Into the wilds - 06Apr14

TR by Gemini

Participants:  Gemini
Conditions: Early fog, light breeze
Launch Point: Yabba Creek, Imbil

It was lucky I left a little earlier than I was planning to this morning, as the fog on the drive to Imbil was fairly thick. I took my time getting to the launch site due to the low visibility, but I arrived a little before 6AM as I had originally intended anyway. The launch site I had performed some reconnaissance on a couple of weeks ago had sustained some fairly hefty washout damage from the rain we've had, so manoeuvring the yak down to the water solo was an interesting exercise. You would definitely NOT launch a fibreglass craft here without assistance.

With the yak prepped, I looked out onto the glassy water and readied for launch upstream...



I had launched with a spinner rigged up, but after seeing the surface action around me I swapped to a popper. The fish didn't seem too interested in this though, so after a while I swapped again, but this time to the old faithful R2S baby vibe. I took my time, carefully casting around the snags, and eventually I was rewarded with a little bass.



I released the bass and continued on, noting that the local wildlife were putting on a nice show for me. Kingfishers buzzed me a few times, large turtles prowled the waters around me, and the water dragons were dropping out of the trees with great splashes as I approached. One local resident surprised me far more than the rest though, and that was a Yabba Creek platypus.

He seemed to be spending a lot of time on the surface, and I could see he was a lot larger than the last one I had spied in the wild (at Lake MacDonald). He swam around oblivious to me for a while, then turned back towards me and suddenly realised I was not a normal feature. There was a SPLOOSH!, and he was gone.



Hopefully some of his antics will be visible in the video I will be piecing together over the next few days.

Just past the hole the platypus had been playing in, I ran into my first obstacle of the day. Rapids. They were fast moving, but shallow, so towing the yak behind me on foot wasn't a problem. Past the rapids the scrub closed in and the creek became narrower.





Here I managed to snag my second fish of the day. Another little bass.



Not long after releasing the bass I came across a small group of kayakers heading in the opposite direction. After a brief chat they paddled off excited as I had shared the location of the platypus with them. I hope I didn't spook him off for the day.

From here I proceeded up through another set of rapids. These were similar to the last, and took me into an even narrower section of the creek. I could see another larger set of rapids not too far along, so I decided to have a quick flick before heading downstream again. I wasn't overly confident here, as it looked shallow and relatively snag free, but sure enough, I had a strike.



I released, and headed back downstream again. This time the downstream rapids looked like too much fun not to try from inside the yak, so why not eh?



I let myself drift with the current and kept casting on the way back. Not too far from the next set of rapids I picked up another bass.



I released, and prepared to ride the next section of "white water" *cough cough*.



This set of rapids had a couple of rocks grinding against my hull, but an inspection later would find no significant damage.

I kept casting back to the launch, but had no further action. The next time I head this way I'll be bringing supplies for a full day out. There is a lot of creek to explore here, and plenty of fish too from the looks of it.