queensland Looks like I will be looking for a new fishing area.

[Ed.]

Well it finally happened, looks like I will be looking for new fishing areas. Signed a contract to sell our house this afternoon, only spoke to a real estate agent 2 days ago about getting a valuation. Turns out one of my neighbours wanted it for his kids and as one of our fences shares a common boundary, couldn't get much closer.

So now have 75 days to move out, so I very little work to do to fix it up, mainly rubbish removal and emptying/selling off my sheds of machinery and gear. New house roof and solar panels were just finished 2 days ago as well.

So it's all coming together for us, thinking we will go further north, maybe Hervey Bay or Bundaberg way, buy or build, and then buy a caravan to do the great lap of Oz. So looking forward to travelling and checking out new areas to fish.

Anyway,  Happy X'mas to everyone, hope you have a great one.

[ellicat]

Well that's some timely good news, Ed.

You've got some big changes coming in 2022. Hope it all works out smoothly for you and Audrey.

Merry Christmas.

[Ed.]

Thanks Brian, we sold much, much quicker than expected. So now the hunt begins for an area we would like to live in. At least the new year will start on a positive note and the good thing is, I don't have to finish the renovation which gives me more time to relax! Yay.

 

[Chamelion]

must be nice...

[Ed.]

It is, but now will have to do some research on where to go, Hervey Bay would be nice as it has good fishing and close to Fraser Island, the Bundaberg area has bigger acreage not too far from the coast and at more affordable prices. The missus also likes 1770, Cairns is closer to the reef but gets too hot and humid for a large part of the year, unless we go to the Tablelands, the further north we go, the beaches get less and less swimmable due to various bities and muddy coastal water does not appeal.

At this stage the Hervey Bay area seems like a good compromise, we really haven't given it much thought as we weren't expecting such a quick sale and were planning to start doing the research in a few months when I finished renovating, this has just accelerated everything. Too many choices but at least it is a start.

 

[ellicat]

A mate moved to Bargara this year and is loving a bit of the quiet life after moving from a Sunshine Coat canal estate.

[Tracker]

Just a tip. Check insurance prices when you find your house.

We found a hell of a difference on our (seachange)

Ended up at tincanbay. Good services and boat ramp etc.

Best of luck looking,we hooked up the van and just drove around till we found something.

ps prices have gone silly here but stikk some good buys around.

Have fun, Tracker

[Ed.]

Tracker: What are the Sandflies/mozzies like there?

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Good luck Ed. I hope you can find a nice house. Sounds like you will be moving somewhere where the fishing is great! 

Merry Christmas!

Hamish

[Tracker]

2 hours ago, Ed. said:

Tracker: What are the Sandflies/mozzies like there?

We are at cooloola cove not far from woolies and if the grass is kept short ,no problems.

We used to get more at capalaba

[Tracker]

Its funny how things work out. About 3+years ago neighbor was cleaning up his back yard,(first time in 15 years) I stuck my head over the fence and asked was he selling?(just a shitstir)

Turns out he had to but his house needed big dollars to get up to standard.

So smartie me says developers were allways interested in knock downs.

Two days later he had a price on condition they buy my place to.(something about access).

I wacked a stupid price on mine and three days later we were looking for a new place to live.

We hooked up the van ,set a limit of 400 ks and off we went.

Used to live at Bundy so that was first choice, found nothing.

We wanted a small house and large shed,ended up at tin can bay a week later .Found a big house and4 bay shed ,mover in 3 weeks later.

 

Pretty hectic month but all good now. cheers Tracker 

ED if you have any questions I will try and help

[Ed.]

Thanks for that Tracker

[benno573]

Elliott heads was super nice when there earlier in the year

[Ed.]

Found a nice acreage block near Bundaberg, going to try to go up there for a visit in this week or so, hope they don't sell it in the meantime, only 12 minutes to beach, even the missus likes it! Have to suss out the builders in the area and see how long it will take to build there, depending on the Missus's work, we will either rent down here or up there till it is built.

Not too far from Bargara, Elliot and Burnett heads and 1.5 hrs to Hervey Bay, so fairly close to most places.

[Ed.]

Looks like the sale of our property fell through, we were driving back from Bundaberg looking at places to buy when our Real estate agent rang  and notified us. Fortunately we hadn't decided on a place yet. The 3 acre property we went to look at up there would have been great, except for the serious drainage issues it had on 2 out of those 3 acres. So I suppose it was just as well we didn't put a deposit on it!

[ellicat]

Sounds like you lucked out in a strange sort of way with the purchase. Shame about the sale falling through though.

[benno573]

Bugger mate. In some good news you don’t have to spend all that time working out a new fishing area?

[Ed.]

That will still happen, the Real Estate agent is lining up a group of people to do an inspection in the next two weeks or so, it is mainly my issue as I need to empty out the house a bit and clear up quite a bit of stuff around the house and need some time to do it. This rain is not helping! Apparently our agent has heaps of people looking for acreage in our area. The sale fell through because the buyer found out the council wouldn't sub-devide our property which is why he cancelled it.

The Elliot Heads area up there is quite nice, which has a large clean sandy beach and river mouth  and apparently there is approval  to spend about 2.5 Billion dollars developing that area. It looks quite "fishable" but the development may make that area too populated for my liking.

[Drop Bear]

On 24/12/2021 at 4:59 PM, Ed. said:

Well it finally happened, looks like I will be looking for new fishing areas. Signed a contract to sell our house this afternoon, only spoke to a real estate agent 2 days ago about getting a valuation. Turns out one of my neighbours wanted it for his kids and as one of our fences shares a common boundary, couldn't get much closer.

So now have 75 days to move out, so I very little work to do to fix it up, mainly rubbish removal and emptying/selling off my sheds of machinery and gear. New house roof and solar panels were just finished 2 days ago as well.

So it's all coming together for us, thinking we will go further north, maybe Hervey Bay or Bundaberg way, buy or build, and then buy a caravan to do the great lap of Oz. So looking forward to travelling and checking out new areas to fish.

Anyway,  Happy X'mas to everyone, hope you have a great one.

Ripper mate. Sounds like the dream!!! 

[Drop Bear]

On 25/12/2021 at 6:21 PM, Tracker said:

Its funny how things work out. About 3+years ago neighbor was cleaning up his back yard,(first time in 15 years) I stuck my head over the fence and asked was he selling?(just a shitstir)

Turns out he had to but his house needed big dollars to get up to standard.

So smartie me says developers were allways interested in knock downs.

Two days later he had a price on condition they buy my place to.(something about access).

I wacked a stupid price on mine and three days later we were looking for a new place to live.

We hooked up the van ,set a limit of 400 ks and off we went.

Used to live at Bundy so that was first choice, found nothing.

We wanted a small house and large shed,ended up at tin can bay a week later .Found a big house and4 bay shed ,mover in 3 weeks later.

 

Pretty hectic month but all good now. cheers Tracker 

ED if you have any questions I will try and help

Great story mate well done. 

 

[Drop Bear]

3 hours ago, Ed. said:

That will still happen, the Real Estate agent is lining up a group of people to do an inspection in the next two weeks or so, it is mainly my issue as I need to empty out the house a bit and clear up quite a bit of stuff around the house and need some time to do it. This rain is not helping! Apparently our agent has heaps of people looking for acreage in our area. The sale fell through because the buyer found out the council wouldn't sub-devide our property which is why he cancelled it.

The Elliot Heads area up there is quite nice, which has a large clean sandy beach and river mouth  and apparently there is approval  to spend about 2.5 Billion dollars developing that area. It looks quite "fishable" but the development may make that area too populated for my liking.

Sorry for the last post. I should have read everything

Mate I'm sure it will be a good thing and you will sell it in a heartbeat. 

[Drop Bear]

On 05/01/2022 at 5:30 PM, Ed. said:

serious drainage issues it had on 2 out of those 3 acres

Who doesn't love a swamp  Worked for Shrek. 

[Ed.]

Well things are looking up, the house sold... again (contract signed) and now we have till almost the end of March to get out and nowhere to go organized. The missus and I went up to Bundaberg, Marybourough, Elliot and Burnett heads etc.,  looking for houses/land without anything suitable. The following week we went to Hervey Bay and after viewing countless of Real Estate agents windows in all these areas with nearly 100% Sold stickers over all the listings, finally snagged a block of land with just over 1/2 acre which had just come back on the market over in Craignish.

It will most likely be about 12mths before a house can be finished being built, so nearly all our stuff will go into storage (except fishing gear) whilst we try to find a house/unit to rent near there for that period. So if we find a rental up there, the Urangan jetty might get be my next fishing spot.

[ellicat]

I hope it all works better for you this time, Ed. Sounds like you've been clocking up some miles in the search.

I look forward to hearing about some Urangan Pier adventures.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

I'm glad you've found a new spot Ed. I hope you catch a lot at Hervey Bay!

Urangan Pier is supposed to have lots of tuna, mackerel, and trevally. And really big grouper too.  

Cheers Hamish

[kmcrosby78]

Nice one @Ed., you'll have plenty of fishing options at your doorstep, exciting times ahead .

[Ed.]

Thanks guys, yep, we ended up doing probably just under 1800km checking all the places. You would not believe how much development is going on in that area. Unfortunately most of the available remaining block sizes have shrunk down to 400-600Sq/m and the prices are now way up there, so after looking for established houses with 1000sq/m at a minimum we gave up as they have suddenly all jumped up by a few 100 thousand to the normal purchase price in the last 4 months. The Elliot Head area was nice but the available blocks are too small for me.

Anyway, hopefully it all goes through by the end of March. Now have to find a rental, looking forward to fishing up there as it has been a long while since I touched my rods and caught any fish. Our block is about 5 minutes from the beach, and we are up a bit on a hill so hopefully the sandflies won't be too bad. Having said that there are a couple of them walking on my monitor as I type here at home.

Went for a quick walk on the jetty at Urangan in between the rain and strong winds and not much was being caught at the time, but the fishing there comes and goes so if I put in the time I might be able to get some for dinner!

[Old Scaley]

Congrats on the new property @Ed.. Prices sure have jumped up there recently like everywhere else. Have you got a boat? It is a magic place for boating. If not, the beaches near you can turn up good whiting and there is always the Pier. Maybe you could do an apprenticeship with a couple of the jetty rats that fish the Pier. They are pretty well set up with their pushbike trailers and all the gear for live baiting. Many times I have seen a kid heading home on his pushie with a large spannie tail hanging over the trailer. It is always an entertaining walk even if you are not fishing. 

[Ed.]

Nah, sold the boat a few months back as we were intending to get a caravan and do the "Grey Nomad" thing, unfortunately we had to pay much more for the block than I would have liked and the house build is also going to cost way more as well, I guess I got used to a large house on 2 acres so hard to downsize, we ended up with just over 1/2 acre but deciding on a smaller size house will take some getting used to. At least now we won't have a mortgage which was the main purpose, so the boat and caravan will have to take a back seat for a few years.

In the meantime I will have to just fish the jetty and the beaches as well as an occasional charter boat trip. We are fairly close to the heads (Burrum and River) so can send out a balloon on an outgoing tide and see what is floating around. I did build a small fishing cart years ago for that jetty but got rid of it due to lack of use, so might be time to build another! Or else find a cheap tinny which would be my preferred option.

Still got 12 months to get established up there so plenty of time to consider what I would like vs what I need.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

51 minutes ago, Old Scaley said:

Maybe you could do an apprenticeship with a couple of the jetty rats that fish the Pier. They are pretty well set up with their pushbike trailers and all the gear for live baiting. Many times I have seen a kid heading home on his pushie with a large spannie tail hanging over the trailer. It is always an entertaining walk even if you are not fishing. 

Lol. A bit better than myself; who almost always has an empty esky in the bike buggy . 

[Ed.]

Don't worry, we have all been there and not just once!

[Drop Bear]

On 22/02/2022 at 2:33 PM, Ed. said:

Well things are looking up, the house sold... again (contract signed) and now we have till almost the end of March to get out and nowhere to go organized. The missus and I went up to Bundaberg, Marybourough, Elliot and Burnett heads etc.,  looking for houses/land without anything suitable. The following week we went to Hervey Bay and after viewing countless of Real Estate agents windows in all these areas with nearly 100% Sold stickers over all the listings, finally snagged a block of land with just over 1/2 acre which had just come back on the market over in Craignish.

It will most likely be about 12mths before a house can be finished being built, so nearly all our stuff will go into storage (except fishing gear) whilst we try to find a house/unit to rent near there for that period. So if we find a rental up there, the Urangan jetty might get be my next fishing spot.

Ripper mate well done. 

Mrs Bear and I just moved a refurbished donga over to our house at Amity Point. 

They are a little rough and bumped about but we have 2 Bedrooms with aircon, fans lights for $27,500. Let me know if you would like the details. 

[Drop Bear]

On 22/02/2022 at 7:42 PM, Ed. said:

jetty at Urangan

such a beautiful spot. Enjoy 

[Ed.]

Thanks Drop Bear, the missus and I are going back to Hervey Bay on Friday to look at a rental house we applied for. We or should I say, I, have too much stuff to put into a small storage facility, so the cost of doing so would be better off being towards a house with a shed on it, that way we get a nicer house, and also I can access whatever gear I need  straight away.

Why do you need an extra "Donga" if you have a house already on your land, are you expecting  more "guests" dropping in to visit/stay? By "guests" I am referring to us blow-ins from this forum? , now that you are in a central location inside Morton Bay!

I found a couple of really nice blocks of land on Keswick Island which were very tempting, but had to resist because it would have cost an arm and a leg to build there, as all the materials and the tradies would have to be moved over by ship and then to the build site. Not to mention that for us at our age we really need to be located within a short distance of a Hospital should something happen to us. Whilst the idea of living on an Island next to or very close to the ocean is very, very appealing, I have left it too late in life to do so.

That wouldn't have been a cheap exercise to get that Donga over to your island and then moved to your block!

 

[GregN70]

Hi Ed. I've found that the better fishing is always south. The further south the more the marine biomass.

[Angry51]

Don't know about south, good fishing in the NT.

[GregN70]

There's probably only 3 places i'd say best to avoid.

Gladstone, Rockhampton, Yeppoon.  Very bad areas.

 

[kmcrosby78]

2 hours ago, GregN70 said:

There's probably only 3 places i'd say best to avoid.

Gladstone, Rockhampton, Yeppoon.  Very bad areas.

 

Yep I feel for you living near a huge river system that has had netting banned and is full of large Barra, threadies , etc …

Edited February 25, 2022 by kmcrosby78

[GregN70]

23 minutes ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Yep I feel for you living near a huge river system that has had netting banned and is full of large Barra, threadies , etc …

Don't believe everything you see on FB, the only thing it's full of is mud, old cars & tall stories.

[Ed.]

Another problem solved, went to Hervey Bay in the morning and drove back home tonight through all the bucketing rain, and managed to get through Gympie 30 minutes before it was flooded in, and the highway was closed. But looking on the bright side we found a house to lease in Hervey Bay with room for all my storage, although it took us about 2 hours to do 23km  just before the Toorbul Point/Donnybrook turn-off due to the flooding in that section of the highway near Caboolture, anyway,  now we can relax a bit and have 4 weeks to move out.