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ellicat

By ellicat
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ellicat Grand Master

ellicat

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Good luck getting through this one......grab a smoke and a cuppa coffee before commencing :P You have been warned :dry:

Well, I'm back home now.....

but Sunday night I decided to hook Dan from school for a few days to join Mitch and I on a few days at Moreton. On Saturday I was saying Glenlyon as this week is the last opportunity to get there this year (according to Mrs ellicat :( ).

Then I pondered the weather and the impending floods and decided to stay closer to home. :S So Moreton it was. Sunday night I checked the weather forecast (miserable :evil: ) and the tides so we could arrive at a decent travelling time to get to a camp spot on the eastern side. A ferry around lunchtime would suit just nicely. B)

Got up Monday morning. Checked the weather forecast again - still miserable :evil: . Went to book the Micat only to discover it only does one trip a day and would be leaving at 8:30. :huh: It was 7:30 and I had not even got the kids up or started gathering gear. :pinch:

So we changed plans again and decided to hit Straddie. B) We also decided to stay somewhere and not camp.B) The risk of bored bickering kids in a tent for an extended time if the rain was nasty was too high. :whistle: Booked the accom and ferry, packed the Navara (almost forgot the rods :blink: ) and we were off. It absolutely bucketed down on the way over so the car got a decent wash for Xmas. :woohoo:

Day 1

Grabbed a feed at the bakery (mmmm cream doughnuts) :P

Checked in, then went for a cruise down the beach and then headed inland to Brown Lake for a look and a splash. The lake was brown and the water was too cold (for anyone over the age of 12 anyway)

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Under 12 ... not cold ! (Yeah right haha)

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Over 12 ... not getting in the water. A new name was born at this moment - Pussy Grylls :laugh: :laugh:

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It was a little bit more than full.

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The rain had left some puddles around the track bordering the lake so we managed to get some splashes happening which is always fun for we 3 kids.

After that we headed home via the inland track to the west of the mine which is an easy going track with some beaut views.B)

At the unit we grabbed some torches, then went back to the beach for a spot of ghost crabbing.

Crab Ghost

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:laugh:

There were plenty around and kept the boys amused and spending energy on the chase downs :woohoo:

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Some OK size ones that shouted "FRESH BAIT" at us ;) but these ones would have to die naturally because I was too lazy to bring a bucket. :blush:

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4-PtFduGtA

After that we grabbed a pizza and went back to the unit for a feed.

Day 2

Promised the kids a shark today.

We went for a cruise all the way down the eastern beach to Jumpinpin, marking all the good looking gutters on the GPS. There were so many. There were great looking gutters almost to the end. The kids got excited when they saw the sand cliffs near The Pin so after we'd stopped for a bit at the bottom we returned for a bit of cliff climbing and jumping shannenagens. This amused me a great deal as the kids struggled to climb the lowest of cliffs until they figured a successful method.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvxmhFE72-c

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They even talked me into bringing out the inner-child (which is always close to the surface anyway :P )

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[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MCEPdK6O8U

Headed to Dunwich to grab some baits and then back to one of the GPS marks. I'd setup the rods over a coffee that morning. Unfortunately the shark rig had braid as I haven't been for a sharking session for a few years and had 300 metres of 50lb braid sitting on top of the mono.:evil: Bugger it - I'm too tight to rip it off and waste it so it would have to do. :unsure:

The tide was on it's way in but there was still a sandbar to deploy the bait from on the other side of the close gutter with the kids help. I positioned Mitch to mark where the gutter exit was. I had Dan mind the rod and to try to prevent any overspooling. I grabbed the bonito bait and headed waste deep through the gutter and onto the sandbar and back along to where it dropped in. B)

I chucked the bait in and hot-tailed it back along the sandbar to get back to the rod as quickly as possible and also to beat the flooding from the next set. ;) I made a misjudgement that saw the kids in stitches for the next few hours. What I thought was the shallow end of the gutter turned out to be a deep hole and as I stepped off the sandbar I disappeared from their view in one quick step. :ohmy: I resurfaced with a quick prayer the smokes weren't wet :( and the target was not yet around :unsure: . Damn, it was a bit of a bracing shock ! :woohoo: I was stuffed when I got out of the water and momentarily considered giving up the smokes :whistle: . They were soggy anyway..lucky that I had a spare packet.

Dan manned the rod while I peeled the wet clothes off and sat down for a drink and a snake (Allens variety of course) to recover. I heard a couple of clicks from the reel and thought "not yet, please !" :blush: Then there were a couple of more clicks. Mitch left me to investigate:dry: . I stayed sitting where I was on a towel with lollies. A few more clicks and I had to investigate.

I took the rod from the holder after a bit more interest was shown and it wasn't long before I pulled back and had a bit of weight on. It was putting a bit of a bend in the rod but if it was a shark it was a small one. In the end it wasn't a shark, but a PB tailor at 64cm. I was happy with that. Not a great eating fish to me, so considered using it for bait but had plenty so gave it to the kids to release after some pics for the record books.

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The rain was starting to happen during this shot and the specs were becoming a little blurry :angry:

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By this time it was getting a bit darker and there was no way I was repeating the same deployment method :whistle: . So I pulled off some line and looped it in my left hand and then used the old handlining whirly gig method to deploy the fresh bonito bait into the gutter exit from directly in front. Well bugger me dead ! the braid looped around my finger and ended up in a knotted heap of @#$%. :evil: :angry: :evil: It was blowing and bucketing down again and I could barely see through the water on my specs, but I wasn't going to let a piece of string beat me. So half an hour later I nearly had it sorted, but the final bits were proving difficult. I still wouldn't let it beat me though - I just decided to keep it for later (like the 2009 Monduran one). :whistle:

Dan got bitten off, :S Mitch managed to tangle the line in behind the spool on the Alvey, :blink: I was feeling a little frustrated :pinch: and we had to get something for dinner before Straddie went to bed early, so at 7:30 we called it game over and found a feed at Loaves and Fishes before they shut, Then back to see Naonka quit (thank God) on Survivor.

Day 3

Cleaned up and checked out, then hit the Roadhouse to buy brekky that we ate by Cylinder Beach. B)

The eastern beach is closed to vehicles one hour either side of high tide (because Straddie's beaches are soooo skinny) so we hit it about 10 minutes after opening. The little bit of sand was soft enough to drop the tyre pressures and use a bit of low range. I'd been keen to have a look along Fisherman's Track that loosely runs parallel to the beach. I didn't see the entrance which on the map is just south of a creek, (We were to later discover the entrance is actually the creek) so we missed that opportunity at that point. :(

We were on our way to Blue Lake today so we continued on towards the entrance to the main cross-island road to Dunwich. Along the way I spied a turtle very close to some fresh tyre tracks so we pulled up to check it.

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It didn't look well but there were no visible signs of it having been hit. It was pretty lifeless but we took it back to the water to give it a shot at life anyway. After persisting with it for a while it improved from being tossed aimlessly about in the wash without much hope to actually swimming a bit and then finally it made it's way out of clear sight.

It did seem rather relaxed about it's ordeal at times :laugh:

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[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHMOqDoMa1k

We then moved on to the 6KM trek (on foot) to Blue Lake and back with the kids having a swim and me cooling the legs.

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Pity there wasn't another lake when we finally got back to the car. The walk back (of course) is mainly uphill. :pinch:

We jumped in the car to head back for an afternoon of fishing at the beach. Along the way I decided to give Fishermans' Track a bash. Thinking it was going to be just another sand track like the one from Hook Pt at Fraser, I was pleasantly surprised to find it was quite a bit rougher and the rain had turned the track into a series of waterholes and washouts. :cheer: :cheer:

Some were deep enough to almost have to wind up the windows. :woohoo: Two places required me to get out and figure the correct lines to take so I didn't get hung up. I satisfied that requirement only on the first occasion. The second occasion there was a bit of scraping and resistance before I got out and scratched my head. No dramas though.

A few bonnet splashes -

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[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfE4i_oWZMg

Any volunteers to help me clean her ? haha

The track took us about an hour and a half and we didn't see anyone until we were nearing the northern end. Most people were turning around instead of being adventurous :whistle: :laugh: .

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJMpu-POul0

We made it onto the beach with only about 20 minutes of time to devote to fishing as we enjoyed the track so much we'd decided to go back that way as well. So we canned the fishing idea altogether :ohmy: and stopped at a gutter to let our bait go without a hook. There, on the sandbar on the other side of the gutter, I caught a glimpse of something brown just before the waves covered it. When they receded the brown thing had moved and was swimming freely in the water. I'm doubtful it was the same turtle we'd rescued earlier, but I guess we'll never know for sure. :huh:

We headed back along the track then onto Dunwich where I unfolded and straightened the number plate and screwed it back on where the plate had popped over the screw head from the water force in one of the puddles. We've previously lost one completely - they make them too soft for the Navara ! haha

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Eug Newbie

Eug

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Then back to see Naonka quit (thank God) on Survivor.

Mate I don't watch Survivor, but I happened to come across part of this episode and 15 minutes of her was enough for me to get all hood on her :silly:

Apart from that love the read, thinking about taking my Nav over to Straddy soon so I might pick your brains on some tips and beginner tracks.

Eug

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ellicat Grand Master

ellicat

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great read mate,i was at brown lake at the start of november looks like a lot more water there now,and a little fact about the lakes over there is that the brown lake is for women and children but the blue lake only men are allowed,in the aboriginal comunity.

Interesting Brad. There was a couple of girls from Lesbon taking pictures of each other when we arrived at Brown Lake...so that might explain it :laugh:

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ellicat Grand Master

ellicat

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Then back to see Naonka quit (thank God) on Survivor.

Mate I don't watch Survivor, but I happened to come across part of this episode and 15 minutes of her was enough for me to get all hood on her :silly:

Apart from that love the read, thinking about taking my Nav over to Straddy soon so I might pick your brains on some tips and beginner tracks.

Eug

I have a map you can have and some GPS points too.

We actually saw a woman driving on a track, so there are some easy ones :whistle: :laugh: :laugh:

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ellicat Grand Master

ellicat

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please tell me there is a photo of the wet smokes......the horror :pinch:

Your kids must take bets on what silliness you will do next :lol:

No gambling at my expense ! The kids are learning important survival skills daily :P

Sorry, no soggy smoke pics. I would only snap someone else's misfortunes :laugh:

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ellicat Grand Master

ellicat

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awesome report mate there needs to be more fishing imo but awesome tailor and some great pictures cant wait for the video

I could move the thread to a different category if you like :P It pays to diversify your interests. :laugh: The tailor was a nice surprise.

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ellicat Grand Master

ellicat

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the pics were well worth the wait. I'm feeling queasy after looking at those bonnet splashes–forgot to take my travacalm :sick: :laugh:

I can only imagine what kreel would say if you mentioned bonnet splashes to him :dry: :ohmy: :laugh:

Smoother than a ride in Tugger's boat still :P :laugh:

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ellicat Grand Master

ellicat

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well done mate - I was waiting for the shark in the turtle rescue vid. Really enjoyed it. The water over the bonnet looks like a quality way to spend some time with the boys.

The turtle would have been easy pickings but it was probably too late in the day for one big enough to be in that close :unsure:

We had a good few days even though I missed an offer of claw from Ray and spangleds from yourself. :)

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