Here We Go Again - Chapter 9 - Hervey Bay Day 2

“Retired” – not for these two little black ducks. 

Work is catching up and we need a day where we attend to some of the chores of business. Nothing too strenuous though. 

Robyn has received work from her overseas client (a client she has sacked and is working out the roll down – they just don’t fit her “ideal client”). It will take most of the day to complete and attacking it early firstly keeps it inside the agreed time frames but also allows her to enjoy the times we are wandering and looking without the pressure of project completion in the back of her mind.

For me, I have agreed to speak in a week at a gathering of  business owners and want to sit in on their normal weekly get together, to not only show my face, but to give the hosts a feeling I care about their product and catch up for a few clarifications on the finer points. Today the session is roughly entitled Sexy SEO. I think I will call mine Titillating Taxation – thoughts?

Not that getting ready for that session is high on my agenda, I also have to start preparing and marketing our next webinar and our next magazine. Our Property Portfolio Solutions Poo Bah (in reference to the character from the Gilbert & Sullivan opera The Mikado) is a lady who works out of the Philippines. Some would suggest she is a “Virtual Assistant” but to us, Pearl is simply one of the team. 

The Lord High Everything Else reference of the Mikado suggests as is aptly noted, she is in charge of everything administration. Now I have a title for the webinar, she will be in charge of the Powerpoint Presentation production we will need as well the posting of the marketing videos. This is not a mechanical task, Pearl attends to ensuring the right message is delivered with each piece of marketing. There will be four Doodly videos – teasers that will be posted everyday in differing orders, and a myriad of “normal” videos which Shaun (my co-founder in PPS), myself and Pearl will shoot and she will edit, prepare them for posting and actually post them as well. She is a Godsend.

With the magazine – an interactive Magalog, Pearl will be collecting the material. We have a number of contributors (including myself and Shaun) and there will be other video snippets that will be required editing ready for inclusion. For my part I need to write the introduction and prepare an article with accompanying video parts. 

That all underway, its time to take a breath.

We have agreed to tour Fraser Island tomorrow and we need to book. Rumour has it, that if the manager Steve who helped us expertly park the van yesterday is on the front desk there is no guessing where we might end up getting booked. Silver Leader Forbsy and I head to the office and Low and behold Steve is on the desk. We laugh with him about his reputation on the computer. The process is started, he collects all my information after discerning which tour we are to be booked on, inputs it to his screen then exclaims “Bugger, I need to log in”. 

The process starts again.

This time there is success – or so it seems. The computer has accepted the input, the deposit has been paid and an email has just turned up in my Inbox confirming everything. Skills Steve!

Silver Leader and Forbsy are registered momentarily and without issue. Proof will be in the pudding tomorrow when we are all on the same tour at 7.15am at the front gate. The day trip is not cheap – in excess of $250 each, but that is for a full day, transfer to the island, lunch etc. The east coast is a much more expensive option than last time’s cut through the middle. 

Its only money

That chore done Forbsy decides to join Robyn and I on an exploration of Hervey Bay. We jump in the Cruiser, turn left and head out to places we are about to find. If the truth be known I really wanted to get some fishing tackle specific for my needs here but the ruse of the expedition keeps everyone pleased.

There is a famous jetty in Hervey Bay, along with others too I suspect. The fishing from this jetty is legendary and Silver Leader and I intend to give it a go while we are here. High tide today is 3.00pm but the excitement of the initial exploration probably does not give rise to a placation of the need to fish today. Having said that, Silver Leader was out at the crack of dawn, losing lures to a rock visible at low tide a ways down the beach.

The travels take past a vast marina complex. We don’t venture in other than to circumnavigate it somewhat, marvelling at the money invested in aquatic travel, parked in rows of masts and luxury power boats. To an old accountant and businessman, it actually doesn’t make sense from a pure “use of money” aspect to have so much investment tied up in assets that simply don’t move, or move very little. 

Those with the money can do with it as they want.

We come across a shopping centre apparently in the middle of nowhere. Here, the big food outlets have been built with no apparent custom, other than the industrial area. Robyn muses that the workers need to purchase their groceries at lunch time. It is not until later we see vast developments of housing and schools opening up around the shopping centre. There has been forethought here, even if it is just in the scarring of the land by the ever increasing encroachment of man on nature.

The airport is not an easy place to find. I can see it on the GPS but fail miserably in my efforts to drive into the parking area. I end up with only a glimpse of the end of the runway. I suspect the locals are much more familiar with the facility and unlike me, are able to find it with ease.

As we wander, we come across the Hervey Bay Wednesday Markets. Nestled between two streets and hanging off the end of the pier, a promenade/park holds an area where, on Wednesdays until 1.00pm, market stalls are erected and local wares are pedalled. Here as well are some food trucks. Robyn is unstoppable, she is out of the Cruiser in a flash and pouring over the merchandise. Meanwhile, Forbsy and I “retire” to an adjacent fishing tackle shop, me to buy some sinkers and Forbsy, not to be at the markets.

Sinkers purchased and deposited in the Cruiser, its time to find Robyn and perhaps seek out some lunch. The food vendors here seem like they will be able to fulfil our hunger with some sort of culinary delights. We settle on repasts and settle at a bench in the dappled sunlight to consume it. 

It is coming up to high tide, potentially the best time for fishing the pier and some of the locals are making their way to the pier in pursuit of the next big catch. The pier is some 800 metres long. Quite the distance to transport fishing gear, especially if you want options. We see necessity creating invention as “contraptions” designed mainly around bicycles, containing all manner of methods to hold fishing tackle wander past in the direction of the pier. One, with his pet dog happily riding in what seems like a sidecar, has at least a dozen polythene pipe rod holders encircling the dog, all filled with varying lengths of rods. The dog is unphased, tongue hanging out, enjoying the ride and the expectation of the journey’s end.

Silver Leader has talked up the fishing experience that is the end of the pier but for now watching other lucky enough to have the time and the inclination to take on the task is all I can do.

With high tide being at 3 o’clock today there is really no time to head back to the van after lunch, get all the gear ready and be back on the pier in time for the top of it. I resign myself to fishing on the beach in front of the van. A huge walk of about 20 metres. I select a couple of beach rods, rig one for a large bait with gang hooks and the other with small long shanked hooks for whiting, bream or flathead and camp chair in hand and make the trek down on the beach.

With the right sinkers, getting the bait, well and truly “out there” is much easier than last night with small bean sinkers. I have acquired some beach worms for the smaller hooks and a pilchard for the gang hooks. 

Almost immediately the beach worm is attacked and the bait is lost. Re-baited it is returned with the same result. The “big gear” just sits, and with a much larger sinker holding it I wonder if the same is happening to it, but I just can’t see it. Again and again the re-baiting continues until finally success and a fight is on – if you could call it that. It is clear a fish has been hooked but with the weight of the sinker and the pounding of the, what must be a 20cm surf (the waves have become much larger since last night), the resistance is not notable.

When the fish appears from the waves, all is revealed – well almost. I can see I have a fish  but what sort. At a distance of 10 metres it is hard to determine what I have caught. I drag it the last of the distance and see I have caught a flathead, a huge flathead, about half the length of my thong. No wonder there was little fight, the sinker probably weighs more than the fish.

The little bugger has swallowed both hooks (I run a floating hook as well as the static one on this rig) and rather than attempt to extract them I simply cut the line and return the fish to the water. In time the hooks will work their way out. Hopefully by that time the fish will be the size of something edible.

Checking the gang hooks, I see something has attached that bait as well. Recharged and relaunched I sit on my deck chair, in the afternoon sun, rod in hand and doze waiting for that tell tale touch on the line. None comes. I pack up and make the long trek back to the van, pack the gear away ready for next time and join the others to watch the sunset across the bay.

Silver Leader is a very good bream fisherman. In fact he is so good he is sponsored by Lowrance and he has been talking to his sponsors as it is time to renew it. Being retired and on the way around the island, he was hesitant to renew, but because of a phone call, we now have names of others, particularly in Exmouth, we are suggested would be perfect for expeditions when we hit there. 

We have heard legendary stories of that area. The Abrolhos Islands, Ningaloo Reef etc are names synonymous with that area. The blood runs with the expectations of large pelagics making reels scream. The stuff dreams are made of for any budding fisherman looking to cross off any of the bucket list species.

Sunset over Hervey Bay around a table of wine, cheese and bickies with friends is a bit hard to take. We all play with the settings on our phone cameras seeking to take the next best shot. The reds and grey of the passing of the day into night, the movement of the water and the yachts moored adjacent to us are idyllic. 

But dinner calls. During the wanderings of the morning we found the local fish co-op and we have acquired ½ kilogram of the local scallops. Not the potato ones, the real ones and I have them marinating in a Jamaican BBQ mixture. I also have some parsley left over from the spinach pies devoured on the farm and start preparing the tabouli for the seared scallops to sit.

The smell of the searing scallops is overpowering. The taste, devine. The view from the table overlooking the street light lit ocean…. I wonder what the rich people are doing.

Dinner done, ots off to bed for tomorrow is an early start – we catch the bus at 7.15 – as we are heading on tour to Frazer Island