Fishing — Getting Out There

A nice relaxing birthday fishing session

Tue, 25 Jul 2023 20:43:00 +1100

I’m in Brisbane, Queensland for the Matildas vs Nigeria football match on Thursday night, as part of the FIFA [FIFA: Fédération internationale de football association] Women’s World Cup. As today is my birthday I decided to take the day off work and spend it fishing and relaxing in the sunshine. So I packed my light gear and travel rod and hitched a train out to Sandgate, and fished the beach around Shorncliffe and the river inlet into Cabbage Tree Creek.

The sun was shining and I was so warm, even though the locals were all packing the puffer jackets and looking like they were north of the wall 🤣! There was a decent 20 knot wind in my face and the surf was choppy, but I hit up a little rock wall next to the Shorncliffe Pier thinking with the shelter from the wind and the shallow beach it looked like a prime flattie spot, and I was right: caught a nice little 32cm flathead on a soft plastic.

From there I walked around the point and fished along the way, between rocks and surf until fishing from Baxters Jetty where I caught a decent little tailor. I kept walking into the inlet, following around a few yacht clubs until ending at a boat ramp where I had a chat with some locals who hadn’t had any luck for a few weeks.

I called it quits about 15:30 and headed off on the train to Nudgee Cemetery to go visit the grave of my grandmother and uncle and take Nan some flowers.

I then caught up with an old mate from Ballarat who’s living up here now, and we went for a nice birthday dinner at The Plough in Brisbane’s riverside dining district.

All up a nice day fishing and roaming around a new part of the world I hadn’t yet fished = a good way to spend my birthday!

A little flathead caught on the rockwall near Shorncliffe Pier

Walking around the point at Shorncliffe

Walking around the point to Cabbage Tree Creek

A tailor caught at Baxters Jetty

Selfie on Shorncliffe Beach

Rock wall next to Shorncliffe Pier

FIshing the rock wall at Shorncliffe

Melbourne to Brisbane by train for the Matildas

Sat, 22 Jul 2023 15:11:00 +1100

The FIFA [FIFA: Fédération internationale de football association] Women’s World Cup is in full swing and this lucky little bugger has tickets to the Australia vs. Nigeria match in Brisbane on 27 July. To make a real journey out of it, I decided to opt for the overnight express passenger train (XPT) from Melbourne, via Sydney, to Brisbane instead of flying.

I’ve never travelled in a sleeper carriage on the train before. I took the train home from Adelaide in 2019 but that was a day trip. I really wanted to try it and this was the perfect occasion. I had the time to get to Queensland (2 day journey) and I was able to secure a sleeper berth on both services (Melbourne to Sydney; Sydney to Brisbane). I shared the sleeper cabin last night with a young uni student named Damian, who was travelling home having caught the train down to Melbourne a few days earlier. His reason for taking the train was because he really loves trains, and public transport but had never ridden the XPT [XPT: express passenger train] before. He was a nice guy, but quite talkative, especially about his passionate interest in trains 🤣 so considering this week’s trip is partly a bit of respite from caregiving I found it slightly challenging to keep up the chit-chat for the whole journey.

Otherwise the journey was pleasant, relaxing and I really enjoyed it. I watched some Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and read my book [Currently Flawed Hero by Chris Masters, about the Ben Roberts-Smith war crimes defamation case against Masters and Nick McKenzie, who wrote a similar and thrilling-to-read book about the case called Crossing The Line, which I recently finished]. There was a canteen in the middle carriage which served hot drinks and snacks, the staff were all friendly and helpful, and I really felt like my little working holiday had already started before I even get to Queensland.

I’m writing this now sitting at Central Station in Sydney. We left last night at about 20:00, and arrived this morning at 08:00. I had about 6.5 hours to kill before catching the 14:45 to Brisbane, which should get there about 05:00 tomorrow morning.

I left my heavy suitcase at Central in the baggage storage area and roamed down towards Haymarket, and then to the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre to have a sneaky shower. There are showers in the sleeper carriage of the train, but I wasn’t game last night so opted for the aquatic centre instead, which only cost me $4 entry. It’s a nice little trick Danielle and I often utilise when travelling through towns where we don’t have accommodation, as leisure centres offer a nice hot shower and somewhere to shave for a tiny fraction of the price of a motel room.

Walking out of the aquatic centre a fresh, new man I wandered down towards Darling Harbour and had some breakfast at Adria Bar, which was absolutely awful. The coffee managed to be both bland and burnt, whilst the bacon and eggs weren’t thoroughly cooked but the toast they were sitting on was burnt solid. I wasn’t going to say anything but the bill came to $44, and then the man asked me, so I gave him the brutally honest truth 😂.

From Darling Harbour I walked around to Circular Quay/The Rocks, checked out the George Street markets and then took the train back to Central. I bought myself a birthday cigar at Market City in Haymarket and checked out Paddy’s Market, then headed back to Central Station again and checked my luggage in, sat on the platform for a few hours and just basked in the warm sunshine.

It’s been a fun trip so far. I have a sleeper cabin on both legs of the trip, and although I shared last night I have this leg all to myself (so far: fingers crossed for no late bookings! 🤞).

Arriving in Brisbane, Sunday 23 July

Last night’s journey was far more comfortable. I enjoyed my sleeper cabin all to myself, got some good shuteye, and feel thoroughly relaxed. Of course the extra time in the journey is always going to be a factor, but I would elect to travel that way again over a flight in a heartbeat! Being able to stretch my legs, walk around, lay down and sleep, and just have some time to myself was pure bliss!

I arrived into Brisbane’s Roma Street Station this morning at 05:00! I headed to the hotel only to find they didn’t open until 09:00. How was I going to occupy 4 hours? By going fishing of course! 🤣

I walked down to the Brisbane River and climbed down from the bicycle pathway to some rocks, and hid my suitcase and bags under the pathway out of sight. [I wasn’t leaving them, but with my back turned I’m always a little nervous about theft.] I set up my travel rod and gear and cast some plastics, and some metal spoons. I caught a whopping dusky flathead, my personal best (PB) by a large margin: he would have gone 70–80 centimetres at least. I had left my landing net in the suitcase though, so after fighting him a fair bit I tried dragging him up on to the rocks to let him go, but he snapped off and took off before I could get the lure out of his mouth or get a photo. A very nice welcome to Brisbane, anyway…

I packed up after a few hours and visited a farmers’ market just up the road, got some nice produce for cooking during the week and took a taxi back to the hotel, where I’ve left my bags and come to a café called Coco Cozy to while away some time waiting for check-in. An old friend is going to take me to a nice Japanese garden nearby, so I’ll go do that before checking in later today.

Sneaking away mid-week for an Eildon fishing session

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 16:38:11 +1000

With everything in my life being so busy lately, I managed to get away for a sneaky mid-week overnight fishing trip on Tuesday afternoon, returning last night.

I didn’t catch any fish, but it was wonderful to get away and get my lines wet, hanging with some mates. They booked a cabin for their Easter family holiday, so I grabbed an unpowered site at the same park and pitched my swag for the night. We fished all day at our various favourite spots, saw plenty of fish, but they just weren’t having anything we put before them.

Some young guys were catching small browns by drifting worms in the Goulburn, but for the most part the fishermen around us were striking out as well. Luckily for my mates they got onto some fish the day after I left, which is nice (for them! 🤣).

Despite the lack of a fresh catch to eat for dinner, I had the most wonderfully relaxing day. I packed a pipe and sat by the Pondage when my phone buzzed to tell me it was 13:00, and time for a daily routine at Starlight where the Melbourne office gets together to have a go at The Age Quiz. I logged in over Microsoft Teams to the group chat, got a few groans that I was out fishing, and that was worth the trip just for the giggles!

Fishing at Gilmore’s Bridge at Thornton

Fishing under Gilmore’s Bridge at Thornton

Fishing at the Eildon Pondage

Panorama of Eildon Pondage in April 2022

Roaming around Wodonga/Albury

Sat, 18 Dec 2021 18:21:48 +1100

My partner is a criminal barrister, and a few times a year she undertakes circuits, where she travels to a regional court and works there for 3–4 weeks. Sometimes she’ll come home on the weekends, sometimes not, depending on the distance from home. This year her Wodonga circuit has run for the past four weeks, and I’ve joined her for this last week to spend some time together riding around the area, both with her and on my own.

I arrived about noon on Monday and headed home this morning. We spent each day riding a bit, but also exploring Wodonga and eating at a few different nice places around town. Each day we had lunch at a salad bar called Greenstreat. This place was the duck’s nuts. They have different salad options, all super fresh with heaps of great tasty ingredients and a very healthy local following to boot.

A yummy salad from Greenstreat

On Tuesday I rode down to the Hume Weir, where the mighty Murray River starts at the base of the dam wall. I haven’t fished this far up the Murray before so I packed my bike fishing rig and hit the road. I rode along the High Country Rail Trail to Bonegilla, nearly at the lake, then turned off the trail and took the road past the Latchford Army Barracks to the dam wall. Looping around and over the river, just past the trout farm is a little 4WD track heading down below the weir.

I cast some bait lines for a while at the yellow boat markers that designate the off-limits section of the river (for boating). I then headed up to the fence to the weir and there is an area set up for fishermen. My mate had warned me about how strong the current is here but nothing can really prep you for it — it’s ferociously strong. I cast some shiny Tassie Devil spoons up into the current and just drifted them down, which given the fast flow of the river almost meant an aggressive retrieve even without winding! I was fishing with my little Daiwa ultralight travel rod, with 6lb mono and a 12lb leader, so I took about 3–5 minutes just setting my drag correctly. A big brown trout hit the lure just about perpendicular to where I was standing, and OH MY FUCKING GOD what a fight! She took off like a freight train, and I still can’t believe I didn’t snap her off. It’s nearly a Christmas miracle!

A great day’s bike fishing finished with a great fish

I wound her in, let her run, wound her in, let her run. I had no illusions about even trying to get her in the net, as it took all of my strength just to reel her in, and have her piss right off again. When she jumped — quite a few glorious displays of aerial defiance — my heart stopped. But still, no snap off! Despite a valiant effort, she finally gave up the fight and rolled over, but even then I couldn’t reel her in, just from the sheer force of her body weight in the current. After about 45 minutes, I got her close enough to swing my net over the top of her in a fashion I would never employ to net a fish in normal circumstances, but my back was killing me and I was desperate.

Of course there was no to be no catch and release — she was so thoroughly played out that the only fair thing to do was to thank her, snap her neck immediately, put the poor girl out of her misery and claim dinner. Due to my bike not having an esky, it being over 30°C (86°F), and being an hour or so from home — this also meant that my fishing for the day was over.

I called Danielle to meet me on the way and pick the fish up, all the better to get her into ice quicker, and set about cleaning her. It was when gutting her I found seven hooks in her belly. This beautiful old warrior had beaten at least seven fellow fishos. I’ve never seen anything like it in years of fishing, but looking at the current I’m not all that surprised.

I met Danielle on the road out and then rode into Albury, and crossed back into Wodonga to make a nice little 40km loop.

Crossing the Murray at Wodonga/Albury

We rode again each day for the rest of the week, clocking up 40km, 30km and 16km rides as we explored Wodonga, the High Country Rail Trail, Albury and the Murray River. On the Rail Trail, I was riding along and we decided to stop in a quiet bushy area near the Kiewa River for a toilet break, but in the confusion about where I was going to brake, Danielle rode right into the back of me and ripped up her knee in a bad case of gravel rash. I very sheepishly apologised and patched her up as best as I could at the lake with my first aid kit. In Albury, we visited the Botanic Gardens, had lunch at a nice pub and did a pretty good job of hiding how terrified we were about COVID-19 and the NSW Omicron threat.

Danielle’s gravel rash

We cooked up our fish on the outdoor barbeque at the hotel, sampled all the local wine, beer and food we could, and just enjoyed our little week off without the kids. And then, as if the week couldn’t get any better, I scored a job interview with the Starlight Children’s Foundation and — I believe — performed quite strongly, so fingers crossed!

My bike at the Kiewa River

The Kiewa River

Stopping for a photo with this beautiful hairy coo

Hey there big fella!

On the way past Latchford Barracks

Riding around the Hume Dam

Stopping at the historic old Bonegilla Train Platform on the High Country Rail Trail

The Hume Dam from below the weir

Lazing around

A beautiful day

A nice little setup for local fishermen

Fishing at the Hume Weir

The strong current coming out of the weir

A beautiful wild brown trout

Stopped at the Hume Dam historic marker

The road back to Albury

Cooking the fish on the barbeque

Albury Botanic Gardens with Danielle

Lake Hume

A very stupid, dangerous and scary mergin of bike path and country highway

Danielle and my bikes on the Murray River

Danielle near the Kiewa River

Danielle stopped at the Kiewa River

Danielle with Lake Hume behind

Creek near the Kiewa River

Danielle crossing a creek

Danielle at Ebden Train Platform on the High Country Rail Trail

Danielle riding along the Wodonga bike paths

Danielle picking up her bags

Danielle at Lake Hume

Danielle on the High Country Rail Trail

Danielle riding along the Wodonga bike paths

Bored and hunting some local stockies

Tue, 29 Jun 2021 21:42:09 +1000

My mate Stephen and I hit the local lakes around Ballarat today, hunting some little trout that have been recently stocked for the school holidays.

We were really just bored and looking to have a wee flick. We tried Wendouree and Vic Park, and got onto some rainbows at Lake Esmond.