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Fishing on Fraser Island

Fishing on Fraser Island is a favourite pastime of so many people from different walks of life. Fraser Island is one of the most rare and mysterious features of the Queensland coastline. Sand is the key to how the Island was formed but it is the abundance of fresh water in its many lakes and crystal clear creeks and streams that has made it so special. Pristine clear mirror lakes and the peat coloured perched lakes, are some of the largest in the world. Each of the lakes has its own particular character. Mysterious, moody and beautiful, they are excellent subjects for photography, great places to see birds, other fauna and flora and a welcome oasis for hot summer days.

Fishing on Fraser Island is something that will never be forgotten because of the natural surroundings, which consume you as soon as you arrive on the island. Normal road rules apply to driving on the island, your vehicle must be registered and in roadworthy condition as the local police do patrol the beaches and tracks all over the island. There are speed limits to observe as well and these are for your safety as well as others. Access to Fraser Island can be by vehicular barges, aircraft, passenger launches, commercial tours or private boats. Air charters operate from Hervey Bay and Maryborough airports to airstrips on the island and or beach landings. Helicopter services operate to and from Kingfisher Bay Resort and Vehicular barges and ferries operate from: Mary River Heads to Kingfisher Bay Resort, Urangan to Moon Point and Mary River Heads to Wangoolba Creek. All vehicles traveling to Fraser Island must first have an official permit. The permit must be attached to the windscreen. Campers other than those using commercial campsites must have a camping permit, which should be attached to tent in clear view for inspection by the Park Range. Happy Valley is the next resort north of Eurong on the eastern side of Fraser Island. The Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) operates a First Aid Post at Happy Valley during the school holidays.

The weather and tides are altering the beach formation all the time so only by reading the beach can we hope to find the formations of gutters, drop-offs, rips, sandbanks and so on which hold the food attract the fish life along the beach so time should be taken to read and understand what the beach has to offer. Surf gutters form between the beach and a parallel submerged outer sand banks and they can be open at one or both ends. Long featureless gutters are not as productive as the smaller, shorter or narrower ones. Holes can be found at the gutter's outlet to the sea. Waves breaking on the outer bank spread a layer of foam and broken water across the inner channel. This disturbed water offers cover to fish and stirs up the bottom exposing food. The ideal gutter is one that is narrow enough to allow the angler to cast to the outer bank and bring his bait back through the deeper water of the channel.

A successful beach fisherman knows how to read the beach conditions and fishes accordingly. There are high and low tide gutters. A gutter that produces good fishing on high water can be dry on the low. Conversely, a gutter than can be fished at low tide can be increasingly difficult to fish as the tide makes. By learning to "read a beach, you can locate all the popular angling species such as Flathead, Trevally, Bream, tailor, mulloway and Whiting etc.

The ever-changing formation of our beaches due to natural forces provides both shelter and food for a variety of fish. Having the right fishing gear is just as important as knowing where and how to go fishing and knowing how to read a beach to find the gutters where the fish congregate. The weather and tides are altering the beach formation all the time so it is necessary to have a little local knowledge or obtain some.

Dawn and dusk are usually considered the best times to fish the beach, but often good fishing can occur during the day if the conditions and gutter formation are right. Fishing at night can be done during moonlight conditions when it is easier to read the water. Often good gutters can be picked during the day and returned to at night, when the conditions are more suitable for fishing.

Fish will often be found where a gutter empties to the sea. The surge of water in and out, stirs up the sand and with it food. Position yourself near the mouth and allow the bait to drift with the run from the gutter. Potholes are the small indentations, which form in the shallower water, often near the edge of the beach. Anglers often wade through them, not knowing that they can offer some good fishing. Whiting, Bream and Flathead actively feed in this shallow water, so it often pays to try these areas before disturbing them.

Some good areas to fish are in gutters, particularly one's with both north & south entrances, gives better results than one with only a northern entrance. Generally the best gutters are formed from the "Maheno"(a famous shipwreck) to Indian Head. If you wish to fish the rocky outcrops, these include, Poyungan Rocks, Yidney Rocks, Indian Head, Waddy Point, Ngkala Rocks and when exposed Browns Rocks. Those of you who want to use your boat the best place to launch a boat is at Waddy Point on the northern side. There is a large gutter, which makes the launching, and retrieval of your boat a lot safer. On the western side of the island the main areas are Wathumba Creek, Coongul Creek and Moon Creek but there is no surf on this side of the island.

The types of fishing you may want to do is a personal of a personal choice and every person is different. This could be said the same as to the bait we prefer to use as opposed to the next person. Bait can be caught along the beach in the form of surf worms and pipi. We all know that when you have the right gear and the right bait you stand a better chance of landing that big one everybody dreams about, so choosing the optimum combination of tackle and bait for the purpose they are being used for is of the utmost importance. Being able to select the right tackle for the species of fish you are fishing for comes with practice and skill that develops only with time spent fishing. Regardless of what species of fish you are chasing it is no good unless your overall package of fishing gear is suited and balanced to that species. The rod, reel, line, sinker etc should all suit each other as it would be a bit silly to put a 8/0 hook on a 3kg line and try to catch whiting. Choosing your bait is very similar if you do not have the right bait for the species you are targeting the day ahead will not look good.

Good tackle selection is a major factor in which separates the experienced anglers from the novices. However the so-called perfect rig is not always the "perfect rig" as lots of fish are caught on rigs, which are made for some other species altogether, and some rigs are versatile enough to use on a wide range of species under varying conditions.

When fishing on Fraser Island because of the variety of fish that can be caught it is always practicable to have a few rigs made up for each of the species you might want to target. Because of the nature of the weather etc the gutters you fished in the day before may not be the same the next day and or the species of fish obtainable in that gutter have changed so you collection of different rigs will save a lot of precious fishing time. The same applies to the type of rod and reel you use for example it would look a bit odd to see a big overhead reel on a whiting rod. All fishing comes back to balance and if you have the right balance in your rod and reel along with the right tackle you will have beaten you biggest obstacle faced by a lot of fishermen in their pursuit of a good days fishing. If you are unsure of what type of gear to use the best thing to do is to go into your local fishing tackle shop and have a yarn with them for a while.