Loyalty Beach Camping

Over the weekend, Jason, Vee, Dave, and Jill took Jason's boat on a weekend camping trip to the mainland. We left on Friday morning, and made the 27 mile crossing in just over an hour. We got to the Loyalty Beach campground, checked-in, and set up camp. Our camp site was right on the edge of the beach with beautiful views over the Torres Straits. Each couple had a small two-man tent under the trees. We didn't bring along any luxury items like air mattresses, but we did bring a small grill and a hot plate for cooking. Once we set up camp, we jumped back on the boat and headed over to Cape York, the most northern point on Australia's mainland. We had a nice ride over in the sunshine and anchored up on the rocks for a bit while we explored. There is a sign there that marks the spot, but it isn't very frequently visited. It is nothing like the crowds of people who visit the southernmost point in the USA in Key West. There was no one else around, and we took our time enjoying the location. The boys spent a little time fishing while the girls picked a nice spot in some shallow water to lay down and relax. We left Cape York and headed back, stopping along the way to visit some beaches. Jason was successful in catching 3 mud crabs, which we took back to camp, and they were not a hit with us. We also stopped to explore a river where it met the sea. It was such a neat spot and really pretty too. On Saturday the weather was not as nice, with some wind, but we went out on the boat to see what we could get into. We tried to go up the Jardine river, which is suppose to have lots of Crocs, but the shallow sandbars wouldn't allow us to pass. We tried another river and had the same problem. With wind and rain causing us problems, we headed back in the afternoon. We had to fight the abundance of sandbars and try and maneuver our way around them to get back to camp. The sandbars went on for miles and miles and seemed to change right in front of our eyes. We finally got back to camp and spent the rest of the day ashore. After dinner at our tents, we went to the campground eatery and had a few drinks while we watched the sunset. We had a fun night and even ate local green ants, which were tart, but not to bad (they're edible and apparently a good source of survival if your lost in the bush). On Sunday morning, we woke up and packed up camp. We took off on the boat to head back, but didn't rush. We island hopped for a few hours before getting back to Thursday Island.

  

Good Catch!

On Thursday May 23rd we went out fishing again with Jason. We had a very good day with quite a few fish. We trolled for awhile around white rocks, which are huge boulders in the ocean covered in white bird poo. Jill caught her first GT weighing 22 pounds. We also caught about 6 or 7 queen fish. We kept 4 and gave them to friends of Jason's. Dave and Jason snorkeled in a nice reef spot on the way home and got 1 good size cray. Then our last stop on the way back to the boat ramp landed Dave his 50 pound GT. With not much time left, he threw a popper only a handful of times and hooked up right next to the boat. It was a fantastic catch and a perfect end to our day fishing.

Our First Aussie Catch

We are loving the weather here in the Torres Straights. It is very similar to Florida, with high temperatures and high humidity. The water is nice and warm and the sun is nice and bright! Monday May 20th we went for a fish from land on Thursday Island. Dave caught his first few fish, 2 of a species that we don't know, and 2 coral trout (pictured). They were all pretty small, but were just fine as a start to his Australian fishing. Jill sat out on the jetty rocks as Dave fished, keeping an eye out for crocodiles. Thankfully none were in the area, so we didn't have any worries.
On Wednesday we went out fishing on Jason's boat. We started off popping on top water, which means you are casting a wooden bait and quickly reeling it in to make it pop/jump across the top of the water, like a bait fish would look if he were swimming. Amazingly Dave hooked up a GT (Giant Trevally) on his third pop of his first cast. Considering this is the species we were targeting, and it was Dave's first time trying for this fish, it was really impressive to catch one so quickly. After popping for awhile, we went out to a bouy to jig for GT. This is dropping a lead/metal bait to the bottom and reeling it up at a quick pace with stop and go action. Jill caught her first fish in Australia jigging from the bottom up and hooked a Golden Trevally. It was a nice size and an accomplishment for her. Dave caught a few more fish for the day, and Jason caught a few as well. These were all released back into the water. We are very pleased with the start to our Australian fishing!!

We made it to Australia!

Sunday was a long day of traveling, but well worth the journey. We woke at 4:00am in our hotel to get going to the airport. Our 6 hour flight left New Zealand at 7:00am. We collected our luggage in Cairns, went through customs, checked in with the domestic terminal, and boarded our 2nd fight. We flew a short 1 1/2 hours to Horn Island, just north of Australia's mainland. We then took a bus from the airport to the harbor, where we got onto a ferry. We took the ferry along with our 5 suitcases, rod case, and backpacks to Thursday Island where our friend Jason Kidd picked us up. It was great to see Jason after a year apart. We met him originally in New Zealand, but he moved away to Australia in early 2012. We settled into his apartment where he lives with his girlfriend Vee, and had a nice bar-b-que dinner. We went up to a hilltop on the island to watch our first Australian sunset. It was a beautiful night after a long 18 hour day.

Great Fly Fishing

 On Friday Dave went out fly fishing with Jason from Trout Beck Fishing Lodge in the Whanganui River. They had a successful day fishing together in the chilly weather. Dave got 3 fish and Jason got 5. All 8 fish were between 6 and 9 pounds, which is an awesome catch in the river. After a nice day on the river, they headed home, and quickly found themselves pulled over with a flat tire. Seems like a simple problem, but.... not only did it start raining on them, they couldn't seem to get the tire off. From being on the truck so long the tire had seized itself on. After putting in lots of effort, they unloaded the 4-wheeler and drove down the road to get a post from a nearby farm. They were able to beat the tire off the rim with the force of the post and complete the change in the cold wind and rain. Jill stayed back at the lodge to relax and prepare for the next leg of the journey. Saturday Dave tried a bit of fly fishing, but the torrential rain from Friday night made the river and lake stirred up and murky. So, we packed up the car and headed to Auckland to check into a hotel near the airport. Our flight leaves tomorrow morning at 7am, so we will be up bright and early to get to the airport at 5. Tomorrow will be a long day of traveling with 2 flights and a ferry ride to our destination. We are stoked!!! We'll check in from Australia next.

Our 100th Post!

It's been a couple weeks since the last post, and it's also been our last couple weeks in New Zealand. Dave had a few more days of fishing on Back in Black and Jill ran the mother's day 8k with her friend Laine. We packed everything up and left the Bay of Islands on Tuesday May 14th. We drove down to Mount Monganui, southeast of Auckland, and stayed wih our friend Andre. We went out fishing on his boat on Wednesday. The first half of the day we were targeting swordfish, but had no luck, and the second half of the day we went for Bluenose. It was a fun day out even though we only got 1 Bluenose (which we ate for dinner), and 1 Rays Bream (which we threw back). On Thursday we drove down to Turangi to Trout Beck Fishing Lodge to see Tracy and Jason. We will spend 2 nights here, then 1 night in Auckland before we fly out Sunday morning to Australia. Our 3 months here have flown by. We are excited to get to Australia and experience a new place and see new things!

King of The Coast Competition

Friday April 26th Dave set up camp with Marty at North Cape for the King of The Coast Fishing Competition, which was a fundraiser for one of the local schools. They land-based fished Saturday and Sunday mostly for snapper, but also a bit for kingfish. The weigh-in was Sunday afternoon in Whangaroa Harbour. After driving north, taking the dingy an hour and a half to the North Cape, then hiking for a couple hours to their spot, then all back again, they were pretty worn out. Jill met them just after weigh in, and they didn't seem overly positive. They had a great time, but they didn't think they had caught a big enough fish. There was an auction of everyone's donated fish to the public for the benefit of the school. Then it was awards time. Lots of raffle prizes were given out to all the participants, then prizes were given to different fishing category winners. Marty won the biggest snapper and Dave won average snapper, which meant they each received $1000.00. WOW!!! Those were the only 2 cash prizes, and our guys won them both. What a great weekend fishing, and a well deserved prize after all their hard work and effort.