And in no time we were at our cheap little hostel in Mackay:
Mackay can be a tough place to fish due to its huge tides and limited landbased access, but I'd managed to snag a few good fish the last time I was up there and was confident we'd get on to a few. Our first stop was the breakwall at east point where I'd caught a couple of nice queenies the last time I was up there:
Unfortunately, the current was absolutely ripping through here making it almost impossible to fish. We had a few casts and were about to make a move, when my dad landed this cute little fella:
It wasn't much, but we were on the board! By this time it was around 3pm so we decided to head to a low tide spot on the pioneer river and have a crack at some queenies and little GT's on surface lures:
The tide was perfect and there were fish breaking the surface everywhere. I tied on a duo realis pencil and it didn't take long before something crunched it, and after a short but brutal fight, this beautiful little GT popped up:
Nice! Over the next hour we had a heap of boofs, boils, swipes and a couple of heart breaking bust offs, but we couldn't land another fish. Dang. When the surface bite shut down, we swapped our surface lures for vibes and hards and a steady stream of cod started hitting the rocks:
For a little fish these guys can certainly make the rod bend when they're trying to get back to their home, but they did get annoying after a while (where were all the jacks and barra?!). Unfortunately nothing more substantial took an interest in our lures, and when the light started to fade:
We decided to call it quits. The next morning we were at the flats at first light, hoping for a few flatties:
We tied on a mix of plastics and vibes and it didn’t take long to register the first fish of the morning:
Over the next couple of hours we caught a heap of small flatties but nothing over about 35cm. I hooked into what I’m sure was a big flatty but pulled the hooks halfway through the fight (goddamit), but that was as close as we got to a big fish. Luckily there were lots of little fellas around to keep us entertained:
After heading back to the motel for a late breakfast, we decided we’d spend the middle of the day exploring, before heading back to the ‘GT spot’ for the evening low tide. We covered a lot of km’s and explored some really fishy looking areas:
But all we managed for the day was one big catfish, which took a liking to a plastic and gave my old man some serious stick on bream gear:
At 3pm we made our way back to the GT spot, but the tide was a little higher than the day before. GT spot day 1:
GT spot day 2:
It seemed to take bloody hours for the tide to recede enough for us to fish, and when it finally did, the place was dead. There was absolutely no surface activity whatsoever – no boofs, no boils, not even a leaping mullet to get the heart pumping. So after fruitlessly throwing surface lures around for about half an hour, we quickly changed tactics and the cod started rolling in:
In amongst the cod we also caught a couple of little grunter, which were a welcome change:
We did have two solid hook ups from big fish, both of which buried us in the rocks quick smart. They were most likely big cod, but we'll never know. Oh well, the sunset was mint:
Our flight home was in the afternoon the next day, which gave us time for one last sesh in the morning. We decided we’d try something different and fish the freshwater reaches of the pioneer river in the hope of catching our first sooty grunter. This involved a bit of a drive, but the scenery was beautiful:
It took us a while but we finally found a place to access the river:
And first cast, I had a hit:
Only tiny, but a sooty is a sooty! Over the next couple of hours we caught a heap of these little guys and even though we caught nothing over about 25cm, it was a heap of fun and a new species for all of us. Not a bad way to end the trip:
After a quick swim we packed up the gear and made our way home. We didn't land any trophies, but who's complaining when you're catching fish with your mates.
Cheers!
