# Fraser Island Oct 06



## YakAtak (Mar 13, 2006)

Hi guys, I'm back, well, the fishing wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped, largely due to high winds from the north, but this did allow me to spend most of my time during the high water times exploring what is a stunning waterway. the run up to the island was extremely easy and left us with high expectations for the following few days, mackeral and tuna schools busting the surface of incredibly calm seas all the way up to our camp locations, Coongul Creek. We arrived at the creek mouth an hour and a half before high tide and picked our way up the weaving channel to a nice open spot amongst the casuarinas.




























We set up camp, and after a short visit from the fisheries boys, I was keen to get some paddling in, and a few fish. the water was so clear that it was often difficult to guage the depth of the water and fish were clearly visible darting off for cover as I approached.




























Fishing was quite difficult, but I managed a few small flatties and nudges from a few bream too. As I went further up the creek, I came across a deep hole in which the water was stained dark with tanin. As my 4" squidgie fish dropped into the depths a small estuary cod grabbed it. I also hooked a few small trumpeter (bait theives) and a small whiting, so all up, the first day was not bad with 5 species landed, but I couldn't bring myself to sacrifice any of these fish from such a beautiful location, much to the dismay of my camp mates who only landed two small keeper bream all session.

Another day, another brilliant view.










The creek at low tide










The local duck family










Awesome sunset with moon setting above it










With the rising winds we canned plans to go outside chasing some reef species and so I packed all my gear on the kayak and headed off in search of fresh water.



















The creek was very narrow and involved ducking under low branches on numerous ocasions. I stopped to stow some gear below deck and spotted a few small fish dart behind a tree root, then as I was busy stowing my gear, out they came, half a dozen small mangrove jacks, very curious little fellas. 



















The creek runs parallel to the beach for a lot of the time, but this location showed just how close to the beach it is, in these two photos I didn't move, just turned 180 from beach to creek.



















More scenery























































The end of the line










Heading back to the salt



















I spied a few nice breambos lurking around a series of shallow tanin stained pools and stopped to flick a plastic, this was amazing as the water was actually very clear on the fringes of the holes and I watched the bream toying with my plastic and it was an excellent learning experience to see how they reacted to my twitches. at one stage I had 3 bream and a flattie fighting over my gulp. 
One of the 3 bream I caught in this spot.










Dingos tracks had been evident, but this was the only time we spotted one, he wandered accross the creek after sunning himself on the far bank for a while, very healthy looking animal, and didn't seem vaguely interested in our presence.










This is my mate Mark's Dad, Doug who is 71, he was very interested in my kayak and it didn't take much to get him in the seat. He loved it.











Anyway, that's about all I have to say, accept, if you get a chance to visit this part of the world, do it, awesome scenery, and on the right day, the fishing would be incredible. While the fishing was not what we had hoped for, we all came away very happy chappys just to have had the opportunity to experience the beauty of Fraser Island.


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## Mallard Duck (Jun 18, 2006)

Great photos of a great spot. I need to get up there before the greenies ban fishing there too!!

Shame you didn't catch more though.


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

Karl no wonder you were raving about the place, thats my sort of scenery and might only have been improved by having a scupper pro in the pics.

Imagine there was careful barefoot walking with she oaks at the campsite :lol:


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## fishinswing (May 15, 2006)

Great report Karl,

I just love the photos, you really do take a nice photo. You really have stirred the blood for me now and inspired me to go to Fraser Island and do some camping and fishing. It really is a beauitful place to visit and annoyed at myself for not having visited it earlier. What a top place to do some yak fishing. Even the offshore fishing would be great.

The people in the pictures with the boats, were they there with you or just camping near you ?

Top work Karl.


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## paffoh (Aug 24, 2006)

Welcome back, what a great report!

Top photos too, I went there in Year 8 on a High School trip... best report on the site so far, thankyou for sharing your experience


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## bazzoo (Oct 17, 2006)

hi Karl , what a great report and sensational pictures , thats a great camera , sharp as a tack , and old mate , your pretty artistic with it, loved the shots with the espri in them , what a boat [ havent got mine yet, next week], thanks for sharing


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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## wongus (Feb 12, 2006)

Hi Karl,

Great pictorial .... very nice... Thanks


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## YakAtak (Mar 13, 2006)

Thanks guys, I love taking photos, these were only a hand picked few out of about 130 that I took over the 3 days on the island.

Chris, I wasn't disappointed in the slightest, to tell the truth, I wasn't that focused on fishing, just loved the freedom to go anywhere I wanted, unlike the guys in the tinnie who were restricted to a small area.

Dodge, Unfortunately the scupper pro is a bit too long to fit in the centre console, the espri slides nicely down one side of the boat. And yes, a few times I took a few drunken staggers off into the darkness without shoes on and much swearing followed.

John, We had the entire area to ourselves for most of the time, no one esle was camping in any of the sites I saw, however a few boats did come through, and there was a guy in an ultralight that flew over each day. The offshore fishing would have been fantastic accept for the 15 to 20kt winds from the NNW that would have made it very uncomfortable for a little boat like my espri. While we were setting up camp there were several schools of mac tuna working just off the beach, no more than 100m out, even got a glimpse of that silouette as a large fish cleared the water, awesome fish to watch.

Paffoh, thanks for the kind words mate, I am just so lucky to have been able to get my kayak over there in the boat as coming back would have been bloody aweful in the current conditions.

Baz, the camera is a fuji finepix S3500, quite outdated now, but it is really in it's element taking outdoor pics like these, I usually have about 1 in 10 photos that I will delete straight away, this time I think there were 3 out of 130odd that will be deleted. The espri was ideal for getting right up in the creek, ducking under branches and such, knowing I wasn't going for a swim, and my bum stayed dry the whole time.

Leigh, 8 weeks will go fast, are you planning on staying on fraser with the kids? Dingos can be a problem for small kids, as most people know I think, I'm sure you will keep a close eye on yours at all times. The spot where we were would be fantastic for kids to splash in the creek at low tide without a worry, but you still wouldn't want to be far away.

Thanks to all for the compliments. 8)


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## shayned (Jul 12, 2006)

Nice work as always, pity the weather systems weren't kinder mate.


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## PoddyMullet (Aug 29, 2005)

What a top set of pics, gotta be lovin life Karl


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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QlpoOTFBWSZTWYJYiwoAADLfgAASUKeAUqAlEKo/7/+gMAD6baGpkI9U9GmUyPUaZNNGjQyaESPU09TQD1AAAANAaajSbUZQZAADT1A00EI2uKoyigoPa0HAdeirG8t2W81vT4SCih2CtJqCOZi/abOfacBqd/0xjg+qk2iJFncF0u59CDb8bkWwCRZQz2HUIdc8mC7Di6YDTDJaj0chRoQLnBgqqALdA+EjXaBGDKm1kIrhbJoySaIkGgBMBBRKnlSIIYFKDkGhIZ6Tyxs1CMw8WiRQTxjAVDC0krcBMpCCB5wEd6TuVuJQpbL4LDb41svgA1SMZKJEyps4WHoK2QL3TULVViWBgwAf+FjrkrsEohNiu/i7kinChIQSxFhQ


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## JD (Jul 2, 2006)

Great pics. great place.


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

karl. where abouts on the island is coombal creek?


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## YakAtak (Mar 13, 2006)

Hehe, it's Coongul Creek, and here's a picture


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## hairymick (Oct 18, 2005)

G'day Karl. top report and piccies mate.  
will send ya a pm. 

Red, Some very good bushwalks in from Gary's anchorage. -  another good walk if you get far enough north is from the beach on big woody island up to the lighthouse.


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## hairymick (Oct 18, 2005)

G'day Karl. top report and piccies mate.  
will send ya a pm. 

Red, Some very good bushwalks in from Gary's anchorage. -  another good walk if you get far enough north is from the beach on big woody island up to the lighthouse.


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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## hairymick (Oct 18, 2005)

Hi Red,

I don't think any barges load/unload at Gary's. Ungowa is probably the closest.

There are plenty of eco tours run from kingfisher bay resort however and it is only a few miles north from there. pretty sure Mum & the kids might also enjoy a day there.

I have also hear rumours of superb mackeral fishing right in front of the resort. :twisted:


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## Gunston (May 10, 2006)

Hi karl
Great report, pity about not being able to take the scupper 

Chris


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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## YakAtak (Mar 13, 2006)

Gunston said:


> Hi karl
> Great report, pity about not being able to take the scupper
> Chris


Chris, If I had taken the scupper I might still be there, stuck up a creek somewhere trying to work out how to turn it around!  
wouldn't that be a shame. 

Occy, DO IT DO IT


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