Drop Bear

Day 5 Drive to Bramwell Tourist Station

Camping $30 no booking required 07 4060 3300 https://www.bramwellstationcapeyork.com.au/junction-roadhouse/
https://www.bramwellstationcapeyork.com.au/
Now we were up here we wanted to explore. We had a very easy drive planned for Day 5 so had a leisurely breakfast and walked around the lake. The lime ants were everywhere as well as quail, doves, and so many water birds. Looking back across the lake at the lilies was very relaxing. There are not may photos in this report sorry. You will have to make do with the video in the first post.
I was disappointed that the car was so clean still. Oh well today would fix that for sure.
We headed north and stopped at the Chilli Beach turn off aka Portland Rd. I had been warned against going into Chilli beach without a lift kit and snorkel and it was a long way out of the way.

We had 2 map books. Camps 11 that I don't really rate as a map but has some good free camp options and Make Trax "Across the top" that has good information in it but doesn't have all the roads. So we were feeling we were running a bit blind and didn't want to push the car too far. We decided to head down Portland Rd as far as the Wenlock River Crossing that is described as "Eroded river banks will require low range". We would have a look and if it looked tricky turn back. If we could get through there were 2 tracks that we hoped we could loop back to the main road on. One was the Frenchman and the other was unnamed so I am calling it AFO Track.
The road was very good and recently graded. We got to the Wenlock expecting to have to turn around or at least walk it and make sure we could get out. We were surprised that it had been made into a shallow causeway not even "frog deep" (KNEEE DEEEEP) and we crossed without incident and on to have a look at the Pascoe River crossing that Make Trax said is "Usually cut up and may be deep". This was probably where we would need to turn around... but no. It also was a causeway and we glided across it. This crossing is in the video, it is the one where the car cruses across the causeway.
So lets keep going!
The Frenchman's track is reported to have a very deep water crossing at Wenlock River. Make Trax said "This crossing of the Wenlock River may be extremely difficult" so we didn't want to do that but the AFO track crossed the Pascoe, Wenlock and Rocky Creek and we were (I was) keen to see if they were doable. 
We saw an un-named track on the left that we thought might be the AFO Track but as we were not sure we kept going and wanted to check the odometer from this to the Frenchman's Track. We pulled up at the second track that was exactly the right distance from the AFO track. It was un-marked but 2 lifted 4WDs exited and we had a chat. They confirmed it was Frenchman's and advised us to not do it as the crossing was too deep without a snorkel. So back to AFO track. 
It well graded for most of the way in until we got to the extremely abandoned and remote Pascoe River HS (no idea what HS means soz). A very faded piece of corrugated iron with an arrow and "Crossing" spray painted on it told us to turn right. The road was now a rough bush track. It wasn't far until we came to the Pascoe River. It was fast flowing and looked shallow. I walked across it and it was quite level so we decided to give it a go. There was a steep rutted track on the other side that looked a bit hairy but what the hell. We dropped the tyre pressure to 22psi. Another car turned up to watch. They had a large camper and didn't want to attempt the crossing so had a fish while we set up the drone. Mrs DB filmed me crossing. It is in the video, the lowish drone shot of the back of the ute. I made it easily across but couldn't get up the bank on the other side... no winch/no further. 
So that was it for the days adventure. We pulled out the tyre pump and put them back to 40 psi. Headed back to PDR, turned right and headed north. The PDR continues on to Weipa and soon we hit the intersection and turned right on the Telegraph Rd. The road got worse from now on. The culverts were often washed out but all easily passable in first gear. The corrugated roads were still ok but getting worse and pretty extreme at times. I was traveling at 80 - 100kph depending on conditions. This helped a lot with the bumps and we always had plenty of time to slow down for bumpy corners or wash outs. 
We stopped for a dodgy coffee at Moreton Telegraph Station. It has a great large camping area with food and water etc. No phone or wifi but would make a nice quiet campsite. 
We took the right turn to Bramwell Station and followed in 3 caravans over the corrugated road for the 9km or so to the station. This is a very impressive set up. Large bar and tables and we booked in for dinner. They have live music every night and we picked our usual spot as far from everyone as we could get. It is a huge paddock and even though dozens of vans, campers and others filed in all afternoon there was plenty of space. They don't have cloths washing facilities so we did a dodgy bucket wash and hung out the cloths on the barbwire fence and a few ropes. We thought we saw a glimpse of a Palm Cockatoo down by the creek... not sure but...
The afternoon was spent in the chairs with a few cold ones staring out to the bush as the sun went down. Perfect.
That night we headed up to the bar with over 100 other people for happy hour and dinner. We got a talk from Ken who runs the station. He gave us a very interesting history lesson and lots of great info about this large cattle station. The QLD gov now own it and are removing all the cattle from it to make it a wildlife park/refuge. Info here https://arr.news/2021/08/18/queensland-government-buys-bramwell-station/
Dinner was a buffet, a very generous meal with loads of options, the overcooked rump steak was still yummy as well as the shepherd's pie, sausages, heaps of veggies and salads and lots more. 
They had a guy singing and playing the keyboard who was very talented and popular. He payed live music while we ate. Somehow I got roped into singing "Give me a home amongst the gum trees" out the front as part of the fun. I got a bar runner for my troubles but gave it to a kid we were sitting with who was very excited about it all.
I caught up with a mate Burn that I had no idea worked there. He is the Brother In-Law of Ken who runs the place. They, like many, are struggling to get enough people to work there, now that the backpackers cant get in with covid restrictions. They are all hoping this will change very soon. 
We snuck away to our warm comfy tent and heard a band strike up playing 80s and 90s rock. They were very talented so we missed out on that. oh well next time. 
Bramwell is a cracking place to stop and I would highly recommend it... That is if it is still there now the QLD gov' has it. 
As I went to bed I lamented that the car was still too clean... But tomorrow was the Old Telegraph Track and we hoped to see Gun Shot. 
 
 

Thanks guys, appreciated. Hopefully there is no more flooding for ages. In fact I think if the rain holds off the river will fish great in Summer with the amount of bait around.
Cheers Hamish

I don't know... im sure its my fault. I think it booted me another time and I couldn't log in so started a new account and then the trouble began... Oh well. Go the Cowboys!!!! 

I don't know... im sure its my fault. I think it booted me another time and I couldn't log in so started a new account and then the trouble began... Oh well. Go the Cowboys!!!! 

Nice work mate. that is a prize bag from the river mate. Well done. 
Enjoy some delicious dinners. 

Nice work mate. that is a prize bag from the river mate. Well done. 
Enjoy some delicious dinners. 

I don't know... im sure its my fault. I think it booted me another time and I couldn't log in so started a new account and then the trouble began... Oh well. Go the Cowboys!!!! 

Couple of photo s from my camping trip to Fraser .Hopefully the star photos show up ok

That's a mammoth barred grunter for the river, Hamish. Excellent work. It makes your squire look undersized. haha
A slow day, but plenty of action in that short bite period will see you back for more before the holidays are over I'm guessing ??

Hi all
My school holidays started yesterday, so I decided to start them the right way by going fishing. In the prior weeks, I had been busy with school, but managed one (pretty crappy) session at my local park. 
The session at the park started off on a Friday arvo. I brought some dead bait along and first deployed lines, and then @TheCharliefisho arrived. I got to cast netting to try and catch some livies, but I couldn't manage anything good. Early on I think I got one bite on my heavy rod but for the next while it was dead. I eventually threw my net on top of four or five tilapias, and then another large one fell out in the following casts. Although it brought some excitement, it definitely wasn't welcome because it still means they are swimming around in the river. I eventually caught a couple of anchovies and bony bream, so we sat back and waited for a line to go off. Despite many mozzies, staying into dark, and a couple snags, we didn't end up catching anything. "Oh well", I thought - at least I went fishing!

Tillies
Stats of Trip:
Tide: 2:40PM, 1.9M, High, 8:57PM, .6M, Low
Moon Phase: 50%, Decreasing
Bait Caught: Bonies, Anchovies, Glassies
Bait Used: Live and dead bonies, and anchovies
Fish Caught: -
Tackle Used: 8, 15, 30 pound braid mainlines. Abu Garcia Veritas 4.0 on Diawa Tierra 2500. Shimano Stradic 3000 on Shimano Raider. Shimano Sedona 6000 on Abu Garcia Nexus. Size 2 and 6 ball sinkers, 4/o circle/suicide hooks. 
Humidity: 84%
Air Pressure: 1011
Overall Success Rate: 20%
The next session was a lot more exciting, and happened yesterday. I started the day off collecting livies for about an hour and a half, which mainly consisted of mullet and small silver biddies. I tried fishing briefly as well but did not have any success. After that, we determined we had enough bait to get started. The first fish of the day was a legal sized squire caught by Andrew - things were looking good. Surprisingly, it was not on a livie but instead a pilchard. 
I started having some more luck in the cast net, and I got about 30 herring for bait in quick succession. Unfortunately for us, this is when we started pulling in toadfish after toadfish. They would all hit the bait/fight like an alright fish, but they were very disappointing to see. We did have the jetty all to ourselves though, which was good. It was a nice day, and, as it had not started to warm up, it was a good temperature. 
As the tide started to run a bit harder, the fishing went quiet and our baits were consistently pickered. The tide was very slow compared to what it usually is, and I decided to experiment with a paternoster rig. I was dropping one line (light rod) straight down with a 6 ball sinker, and the other, with a size 4 star sinker, was being casted out into the middle of the river. Eventually, after some more toadfish and picker attacks, Andrew was on to another squire - which went undersize. After that, it was quiet again for another 45 minutes or so before he caught another legal squire which was released. At this point, I had still caught nothing - my most significant catch might have been a cast net full of decent sized scat. 
The tide was half way through the rise when things went really quiet, and basically any livie was not getting a touch. In fact, the only thing that seemed to be catching fish at that point was pilchards, and even then they were only getting pickered to bits. It was at this point (a bit before 2) that we were all considering packing it in, as it looked like the bites had stopped. I did managed to land one sea toad in this period, and got mysteriously busted off by something which took my whole hook, dropper, and sinker as soon as it bit my herring. 
At about 2, I switched my pilchard back to a live herring on my dropper rig and fired it out into the middle of the river. I went back to sit down but it didn't take long before the end of my 8 foot rod was bouncing around and line was being yanked off my baitrunner. I set the hook and got the line tight, and immediately felt a lot of strong headshakes. I was almost adamant my luck had not changed and I was on a toadfish, but the fish was taking a couple of snappy runs so I was eager to see it anyways. Initial thoughts were a slightly larger squire, but we were pleased to see a nice and fat grunter on the end of my line! After a couple more dives and a struggle landing it, the fish was eventually gaffed and lifted onto the jetty. Woohoo!

60CM of Brisbane River Grunter
Following that, the fishing started to go crazy! Andrew had a fish on both of his lines at one point, and landed a legal squire after a nice tussle, and after I redeployed my bait with another live herring it didn't take long before I had a 39cm squire on the jetty as well. I was pretty happy with that, as it was my first from the Brisbane River. Michael then hooked up as well, but it was unfortunately just another toad. To finish the hot bite period off, Andrew pulled in a 35cm bream, which was a random but nice catch as well. It is worth saying this all happened in the space of twenty minutes, after hours of no action. 

Squire
Anyways, after the fish stopped biting so much (high tide change), Andrew headed off. We all managed to catch ourselves some keepers, but unfortunately for one other fella fishing on the jetty there seemed to be no more biting. Michael finished the day with a stingray, which seemed like it could be a thready at first due to the runs it was taking. I was happy with my PB grunter as I left the jetty, and I had some tonight - it's a delicious fish! 
Thanks for reading, here are the trip stats:
Stats of Trip:
Bait Caught: Mullet, herring, silver biddies, glassies, ponyfish
Tide: 8:00AM, .7M, Low, 2:45PM, 2.1M, High, 9:30PM, 1.0M, Low
Moon Phase: About 40%/Third Quarter, so not much run
Bait Used: Herring, silver biddies, glassies, mullet, pilchards
Fish Caught: Multiple toadfish, 5 * squire between us all, 1 grunter
Tackle Used: 8 pound braid mainline, 20 pound fluoro leader, Abu Garcia Veritas 4.o, Diawa Tierra 2500, Shimano Aero Baitrunner, 8 foot Jarvis Walker cheapy, J-braid 30 pound and 30 pound fluoro leader. Size 4/o suicide and 6/o circle hooks, six ball and 4 star sinker. Large barrel swivels. 
Air Pressure: 1006 dropping to 1002
Humidity: 89% in the morning, dropped to 47% in the arvo
Air Temperature: 21 degrees in the morning, increasing to high 20's/30 degrees
Overall Success Rate: 80% - good session
Hope you enjoyed the report,
Cheers Hamish

It won't show AFO. I cant rejoin. I think if it auto picks i will do better in the comp anyhow haha. Just a shame I can't pick the Cowboys. 
I think the Broncos are still in with a good shot....... next year any how. 

What issues are you having with the tipping ? (apart from nit getting them right haha)

Me neither Robbie.

I won't be able to put in my loosing tips! How am I gonna win the spoon this way? 

We need to party more often. 

Yeah Robbie, I was having some trouble from time to time since
they added the girls teams. But seems to be behaving now.

We need to party more often. 

I am Groot! Not open. Bite tops off.

And just like that, another bottle of red has been opened ....... 🤣

I’m sorry our occasional posts are cluttering your thinking KM. I’ll try to keep my words to monosyllables in future so that you higher powers can make your monumental decisions without interruption. 🤪

On this topic, I hate to be rude Greg, but now that the serious games have started, it'd be appreciated if you and the others that aren't within 10 points of the lead would not clutter things so that me and my skilled adversaries can converse in our talented dialect ........ Feel free to watch on, bask in our wisdom and hopefully reap the rewards of our sharing when next year comes around though ...... 🙂. After all, we don't want to appear to be snobs or big heads .... 😝.

Sorry @GregOug, but it takes just as much skill to come last as it does to come first.😊 I have tipped all the underdogs again this week except Storm (I just love watching Ricky lose the plot) so I reckon I am well on the way to taking out wooden spoon honours. I think my tips have been going in? Haven’t been able to see anyone else’s tips for a few weeks now, since they added the women’s fixtures. I think the version of iOS on my old iPad won’t run the site properly anymore. Go the cowboys!

Can you guys down the bottom stop cluttering up this topic for us top ten guys please?

Thanks. I forgot all about the World cup, Saturday 15th October 2022 - Saturday 19th November 2022... that will fill in parts of October-November 🙂
 

poo poo happens... and so does magic 🙂.... especially if you have the right mushroom toppers, 😆 so I'm told...