No flush, just a very deep, deep hole! Apparently, there are worms and other stuff that 'recycle' the waste below.
The view when you're doing your 'stuff'!
This morning the wind was still blowing but Scott said we would still go out but later. So after breakfast a few seasoned anglers set off to Burnside Island. The swells were still there and it took them quite a long time to reach the fishing grounds. We waited until about 9:30am before setting off.
Just as I was going to go down to the kayak, Duncan came up to the House holding a broken rod. I looked at it and it was my TCurve Revolution Tropical rod! He explained to me that when he was attempting to launch his kayak, somehow both our rods got entangled and mine broke off at the top section into 3 pieces. He apologised and promised to replace it for me at the end of the trip. Now I'm 1 rod down and had to make do with 3 rods out there today.
It was still quite choppy as we crossed the channel between Wilderness and Burnside Islands but I could manage it in the Outback. Been a long time since I pedalled in such conditions. Took us about 30mins to reach the north end of Burnside Island and the best fishing grounds were at the south end, which was another 20mins away. The seas were calmer once we were along the Island as it blocks the strong winds. So while pedalling to the south end, I fished at the edge of the rock walls using my Squidgie Red paddle tails on the Berkley Nomadic rod paired with Shimano Curado 201HG baitcaster. While bouncing the soft plastic in between weeds and rock, I got a hit. Up came a Spanish Flag.
There were so much weedbeds below that any heavy lure would just get stuck in the weeds. Keep getting tangled with weeds. Soon I lost my Squidgie soft plastic when it got snagged. I then changed to the Berkley Gulp Grub lure and tried to bottom hop the areas where it was less weed. I felt a tap and then something grabbed it. I quickly pulled it out, hoping that it won't dash in to the weed beds. I managed to bring the fella up and it was a small Grouper.
As the whole area was weedy, I decided to head straight to the south end.
As I reached there, I changed to my surface lures. I tied a popper to my TCurve Revolution rod and began popping. I cast into the rocks and also outside to open water. On one of my cast outside to open water, I popped back 4 times when I saw a fish grab the popper. Fish ON! I thought initially it was a Longtom because I thought I saw a slender fish body. But this fish didn't jump at all. It just went round my kayak and almost went into the weed beds. I quickly pedalled out more to open water before trying to reel the fish. It was giving quite a bend on my rod! After about 5mins, I saw color. It was a big Queenfish! Since it was so big, I couldn't use the lip grip on it so I just grabbed the fish by the tail and heaved it onto my lap. Woohoo!! Andy helped take some pictures for me while I took one with the fish on my lap. The width of the Hobie Outback is 84cm and this fish could be touching 100cm! It could be bigger than the one I caught on a kayak 4 years ago!
The best part was this Fire Tiger popper is a no-name popper that I bought close to 15 years ago and hasn't been used! And this is my first big fish on a popper! I must say the visual spectacle when the fish hit the popper was just exhilarating!
After the photos, the fish was released.
The rest of the anglers caught some real big Giant Herrings. I've never seen Giant Herring as big as this!
As the wind picked up after lunch, I changed my lure to the gold sinking stickbait that I bought at the tackle store in Exmouth and continued casting into and along the bommies. After a few casts, my lure was hit! Fish ON! As I was reeling it in, the fish jumped a few times and it had a long, slender body. Couldn't make out what it was until it was beside the kayak. A Wolf Herring!
I remember them having a nasty set of teeth so I was very careful in lip gripping the fish. Check out the fangs on it!
From the looks of the gashes on the body, I'm guessing a bigger fish might have fancied an easy meal when it was hooked.
Later in the afternoon, the skies became overcast but we continued fishing. Casting into the edge of a bommie, my lure got hit again. I quickly pedalled out into open water, dragging the fish with me. The fish was taking line in short bursts and after a short fight, it turned out to be a small Giant Trevally. Nice! It did give quite a fight on light tackle, I can't imagine what the bigger specimens would do!
Checked my lure and it seems the front treble was missing. I think somehow the GT must broken it off. So I changed my lure to a Yo-Zuri Crystal minnow and decided to try using my baitcaster setup.
After about 10 mins, I did a sloppy cast and the baitcaster overran! Reel became one giant bee-hoon! Aaaarrrghhh! I tried to untangle the whole thing but with the wind blowing and kayak rocking, I wasn't getting any progress. So I ditched the baitcaster and tried using the Okuma rod. But the rod was too heavy to do any casting or popping. So I'm left with using my remaining TCurve Tropical rod. So I pedalled over to Andy and asked him if he had a spare rod I could use. He passed me a set that was already rigged with a soft plastic to use. Unfortunately, the bite quietened down a bit after that.
Swapped to my TCurve again and while trolling, I noticed something might have caught onto the lure. There was quite a lot of weed floating around so I thought it might have got caught on the lure. I reeled back only to find a fish attached to the lure. It looks like a sort of wrasse but the fish was as long as the lure! Greedy little fish!
Released the fish and began the journey back to the House. The wind was behind us now, so the pedal back wasn't that bad.
Made it back and decided to have a shower at sunset. The 'naturally'-constructed bathroom, equipped with a shower with hot sea water! Unique!
I'm quite happy with the fishing today. I caught my first big fish on a popper and had many smaller fish in between. Too bad about the broken rod and hopefully I can borrow someone's fishing rod to use tomorrow. Tonight, I'll have to untangle that giant bee-hoon mess that I made on the baitcaster! Hopefully, tomorrow's fishing will be even better.
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