Mack Time Now!

It’s mackerel season in the Whitsundays with these amazing fishing showing up in numbers all around the Whitsunday Islands. They do seem to be a bit late this year but are schooling up and relatively easy pickings for those in the know. A fish which is great to catch, fights hard and clean and is sensational on the plate. A lot of visitors are sceptical about the generic term “Mackerel”. Across the world there are many fish called mackerel, and particularly through Europe and the UK as well as the southern states of Australia mackerel are a small, oily fish with dark red flesh and strong fishy flavour and are a bit of an acquired taste. In Northern Australia however, our mackerel, more particularly the Spanish mackerel, is a prized catch and wonderful eating fish. Clean white flesh, flaky texture and mild flavour it is the staple of the upmarket fish & chip trade, (at least it is for good fish and chip shops not tempted by cheap imports like Basa) and mackerel steaks on a hot BBQ are an absolute treat, and, if it ever came to it and I could only ever have 1 more fish meal, this would be it. If you get a chance to cook a mackerel steak, treat it like beef. Rub with a little oil, season and then cook on a really hot grill so each side is sealed. 3 minutes or so on each side (depending on thickness). Our principle commercial fisherman Trevor Draper came back in on Friday from a few days at sea and we have some beautiful mackerel steaks on special for the next few days. We also have some long tail tuna caught by Keith Brennan in Repulse Bay as well as Coral Trout, Red emperor and lots of local Barramundi. I did get out myself on Friday for a quick fish and as well as nailing a nice Mack, picked up a whopper Coral trout which will sometimes grab a mackerel bait when you troll a bit too close to the reef edge. They are always big trout and a “very nice in deed” by-catch.

Father's day and the annual Mud Crab drought

Alas the sad time of the year again when the mud crabs disappear to sea to breed and an annual crab drought starts. Friday the Sydney market price hit $78 a kg as the supply/demand curve ramps up and this morning one of our local commercial crabbers sold me what may well be our last couple of boxes of the year. All our chili crab lovers get in quick. We got about 35 crabs today and that will just about be that till they come back in again, usually in mid-December and just in time for Christmas.

Today being father’s day I am going to have my all-time favourite lunch. Crab sandwiches on fresh crusty white bread, lots of butter, crispy lettuce, cracked pepper and a squeeze of lemon. At current Sydney market prices these will run to about $30 a sandwich, but I’m worth it. It was also my old dad’s favourite all time lunch as well so I might even have another one, in his memory on Father’s day.

The muddies disappear at the busiest time of the year, which is a real drag as the quietest time of the year, May/June are just about when they are their most plentiful. Prices go as low as $18 a kg and will peak in October, maybe even as high as $100 a kg this year as high end demand well and truly outstrips the meagre supply. Based on usual restaurant margins this will see them selling in high end Sydney restaurants for upwards of $300 per crab. Makes it hard to justify, particularly when we can still sneak out and get the odd one for the cost of a bit of boat fuel.

Mud crabs only live for 3 years and the big old "bucks" don't go to sea. If you really want to catch a crab in the next few months, try the small creeks out around the islands. You won't get many, but what you do get will be monsters. The photo on the blog is one from Shaw Island in November 2 years ago. It was 2.2kgs. On Sydney prices a $200 crab.

We will substitute mud crabs with some beautiful local bay bugs through till Christmas. These are in great supply as a by catch of the tiger prawn fishery off Bowen which is having a bumper year so all is not lost.

Shagged out!

Another “Shaggers” (Shag Island Cruising Yacht Club Rendezvous) is over and this year, amongst the fun the organisation managed to raise $103,000 for the Prostate cancer foundation. It was just such a great sense of community, shared purpose and open hearts from all the boating community and many of the residents of the Cape Glouster community as well as they rallied behind Ken, Rhonda and their team to bring the event to reality. To Chris and his team at Monties and all the volunteers I can say that being in the Food and Beverage industry I know full well how much planning and logistics go into major events and to pull this off so seamlessly was an enormous credit to all involved.

To have multi-millionaires off 100 foot superyachts, rubbing shoulders, and sharing a simple sausage in bread BBQ on Shag Island, with people who had come in simple tinnie’s or 20 foot trailer sailors, speaks volumes for just how easily boating brings people together and the common good of knowing we got to have a great time and help raise so much money, for such an important cause, made it all the more special.

The whole event was captured this year by the channel 7 Creek to Coast crew so we can expect to see “Shaggers” on TV sometime soon and I just see the future of the SICYC and the annual rendezvous getting bigger and even better into the future. Great food, great company, great music and the Saturday night “Parrot Head Party” and accompanying fireworks was a hoot.

We got to follow up the weekend with a night up a little creek in Sinclair bay, complete with a feed of black pepper mud crab and some lovely whiting.

If you own a boat, any boat, or even want to own a boat, one day, join up and become a member (and vice commodore) of the SICYC. Just google the web site and go from there. As it grows each year into what is quickly becoming the most fun you can have on the water.

So, onto the photos I have used. The "dunny seat" we brought at the auction will be in the gents at Fish D'Vine very soon so members can all pop in for a bit of an SICYC fix and I posted a picture of Moet the wonder dog which pretty much captures how I was feeling by the end. Absolutely, wonderfully shagged out.

"Shaggers" next week

Not much on the fishing front of late as we work through the busiest and best time of the year in the Whitsundays. Reef festival, Airlie Beach race week, Hamilton Island race Week, Fun race, Shaggers and peak wedding season it is just a 2 month long party and very much work time. The Shag Island Cruising Yacht club rendezvous (shaggers) is held each year at Monties on the northern end of the Whitsundays and will attract some 200 plus vessels for a week-long festival of fun, culminating in a huge “parrot head party” (google it if you must) with fireworks and all the trimmings. SICYC also has a critical and serious role to play raising many 10’s of 1000’s of dollars each year for the Prostate cancer foundation and our company is proud to have supported it with a $5,000 donation this year. We are planning to attend Shaggers for a couple of nights again this year and also planning to spend Sunday and Sunday night checking out a little seldom visited creek in Sinclair Bay. Barra, Jacks, Fingermark and Whiting are all on the target list and maybe a feed of muddies as well. It might just be a great alternative to my favourite Hill Inlet anchorage so I will do a post and trip report when I’m back. In the mean time I have posted a picture of a GT caught last week only one of only 2 days fishing so far for the month of August. A beast of a thing and let go after the photo to monster someone else. Too busy but not complaining….I could be working in a city.

The boats in and menu is set

A nice chilly morning to be snooping around a cold room picking out the best of yesterday’s catch, but well worth the effort, and the menu has now taken shape. As our regional food culture grows, we like to know more and more about the providence of our food, and like interacting with passionate suppliers, we have seen the growth of boutique supplier’s right through the area.

While supermarkets still get the bulk of the business it is great to see the likes of Stewart Drive butchers kicking goals, the Prickly Pineapple working direct with local growers and seafood outlets like Matt at Whitsunday Seafood’s in Carlo Drive offering direct boat to consumer service with staff who actually know about the fish, where it comes from, how it was caught and by which commercial fisherman.

It is far, far removed from the “imported and thawed for your convenience” product in the supermarket windows, served by staff, who, while friendly and professional, have no vested interest in the providence of the seafood they are selling.

I am very proud that our company deals with all these boutique suppliers and the menu presented is a combination of the very best I could source locally and even some basil from my own garden. If you’re a shopper and really want to know about what it is you are putting on the table, do yourself a favour and start shopping with these boutique suppliers for some of your shopping. What you think might be time consuming and inconvenient will fast become a pleasure, dealing with people who love what they have to sell and not being shoved into an impersonal automated check-out.

The Menu for Sunday lunch

Course 1.

Char Grilled Red Claw Crayfish. Green Pawpaw, coriander and chilli Salad w/ crispy fried Kaffir Leaves.

Using Local grown Red Claw from Eungella, Green Pawpaw salad from Pawpaw’s we buy at the markets every Saturday and some lime leaves from the Prickly Pineapple. I will have a cray pot and give some tips on how to catch these tasty fresh water crays in Proserpine dam.

Course 2.

Grilled Largemouth Nannygai & Small Mouth Nannygai on roasted tomato sugo and lime hollandaise

Try the 2 local nannygai side by side and compare. They are same family but miles apart in flavour and texture. The large Mouth Nanny is also marketed as crimson snapper and saddle tail, while the small mouth nanny is also (and usually) marketed as ruby emperor. A rose by any other name these are both delicious and simply cooked to allow their flavours to shine.

Course 3.

Moroccan tagine of Red Emperor w/ Chickpeas, Bay Leaves and saffron

This dish, a version of which was the star of the show at my first bait to plate lunch needs a good dense flaky white fish and red emperor is perfect. It is also a chance to showcase the fresh locally grown bay leaves I found at “The Pineapple” today.

Course 4.

Char Grilled Spanish Mackerel Steak with Vine Ripened Bowen Tomatoes & Smoked Garlic & Basil Pesto sauce

Nothing goes better with fish that fresh, vine ripened, room temperature tomatoes and nothing goes with tomatoes like basil. Add in some of the smoked garlic, some good olive oil and a grind of black pepper and this is as good a fish dish as I will ever cook. I will make the pesto fairly runny, more a sauce than a dip.

Course 5 .

Steamed Garlic & Ginger Coral Trout

Ginger from west of Bowen, fresh and bright, not the dry sad supermarket variety marries with steamed Coral trout like nothing else. We will glaze with some smoking hot sesame oil just as it leaves the kitchen and serve on some steamed bok choy.

Course 6.  

Panko crumbed, pan fried Red Throat Emperor w/ retro crunchy potato gems and Zesty lemon mayo.

This is a great fish and panko crumbs have become the only crumbs I ever use at home these days. We will tizzy them up, I will talk the recipe and “potato gems” are just a blast from the past. I remember them fondly from my childhood and only recently rediscovered them in the supermarket last year. There is now always a packet (or 2) in my freezer at home because I am addicted to them. A tray in a hot oven for 10 minutes has become a go too snack after a long night at work. Probably not much good for the diet but who cares. Nothing has calories on a Sunday anyway.

Course 7.

Lemon curd tart

Just because last time we needed a dessert and what else should we have after fish but something lemony.

A Sea of Red

My fisherman are due back in this afternoon with a great catch of deep water “Red Fish” and Jamie from the Prickly Pineapple has just sent me of photo of the best Vine Ripened local tomatoes he has had all year. My first job was actually picking tomatoes, far too many years ago, it was good hard manual labour and looking back, a really great experience, but I do know most tomatoes are picked very green so that they have sufficient shelf life for packing, cold storage and transport. Tomatoes ripened on the vine, in the field, take on a flavour and aroma so intense that it is almost like a different species to what we get in the supermarkets. Everyone who travels to Italy always talks about the smell and flavour of the tomatoes. If you want to know what that actually is, but can’t afford to go to Italy, head to the Prickly Pineapple, or come to the bait to plate lunch. Tomatoes and fish are a great combination and I will come up with something which gives us a true taste of just how good a combination our local fisherman and local vegetable growers can produce. I am working on my menu now and will post it tomorrow after I view the catch and pick out the stars for the show.

Seeing Red over Bait to Plate 3

A red inspired bait to Plate 3 is now my thought pattern after learning this morning that one of our local commercial fisherman is heading to sea tonight chasing deep water “red fish”. Red Claw Crayfish were already on the hit list but I can now expect largemouth and small mouth nannygai, red emperor and hopefully some reef jacks, also called red bream. A will add in some whole steamed coral tout (red ones of course, locally called strawberry trout or just strawbs and I might even knock out a tomato based seafood and saffron risotto or a bisque. Plenty of thinking time and working with the kitchen team over the next few days while I wait to the boat to come back in on Thursday. Looking good, colourful and above all delicious. I will make sure I have a whole fish or 2 of each variety we use and can talk about how and where to catch them as well as the best way to handle, prepare and cook.

Reef Festival Bait to Plate Lunch

It’s on again. Reef festival rolls around and with it the dining event we created with Reef Festival in mind, our Bait to Plate lunch. A great chance to be inventive, educational and entertaining for both true foodies and those interested in our regions seafood and how to catch, prepare and cook. The weather gods are critical to the success of this day and the few days of calm weather early next week should allow our local commercial fishers to go to sea and hopefully even get to the reef itself. Having done a Bait to Plate lunch featuring fish from around the Islands and another featuring fish for the estuaries and Repulse Bay I am hoping to mix it up a bit this time and have even sourced some live local Red Claw Crayfish for something completely different. The full menu will not come together till next Thursday/Friday when the fisherman start to return to Port but I’m hoping for some unusual varieties that I can work with our chefs on. Maybe even some of our beautiful local garfish , delicious and so much better than using them for bait. Maybe some flathead which are thick in the bay this time of year and certainly some Coral trout. So many options.  As soon as the catch is in I will set the menu and post it on line.

Hunter gathering in style

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I often refer to our cruiser as our "floating caravan"; a sort of glamping (glamorous camping) where every campsite is absolute waterfront and you can cook at the BBQ on the back deck and have a rod in the water at the same time. We have just spent another weekend "glamping", up “inside the postcard” at my favourite anchorage in Hill Inlet, on the northern end of Whitehaven beach. With so many wonderful spots to anchor, fish and explore it is always tempting to try different spots and yet this part of Hill Inlet is just about everything I enjoy, all in one spot. Calm in all but the roughest of conditions, great fishing for Mangrove Jacks and Grunter. A few tasty mud crabs, and this trip I didn’t even take crabs pots and just scooped one up with a landing net in a clear shallow section of the inlet while out for a bit of an explore. I caught some beautiful big garfish, which are usually just used for bait, but are wonderful to eat once you learn the knack of how to debone them. Straight on the BBQ or panko crumb and pan fry, these are beautiful sweet fish and always worth the effort to clean. Catching the gar, just with a little bit of bread for bait was a ton of fun and gave me prime grunter and jack bait as well as a lovely garfish dinner.

Our dog came out for the weekend and we finished the trip with a night in majestic Nara Inlet on the western face of Hook Island, surrounded by charter yachts and the towering mountains.

The Whitsundays is clearly Australia’s boating paradise and with a little local knowledge the fishing is also first class. One of the phots I have posted is answering the obvious question in any mangrove system, what about the mosquitos and another is a great shot of being interrupted, in the nicest possible way, while trying to cook lunch.

Our amazing "Winter" weather

The “east coast low” which bashed up the Gold Coast, Sydney and Tasmania had the exact opposite effect on the Whitsundays and typically this kind of weather system acts as a blocker for the SE trade winds which impact on the north for much of the winter. While the consistent winds might help our reputation for an amazing place to sail, for fisherman the east coast lows mean just one thing. Calm. In fact, flat calm. 7 days straight of virtually no wind with pleasant warm days and slightly cooler nights, just enough to bring out the blankets. Fishing wise this transition into winter, means the barramundi start to slow down (still a few around), the flathead come into the bays to breed and can be caught in the same places we usually get a Barra, just right up in the shallow water and the Spanish mackerel, arguably the prize target during winter, move in around the islands. It is just a great time of the year when the main choice is what to target. Go to the reef for reds, around the islands for a mackerel or stick to the shallow bays and flick lures for some flathead and still be a chance at a Barra. I managed 2 from 3 last week. Too much work on to get a full day away for a reef trip I managed a nice little bay session and then a 3 hour mackerel trip. The Barra are around but hesitant and I managed 2 landed from 4 half-hearted strikes and just the one flathead as I think the water needs to be just a degree or 2 cooler. Mackerel are likewise a little slow waiting for that slight water temp drop but I managed a couple. It looks like being another great year. The winds have returned this morning and will now blow at 20 knots or more for at least the next week so it is sailing weather again. Fisherman learn to be patient, we will watch and wait for the next weather window. When the next East Coast Low starts to makes its way South, battern down the hatches at home and jump on a plane to Airlie Beach. This is as good as it get during a North Queensland winter.

Wild Wonderful Weipa

Just home late last night from my annual 7 day mates trips to the wilds of Cape York. My annual pilgrimage to the mining frontier town of Weipa started back in 1986 and some of us, now on 14 years unbroken, are original. Mates are mates, fishing is fishing, we have all grown older and wiser and the trip has become as much about the company and the food as the fishing itself. That said, the fishing is pretty mind-blowing. A mix of creeks and blue water, possible in very few other places. A truly wild untamed and land, rugged beauty and iconic places like the (as you will see in the photos) Red Cliffs. We fish for barramundi and King Salmon in the creeks, have a few surprise visitors like giant Qld Grouper and queenfish, drive into literally seas of Tuna and monster bull sharks and above all eat like kings, swap stories, business philosophy, rail against the system and as a group of likeminded, self-employed “grumpy old men” have a ball. Cocktail hours (Mojitos of course) made and served in the ships stainless steel fire bucket, mountains of fresh prawns, chilli crab, fresh tuna sashimi and just soak up the atmosphere in one of my favourite spots in Australia. Once again, this is let the pictures tell the story of my annual mates trip to Weipa on the good ship Tillitoo. The ugly duckling of the entire Australian charter boat fleet.

This is NOT your typical glamour charter boat. Weipa is the kind of environment which would have your average Whitsunday charter boat too scared to leave the marina. Tough, rough, wild, untamed. Tillitoo suits as a floating, virtually indestructible fishing shack which just happens to move. The lower deck is accommodation in 10 single bunk beds. No air con, 1 “dunny” and absolutely no wood, polish of fine detail. Everything is just tough. Upstairs is a beer garden and BBQ area. 3 Large eskies, a large deep freezer and a helm, plus enough rod racks to keep 40 rods and reels out of harm’s way.

As ugly as she is, Tillitoo has one certain magical property. The moment you step on board and take off your shoes and bare feet connect with the raw aluminium, the stress leaks out through your soles. Phones, usually permanently connected to our heads, suddenly don’t matter. Vital business deals, can suddenly wait till next week. Bank managers don’t matter, being out of phone range doesn’t matter, no internet….who cares. Leave me alone, I’m fishin’; and when I’m not fishin’ I’m cookin’ drinkin’ chillin’ or just relaxin’.

So it is over for another year. Next year and the year after are already booked and we have learnt you now have tobook at least 2 years in advance to get the best tides. Anyone with fishing, boating and adventure  in their veins should do this trip as a bucket lister. It remains one of the best experiences in a lifetime on the water. This year's highlites. Catching barramundi in the cast net trying to get bait, sunset at red cliffs, tuna as far as the eye could see, fly fishing the beaches for Tarpon, golden trevally, giant herring and queenfish. The grouper I caught (and released) in Young Creek. Mates, crabs, prawns and mojitos and panko crumbed barramundi for dinner. The black Angus steaks my butcher brother brought up from Brisbane...and the rum! Till next year.

Christmas in May

The childhood memories of the night before Christmas are long long ago. The feeling of trying to go to sleep so that you would in due course wake up to Christmas morning. As we get older and jaded this is not such a big deal and days all roll on. I however, still experience the night before Christmas feeling  every year in May, and as I write this I am just 3 more sleeps. Every year in May I go away with a group of my best mates on a fishing trip to Weipa on the north western point of Cape York. We hire a houseboat, stock it with good food, fine rums and a small fortune in fishing gear and set sail into the wild wonderful expanses of the gulf.

We have been doing these trips together on and off for almost 30 years. It has been an almost religious pilgrimage on the houseboat for 12 years in a row and on Sunday night I will try to get a few hours’ sleep before getting in the Ute and driving to Cairns at 3 in the morning to catch a flight to Weipa.

The boys come from all over and rendezvous in the bar at Cairns airport and it is often the only time of the year we will meet, but best mates are always best mates.

We will fly to Weipa, do our shopping, load the boat, ice down some beers and be fishing by lunch time Tuesday.

I will try to take some photos of both the fishing, the scenery and the food and do a blog post either up there, or, more likely when I get home but I will pop up a few pics of previous trips.

It is wild, barren country, but in some areas it is spectacular. Places like Red Cliffs and Pera heads as a contrast to the mangrove swamps of Pine Bay and the Nominade River. It is mud banks and barramundi, sandy beaches and fly fishing and blue water with Tuna and monster bull sharks and all from the rustic comfort of the floating fishing shack called Tillytoo.