Superb Stradbroke Island sortie

Many fishos dream of having a trip of camping, fishing, crabbing and perhaps enjoying a beverage.

Well, after many years of trying to align a trip with my two closest friends, it finally happened.

While it was originally going to be only three of us, it quickly turned to five, with a friend’s brother coming along and another friend wanting to join in on the fun.

Our destination was South Stradbroke Island.

After about a week of planning food, drinks and how many days we were going to stay, the dates were set and we all got prepared.

With five going over, we ended up taking three tinnies – a 4.1m, a 4.2m and a 4.35m.

Once packed, in the six years of owning it, I’d never seen my tinnie so full of gear – it was a bit of a surprise.

Launching from Horizon Shores, it was only a 15-minute boat ride over to the island.

We set off at about 11am on Thursday and had our camp sorted by 1.30pm.

It was then time to organise the crab pots and get them in the water.

We had enough bait to last a week – from spotted mackerel and mahi mahi heads to mack tuna and bonito, we weren’t going to run out.

Having taken 12 pots, we decided to divide them up, with six pots out for blue swimmer crab and six out for mud crab.

 

By the time we’d found nice holes and run-offs for the crabs in small secluded creeks, this took about 90 minutes.

Then the fire was started and the tins cracked open.

First-night fever hit us all fairly hard – safe to say there were a few sore heads the next morning.

Though this didn’t stop us from checking the pots at about 6am.

As we had secured only two sand crabs for the morning, we pulled the pots out and tried new spots and sections.

After heading to Tipplers for lunch, we set out once again to check the pots.

This time we were welcomed by a few more sandies and one good-sized muddy.

Though with five of us, these crabs weren’t going to go very far.

After pumping some yabbies up, we were keen to hit the sandbank directly in front of us for whiting.

It’s safe to say we definitely hit them, with six good-sized whiting over 30cm, it was then time to fillet them to have for lunch the following day.

We ate like kings on the island.

I went offshore the day before and got into some good-sized dolphinfish from the fish aggregating devices, so everyone smashed the fish down in some fresh wraps by the fire, with a drink in hand.

 

Waking up at 5am on the Island, the crew were frothing to get out and check the pots, but the tide stopped us from getting the boats out, so we had to wait a few hours.

Finally the time came and we hit the crab jackpot, ending the morning check with six blue swimmers and eight muddies – we had a good feed on our hands.

And, when pulling the pots up, we also got a present.

A fishing rod that had been on the bottom for a fair while decided it wanted to come back up, and much to our surprise, the rod wasn’t in bad shape.

One of the crew decided to keep it to try cleaning it up for re-use.

Lunch was sorted from the day before, with the sand whiting becoming fish wraps.

Friday night marked the meal as a lamb roast in the camp oven over the fire.

After cooking for roughly 2.5 hours, it was ready to come off – the rolls with gravy didn’t last long.

Saturday was the day we cleaned and split the crabs into halves and cooked them in a pot over the fire.

Once all the halves were cooked and placed into a saltwater brine, it was time to dig in.

While sitting in crystal-clear water up to our chests, we devoured the crab – with low tide approaching, all the empty crab shells littered along the beach were revealed.

 

With the crew still frothing over our previous whiting session, we decided to have another crack – but only small whiting were caught, though we still had heaps of fun.

Really that’s all you need – good friends creating amazing memories and watching fantastic sunsets over the water.

Finally, Sunday had come around and sadly marked the end of our trip.

The whole morning was spent packing up and waiting for the tide to come in – morale was low within the group.

So, one final beverage to say farewell was in order before leaving the island and starting the trek home.

With that ends the trip and marks the end of Bush ‘n Beach Fishing mag.

It has been an honour to write for this magazine, following after my father who had contributed many articles over the years, and I am sad to pen this my final article.

Thank you Ben and the BNB team for giving me the opportunity over the past year – it has been awesome.

Tight lines everyone, I hope to see you on the water in the future.

Raise a glass to Bush ‘n Beach Fishing mag – you will be missed.