Some nice weather in FNQ

We have been taking a few Wwoofers out fishing lately so the missus wanted her turn..

She had been watching the weather and saw a window opening up a week in advance so she had the boat provisioned and ready to go for thursday/friday..

We caught a few trout and reefies at yamacutta reef off Mission beach...then she did a bit of snorkelling off a sand cay with pretty impressive coral cover..

I decided to head out wide to spend the night trying for Reds but after getting past the outer Reef the swells grew pretty big and by the time I got out near the shelf the missus was looking pretty green and asking if I thought it was safe given that some of the sets rolling through were higher then the hardtop...

Had a bit of a fish in 70m and between getting sharked and also snapping 80lb leader a few times at the loop on the hook, trying to skull drag reds up on the reef queens and only managing a bottom jaw i decided after seeing the missus start to puke that it might be better to head back inside the reef before dark and anchor up in calmer waters for the night...

So the weather just became quite spectacular the next day and we got in some more fishing, snorkelling on one of the closer reefs thats been improving well (I even braved the 24.7c water because the day was so nice) and on the way back in we went through a procession of humpbacks and also stopped for a fish and picked up another 10 or so doggie macks for the trusty poochs on the mackie grounds where we also had a visit from a family of Bottlenose dolphins with a baby that hung around for a half hour..

The missus was happy with her first Trout bag out on the handlines with a couple around that 60cm mark and she landed a couple of spanish and other randoms as well...

Even in mid winter its pretty nice in FNQ when we get a break from the tedious tradewinds..

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Awesome mate very jealous!

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Some nice shots there mate. Glad you could find a bit of the last 1% of reef that isn’t bleached.

Disorderly - Nice little report and some great pics. I read where you braved the 24.7° water for a swim.

You make want think about moving north. The water here at the moment is around 18°. Thanks [emoji4]


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Wahoo...dont be jealous..its been a bit of a horror year for weather up here so trips like that have been few and far between..

Lovey that particular reef is in a green zone and the closet one to the boat ramp and was badly damaged in Cat4 Cyclone Larry in 05 and then again in cat 5 Cyclone Yasi in 2011 and then severely bleached a couple of years ago.....quite amazingly it has really started to bounce back and we could see quite a lot of coral recruitment and tonnes of fish....nature is amazingly resilient.

I was reading a report from the Coral sea foundation about their latest survey at Lizard island where the immmediate reefs were very badly damaged by Cyclones and then bleaching several years back....here is proof of recent surveys and photos taken 5 years apart of what can happen from a reef totally destroyed by cyclones, bleaching and crown of thorns and what the incredible recovery can be in 5 short years.....and as admitted to by the trained marine biologist that runs this page and has been surveying the reef they have to be careful about what they say because it doesnt fit with the narrative that the reef is dying...>:(

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Originally Posted by shakey55

Disorderly - Nice little report and some great pics. I read where you braved the 24.7° water for a swim.

You make want think about moving north. The water here at the moment is around 18°. Thanks [emoji4]


Sent from my iPad using Ausfish forums

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24.7c water temp was just bearable for a short while , Shakey.....and its not always beautiful like in the pics during SE tradewind season..and before that we had 6 months of continuous wet season...up here when its good its great but the rest of the time it can be quite a challenging place to live..

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Originally Posted by disorderly

24.7c water temp was just bearable for a short while , Shakey.....and its not always beautiful like in the pics during SE tradewind season..and before that we had 6 months of continuous wet season...up here when its good its great but the rest of the time it can be quite a challenging place to live..

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Yes I did hear about the extended wet season. My niece moved up there in December to a place called Maadi and she told me that it just rained and rained and rained


Shakey - If only I lived near the coast

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Originally Posted by shakey55

Yes I did hear about the extended wet season. My niece moved up there in December to a place called Maadi and she told me that it just rained and rained and rained


Shakey - If only I lived near the coast

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Your niece doesnt happen to work for a Vet..?

BTW, a friend a couple of Km's up the road keeps yearly rainfall charts..

Thankfully this month has been nice so far..

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Been flat out now we have had some dry weather this month but managed to sneak out to the Mackie grounds last Friday on a 5 knot day..Took frenchie Nicolas and his girlfriend..He was stoked to catch a dirty old bludger trevally on his jig...Doggie macks were thick though the Spotties were scarce and Spanish non-existent.....the girl got sick so we dropped them on Dunk island for most of the day...

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With some great weather again this week we got the chance to get amongst some big reds...

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Originally Posted by disorderly

With some great weather again this week we got the chance to get amongst some big reds...

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Monster , bet he pulled some drag that sucker [emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787]

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Originally Posted by bluefin59

Monster , bet he pulled some drag that sucker [emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787]

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Smallest one I have ever seen Matt...lots of juveniles getting around in the shallows though...must be breeding well..:)

It’s going to be some time before I get out for a decent fish. Keep the pics coming so I can live through you guys.

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Originally Posted by Lovey80

It’s going to be some time before I get out for a decent fish. Keep the pics coming so I can live through you guys.

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Yep we have been making the most of the weather and freedom up here but a regional Qld covid case or 2 and the rest of QLD will be in lockdown as well, mate...

and I think thats inevitable with the amount of people up here fleeing from the SE QLD lockdowns..

Seriously,with all the caravan parks full to the brim around Mission Beach there are numerous people living out of vans along the beaches, car parks, lookouts and even in the waterfront rigging lanes at the boat ramps...

We are getting enquires from backpackers and even aussies that are escaping from Brisbane and the Gold Coast and want us to accommodate them in exchange for help via various wwoofing type programs...never seen anything remotely like it around here in 25 years ...

I cant wait for international borders to open and we get back to life in our sleepy little town once again..