Have a Hobie New Year…

Author: Carl

Category: Trip Reports

Created on Tuesday, 05 January 2010 15:20

Written by Carl Holland

For the last nine or ten years or so I have made a pilgrimage to Cape Hillsborough for New Years to celebrate the changing of the year. Usually I have my 2 sons in tow and we are accompanied by various family assortments that can see up 10 – 12 kids and associated adults. For those that don’t know about Cape Hillsborough, it is situated north of Mackay and is accessed off the Bruce highway.

This place is magical, the beach is often ‘bowling green’ flat and is favoured by Blo Karters that use the beach for meetings and practice. The scenery is amazing with rainforest fringing coast line to rocky out crops and drop offs and there is just so much to see, most of the pictures I take don’t do it justice. Unfortunately the fishing here has been very poor for a while, but there were encouraging signs of bait schools returning.

Arriving on the first day mid afternoon in highly suspect conditions read: thunder and lightning and 20 knot winds we were rewarded with a string on very nice weather, actually too nice, not enough wind. We got one down pour as soon as all the tarps were up then just a few drizzles saw as nice a dry. Camping right on the beach protected by dense dune vegetation is just so nice and easy when you can leave your AI assembled and ready to go. The issue of dragging the AI up and down that beach at low tide was a nuisance until I used slave labour…not really…bribed ride time for lifts, amazing how easy a group of munchkins can move an AI.

My two mates Barak and Marcel love their toys.

Barak: Blo Karts, Remote Control toys, wind surfer.
Marcel: paraglider, windsurfer and sailor.

Barak has sailed my AI before and one is on his to do list once he has finished building his house sometime in 2020, only joking mate, 3 months isn’t? Marcel as seen but not touched the AI and after a quick once over twice he was away. Getting the hang of it easily he was soon off, returning later with a face like a split melon. I asked the usual question: So Red or yellow? Red was the response. Both Marcel and Barak are sailors and not really interested in the fishing aspects so much but I can see it growing on them as they get out more.

Here commences the fishing story of the trip: second day, mid afternoon the king tide of 6.4m was on the way out, light winds but very stormy skies. I see a glimmer of bait heading in shore and race to load up my casting rig with a metal slice. Back on the beach and the school is moving out deep so I jump in AI and get after them with only a rod, gaff and 3 metal slices and get on the chase. Second cast and I hook a 10cm herring through the nose and was about to take him off when I thought why take live bait off a hook? Quick check how it swam, all good there so slow trolling I go. Heading out deeper the action is heating up and I see mackerel and trevally zooming here and there.

My livie is way out of his comfort zone, darting about and keeping very active. Still no hits and I have just pasted the main schools so slowed and came back around, as the bait sank I stopped and waited then slowly pedalled then the bait was grabbed. Hitting hard the fish dived deep and I knew it wasn’t a mackerel, big strong head shakes, short powerful bursts as the fish made for the rocks saw me spend the next few seconds trying to turn its head when a wave hit side on helping pull the fish free. Out in open water it was a matter of getting its head up and soon it revealed itself to be a 50cm+ fingermark, thank you very much Mr Foul Hooked herring.

Back into the hunt again and the metal slug flies clearing 2 schools, close bail arm as slug drops, it hits the water, I reel like mad and within 3 winds the drag zings and 20lb braid peels off at a pleasing rate. Positioning the yak to apply pressure and another big run...yeah baby…then nothing… the leader was neatly sliced off and the next 4 casts saw my last 3 slices go in similar if not more short lived encounters. Okay Carl, assess the situation: 1 km away there are 4 more slices and pre-made wire trace for just such occasions. Light winds saw me push the AI most of the way back and within ½ hour was back on the hunt. Unfortunately the fish weren’t, whilst I got a couple of smaller hits I ended up catching a heap of pint size queenfish who hit real hard and fight extremely well. Light gear would have made this real fun as they were everywhere, and yes I did drag one around for a while. Thinking that the metal trace was affecting the bites I removed it but still no mackerel was tempted to have a go.

After no more action I went back in to prepare the fish to appease the female camp goddesses who have sourced nutrition and care for my 2 lovely, well behaved and helpful lads. Again in these situations I win points for cooking and worked hard to ensure the karmic balance of the camping ground was maintained.

The next couple of days saw dismal fishing with only one small shark coming on board. I did however spend hours taking the kids for rides; one on each tramp and with light winds required a significant amount of pedalling to keep the momentum going. The tides were large king tides that made the water very dirty with a heap of flotsam in the way of sticks and leaves pushed out by the higher water levels.

Overall it was a fun experience and the kids loved it, although happy to go back with their mum as they were very worn out and looked forward to resting up. I still have gear to put away but it will happen over the next few days or earlier if the rain keeps me off the water like it did this morning. I really hope that the fishing in this area recovers as it is such a great place to fish and camp.

On a side note the AI got a lot of interest from other campers and beach goers wanting to know all the ins and outs. I ended up spending at least an hour/day talking about the AI with people from around Australia and the world and it was good to see the high level of enthusiasm shown by the public.