With the business sold, all paper work finalized, Family weddings attended to, we were finally ready to set off on our trip around Australia!! As 'The Boss' wasn't keen on the idea of me 'fishing my face off' for the next 3 weeks she decided to stay back at home while I traveled [and fished] my way up the Qld coast to Hinchinbrook where I had arranged to fish the " G Loomis Flyfishing Challenge" with Nat Bromhead and she would fly up after the Comp.

My first destination was to be Cania Dam which I hadn't fished for a few years and was keen to get back there and catch a Toga or two!! I arrived early in the morning and soon had the boat on the water and as last time I visited the water levels were very low! I headed to a long deep bank I fished last trip and soon had a couple of nice Bass to the boat but had not sighted a Toga so moved to a little back water where we did well at last time! Again the Bass were on the job and a couple of 45cm fish came to the net but still no Toga's! Another move up stream saw a couple of Toga roll in the shallows but they were very shy and I didnt get a touch  after about an hours fishing! As I contemplated my situation the boat drifted into midstream and when I looked down at the sounder and noticed the "Bass shows" appearing on the screen it was quite obvious that a large school of Bass were under the boat!! I picked up the Striper 4, rolled out a cast of about 30ft, counted to 20 and one short strip and I was on!!! Well that started a Bass fishing session that was amazing!!! I dont know how many fish I caught [50 plus?] but at one stage I landed 16 fish in 16 casts, pulled the hook on the 17th fish and then another 6 fish in 6 casts after that! By mid day I was tired of catching them so called it a day. I was planning to stay a couple of days if the Togas were playing the game but they werent and I didnt really feel like catching Bass like that again [too easy!!] so I decided to keep heading north!

My next stop was Yeppoon and after a quick fish with nothing really happening decided to keep going to a little creek I knew just south of Clairview.[Between Rocky and Sarina] As the tides are a bit of a pain here with launching and retrieving I decided to sleep at the creek mouth and put the boat in on half tide up and retrieve it just after the top of the tide other wise you have to wait for the next high tide to get your boat out!! As this creek doesnt get fished much it usually performs well and this trip was to be no different!! A few hundred meters up the creek was a "snag from hell!!" On my 2nd cast I let the fly sink a little deeper and I got totally bricked by some monster I didnt even get a look at!!! In the next dozen casts I got done over the same way 3 more times!! I suppose my 8wt and 30lb leader were a little light and being high tide there was plenty of snag under the water for them to stitch me up on!! A retreat back to the rock ledge where I launched the boat saw a couple of small Jacks the mandatory Cod landed before retrieving the boat and moving on!!

As Ive read so much about the great Dam fishing west of Mackay in places like Eungella I decided to head there next even though it was mid winter I thought I would at least get to see the place and fish them! With a lot of help and emails back and forth to Neil in Mackay I was soon sitting on the edge of Eugella Dam but was absolutely freezing my butt off!!! I later learnt Maroochydore was experiencing -2C at the same time so the fishing was shut down in a big way!!! As I was in the area I called into Proserpine Dam as well and fished the morning for one misguided Sooty. A quick stop at the Proserpine Tackle Shop and after talking to the guys there found out the fishing was quiet because of the cold weather so it was on the road again with the next stop being a little place just off the highway that had a 'boat ramp' sign under the name of the place.
 I cant remember the name of the place but it was just north of Cape Upstart [just found the name...Molongal] and it was a privately owned ramp by the local boat club and they had built the ramp as they all seemed to have houses over on Cape Upstart that they could only get to by boat! They then started a camping ground beside the ramp and charged people to stay there and you could then use the boat ramp! Looking on the map it showed 2 creeks to the south that just had to be given the once over!! It was about 2pm with tide just starting to rise so it was off with the boat and down to the first creek to have a look. The tide was just starting to flood the banks so after a few goes at finding the creek channel my first cast was to the first snag in the mouth of the creek. It didnt take long to be hooked up to a raging little Trevor of about 35cm and a few of his mates were soon to follow!! Moving up the creek I should have renamed the place 'Trevor Creek' as that is all I could find but it was fun catching them when I went down to my 6wt. As the tide came in they soon disappeared into the mangroves so it was time to go.[The creeks called Armstrong Cr] The next morning it was down to the next creek [Nobbys Cr] which was a bit larger than the first and the entrance was a maze of sand banks and gutters and as the tide was almost high I decided to go up the system a fair way and work my way down with the tide and then fish the rising tide in the arvo if I got stuck somewhere! Well if yesterdays creek should have been called Trevor Cr then this one should be renamed 'Flathead Cr' as they were everywhere!! The high tide up stream didnt see much except for 2 small Jacks but as I got back toward the mouth the Flathead were shooting of everywhere as I drifted down the creek over the sand flats!! The other thing I found up one sandy back gutter was a heap of small Barra[30cm] hiding under small pieces of sea weed that were sitting on the bottom!! They were actually using the weed like a blanket just sitting under it stationary on the bottom!! There were at least a dozen fish I saw doing this!!
Well its time to go fishing again[chasing Sooties this time in Lake Kununara] I'll send you the next segment [Hinchinbrook, Kakado, Boynoe] when we hit Broome next week!!
See Ya
Kim S.