Amphibious Army Vehicles @ Tin Can Bay

[GraemeW]

Went to Tin Can Bay on 7-5-11 with my friend Noel who took his boat.
We were just about to drive into position to launch the boat from the ramp when suddenly 4 amphibious army vehicles pulled up.
We decided to wait for them to go in first as they were much bigger than us.
Lots of people had gathered at the ramp to watch them drive into the water.












Went crusing around for a while using prawns as bait.
Lots of undersize fish caught which was thrown back.
Managed to get 7 undersized flathead.
The largest was 38cm.
Numerous undersized whiting.

Stopped briefly on a sand bank for a while to strech the legs and admire all the migratory birds which were on there.

Also saw 4 army landing vessels near Fraser Island.

Put in a line with gang hooks + float and a strip of mullet.
Thiis was hit by something huge as I saw a splash and a large tail out of the water but it wasn't hooked up.
Nothing touched it after that.

On returning about 4 pm we spotted a yabbie bank and decided to pump some yabbies.
I was using paternoster rig with whiting hook + another slightly larger hook.
Anchored just out in front of the yabbie bank
Well it was non stop action on yabbies for several hours until there was no more light and we headed in to the ramp to call it a day.

Fish from the day.

[GBC]

They're larc v's.
Beast of a 4by, but not fun when bogged in mud..........
AMSA had some for lighthouse building/maintenance and I spent a lot of time getting deafened by them.

[Jabiru658]

Are they related to the ones they make those amphibious tourist ducks out of? They look similar to my untrained eye.

[GBC]

Yes, same beast.

They haven't been 'made' since Vietnam. Any that are getting around are original hulls (all aluminium), running on refurbished gear.
The US Navy upgraded a heap to run hydrostatic drive rather than transfers and unis everywhere.

The one's I had experience with were all repowered with 400 h.p. cummins, jake brakes, and hiabs.

[whynott]

Amazing to see when they did their training in front of the wreck of the old Cherry Venture quiet a fews ago now...
Graham.