Central Queensland

[dirvin21]

This trip was part of 3 weeks of much needed annual leave R n R for Amy and I from work.

The target of the trip, my bucket lister, a southern satatoga, we started our trio loaded with camping kayaking and fishing gear with a long drive to Maryborough to visit our daughter then onwards to Baffle creek. The Baffke creek weather was very unkind with 20-30 knot winds, tye first arvo was a bust on the fishing but plenty of wildlife 

Following morning we headed to a smaller system north of Baffle I read about in an old article, it looked the goods for Jacks

Quuck launch and into the casting

Didn't take long to start getting hit, after a few misses finally into a fish for the trip, called small jack

Very surprised with a barra definitely not what we expected 

Unfortunately that was all for the area, we fished 2 sessions for the 1 little barra

The next day itcwas off on another 5 hour drive to Lotus creek (NW of Rockhampton), this place really looked the part

Spent the arvo teasing some tiny sooty grunter and prepping for our toga mission

An early start saw us launching at a place called twin bridges, the water looked incredible 

We spooked a Toga straight up so Amy wasted no time getting into casting

It ended up a slow start we saw a few fish but no real action, you reach a point where you accept it may not happen, 

And then a cast in some sticks my spinnerbait gets slammed, the fish immediately takes to the air, still can't believe the hooks stayed in

My dream fish a 61cm southern saratoga, I was shaking

We were hoping it was a sign, unfortunately not apart from me sight casting and dropping another one, the toga proved elusive

Working downriver Amy hooked into a nice fish

A nice sooty to get her trip started

We pulled uo for a food break, and teasing some banded grunter with a littie jig spinner the light gear gets slammed, took some effort to put the breaks on

A nice sooty 

We started fishing our way back to the car, I had no action but Amy gets slammed by a fish it towed her kayak at near plaining speed

A big old catfish, love them or hate them tgey are fun to catch, Amy ended up hooking a few, one completely annihilated her light gear

Heading back to camp, I can never resist catching wildlife on the road

The next leg of our journey involved buying a new fridge in Rockhampton and making a ling drive aiming for Cracow beach, the drive in was beautiful 

Even saw some camels 

But Cracow beach itself was crap, completely different spot to google and nothing like the photos not to mention the undesirables camped there, my advice don't bother, we ended up heading back to Theodore and camping at Junction park woth the grey nomads 

Tte Dawson was looking good

In the morning we fished hard looking for Toga and yellabelly

Even headed up a feeder creek

But apart from Amy getting blown up by a massive Toga it was very quiet plenty of birdlife though 

Blue winged kookaburra 

We tried Apex park at Moura again for Toga

Again looked good but no fish, feeling like the water was still a bot cool

We packed up the rods for a few days heading to Carnarvon gorge 

A beautiful area and definitely worth a visit 

Tyen it was off to our final destination St George, plenty of wildlife on the trip

We saw countless Emus 

The river looked amazing but the fish just didn't comply

The wildlife was  amazing though 

Yellow billed spoonbill

Plum headed finch

My mate the snake who got a little close to my kayak

Outback Queensland definitely turned it on for our last night

Although we didn't catch many fish for the trip, it was still an awesome trip discovered new places, caught new species, saw and photographed someincredible wildlife 

The final photo is Amy casting in tle cold twilight despite the futile afternoon of casting 

 

Cheers for reading

Dave

[Little_Flatty]

Another fantastic adventure Dave and Amy. I enjoyed the report.

Congrats on ticking the Toga off your bucket list!

[Ryder]

Sounds like a great trip. Fantastic photos.Thanks for sharing.

[Blackfish]

Great report and awesome photos of the wildlife you encountered.

[mrsswordfisherman]

Great report thanks Dave and Amy.

You are seeing some excellent parts of our country. 

[LuckyFil]

Loved the wildlife pics👍

[bessell1955]

Wow, the photographs are just fantastic. 

[big Neil]

Always good to be philosophical about these fishing trips. Looking at the fishing alone, the trip may have qualified for "a bit disappointing". However, the big picture view was far removed from that estimation. Great countryside, potentially fishing hotspots, amazing scenery, and fabulous wildlife. All of that depicted in the photographs.

bn 

[Yowie]

Very nice scenery, with a few fish thrown in. Worth the trip to get away from the big smoke.

Last year I visited a large farm dam in Qld with a few saratoga in it. I threw lures in, saw some swimming on the surface, lures past their noses, over their heads, over their backs, just not interested. At least you managed a nice one.

[Hill373737]

Great trip mate, good to see you scratch the 'toga itch!!

Beautiful scenery up that way, helps make up for the lack of fish. 

[Pickles]

Brilliant report Dave and Amy, what a great report and some cracker fish (especially the Barra in an unlikely spot)