Whisunday Trip

[saltrix]

Just came back from a couple of weeks at Airlei Beach.

My son towed his boat up from Brisbane so we could get out to catch a few reef fish and hopefully some Mackeral.

Fishing in the Whisundays requires a bit of study before you start. The whole area is part of the Barrier Reef Marine Park and is divided into zones of pink, green,orange, olive green and yellow, grading between no access at all to general fishing allowed. It would be very hard to fish in the area without a GPS or a detailed knowledge of the islands and reefs. Further complications is the large variety of fish that are very similar but have vastly different size limits.

The first picture is a Grass Emporer of about 34 cm which was returned along with several larger specimens as we confused them with Spangled Emporer which have a larger size limit. The difference is the Grass Emporer has Olive brown spots and the Spangled has Blue spots. the other fish is an Indonesian Snapper which was also returned along with several other large fish in an error in identity as this species does not appear in many books and is easily confused with another that has a larger limit.

We were inspected twice by a police boat with fisheries and park rangers on board so it would pat to be aware of all rules. Another little catch is all reef fish in possession must have onepectoral fin removed, This ounds a bit crazy to me but is intended to stop the sale of reef fish.

We managed a few feeds of nice reef fish, but the Mackeral didnt play ball, and the wind was up for most of the second week.

This area is great for cruising and snokelling on some outer Islands as well and I really enjoyed the trip.

[slinkymalinky]

That's a nice part of the world to be fishing in Saltrix. Good looking catch there too. QLD fisheries and marine park authorities always seem to be very active at checking up... always better to be safe than sorry and throw them back if there's any doubt.

Cheers, Slinky

[tholden85]

GDAY SALTRIX,

sounds like you had a top trip and a good few days fishing in your sons boat. I was up that way last year on a charter boat and even our guide had trouble figuring out where the marine park started and stopped. tasty bag though.

TIM

[nightstalker]

Great pics and good to see you got a few good fish as well.

Interesting and true comments on the species for us southern fishos if fishing unguided up there.

I am interested in the logistics, where did you launch and stay - how was the boat stored and all that sort of stuff - I'm sure a few raiders aspire to trailering a boat up there one day.

[kkw]

I was up there for a week, a few weeks back. Stayed at Midge Point/Laguna Quays area. Fished mostly in Repulse Bay for grassy sweetlip, mackeral, trevally, queenfish and wolf herring. The macks love the wolf herring and I had a few get chopped in half by speeding spaniards.

I think the Mack season was 6 to 8 weeks ago, Saltrix, although they are still being caught at present - just not in the numbers back then.

I also fished the O'Connel River. Good Mangrove Jack and barra in there. Had a morning up on the Faust Dam for barra, with no luck. You need a permit to fish there - available online. Caught barra in my brother in law's bosses dam. He has a stack of 3 yr old barra in there, which just love black and gold squidgy shads. When I say 'dam' it would be a lake down here in Sydney.

I think to really do well, you would need to go out on the reef proper, but it is being pillaged by pros who catch loads and loads of coral trout and like fish, keep them in big holding tanks and ship them live to asia.

It isn't like it was when I spent time there in '75 but still a magic place to fish and holiday in. Wish it wasn't so darn hot and humid, and it is also alive with sandflies and mossies up the rivers. Take your tropical strength aeroguard.

[saltrix]

Great pics and good to see you got a few good fish as well.

Interesting and true comments on the species for us southern fishos if fishing unguided up there.

I am interested in the logistics, where did you launch and stay - how was the boat stored and all that sort of stuff - I'm sure a few raiders aspire to trailering a boat up there one day.

We launched from Shute Harbour and Airlie Beach ( in Able Point marina) ramps. Parking was a bit tight but OK with a walk). We rented a house from the internet which was at Mandalay which is about 2km away from Airlie Beach, it was away from the main road and had a parking area along side but wasnt secure so we left the car on the trailer or locked up.

For fishos with GPS the Marine Park Authority provide online mods for various GPSs that put the zones into your GPS. We didnt do it as we only saw this in a leaflet after we got there.

The marine Park Authority also provide detailed zoning maps and a good publication "Reef fish field guide to species regulated in the Fisheries (Coral Reef Fin Fish management plan 2003)", which lists and gives photos of the regulated fin fish, but does not show the unregulated species or give legal sizes. These are available free of charge from the Parks or Fisheries offices. A booklet giving legal sizes is issued by fisheries and is also on local tide charts, but some other identification chart is needed as the Field Guide only lists coral reef fin fish.

If you are allergic to midges they will give you hell in the area.

[Josh88]

Nice work Saltrix, always good to do well in a place you don't know that well, great tasting feed as well.

Is that a cobia or a small shark in the 2nd esky picture?

Cheers

Josh

Edited October 21, 2008 by Josh88

[sportfish]

Well done saltrix

Good holiday and a good bag of fish

[saltrix]

Nice work Saltrix, always good to do well in a place you don't know that well, great tasting feed as well.

Is that a cobia or a small shark in the 2nd esky picture?

Cheers

Josh

It is a small shark, but not the bitey variety as it had grinding plates not teeth. It had been damaged by the hooks so we kept it and ate it. It was very good eating too.

[mangonui]

Myself my wife and dog have been travelling to Airlie now every year now for the last 4 years ,

we stay up there for about 6 weeks at time we take up the boat ,camping gear and kitchen sink and stay at the seabreeze caravan park at cannonvale which is only 500mtrs from able point marina,we have got to know a few of the locals up there and have got some really good gps marks for the area llike Roseric shoals and many others. when we were up there 2months ago we caugh GTs to 50 ponud at double cones, spanish mackeral,coral trout sweetlip almost daily,this time of the year the barra are quiet but come december you can catch them off the rockwall at Able point marina,I have seen them caught there over a metre long .

The Peter Faust dam which is about 40 mins drive inland from Airlie holdes some massive barra but they are no good to eat because there freshwater, but for the novice or beginner a good place to catch there first one .

I cant wait to get back up there next year.

Vaughn.