North Stradbroke Island lies several km off shore just south of Brisbane on the Gold Coast of Australia. In the Australian tradition of reducing names to the diminutive, the island is known simply as "Straddy". It’s a fairly large island with a moderate number of permanent residents. Our hosts in Oxenford, the Banks’, have a friend with a summer home on the island. Unfortunately, her husband, who was also a very good friend of the Banks’, recently passed away. The home required some maintenance and we all welcomed the opportunity to help out while spending a few days on the island. We put the Troopy on the ferry and transported ourselves, the Banks’, and Heather Lawson Williams along with all of our fishing equipment. The first day was spent performing maintenance on the fishing boat and it’s motor, as well as tiding up the house.
For the next several days, Don and I, along with Heather on one occasion, took the boat out to fish on nearby Morten Bay. We managed to catch lots of fish including this sweetlip and estuary cod:
We also caught plenty of squire - a small snapper - and a sole that I didn’t get photos of. It was enough to provide several meals. Prawns, oysters, and sand crabs were purchased from the local fishermen and we had a wonderful seafood feast! This is a photo of all the Banks’, Heather, and me at the local take away (take out, for you Yanks) food spot taken on a trip to the northern part of the island.
It was a wonderful and relaxing time of fishing, playing scrabble, and just dozing off when full of seafood and good, Australian wine.
Now, Karen and I having been having a running discussion regarding the acquisition of a "tinny" for fishing and exploring water ways. A "tinny" is a small aluminum boat with an outboard motor. On our travels through Queensland, we noted that many of the vehicles that we passed had a tinny on top, a pig hunting dog in the passenger seat, and a grizzled bloke behind the wheel who always had a look of pleasant anticipation on his face. When I started talking about getting a tinny to get me out on the water for fishing, she figured the pig dog wouldn’t be far behind and decided to draw the line at the tinny. This is one of the better tinnys that I have seen for sale alongside the road - gotta love the name!
After several days of enjoying Straddy, it was time to head back to the mainland and get ready for Christmas!