a close shave like this bloke:
Some fishos just aren't as careful as they should be:
More human croc bait photos can be found here: http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/200...31_ntnews.html
I personally have yet to see one while fishing but I know it's only a matter of time.
Originally Posted by fish2eat
Hi Stu, I dont use that site much anymore. Im on other sites tho, but I cant name em here. Im not as Active as I used to be.......
We had a croc sign up at the Howard ramp too. It makes you wake up a bit.
Nic, thats a serious close shave.......Ive never seen pics of a croc jumping towards a fisho in a boat, I thought they wouldnt bother leaping. Thx for the lesson.
Last edited by the gecko; 02-05-2009 at 11:45 AM.
had that happen to me in hinchinbrook while getting a crab pot, we have to bat them off with sticks up here.
Hi Andrew,where in the Bay are you?We're in Kawungan,work in M'boro.21yrs this year'
Paulo
Hey Guys interesting to read Eliza Fraser's original account of her return to Morton Bay following her shipwreck survival - seems as though crocs in this part of the world aren't a recent phenomena but but re-establishment of what existed before!
'Stick to fishing instead of fighting' - JC
I was out in Trinity Inlet (in Cairns) just yesterday and was about to have a cast near what i thought was a good looking snag.
Got a bit closer and it was a croc's head just out of the water. Was able to get pretty close with the minn kota before he ducked down.
Also had another time when my brother and I were trolling up a creek around Hinchinbrook. THe bank had pretty steep sides and we were trolling right next to the bank. We must have scared this little fella (only about 2m long) who was up on the high bank. He didn't realise we were there until we were just about on top of him. He bolted down the bank, sort of half landed on my front casting platform then ungraciously scrambled into the water.
happended so quickly that my brother and i were left with ours mouths open and the need for a change of underwear.. needless to say we stopped trolling and got out of there..
Richard
And that was possibly Eliza's one true account in the storyApparently the story used to change with each telling.
You're right though Jim about crocs having existed in the area before. My family has lived in this region for 5 generations, and whilst they were just about made extinct in the area by great white hunters in the early 1900's the occaisional one pops up (usually in areas without much human traffic). Yes there are a few hoaxes from time to time as boys will be boys, although they're not all hoaxes
Cheers
Tony
Ha, I went to school with Greensills, and knowing how inbred M'bro/H.B. is I'd bet it's the same bloody family.
I know they were still knocking them off out the back of the Susan and Farjoy in the nineties. A mate and myself were allowed in there pigging along the Susan and saw various forms of 'evidence'.
No I don't have photos so don't ask.
Crabbing up the susan at night in the seventies we used to see a few sets of 'eyes' as well, never real big ones - and definitely shy.
well i was at maroom 25-26/04/09 seen te trap at sth wytcliffs and fished around stewrts island and pumped yabbies no problems but kept the eye's peeled came home from there and flew to darwin shady camp area they are a dime a dozen there always have to be careful seen a family of geeze crossing the river on wednesday 2 crocs headed from from down stream at them and 1 from behind and across the other side of the river as they got closer a hawk scream down and plucked the ducklings /baby geese from the 3 crocs and 2 of them decided to have a fight so the croc's don't get all the goodies i think we may have this on video the guys from sysdney will send it to me in a week or so
shane
this one was only last year, but there's a big croc in the Bohle that I see quite regularly, who isn't boat shy at all. He's a big one at about 5m long and has been there for at least the 8 years I have been living up here.
Well one day picking up the pots after a days fishing and crabbing with the old boy, I notice the first in the string was about 40m away from where we put it. My first thought was bloody pot raiders, but I felt a bit more resistance than and empty pot would normaly have so i was hopeful that maybe it was just the current. But not so, I pulled the pot up, and what once was a 900mm round pot was now resembling more of a baskets ball with the mesh all ripped and torn and the wire now all crumpled up.....the first pot we'd ever had destroyed by a croc.
Anyway, up further we went to the next pot, this one in the same place we put it, but sitting up on the highbank, about 3m from the float was old mate the 5m croc. Not wanting to spook him and have him jump in the boat, we kept going, hoping he would move along whilst we picked up the remaining pots. Not so, we returned about 15 minutes later to him still sitting there, king of his domain. I dug through the side pockets and got out the gaff that permanently lives in the boat, which gave us another 6ft between him and us and gently reached over and pulled the pot up.
All's well that ends well we thought and began emptying the pot, throwing jennies and undersize crabs back., well we should've gone further up river before we started because even though we were up around the bend, as soon as he heard the splash of crabs going back in the water, he jumped in, and the noise he made he was moving fast. It wasn't long and we saw him go under about 10m from the boat, facing in our direction. Not wanting to feed him, we made a beeline out of there until we felt we had put some distance between us and him and resumed emptying the pots.
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