Fishing in Oz (long post...)

[Milkjug]

G'day Ya'll! Got back last week from spending a month down in Australia for a family reunion. Spent some quality time with the family eating too much, drinking too much, and fishing whenever I had the chance. I spent most of my time on the Clarence River where a couple of uncles have houses right on the water. The river is out in the country in New South Wales, and is a saltwater estuary (the tide even reverses the current). I heard one of them had a kayak, but no one knew what model. When I go there I was pleased to find out that it was a Cobra Fish 'n Dive, very nice! I had a great time, managed to keep fish on the table for our whole family, and sent some family members home with plenty of fillets.

Here's some of the pics taken...

Initially flew into Brisbane and stayed with a cousin for a few days. Had a good time, but there's only so much drinking at pubs and touring the city that I care for. Was pretty happy to get out into the country a few days later.

Brisbane Skyline


They have ibis birds there too, but instead of being shy marsh dwellers, they go around the city eating garbage.


Found some cool quail-dove lookin' birds too. Whatever they are, I'll bet they taste good stuffed with jalapeno and wrapped in bacon


Spent a day visiting the Gold Coast. Chilled on the beach a while and found a few cool jellyfish.

[Milkjug]

Got down to the Clarence River and got ready for some harcore fishing! Here's the launch, with primo shoreline just across the river.


The first morning I get out for some fishing. The target species for most of my trip was flathead (flatties). These "flatties" are alot like the flounder we have here, in fact they occupy the exact same niche. Both are bottom dwelling ambush predators, both aren't hard fighters, but have hard mouths and are excellent head shaking hook-throwers, both love the gulp, and they both are dang good eatin'.

Here's the first of many I caught


Chillin' on the stringer.


The dinks have balls and don't think twice about hitting lures almost half their size


I also managed to nail a trophy-sized flattie on the first whole day of fishing! Kept this gal for the table since we were currently fish-less.


Haul from the first day.

[Milkjug]

There's alot of cool wildlife there. This osprey was the only other fisherman around most mornings. Saw him make a few catches, and even had him swoop my spook jr. one morning


Fat green tree frogs are always out at night.


Had fun with the cousins catching bugs to feed them.


Caught another nice haul of flatties another morning.


One of my nephews is really keen on fishing, but he doesn't get to go much since his granddad passed away. I decided to take him out to a nearby bridge to catch some bream ("brim" as they call them). Put him on the front of the yak and had him drop a dead shrimp down to the bottom on the down-current side of the pilings while I kept the yak steady. He caught several, including his PB and his first flathead!


Blue tails and spots: Not just for reds anymore


A couple of nice ones for the table!


One of my favorite spots was a sandy beach amost directly across from the river. Apparently the rays liked it too, because I saw one almost every trip there. Found this one up on the bank and pitched the gulp to it. He went over it, and I waited a second and set the hook. Ended up foul-hooking him in the side. He made a few lazy runs, pulling out drag without even panicking, then my hook pulled out (luckily, since he could have spooled me and braid is $45 US dollars / 150yds there ).
Someone or something had de-tailed him, making him a safety-ray

[Milkjug]

One of my cousin's girlfriend was moving a large green frog away from where the dogs could get it. It decided to start climbing on her, and I got a nice pic while she was yelling at us to take it off instead of take pictures


Warning: Koalas shooting you the bird


White pelicans, doing their thing at low tide.


Saw alot of 'roos during my trip.


Another morning, another nice stringer.


Flathead have a nasty suprise for anything that grabs them bare-handed. They have a pair of spikes on each gill plate, complete with some kind of anti-coagulant, and you will bleed like a stuck pig if they get you.


Here's a picture of the beachfront nearby.


Another one of my cousins enjoys fishing too. He likes to join me on my morning trips, but is still a little young to grind it out with determination. So he ends up sitting in the yak "trolling" bait while I wade He had a nice bream hit his bait, and was pretty stoked about catching a fish all on his own.

[Milkjug]

The next morning I got up at the crack of dawn and the water looked primo.


The fishing wasn't that hot and I managed one keeper flathead. I was fishing a little creek inlet and tossed my lure under an overhanging tree. Felt a thump right away and set the hook. Then nothing. Turned out that the fish had alread run at me, under my yak, and into the middle of the river. Fought him for 10 minutes or so with some really good runs. Get him in and it was a nice golden trevally! Let him go because of the rep that jacks get here, and because he put up a great fight. Turns out they are supposedly delicious, and my family was quite upset I freed it


After spending some time on the Clarence River, one of my uncles took my little brother and me to spend some time away from all the women and hang out on his ranch near Coff's Harbor

Caught this aussie bass from one of his tanks. This fellow had me fooled. By his fight I was guessing that I had a 5lber on the line. These guys pull alot harder than a LMB.

[Milkjug]

One of the highlights of my vacation was a day trip we took from the ranch to one of my uncle's friend's ranches on the Nimboida River, further inland. This is some of the prettiest scenery I've seen. Apparently Russel Crowe is buying up alot of the property near there... I can understand why.





Never saw another soul the whole day up there. Alot of parrots flying around: vulture-sized black cockatoos with yellow tails, and lots of little colorful parrots. Just awesome!

My uncle hooks up first cast there and brings in a bragging-sized aussie bass.







Get her released and I can't seem to match his luck. Fish for about two hours with not a bump. Switch to a different plastic and get bit first cast.

Got my 2nd aussie bass of the trip. Looks like he fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch Good pull though.

[Milkjug]

There was a mayfly hatch going on up there. Think a spook jr. is a good mayfly imitation?


I started using using a topwater just to have some fun and ended up catching a murray cod! These guys hit a topwater like it owed them money Viscious splashes complete with tail slaps! Best thing is that if they miss it and you don't get excited and yank it too far, it's almost 100% follow up strikes. I actually spooked a few because they followed the lure all the way to the canoe, then saw the boat. On top of that, these guys were nearly fished to extinction, and this along with their limited range, caused the government to put a $50,000 fine on posessing one Back ya go!


At the end of our Nimboida trip, by bro still hadn't caught a single fish. My uncle jokingly said we couldn't leave until he did so I put up the rod and paddled him to good spots and gave him pointers (he's not nearly as obessed with fishing as I am). Well right at dark we find a cod and after several misses he gets him! Congrats on your first topwater fish bro!


After that we went back to the ranch for one more day before returning to the river. Fished the stock tanks a bit with no more catches.

Lillies and Wagyu cattle.

[Milkjug]

Back at the river, I resumed putting a hurnin' on the local flathead.


Nice one!


Around this time I caught my biggest flattie of the trip. A real bruiser of a gal who made some great runs before coming in. Let her go make more flatties after a quick photo shoot


Another nice haul.


Just like flounder, flathead leave beds (they call 'em "lies") in the sand where they were waiting for prey. You can get alot of info from these like where the fish are hiding during what tidal movement (they always face into the current). Here is our unwilling voulenteer modeling a flathead lie.


Another nice one.


One morning I decided to paddle 30 minutes up the river to try a beach I had found on a satellite pic. I had terrible luck, probably losing ~5 fish including some good ones. Avoided the skunk with these two keepers.


My last day of fishing there I ground it out and caught two flathead. They look smaller than they are. The little guy is a keeper, and the larger one is a very nice sized fish.

[Milkjug]

One of my goals while I was down there was to paddle all the way to the mouth of the Clarence river. I decided to go on my second to last day on the river. The trip took me 4 hours of constant paddling each way, by far my longest kayak journey. My hands were hurtin by the end and I was glad to get back.

The route


Saw a colony of flying foxes on the way. There are alot more than the picture shows.


Takin' a break on the beach


The mighty Pacific! I didn't actually paddle out into it like I wanted. First, instead of a light incoming tide, it was still ripping out and I wanted to be able to get back in (still nearly got sucked out through the jetties). Second, I could see waves crashing in the distance that were probably ~30' high


My last evening for dinner we had some big mud crabs, fresh out of the river


Well that's how I spent my holidays. Had a great time with the family and made some good memories. Thanks for reading!

[WestEndAngler]

Good lord man!!! Congrats on all the fish looks like a great time!!! WTG!! Greenie your way...

[007]

Good job Yan. This was the trip that we were talking about right? Those trevali DO put up a MAJOR fight.

[FlatoutFishin]

I can't even see the pictures(at work) but I am stoked just from the thought of what might be in them.

You get my nomination for trip post of the year!

[BILLYSTIX CUSTOM RODS]

that is one place i truly would like to visit.
great report, i dont believe i have ever read one that i enjoyed this much.
way cool dude.
stix

[Milkjug]

Thanks guys, I won't forget that trip for a while.

Yeah Mike, that's the one. That trevally had me scared I would get spooled. Had to pull anchor and chase him around

[XtremeAngler]

Wow! I really enjoyed reading and seeing those pictures of all the Aussie wildlife and fishes. Thanks for sharing