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Miara 13-21 March Report


Gad

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Having discussed over the phone a few days before, the facts that the Bundy region had recieved nearly a metre of rain since the start of the year,and the week previously it had peed down rain from Mackay south.

Rivers from the Fitzroy down to the Mary gushing brown water,predicted winds of 15-20-25 knots for the coming week and a low developing in the Coral Sea,#1 son and I met up at Miara on the Saturday with the reasoning of why waste a week that had been planned for a couple of months.

My arrival mid arvo meant that we had missed the tide and the sand flats in front of the camp grounds were exposed and we would not launch the boat till next morning,so we set about securely setting up the tent,tarp and camping gear for predicted windy times.

Miara is located about 45 mins north of Bundy on the Kolan River from where you can see the mouth,on the other side of the river opposite the camp grounds there is a series of mangrove islands divided by numerous creeks and feeder creeks only a couple of which are fully accessible after half tide going down.

Sunday..up about 5.30am, boat in the water and pots dropped. (after putting the boat in this day it was kept anchored out front of the camp grounds each evening and adjusted for the next mornings tide stage by the mooring lines,allowing us to load and head straight off when we were ready each morning)

The routine we adopted for the 7 days we were there was, up early and cast net for livies,sprat and small prawns were the regular results,pump a few yabbies,have a bit of a fish from the shore for crab pot bait,or fall back on pre bought frozen mullet.Do a run and check the pots,rebait and then have a fish around the sand banks or creeks then head back to camp for a clean up and snack and then check the pots about 11am then fish bait or lures untill about 3pm,then check the pots again,have another fish and then have the boat moored for the night by 5-5.30pm.

The river has a weir across it about 6-8 klms upstream,and the water was still discoloured from the last of the fresh that was working its way out of the system.This meant that our crabbing efforts were to concentrate on the deeper holes and drop offs in the creeks and the river.

We were getting 4-5 crabs a day and along with a couple of keeper fish each day we only had to eat meat on the Saturday that we arrived.For each legal buck we were getting we would be throwing 2-3 jenny`s and/or under size bucks back.

The river system was loaded with plenty of undersized bream,grunter and eustuary cod,between the lad and I,we returned 7 undersized cod in the 30-36cm range

The best fish caught was a 80cm flatty,the best dinner fish was a 64cm flatty,also on the menu was whiting,bream,small GT and grunter which all went well with mud crab and salads.

The fishing was difficult due to the fresh in the river,which improved as the week went bye,and the frequent blusterly wind which meant we were always moving to find some where out of the wind, and also the rain squalls that started to come in on the Wednesday didn`t help.

We heard on the radio Wednesday night that cyclone Ului was somewhere off the coast,the local radio station wasn`t big on the weather info.Next time we heard any real info on it was 6pm Saturday night,saying it was due to cross the coast between Mackay and Yeppoon at 1am next morning.

Saturday night was very wet and windy but we had got our weeks fishing and crabbing trip in and we were 2 happy,but wet, campers when we packed up and left on the Sunday morning

cheers

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yes Angus they certainly went down well for 2 meals a day along with the choosen 1-2 fish kept for the grill plate each day.

The disturbing part was many of the jennys caught in the pots had at least one claw missing some both claws(we summised that they survived because of the abundance of yabby banks through out the system) and many of the just undersized bucks had a claw missing.

cheers

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Good report gad I ased to freqent Miara when we lived in bundy and good to see you can sill get a good feed in the kolan.It's a shame that peolpe are taking claws of the jennies which is a waste.There was a report on he news last night with fisheries inspectors talking about that problem

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yea dassa the Kolan has always been a good fishery system,the amount of just undersize and smaller species we caught (along with our legal and oversized c & r`s) proves the system is still going well.I`ve been going there since my old man used to take me there in the 60`s with the then Railways fishing club outings.

Due to the shocking weather and the last of the fresh still in the system we worked hard for what we got.

When we booked for this trip around Xmas time we had hopes of getting barra and jack around the Booyan and in the Yandarran creek areas,but the weather Gods weren`t with us.

The one thing we did notice was less stingrays but more bullies.

cheers

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