Australian Fishing Adventures & Misadventures - Finally Outback

The next significant fishing portions of our trip took place much further away from the coast than we had been so far, to a town called Theodore. The drive was long but we eventually did roll into town and I got to making my first cast on the Dawson River. We had come all this way in search of Saratoga, a sort of Australian Arowana, but apparently it wasn't to be. These Blue Salmon Catfish were still fun and made at least one lifer for all our troubles.

Blue Salmon Catfish (N. graeffei)

After a number of the Catfish, it became clear that I was unlikely to catch anything else in the area. We still made camp in Theodore that night, but quit town the following morning. We tried a couple other spots for Saratoga, but I just couldn't seem to make anything work :(

I also tried the Mary River a bit closer to the coast to see anything new might show up. The most common catch remained the Salmon Catfish, but my lifer Australian Long-finned Eel broke up the monotony!

Australian Long-finned Eel (A. reinhardtii)

A couple hours and many Catfish after the Eel, I noticed a bite with a slow tap that was different from the others, more like a Sturgeon. I set the hook and once I had the fish in shallow water, I saw it was an Australian Lungfish :o It was absolute mayhem as, just then, my second rod started being dragged into the river. I lunged for the rod and called for Alex to come help me. Unfortunately, in the confusion, the Lungfish popped off and disappeared into the muddy water :( I reeled in the second line and caught a consolation Catfish lol.

Blue Salmon Catfish (N. graeffei)

The Lungfish is a protected species in Australia so it popping off near shore was probably for the best, less stress on the fish that way.

Unbeknownst to me, the night fishing session on the Mary River would be the last bit of freshwater fishing I would get to do in Australia. We soon headed back to the coast and I took two more opportunities to fish: once at Noosa Heads, and once in Brisbane. Both were very fruitful in terms of species, but typical so far as saltwater fishing goes (for me anyway). It all basically consisted of tossing around a sabiki rig tipped with dead bait. I ended with five new species from the Noosa area, pictured below. My personal favourites were the Diamondfish and Moon Wrasse :)

Bengal Sergeant (A. bengalensis)

Yellowfinned Bream (A. australis)

Tarwhine (R. sarba)

Moses' Snapper (L. russellii)

Diamondfish (M. argenteus)

Moon Wrasse (T. lunare)

Brisbane was also pretty good to me, with an additional four species including my first Queenfish! The fishing here was actually surprisingly difficult and I think having a variety of bait could have helped me out. The cut Herring I was using just didn't seem to cut it.

Grass Emperor (L. laticaudis)

Lesser Queenfish (S. lysan)

Sand Sillago (S. ciliata)

Southern Herring (H. castelnaui)

Also in Brisbane, we visited the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. I'm not usually a fan of seeing captive animals, but this place was actually pretty cool! It was neat to see a lot of the Australian endemics that are difficult to find in the wild, and getting up close to some Kangaroos was pretty sweet too :)

After Brisbane, things sort of turned into a blur. We bounced down through Gold Coast and Byron Bay before gunning south to Coffs Harbour. We saw some huge coal mining machinery on the gold coast and epic ocean views in Byron Bay. Coffs was a failed attempt at chasing down some Australian Bass, and then I received the call...

Byron Bay

Coal Loading Equipment

Unbeknownst to us, the COVID-19 pandemic had been spreading rapidly during our travels and airlines were beginning to seriously reduce flights in and out of Australia. We had been keeping busy so we had little idea of the scale of the issue, but it became apparent when my parents called to tell us we needed to get home early. Commercial flights were likely going to be ending in the next week or so.

Of course, this would cut our trip short but we were ahead of schedule and got lucky and had all of our money refunded to us for any activities we missed out on. We jettisoned ourselves southward to make it to Sydney and try and get on the soonest flight. The drive from Coffs was too long so we missed the boat but this gave us some time to explore Sydney.

Sydney Opera House

Alex was able to get on a flight the next day, but I had to stay to pack up our gear and take care of our rental car. This allowed me some extra time to do some fishing which resulted in one final lifer for the trip! The Eastern Fortescue! It was sort of a saving grace to catch a new fish in such dire times.

Eastern Fortescue (C. australis)

All's well that ends well, though, and I ended up on the next flight home! In fact, I checked-in exactly 10 minutes before departure!!