Ouch!

 I have to admit – thankfully – that the quality of the NextG wireless connection I'm using has stood up pretty well so far. In most instances I'm getting 4 – 5 bar signals, which is definitely good enough to work with. And ever since I received the new modem (the one I was told didn't exist when ordering a replacement... it just turned up in the mail), I haven't had any reoccurring problems with drop outs. And I haven't even plugged an antenna into it yet. If it holds up like that I'll be pretty pleased.

Having said that, holy mackeral, the damned usage costs are inhibitive. I started out  on this trek with the rather optimistically selected 500 'superfast' plan, which cost a 'mere' $85 per month. It didn't take long for me to breach that download limit, so I upgraded the plan during the current billing cycle to a 1G plan. Sure enough, I breached that within another week.

I don't know where all these megabytes are coming from, but it looks apparent that I'll have to go for a 3gig plan, which will only set me back a 'modest' $185 per month. And no, thats not a misprint. Right now I am unable to change my plan until the current bill cycle ends (on the 13th) because you are limited to one change per cycle. And I'm already about 50 MB over my new limit! Telstra, ease the squeeze dammit!

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Lots of dolphins but not many fish

Beautiful Bribie Island

With a low tide at around midday I hit the water this afternoon just as it started to turn. Traveling into the current from Bongaree my plan was to head out into Moreton Bay and just explore the area for a bit. I was hoping to chance upon those resident Longtail Tuna that I've been hearing about, if not a Snapper or two perhaps.

Like clockwork, today's trip started off with the obligatory trolling of soft plastic lures: a 5” Berkley shad as well as a 4” Squidgy. The former was rigged in the hope of attracting either of my target species, the latter for my more probable catch (initially at least) of Flathead. That first and probable catch came within 100 meters of the launching ramp. At around 30cm he was released to fatten up in preparation for my next visit.

There's no shortage of dolphins at Bribie Island

The further I moved away from land the more various pods of dolphins I saw. It's hard to tell for sure but I think I encountered 4 different pods today, all of them in a siesta-like mood, moving gracefully through the water at leisurely speeds. I don't know if their presence had any effect on the fishing today but if so, it wasn't positive. Despite covering quite some distance (almost 20km for the entire trip) that first Flathead was the only fish I managed to bring to the boat all day.

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Flathead found, exctly where you'd expect

It's been at least 20 years since I've been to Bribie Island, but geographically at least, it's much like I remember. Even the dolphins are hanging around their same old spot. Having only a few hours spare to devote to the cause today, I decided to just put in a brief 2-hour afternoon stint in the protected inner side of the island. Launching from the boat ramp opposite the Bongaree caravan park I trolled a single soft plastic lure in a north direction towards the bridge, for the most part hugging the shoreline about 10 meters out.

The tide was moving in rapidly, so I didn't have to pedal / paddle much at all as I was swept towards the bridge. As fate would have it, my rate of speed was perfectly appealing to a nice Flathead, which took a 4" berkley shad soft plastic as I crossed the sandbars. At the ideal size of 36cm, this guy was a keeper for sure. I hooked another about 100 meters away from the bridge but let this one go to fight another day.

Flathead, taken near Bribie Island bridge

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Failing the test

Thus far most of the equipment I chose to take on this epic journey has performed admirably. I was bound to make a few mistakes, however, and a few of them have already surfaced. A few lessopns have been learned along the way. One fine example being the solar panel I foolishly bought over ebay, knowing that it was coming from Taiwan *gasp*. It wasn't terribly expensive, but now that I've tried to use it I can see why. It's absolute rubbish and is destined to spend the rest of it's life in landfill.

Lesson #1: Don't buy any 'mission critical' items from ebay... especially if they come from an Asian country with less than the very best credentials.

Another highly important item that has really let me down is the Toshiba M100 Satelite notebook computer that I'm using. I spent several years writing about IT as a freelance journalist and as such, have come to know PCs pretty well. This is a mistake that I simply shouldn't have made. I chose the notebook for it's seemingly fair price, size, weight and low-power consumption. Had I known it would quickly prove itself to be the very worst computer that I've ever owned (and there have been many), I wouldn't have touched it with a 10 foot pole. My complaints with this piece of rubbish are numerous, such as:

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Internet Explorer not working - but Firefox does

I probably should have made it more obvious previously, but if you've been having problems running Youtube videos from Yakabout, it's most likely because you are using Internet Explorer, as opposed to the more user-friendly Firefox browser, which is faster, more secure, easily managed and apparently, more compatible with web 2.0. I will continue to try and find a fix for this problem but either way, I highly recommend that you switch over to Firefox for most of your web browsing. It only takes a minute to get used to the new feel and look of it and only a few minutes more before it's advantages become clearly obvious. If you haven't tried out Firefox yet, take my advice and give it a try. You won't go back.

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The fish are biting here... apparently 

It started to get a bit cold at Iluka, so although I was sad to leave the place I was also kind of pleased at the same time. I was going to head over to nearby Shark Bay and then onto Ballina but then I heard a report on the radio – Humpback Whales were hanging around Moreton Bay. A quick bit of research online suggested that the fish around Bribie Island were on the chew, so being well within driving distance I decided to go there instead.

I haven't been to Bribie Island for 20 years and although I did recognize it instantly, a lot like most other places in Queensland, this area has changed a lot. I'm camped at the Bungaree Caravan Park, which has good close beach access and seems relatively secure. Most of my day has been sent getting my bearings, trying to form a plan of attack for the next few days. This will include heading out into Moreton Bay to see what I can find. I did a very brief 2-hour afternoon session today, coming up with a reasonable Flatty and losing another fish that I suspect was a Snapper (just near the bridge). I'll write that up in a report in the morning.

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Clarence River: Kayak fishing Paradise

This picture sums up Iluka nicely

If you've never heard of Iluka before it's probably not a matter of coincidence. Upon spending a bit of time with some of the locals, one gets the feeling that that's the way they'd like it to stay. Iluka isn't a town with a confused identity – it knows exactly what it is: a quiet little fishing town. Don't go to Iluka if you want to sip on lattes and lose yourself in the nightlife. It's just not that kind of a place and hopefully it never will be.

Situated opposite the larger town of Yamba on the mouth of the Clarence River system (probably the largest river on the eastern coast of Australia), a wealth of coastal and estuary fishing opportunities are available for land and boat based anglers. As an Australian kayak fishing destination, Iluka doesn't have many competitors. Not only is the climate typically very hospitable, so to is the presence and activity of a large variety of worthy table fish. That could be the very same reason a pod of happy and healthy local Dolphins inhabit the river mouth.  

Among the commonly found species around Iluka are Bream, Flathead, Luderick, Tailor, Trevelly, Jewfish and Sand Whiting in the river and seasonal Mackeral and Longtail Tuna on the coastal waters during the summer. Targeting any of these is easily possible with a kayak, although the bread and butter of Iluka will be found in the river for most of the year round. Indeed, many of the locals rarely go fishing in the ocean itself. Noting how many fishing propositions are apparent within the river it's easy to see why. Obviously, it's also much calmer water as well, which suits most people nicely. That said, the tidal current can be pretty strong and caution must be observed on the tail-end of an outgoing tide... especially when fishing near the river mouth.

Good variety of eating fish at Iluka

One of the reasons that the river produces so many fish, it seems, are the many rock walls that extend from the river mouth back into the river some distance. Some of these can be accessed by land based anglers (be wary of high tides on some of them) and all can be easily approached in a kayak. 

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In the interest of saving some front page real-estate as well as avoiding repetition, I've cleaned up the right side menu by removing the quick links to Oz community fishing sites. There's a much larger collection of links here anyway and the links tab on the top menu is fairly obvious.  I've filled the space this previously consumed with the poll, which I've decided to revert back to public access for now to encourage some more responses. Oh, I've also added captions to the latest additions to the gallery, of which there are several. 

I still have a bit more spring cleaning to do in the gallery (it feels like spring to me anyway), but for now some other cleaning chores are more urgent, including giving my clothes and myself a good thorough wash as well. It's been a few days and there's been a few fish

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Yak fishing the river mouth to great success

Looks like it knows what me licking my lips means

Have you ever had a day that was so directly productive that you felt compelled to pull your rods out of the water? I have and it happened again today. In fact, today was one of those magic days where I caught every single target fish I was hoping for (well, save for a Jewfish) within an hour of launching. Weather was a bit rougher today with another south easterly blowing in at around 10 knots as I leisurely pushed the kayak into an incoming tide at 3:00 PM. Having had success along the break walls leading up to the mouth the day prior I decided to see if the fish gods would smile on me again by taking the same route, again using a small transparent green 3” Finn-S minnow on one line and a fat black and gold 4” Squidgy shad on the other. As with every other day here, I merely trolled the lures along at a variable speed. Automatic, cruise control fishing!

Approximately 20 meters from where I struck Trevelly yesterday I managed the same fete today, this one marginally larger. 100 meters further toward the mouth I caught another one, slightly larger again. No more than 30 seconds after placing that fish in the bag I was on again and this fish was pulling pretty hard. I pegged it for a Tailor before sighting it and sure enough, so it was. Being the largest (if not the fattest) Tailor I'd caught in Iluka, I decided to keep this for the table as well.

here's that big Flathead I was after

The circle was almost complete. Only one thing left to do... go forth and try for that crocodile-sized Flathead. I approached the sand bar where I found one the day prior, but by now I was only using one rod (hauling the Squidgy lure). I'd chosen this lure to snag a large Flathead or perhaps if I was really lucky, a Mulloway. I lucked out on the latter but scored on the former, right on the edge of the sand bar. At 47cm it was a damned good fish to, precariously close to my personally imposed 'let her go' size.

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Multitool

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Stretcher style tent serving me well 

Tent Cot at waters edge

In yesterday's blog I talked about how the Hobie Revolution was attracting a lot of attention from interested observers. The other stand out item has been the Tent Cot , which was supplied to me by Kayaks & Kampers, from Creswick Victoria (who also supplies Hobie kayaks and Cavalier camping trailers).  It only takes one quick glance at this little ripper to see why it's turning heads. It's not a tent... it's not a stretcher... it's not even a swag, and it's definitely not a cot (as in 'baby enclosure'). The Tent Cot is a device that combines the design qualities of a dome tent with a stretcher bed / banana lounge. Unless you've never been camping before, you'll instantly spot the advantages of this design, such as comfort of and ease of use as well as the ability to be erected pretty much anywhere. Add to this, it keeps you up off the ground so issues such as insects, reptiles, mud, water sticks and rocks are no longer a problem.

I'll be writing a full review of this gadget within the next week (I just want to try it in a few more locations) but I can say that I'm already thinking it is one of the best choices I've made when it comes to gear selection, which is another topic I'll be raising again very soon. The comfort factor is one of the main drawcards but the real plus is being able to set it up anywhere. Take this location pictured above, for example. I'm close enough to the waters edge so that instead of waking up to the sounds of birds, I'm waking up to the sound of dolphins. If I wanted to fish from the edge of the Tent Cot, I could do it easily.

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