queensland 3 weeks in paradise - Moreton Isl 07.12 - 27.12

[benno573]

Hi all,

 

Bit of a belated report but better late than never I guess?

 

I decided to burn a bit of long service leave and have a proper break over the xmas/new years period which saw the family and I head over to Moreton Island for the first 3 weeks.  Car and trailer loaded, 2 x kayaks, a SUP, a very very full freezer, several many fishing rods, and just a “couple” of bottles of appropriate holiday spirit and away we went.

 

Arrived at the camp site and spent some time setting up given the extended stay.  The clouds were good enough to assist me that afternoon in reviewing the drainage and stability of the tarp with a passing storm giving us a bit of a smack but the sun was soon back out.

 

To go through every fishing trip in detail will take a long long time and far too much typing, and I am sure no-one wants to read every little bit so I will try and do a bit of a highlights package:

 

-          53cm dart taken on a pippie on the eastern beach – new PB.  Can’t say I have ever had one dart fillet that fed 2 x adults and a toddler easily.

-          3 x bag outs of pan-sized snapper on the kayak, as well as some nice sized grassys

-          Catching 12 legal snapper in less than an hour on the kayak (only 3 kept as that is what was required to feed the masses)

-          Plenty of flathead off the beach, not a lot of size to them but good numbers of legal fish

-          Summer time tailor were plentiful!  Spinning on light tackle off the beach and stones was great fun and kept the fresh fish supplies topped up nicely.  Not big fish but hungry and around in decent numbers

-          Catching the biggest sand crab I have ever seen by hand when I saw it just wandering around in a gutter – it was promptly released into a couple of sandwiches

-          Great little rock fishing sesh with Ellicat when he came to visit for a few days, tailor, bream, a beautiful little golden trevally, dart and several tonnes of BS to go with it

-          Holding my daughter while beach fishing and her winding in her first fish with dad’s help and her being rather excited by the whole process

-          Seeing some commotion on the surface while out on my kayak which I investigated only to discover two manta rays having significant adult type relations.  The female swam off a minute or two later and then the male must have decided my kayak looked like a hot female manta and followed me around for the next 5 minutes and got rather up close and a little personal with me – he was “only” about 8ft across… what could possibly have gone wrong with that?  Of all the days to NOT have my go pro with me… very very cool experience though.

 

Low lights:

-          Epic tarp failure when we were away from camp and had a very heavy downpour.  Water ended up pooling on there and we came back to find some bent poles, a collapsed tarp and a very wet campsite.  Thankfully we were able to re-build fairly quickly, only real casualty was an LED strip light and about 6 poles which was a minor Xmas miracle, could have been so much worse.  Even managed to patch the Xmas lights back together which kept the daughter happy

-          Being out kayaking during the same very heavy downpour – had to punch back in to less than 100m from the beach to know where I was.  Little bit sketchy that’s for sure.

 

All in all, it was a great trip, 2.5 out of 3 weeks of generally good weather (other than a couple of passing storms), quality time with the family and a mate, no issues with the 4WD’ing and most importantly didn’t run out of “Xmas spirit” which would have been disastrous!  We did end up pulling the pin a day early as from boxing day onwards the weather certainly turned (30kn SE and RAIN) and showed no sign of real improvement so easier to exit when the toddler was not too bored and cranky.

I will post some photos shortly for your viewing pleasures

Thanks for reading

cheers,

benno

[Angry51]

That would have been a very enjoyable time with

the family mate.

And some good fish too.

[benno573]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ellicat]

Ripper trip mate. Thanks for asking me along. Had a ball for the time I was there and mixing it with your family.

Beautiful spot and the fishing wasn't bad either. That was a massive dart and an enormous sandy.

A few shots from my view -

 

The conditions were pretty good for my stay -

[Old Scaley]

What a great trip @benno573. And some top notch photos from you and @ellicat. I reckon you might want to check whether that bloke playing with Dottie has blue card, though. You picked the perfect weather window in what has been generally a pi$$ poor summer for fishing and camping.

[Drop Bear]

So good mate. Well done. You sure do have that spot sussed. 

That is a horse of a dart. I bet there were some great fish meals over the time. 

 

Thanks for a great read. 

@ellicat Stunning stuff legend. 

[benno573]

Forgot to add… I pretty much had this guy trained after 3 weeks. Wave a fish frame in the air and he would magically appear. He even bullied the pelicans out of the way! Super cool to watch every time!

[benno573]

4 hours ago, Old Scaley said:

What a great trip @benno573. And some top notch photos from you and @ellicat. I reckon you might want to check whether that bloke playing with Dottie has blue card, though. You picked the perfect weather window in what has been generally a pi$$ poor summer for fishing and camping.

I could have used the blue card as the unique item for SOO I guess? Definitely lucked out with the weather.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Great trip Benno! Looks like you had an amazing time! 

[Ed.]

Nice videos Benno, what part of Morton Island is the camp site in? Are the rocks where you were fishing far from it? Thinking about going over for a quick camping trip with the missus.

[ellicat]

21 minutes ago, Ed. said:

Nice videos Benno, what part of Morton Island is the camp site in? Are the rocks where you were fishing far from it? Thinking about going over for a quick camping trip with the missus.

Where the red dots are.

NE corner of the island -

Closeup of camping area and rock fishing spot. There is plenty of beach fishing straight out from the camping area or anywhere along the eastern beach (except for the green zone.)

 

[Ed.]

Thanks Brian, unfortunately, just found out that the Co-Vid restrictions of visiting Fraser will rule us out of going there, I think the same for Stradbroke, will just have to find another place to visit.

Cheers

Ed.

[benno573]

47 minutes ago, Ed. said:

Nice videos Benno, what part of Morton Island is the camp site in? Are the rocks where you were fishing far from it? Thinking about going over for a quick camping trip with the missus.

hey mate, 

We camp at the north point campground, lot less admin when you have a drinkable water readily available and a dunny as well.

from where we camp, you can walk to the rocks at north point which fish ok sometimes, especially on first light spinning for tailor.  you will get dart, bream, trevally etc here but it is not an easy place to fish in any kind of swell.  by far the best rock spots are accessed from the far northern end of the eastern beach which is called cape cliff.  about a 5 min drive from the campground and then a 10 min walk up the rocks (20-25 min for @ellicat).  there's a few goat tracks through up there to take you to the good spots.  usually quite reliable for dart and bream, also get assorted trevally, tailor, tarwhine and the occassional spango, kingie, mulloway, snapper, stripie, moses perch, mackerel, bonito, tuna, gold spot sweetlips (spotted hind) and drummer.  Have seen a bonefish caught here as well.  I usually take some pippies and fresh flesh baits (butter bream work great for this and you usually catch a couple on the pippies) and a few different sized metals to throw around.

 

you do need to show proof of vax to get to moreton though.

[Drop Bear]

34 minutes ago, Ed. said:

Thanks Brian, unfortunately, just found out that the Co-Vid restrictions of visiting Fraser will rule us out of going there, I think the same for Stradbroke, will just have to find another place to visit.

Cheers

Ed.

Hey Ed,

I'm looking for covid advice for Straddie. Do you have a link you could share? 

[Ed.]

Try this link:

https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/covid-19

it should be half way down the page.

I just rang Sealink, you don't have to be vaccinated to go to Straddie but you do if you want to camp there or enter any of the Sealink cafe's

Cheers

Ed

[Sunny boy]

3 weeks of castaway! What a feeling!

Any Inconvenience???

[Drop Bear]

4 hours ago, Ed. said:

Try this link:

https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/covid-19

it should be half way down the page.

I just rang Sealink, you don't have to be vaccinated to go to Straddie but you do if you want to camp there or enter any of the Sealink cafe's

Cheers

Ed

Thanks mate. 

I have 2 vax but missed out on getting the 3rd last Thursday due to my wife (and probably me) getting covid...

I will need to put it off for a week now. Oh well... more time for drinking I suppose haha. 

[kmcrosby78]

Hope yourself and Bec don't have it too bad with the symptoms @Drop Bear - all the best for the move over. 

@benno573 - awesome report, awesome highlights, some awesome/consistently reliable fishing and some awesome photos (you have quite the knack ) - all round just AWESOME!!!!  Really makes me want to get over there. Must have been a tad nervous about your fingers when grabbing the giant sandie? The manta ray experience would have been fantastic - people would pay very good money to experience that .

[benno573]

On 14/01/2022 at 3:16 PM, Sunny boy said:

3 weeks of castaway! What a feeling!

Any Inconvenience???

the only major inconvenience was having to come home at the end of it!

it's a fairly isolated spot with minimal amenities so as long as you prepare accordingly it is no issue.  @ellicat did very well with the shopping list he was given to resupply us.

[benno573]

On 14/01/2022 at 8:58 PM, kmcrosby78 said:

 

@benno573 - awesome report, awesome highlights, some awesome/consistently reliable fishing and some awesome photos (you have quite the knack ) - all round just AWESOME!!!!  Really makes me want to get over there. Must have been a tad nervous about your fingers when grabbing the giant sandie? The manta ray experience would have been fantastic - people would pay very good money to experience that .

Thanks mate - stop thinking about it and just do it!

i cheated a little with the sandie - i herded him into the shallows and then pinned him with the SUP paddle which made picking him up a bit easier.  i quite often see mantas when i fish that area on the yak but have never had one attempt "netflix and chill" with me.

[Hweebe]

Looked like an epic trip. I was over there 20 and 24 December as a late decision to go camping. Lucked out on the weather as rain mostly stayed away aside from the occasional short shower.

The plus also was that it wasn't too busy either. The MICAT Ferry to and from Moreton does get expensive during holiday periods.

I camped on the Eastern Beach, Pippies and Dart were plentiful but no horses close to your PB dart.

Comparing Beach/Island camping, which would be your pick?

Fraser, Straddie, Moreton, Bribie, Double Island

 

 

 

[benno573]

4 hours ago, Hweebe said:

Looked like an epic trip. I was over there 20 and 24 December as a late decision to go camping. Lucked out on the weather as rain mostly stayed away aside from the occasional short shower.

The plus also was that it wasn't too busy either. The MICAT Ferry to and from Moreton does get expensive during holiday periods.

I camped on the Eastern Beach, Pippies and Dart were plentiful but no horses close to your PB dart.

Comparing Beach/Island camping, which would be your pick?

Fraser, Straddie, Moreton, Bribie, Double Island

 

 

 

yeah i was expecting it to be heaps busier than it was but was not disappointed in this.  We managed to regularly find ourselves on the beach with no-one else within cooee of us, even during Xmas.  Glad you had a good trip over there mate, nothing wrong with fresh dart fillets to keep the camp fed, great fight in the surf as well.

IMO - Moreton > Fraser > Straddie > DI > Bribie

Reasoning:

Bribie - Just too busy and easily accessible. it's like a highway there on a weekend.  And the camping spots and beach fishing aren't that great.

DI - cracking spot but just too busy and too accessible to the masses.  25+ years ago when I first went there it was totally different to now and would have been far higher up the list.  Generally reasonable fishing though.  Not too bad to go to mid-week, especially in winter time when the crowds are less.

Straddie - Only ranks behind Fraser as it is not as picturesque and has more limited fishing options where you can camp.  Some great camp sites towards the southern end of the eastern beach.

Fraser - Just loses out to Moreton as it is far too crowded in my opinion.  Overall this would be the most varied and scenic of the spots mentioned.

Moreton - see report above.   Only downside I can think of is the cost to get there.

 

 

[Drop Bear]

4 hours ago, benno573 said:

Straddie - Only ranks behind Fraser as it is not as picturesque and has more limited fishing options where you can camp.  Some great camp sites towards the southern end of the eastern beach.

I agree with your list.  Starting to get crazy busy over here at Straddie too... Now that I am a local I can say stuff like that haha.