Fraser 12/8 - 18/8

[dagwood]

Left Burpengary on Sat 12/8 to make first barge and had the traditional welcoming beer at approx. 6am. Bad mistake led to a rather long day with sightseeing and socialising the name of the game. Stayed at Ken and Kay,s in Eliza St at Orchid Beach. Awesome couple.
Sunday went for a fish at Ngala rocks to try out Lindsay,s sliders. Unfortunately no tailor but a nice feed of bream and dart. More socialising.
Monday went for a run up to Sandy Cape. Conditions were perfect with a gutter running all the way up. No wind or weed but also no fish. The netters were in attendance. Heaps of tailor were reported south of Indian Head.
Tuesday morning headed south of Indian Head early in the morning and fished a gutter with about 30 other anglers.Had acouple of hits on the slider but only landed a large dart. Tailor were being caught on pillys but no great numbers. Heaps of large dart and Harry landed a nice 60cm lizard. Conditions were once again perfect. Went back to unit about lunch and Lindsay turned up. More socialising. Explained about lack of fish north of Waddy . Went to south Ngala rocks later in afternoon were I said there were no tailor and Lindsay immediately pulled in 3 small choppers on the slider. No others caught.
Wednesday went to the cape again as Lindsay wanted to have a gander. Netters were up there and again no fish. Gutters and weather were perfect. Had a great barbecue lunch and didn,t stress. How could you up there. More Socialising as it seems that Lindsay doesn,t mind a drink..or two. For tea Ken and Kay cooked up a great feed of reef fish and Lindsay,s contribution was one fillet of a tailor he had caught on the way up. I thought he had thrown a side of beef on the plate. It was huge.
Thursday he took pity on us and we headed south to (gidney/Kidney?rocks).Craig, Steve and myself caught our first tailor on Sliders. What a rush. Great way to fish. After we had caught a feed we headed back for more socialising. Lindsays sharing of information and his knowledge of fishing is second to none but for the record I wouldn,t let him fuel up my car. I will let him expand on that should he feel so inclined. Back to the unit for more socialising.
Friday morning we packed up and gave the unit a bit of a clean up. We all headed south and decided to have a fish at the (sounds like pyngong rocks..don,t ask me how it is really spelt) for some fresh tailor to take home to prove that we actually did some fishing. Women have no faith. Caught a heap on the sliders again and headed off to the real???? world.

The weather was good all week with most of the gutters being on the low tide. The wind picked up from the SE on Thurs and Friday. All in all a great week.As stated the tailor were south of Indian Head and the weed was basically nonexistent. There were heaps of pippies and beach worms for the taking.
Thanks from Harry, Craig, Steve and myself to Lindsay for his assistance and company. Hopefully it won,t be long to the next trip.

Darryl

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Good report Darryl.
Sounds like a good week, and especially good without the weed.

Mind you, I reckon it's pretty hard to have a bad week at Fraser. ;)

Interesting (well, a pity actually >:() to hear about the netters up the cape. That might explain the lack of fish when we were up there last year. The old man was gobsmacked; reckoned it was the first time in 20 years or so going to fraser that he couldn't pull a whiting up the cape. Usually had to hide behind the car to put the bait on the hook. :)

Do you happen to know if they have a season for netting, and if so, when it closes?
Don't think I will bother driving up to the cape during our trip this year if it is going to be flogged to death by netters. :'(

Another quick question for you. I know you couldn't fish off the rocks at Waddy or Indian Head, but did you happen to notice if they were still all sanded up?

Cheers
Jeff
PS Just had a look on the QLD DPI website, and it appears the netting season is 1 april to 30 august each year, so that doesn't explain why there was no fish at the cape in october last year. :-?

[dagwood]

Jeff, With regards to the netters you will find Lindsay (slider) is very knowledgable in that area as he has been studying the effects of netting for a number of years and knows who hold netting licences covering the area from Noosa to Sandy Cape and where they are likely to be at any given time. He is still on Fraser at the moment but I am pretty sure he had some posts on the Saltwater site a while back on the subject. Basically it is that after they net you won't get much fish for a couple of weeks. There are a number of reasons for this and I am sure he would be happy to discuss them with you.
As regards to Waddy and Indian Heads, although we didn't fish there the rocks seemed to be as normal as I remember them from previous trips. The beaches seemed to have a lot more sand built up making the gutters mainly accessable on the lower end of the tides. Thursday and Friday the beaches were starting to get more washouts and wave effects as the wind increased from the SE but it was still an easy drive.

Darryl

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Thanks Darryl.

Yep, followed Lindsay's previous posts on netting and fish vocalisations; I was guessing he will have a bit to say about it when he gets back.

We get up there once a year, and Waddy has had a lot of sand out the front the last couple of years. Other times I've fished it with a nice big deep hole or gutter out the front with a sand bar forming out the back and it was much better fishing. Had a great session with cobes coming right up to the rocks about 4 years ago.
Anyway, we can only fish it as it is when we are there, and there is quite a bit of time between now and end oct when I'm there next, so guess it will change many times between now and then.

Any pics from your trip?

Cheers
Jeff

[dagwood]

Jeff, forgot to take the wife's digital. Harry took his but don't think there will be much to show . Will post them when he sends them to me. Lindsay had his with him so hopefully he will have some nice shots.

Darryl

[Slider]

Hey Darryl, good post.
Well you know how it is - when at Fraser there are certain things that you must do to keep your energy levels up. Notice you boys have a similar theory but obviously don't require the quantity or the strength of medicine. Inevitably there are going to be hiccups in the treatment - and we'll put the 9 litres of unleaded I poured into my diesel down to one of those. Still hasn't missed a beat so Craig was spot on with his fill it up with diesel and you'll be right advice.
I had a heap of fun with you guys and yours and Ken and Kays hospitality was fabulous. I felt very comfortable and welcome the whole time I was there. It was also very satisfying to be able to put you on to some tailor - I could tell you were enjoying yourself.

Gorilla, there are 2 licences permitted to net north of Ngkala, both of which lapse on death of the license holder. Only one of these licenses is very active. This individual has both a K8 (May 1 - Aug 31) and an N1 license which allows him, I believe, to net all year round in any area of Queensland not affected by a closure. Largely he works Noosa North Shore and Rainbow Beach from early May until the fish start to dry up and then goes to the cape until they dry up there and returns to Noosa where the fish would be starting to return and the process repeats itself. It's not until nearly December that he stops netting these 2 locations and focuses on the estuaries. Although he is not permitted to net tailor specifically, there is a bycatch and quota allowance that allows him to take tailor in the nets. The allowance is quite significant and hasn't yet been exceeded.
I've been caught out several times at the cape trying to find fish when they've been up there and it is just hopeless. Year before last we were having a ball on queenies and gts when they turned up just before Anzac day and netted all the whiting in the lagoon straight after taking a haul of tailor and trevally from just outside the lagoon. The whiting had nowhere to escape to after being startled by the first net and just swam to the far end of the lagoon where they were all netted from. Have it all on video but have no idea how to put it up here.
The other way they work it is - sound doesn't travel around corners - so they can net from the cape to Rooneys without effecting dramatically fish at Ngkala and vice versa. It just means that on each trip there they can only really get 2 successful shots so they have to make them count. It's the same principle as the mullet at the Noosa River mouth and same and other species at Rainbow Beach. I noticed yesterday on my way down from Fraser that he was at Double Island netting tailor after leaving the cape on Saturday.

Darryl, I'll do a report on my time at Fraser this afternoon. There's not much in the way of photos but I do have a couple.

Lindsay

PS. That would be Yidney Rocks and Poyungan Rocks.

[Slider]

The boys before heading back to Bris from Poyungan and leaving the tailor on the chew.

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Thanks Lindsay.

Pity about that N1 licence, you'd think flogging it for 4 months under the K8 would be enough. Just had a look around on the DPI website but couldn't find any info on it, even with a search. As mentioned, last year was the first time any one of us had seen the cape so devoid of fish. Guess we must have got there just after the net had raped the area.

Don't think I will bother going up there this year unless I can get a report from someone that it's worthwhile.

Cheers
Jeff