# Gladstone and Back



## Jake (Sep 23, 2005)

Im not sure where to start this report, as I havent reported for so long. Too busy this year and not enough fishing, but we finally got away and headed north for a week. 8) 
We had no real plans and no itinerary so stopped wherever we liked.

I'll just mention the places and highlights as we have only just got home and need to sort all the mess out! 

Carlo 2 nights - fishing in Tin Can Bay. Nice to be close to Rainbow Beach just up the road. Caught a few smallies, including some kind of long toothed gar thing, but the place looks really fishy, so I expect our timing was just wrong. This toothy thing was also the first fish on my new G-Loomis, always good.

Stopped for 10 mins at a little town heading further north, and then we scratched like all get out for the next 3 days because of the sandfly bites. Later that night I reread the tips from Hairymick - "Give Toogoom a miss, too many sandflies"...:shock:

Woodgate 2 nights - fishing in Theodolite Creek. I remember hearing about this Creek in Hairymick's past reports. It is absolutely amazing. It is beautiful at high tide, low tide, in between, morning, afternoon, it doesnt matter. You can have a swim on the beach then wander down to the Ck and chase Mangrove Jack, which we did!

I caught my first Jack here in the arvo at low tide but alas it was not from a yak... :roll: Still it was a pleasant surprise - went 36cm.

Next day went out in the morning with the rising tide and enjoyed the Mangroves. A stunning place. A couple of good flatties came aboard that day for dinner.

1770. Stayed 2 nights in a nice cabin here and went down to Round Hill Creek for some fun during the day. Another awesome place. Got my first Barracuda on a yak, went about 60cm!   This was after he had taken 3 sets of gear from me. I refrained from opening him up to retrieve my lures...

Also of note was a Sand Bass, new to me but I found it in the book later on. It fought like a ripper, making me think I had caught something much, much bigger.

Once the tide had turned around Round Hill the fishing was awesome. I would sit there and whack a new lure on and dangle it in the water while putting my scissors away, and fish would come to the surface and start nipping at my bloody soft plastics!

Pedaled home during a spectacular Qld sunset.

We had to head south now, as we were booked in for the Hobie Bass Bash at Lake MacDonald (more on that later).

We stayed on Lake Baroon for the next couple of nights and fished twice a day. The Bass were going OFF! I caught everything on my trusty (and now tattered) spinnerbait.

Taking a tip from Kilkenny I headed to his Spot X, trolled around a bit and then ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz............ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz.......This thing just kept going for ages. Fearing that whatever it was would get too far away I tightened my drag a couple of turns then the Hobie started to pick up speed. I had 10lb braid so I was pretty safe, but its great to be towed around a lake by a huge fish.

I fought this thing for about 10 minutes, with more spectacular runs, thanks to the Hobie though I could actually chase the fish and make up some ground on him. I finally got him to the boat and was wrapped to see 52cm of Australian Bass. Measured and released he took off showering me with water.

Baroon is beautiful, the nicest part actually being fishing restricted but its worth the pedal anyway. Will be returning for sure.

So we've had a good run, travelled over 2000kms with the yaks on the roof, pedaled maybe 100kms, caught a swag of fish (only 3 kept in total), and got some great photos, all before school holidays which is a bonus.

We found a heap of other places that we didnt stay but could easily spend a week there. Thanks to those that offered suggestions for camping spots, all advice was excellent and accurate.

The pics are in no particular order.

Cheers,
Jake


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## Jake (Sep 23, 2005)

More pics


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## Jake (Sep 23, 2005)

More pics


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

It was a pleasure to read that report Jake, nice pics too. Holidays like you described are my favorites, no set plans, just travel and stop at the places you like. Great stuff 

BTW the long toothed garfish sounds like a long tom :wink:

EDIT I've just seen the rest of the photos, it looks like a long tom too. Cracker of a bass!


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## Jake (Sep 23, 2005)

More pics


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## Jake (Sep 23, 2005)

More pics


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## YakAtak (Mar 13, 2006)

Great report Jake, awesome pics too.  
The LB bass is a cracker! Love the shot of the wine being consumed, HOW VERY CIVILIZED!


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Great report Jake. Congrats on the bass, what a beauty.

Your tarwhine looks awfully like a bream to me. I know people confuse the two. But black caudal fin edge and the faint dark bars on the body make me think bream. Tarwhine are more silver and have more yellow in the fins


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## Jake (Sep 23, 2005)

Peril said:


> Great report Jake. Congrats on the bass, what a beauty.
> 
> Your tarwhine looks awfully like a bream to me. I know people confuse the two. But black caudal fin edge and the faint dark bars on the body make me think bream. Tarwhine are more silver and have more yellow in the fins


Yes Dave, you may be right, I wasnt sure but I caught a few like this with stripes, but I also caught bream at the same place without stripes... :?


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## Jake (Sep 23, 2005)

Just realised I left out the Mangrove Jack!!!!


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## paffoh (Aug 24, 2006)

Wow, 1770 is an amazing looking place!

After reading some articles in magazines like Adventure Angler and the like i am constantly amazed that there is a place known as that and the images i consume look pale in comparison to the trip you just had!

Ripper fish and some great company, the Goodoleboys look like some classic characters with there custom pot craft, look at the size of the engine on that yak... wonder how many horsepower that was?

Car with the yaks looks like a great system, anymore information on the brand and mountings would be great... wanting to transport 2 yaks together soon and am appealing for information on ways to do so.

Well done mate and thanks for the report...


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## bazzoo (Oct 17, 2006)

great report Jake , love the photos, what terrific water , looks like a very happy place


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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)

Good on ya Jake,

teriffic report and piccies mate. congrats on the animal Bass. Didja stay in the tree houses? :twisted: How good are they   

Congrats on the jack too. 

That Eurimbula shot is a beauty, You must have gone a bloody long way up it to get that one. there be serious barra & jacks up there.

Again mate, great report. Real glad you had such a good holliday.


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## hairymick (Oct 18, 2005)

Good on ya Jake,

teriffic report and piccies mate. congrats on the animal Bass. Didja stay in the tree houses? :twisted: How good are they   

Congrats on the jack too. 

That Eurimbula shot is a beauty, You must have gone a bloody long way up it to get that one. there be serious barra & jacks up there.

Again mate, great report. Real glad you had such a good holliday.


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

Jake your report shows why Qld and yaks are such a good mix, what a great and diverse trip.

From memory the previous forum big bass was the near miss 50cms of Dallas at Hinze so believe you have the honour at present in the bass stakes.

Agree with Peril's ID on the bream, the yellow bands are prominent on tarwhine, even the little fellas


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## Jake (Sep 23, 2005)

Thanks for the appreciation blokes! We had such a great time, it was hard to choose where to stay as everywhere looked so nice.

Mick, we went a fair way up to Eurimbula Ck but didnt stop for a fish. There were a couple of blokes fly fishing - and we had a fair bit of driving to do that day so will get back one day. And yes, we spent 2 nights at the amazing Treetops, now called Secrets on the Lake. Just brilliant.

Paffoh, We use the Thule racks shaped like the letter J. They are perfect for 2 Hobies side by side. There is a little bit of windage as you would expect because they sit pretty high but this way we can open the boot still and get into the car. If we lay the yaks flat on the roof racks one on top of the other we cant get in to the back. Tested to 140kms/hr and still no problem, and have travelled probably 5000kms with the yaks on. I'll post some better pics in the DIY section.
The Goodoleboys said they had an electric outboard but they changed to the 2hp 2-stroke and they actually lost total weight. They were going crabbing up Theodolite Ck. A friendly pair of blokes with a home made catyak.

Gatesy, thanks for your....ummm....solid words  I think a long tom is correct, Ive only ever seen them in ocean waters and up to 2.5m, so this was a baby, just wasnt expecting it.

Richo, Me? the biggest bass? Woohooo!!!!!!! Sounds awright! It really, really made my day, as if I wasnt already having the best time in the world.


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## polylureosis (Jul 24, 2006)

Jake,

Great to hear about some of the places you visited first hand at the Bash Bash.
However the photos really show off how amazing some of these places are.
Certainly starts one thinking of doing there own northern road trip.
Been up that way a few times (in the days before the outback) so I think it's time for a revisit.
Any time your up to a revisit to lake Baroon let me know - It's a great half day trip from Brisbane.

Ash


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## Phoenix (Jan 12, 2006)

Great pics Jake.


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## troppo (Feb 1, 2006)

Too many great pics there for me to comment on Jake. Awesome. Awesome.


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## Guest (Nov 29, 2006)

Awesome report and pics Jake.....

Good job on the camera too mate, some great pics there


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## andybear (Jan 15, 2006)

Hi Jake, great reports and piccies.

They have left me breathless, envy is a bad thing.... but ooooooh fantastic!

cheers Andybear :lol:


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## PoddyMullet (Aug 29, 2005)

What a road trip!! Top report Jake, beaut pics and fish. Well done on the Bass, 52cm is a fine snapper....let alone Bass. Roadtrips and yaks...geez we're living in the lucky country


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