The Whitsunday Weather Gods

All fishos talk about the weather gods and when they smile. We learn how to read a synoptic chart and use official forecast from BOM as a guide, not an iron clad promise.

BOM usually have a built in margin of error on how hard the wind will blow, always on the high side, I think in fear of getting sued if something goes wrong. The official synoptic charts however are spot on and a true reflection of what the wind will do.

We follow seabreeze, willy weather and watch the live feeds from local airports, everything we can to get a true opportunity for one of those glamour days on the water, and yesterday (and today) is 2 of those days.

A mate and I ran almost 100 miles offshore yesterday and could have water-skied the whole way home. We caught a few fish, fed a few too many sharks and generally had a very pleasant day and night, even catching a few fish 2 at a time.

What’s not to love about the Whitsundays? Let the pictures tell the story

The boat's in!

The boats it and the menu is set for our second Bait to Plate seafood lunch. I am really excited this time to be featuring Repulse Bay and our inshore fishery as this is a fishery I most associate with personally. Growing up fishing out of wooden dinghy’s in the Pumicestone Passage and very long way from the blue water and the reefs. I love fishing Proserpine River and the bay and it is great to be able to showcase these fish at a Bait to Plate event and help encourage people to try them from local fish shops.

I have started to form a great relationship with 2 young blokes commercially fishing Repulse Bay and they will be at the restaurant on Sunday to talk about the how, when and where of the fish we are having for lunch and also share some of their experiences and tall tales.

Mark AKA Dr Rum is working on some nice matching wines and I only have a few spots left so book quick or miss out (again).

BBQ’d Giant Brown Tiger Prawns w/ Green Pawpaw Salad : These are caught just outside the bay and I am also hoping to have some local bay banana prawns delivered tomorrow morning as well so I can serve both hot and cold.

Trio of Salmon w/ homemade Hollandaise Sauce. A mixed plate of local King salmon and Blue salmon and a “ring in” from Tasmania (the true salmon) and I will have whole fish of each variety to show guests, fillet and talk about.

Chili Mud Crab. A tasting dish of our house speciality with all the hard work done and the crab meat all pulled out and ready to eat. I am hoping to have a live crab as well, just to add a bit of theatre.

Poached Wild Barramundi in Ginger Broth. A recipe I have learned from working with a Chinese Chef last year and now a staple during Chinese New Year.

Mint Crusted local Grunter. An inspiration just to mind and in deference to our famous Mojitos. I am going to coat this wonderful fish fillet with panko crumbs and chopped mint. Pan fry, and serve with lime cheeks and a rum scented aioli and crunchy chips.

Painted Crayfish Pasta with Garlic & Chilli. These amazing looking local crayfish have a reputation for being both tough and strongly flavoured but in a “less is more” dish the diced cray meats, pan-fried with garlic, chilli, parley and diced tomatoes creates an amazing olive oil based dressing for hot pasta with the pasta the hero and the lobster the flavour base. I big cray will make enough pasta for the entire lunch.

Tempura Bug Tails w/ Thai dressing. A nice little finisher of local bay bugs. The wind has been a little unkind this week and varieties of fish have been a bit hard to get but local bugs are a star on any plate.

Bait to Plate number 2

As the 2nd Bait to Plate long lunch approaches I am starting to form a menu theme and this time have been approached by some of the commercial fishers who work the inshore fishery in Repulse Bay. I think this will make a nice change from the last event which focused on reef fish and opens up all sorts of options for fish very rarely seen on restaurant menus.

A couple of the fisherman and going to attend the lunch and talk about the varieties available, the fishing methods used and maybe even share a few stories about sharks, crocodiles and sea snakes. Just the everyday hazards which make a commercial fishers life such an adventure.

I am hoping to showcase some very lesser known inshore varieties, will have to do a mud crab dish, maybe even something with a local painted crayfish and see what gets caught on a great set of tides in the couple of days before the lunch.

While I already have a few ideas in mind I will be very much guided by what gets caught and love the last minute inspiration some of the fish will give me.

I’m am sure to have some fresh barramundi, must do a mud crab and maybe some Grunter, but everything else is in the lap of the fishing gods.

Hope to see you on the 24th for a delicious lunch, some nice wines and an afternoon of both entertainment and information.

Come inside the postcard

If there is one single image that is the Whitsundays it is a photograph of Whitehaven beach. More specifically it is a place called “Hill Inlet” on the northern end of Whitehaven and a photo which has no doubt sold thousands of postcards. Some years ago I took my business partner well up into the inlet at high tide and she coined the phrase, "like being inside the postcard", and yes it is. Something magical a little bit secret and getting to experience a place so wonderful it doesn’t seem like it can quite be real.

While tour boats and bare boats are not allowed and the shallow sand flats and shifting sand banks make it almost impregnable, for those locals who can work the tides and read the visual clues it is actually possible to travel several kilometres up into the inlet and after selecting one of the many deep pools to anchor it is possible to let the tide go out and remain in the inlet through the tide, or even for a night or 2 and it is the most serene, peaceful anchorage to be had anywhere in the Whitsundays. A few sand-flies at dawn and dusk are a small price to pay to be able to anchor overnight, pop a couple of crab pots in and then sit enjoying a beer with a couple of rods out.

The Inlet is great fishing on smaller tides. Grunter, Mangrove Jacks, Pikey Bream and estuary cod are regulars with even the odd coral trout turning up at times.

During the day the sand flats are a fly fisherman’s dream come true with plenty of golden trevally, queenfish and even a few bonefish to be targeted. Cruising over the flats on a rising tide, sight casting with a fly rod in gin clear water  is a very special experience. Even small mangrove jacks are an easy target along the shallow clear water mangrove edges.

My wife and I have just spent 2 great nights in Hill Inlet, caught a few crabs, a heap of nice Grunter and Jacks, read a book and whiled away the time, out of phone range and with the inlet entirely to ourselves. It really is a perfect piece of paradise.

So a few tips.  

Always enter and leave on the last hour of a rising tide.

Small tides fish better but are harder to get in far enough on.

The deep pool with the big rock shelf on the left about 2k’s in is a good overnight anchorage and anchor about 50 meters upstream from the rocks. Be alert at each change of tide for swing room.

Squid or peeled prawns are the best baits for grunter.

Also for any "where's Wally" lovers. Yes, both the cat and the dog come out on the boat with us. They have done since puppy/kitten days and are absolutely at home on the water. Just like me =). Look carefully at the photos.

Why Size Matters

A recent overseas holiday allowed a great opportunity to visit fresh fish markets in Bali and even a Bali cooking class. I am just fascinated by fish markets. The sights and sounds, smells and the entire buzz as boats unload and buyers throng to everything that comes into the market. The large market in Bali is right on the foreshore and the many boats pull up to the wharf or beach on the sand right in front to remove catches from the nets, or unload the line caught boxes. This is a market best described as “rustic” and far below the OH & S standards required in Australia. The fish was however same day fresh, lightly iced and going out the door as quickly as it was coming in so health standards were being maintained with the sheer speed in which everything was being sold.

The striking feature of not only this fish market, but others I have been to overseas is just how well managed our own fishery is. So much science and research is done with each of our significant fisheries. Minimum size limits with a guiding principle that every fish has to reach a size allowing at least 1 spawning cycle before it reaches legal size. Slot sizing (minimum and maximum) of some species like Barramundi and Flathead where all big fish are breeding females are identified and have to be released. TAC’s (total allowable catch) or catch quotas so that overfishing does not occur. Strict bag limits on every type of fish caught be recreational anglers. We have so many rules and regulations around what we catch in this country, how we catch them, how many we keep and what size they have to be that any Eco driven rhetoric about “overfishing” just does not stand up to scrutiny. A quick glance through the Bali markets where literally anything and everything is fair game, regardless of size and variety is what overfishing looks like.

It is impossible to condone what is clearly happening in some countries. I have snorkelled in the Mediterranean Sea around the Amalfi coast and found it to be almost a fish desert and the attitude of take everything that you can catch which was apparent in Bali has to be unsustainable but by any international standards our fishery is clearly well managed and here for the long run.

Our fisheries managers often get a kicking for being too restrictive, and often they are; but a trip to an international fish market is a very sobering example of unregulated fishing. The fish in Bali are tropical reef fish, all the same (or very close too) the same species as we get here in the Whitsundays and to see what was being taken was very disheartening to say the least.

Fish see only as bait fish like fusiliers or female mud crabs barely 8 centimetres across the back, tiny wire netting cod and baby emperor, all destined for the dinner table without apparent though for the long term consequences.  While it is unfair to the culture of another country to try to impose our standards, and also impose our standards with little or no consideration that many of these fisherman are literally subsistence fishing trying to feed a family, there is also plenty of visual evidence of large scale commercial fishing, not just small single man commercial fishing.

We are lucky to live in country where we can afford to have the kind of rules and fisheries management which will sustain our industry well into the future.

Things that go bump in the night

Another patch of dead calm weather and perfect reef tides resulted in an all-nighter after work on Saturday. I enjoy night time fishing and all it entails. More care with navigation and travelling and having a well thought out plan can result in some spectacular fishing opportunities for species not as common during daylight.

Heading out at 11.30 for the hour and a half run to the first of my marks I was delighted to see the sounder light up and enjoyed a few solid hours of night fishing before moving on to my Coral Trout haunts after sunrise.

For those not experienced with the fish of the Great Barrier Reef, Coral trout do not feed at night. This is instead the haunt of nannygai, red emperor and mangrove jacks. It is also the time the spangled emperor feed and while all of these species can be caught by day, it is by night when they are far more active. It is also a time when the sharks are not so active. Sharks have become the absolute enemy of reef fisherman.

Seemingly far more abundant, aggressive and brazen in recent years it is now commonplace to have sharks turn up and cruise around your boat almost as soon as you drop anchor.  This seems to be a “learned response” and may make an interesting case study for a marine biology student but as an experienced fisho there is no doubt that sharks have become conditioned to identifying small boats as food sources. They will regularly just park themselves under a fishing boat and just wait till a fish is being brought boat side to pounce.

 I fish Weipa every year and started to see this phenomenon happening about 8 years ago. As soon as you stop a boat near a school of feeding tuna, 2 or 3 big sharks would turn up and start circling under the boat and cruise around until a tuna was fought to the boat and then it became an almost impossible task to get the tuna past them. Awe inspiring and at times a little frightening to some having sharks as large as the boast launching themselves as tuna within meters of the boat, sometimes even bumping the boat out of the way to get at a fish.

On to our area this has become more and more an issue here as well. Fishing around the reef drop-offs has become almost impossible, the deep shoals, which were usually pretty shark free, are now also getting hit and at plenty of common mackerel spots large sharks are now following boats around as they troll just waiting for an easy feed.

I don’t know if the shark issue is about more sharks, better “trained” sharks or some combination. It is certainly not a lack of feed because the reef fishing in general seems in very good shape. Plenty of fish getting hooked but often only 1 in 5 making it to the boat.

I know a general acceptance of “save the sharks” and “sharks are endangered” is the norm but wonder if this position is actually science backed. It may be the case that as we have continued to take fish and shark fishing and other shark control mechanisms have been phased out that numbers may well be out of whack. These creatures have evolved unchanged for many many eons and clearly have an ability to adapt to opportunity. Whether this is some form of what we would describe as intelligence, or learned response I don’t know. I would love some research done to find out. I get a bit sick of seeing great fish end up as shark food.

I managed to get a few past them during the night session but as soon as it came light it became impossible in any water depth over 4 meters. I did end up pulling a few nice trout right up in the reef shallows but even then had a few lost to sharks clearly cruising around the boat, even in the shallows. Still a good day (night) out enjoying the beautiful weather in what is supposed to be our wet season and still lots of tourists in town.

Kev

Not just any mullet

Much of what I have been writing about has been “plate” rather than “bait” related so though it might be nice to do a little piece about the latter. A favourite this time of year, when the barramundi and threadfin Salmon are “on the chew” is the humble mullet. At times a real challenge to catch with a cast net and at other times easier, one which drives locals crazy is a mullet called a Popeye. These quite amazing little fish swim along together in large schools, holding in shallow bays and along beaches but have the unique (and very frustrating) ability to swim along with their heads out of the water and with their eyes located on top of their heads will watch us coming towards them and always (almost always) manage to stay just far enough away as to be out of range of even the best cast net thrower. Little buggers are amazing. Many, many years of chasing bait in rivers has trained me to be far better than average when it comes to throwing a cast net, and in the right conditions can usually throw one in a perfect circle 5 or 6 meters in front of me, and on the run. A pretty unique skill, and still, most of the time, the nearest Popeye will still be a meter of so outside of range. Every now and then, if I have a good strong wind at my back, I can outsmart them and throw a net 8 meters and pick off the odd few, while most still keep out of range. Smug little buggers. Almost as soon as the cast net hits the water they stop fleeing and settle in schools, back within a few meters. They are the fish equivalent of crows. It is almost more gratifying when I outsmart (outsmart a fish…how sad) a few then actually catching the Barramundi I upgrade them to. Our regular “poddy mullet” is a much easier target and plain dumb compared to Popeye’s and I have taken a few photos so you can see the district difference. What is of concern this time of the year when we are chasing mullet for Barra bait is the large numbers of very large Box Jellyfish in the river, not to mention the crocodiles I saw, 2 sharks I caught and the little stonefish I caught in the cast net: all that was missing was a sea snake to complete an episode of Australia's most deadly. More boxies in the river than I have ever seen and testimony to the fact we need some serious rain, and soon, to wash them out. As to turning the bait, into something for the plate a tank full of "livies" is just about a sure thing. The river is fishing as well as I have ever seen it. Huge numbers of threadfin feeding along the bank edges towards the bottom of the tide and the barramundi feeding on the first push of the run in tide. It is all about tides where I fish the river and the tides right at the end of Feb and first few days of March are crackers. See you on the river.

What's in a name?

An issue I face all the time at work is identifying fish varieties. Usually for guests who have been fishing on a charter and bring in their catch for us to cook, but also by our staff who are always eager to learn about the many fish varieties we serve. Guests in general are pretty easy to help and will often take recommendation from staff if we have a fish I particularly think is the best on the day. One error which often occurs is around Salmon. We actually have 4 fish in Australia called ‘salmon”. The most common is not actually a native but the farmed “Atlantic Salmon”, THE true Salmon and a very common fish Australia wide on restaurant plates. The farmed Atlantic salmon also described often as “Tasmanian salmon” is now a larger fishery, in terms of tonnage produced in the fish farms, than the entire Great Barrier Reef fishery, across all species. In southern states we have a fish commonly called “Australian Salmon” and this is a saltwater species, more prized by recreational fishers as a sports fish and fished commercially mainly as cat food and lobster pot bait. Dark red in the flesh and not really much chop on the plate. Then we move on to the 2 fish I have most to do with. The king or threadfin salmon and the blue or bluenose salmon. Close relatives but quiet different on the plate and a fish even the locals consistently wrongly identify. I managed to catch 1 of each the other day amongst a few Barra. In fact a picked up 8 nice “blues” but just the 1 “King” but was able to line 2 up side by side of about the same size so readers can clearly see the difference.

The King is also called threadfin salmon for good reason. The long whiskers or barbells under its chin which I have seen them use to corral prawns up against a bank when feeding. They are also generally golden yellow when first caught, particularly if caught in dirty water while the blue salmon has short whiskers, is much thicker through the tail area and a silver blue to black colouration. That said I have also caught blue salmon which can have a yellowish tinge so it is the shape and the length of whiskers which is always the tell-tale. Both fish are great on the plate. King salmon has a much whiter and softer flesh and is a very difficult fish to fillet as a consequence of large bony nodules located at various places along its backbone. The larger the fish the larger these nodules are and they are just about my least favourite fish to fillet, besides being one of my most favourite fish to eat. The Blue salmon by comparison is really easy to fillet, a fine white to pale grey fish when cooked and beautifully flavoured. It is however not a great fish to freeze and is best eaten fresh, whereas King salmon freezes well.

Both great fish to catch, with a big blue salmon (upward of 5 kgs) a dynamite fighter and would pull a 10kg king salmon backwards. The biggest blue I have seen was 14kgs and I have seen Kings in excess of 20 kgs.

Better than Coral Trout?

I don’t think I have ever been so excited about a fish I will never get to catch but I have just taken delivery of a new species which has taken my breath away. Both in terms of how it looks and what it tastes like. This is a relatively new fishery to North Queensland and being fished out of Bowen, just to our north. A single boat is pioneering this fishery, travelling some 200 miles into the Coral Sea to fish the underwater seamounts in 1000 meters of water. Flametail Snapper. My photos really don’t do justice to the amazingly stunning look of these fish, giant eyes like crystal balls, glistening red/pink scales and flesh, when cooked is soft, white and intensely flavoured of everything good about the sea. At present the vast majority of the catch is being exported to Hawaii but I am on a mission to get this on to restaurant plates in North Queensland. The cost of catching a fish so far offshore and in such deep water is significant and this will reflect in a price similar to Coral Trout but, to quote Molly Meldrum’s old count down line. Do yourself a favour. Rush out and try this. It will be on our menu for the next few nights and if I can secure a long term supply it will be on our next menu rewrite. Amazing fish in every way and, in my not inexperienced opinion, better than Coral Trout and maybe better than any fish I have ever eaten. Being on the cusp of Chinese New Year, having one of these enormous fish in our display window I expect a lot of photos to be taken over the next few days and a lot of Flametail Snapper being ordered. Wow. Just WOW. It is very seldom I get to see, fillet and cook a fish I have never seen before and have it turn out so good.

Open season

After an amazingly busy Christmas, which has kept me off the water and not getting any fishing time, the biggest day on many fishos calendars, February 1st has arrived during the brief lull between Christmas holidays and Chinese New Year. I get a window of a slower week, which just happens to encompass the opening of Barramundi season, at 12 noon on Feb 1st and this year a delayed wet season and small tides have the Barra schooled up, hungry and just waiting for the rain to start before they breed.

The fishing in Proserpine River has been amazing. I have never seen so many big barramundi caught with the average size over 70cm and I saw 3 fish all around 110cm caught this afternoon in just a few hours. I also saw all 3 of the big girls released which is an awesome indication that recreational fishers recognise just how important these big breeding females are to the future of the fishery.

Proserpine River has been closed to commercial netting for many years and despite a few recent incidents of illegal netting in the river, it remains one of the great barramundi rivers on the Queensland East coast.

The bay itself, and river mouth, will no doubt receive a lot of commercial pressure this year, probably exacerbated by the netting closure in other barramundi fishing areas, but at present, at least until the flood rains come, the Barra are holed up in their thousands inside the relative sanctuary of the river.

While recreational fishers will no doubt take a few it is nice to see a fishery well managed. Tightly controlled bag limits, slot sizes and a growing sense of responsibility amongst anglers who are increasingly letting big fish go free. It would be great to see the commercial sector adapt a practice of releasing all the big females but know this is not going to happen. Regardless of commercial pressure in Repulse Bay the numbers of fish in the river give me great optimism that the existing management regimes are working, and working well.

Always a side benefit of the start of Barra season is a good run of mud crabs. Yesterday was no exception with 6 beautiful full “muddies” adding to my Barra tally and these became a very simple but all-time favourite dinner last night. Ingredients are so simple. A little chicken stock, splash of white wine, lots of butter and LOTS of freshly cracked black pepper. A little trick I have used for years is an old fashion coffee grinder as a great way to make a LOT of cracked pepper. I prefer to steam my pre cleaned crabs first and then make a sauce with the rest of the ingredients. Crack the still warm crabs, reduce the sauce down in a heavy pan or wok till the liquid is just about evaporated and then toss the crab through the thick crusty, almost dry spice/butter sauce. Serve with rice, a bib and a finger bowl. This is a Singapore staple and I think the best way I have every eaten mud crab. Drop me a line if you want more specific measurements.

It will also be a great time to buy real, wild caught, local barramundi in our local restaurants and fish shops. Ask the question of wait staff and make sure you are getting what you pay for. It is a great fish but has suffered a little from some occasional issues with fish farmed and/or frozen imported barramundi.

All time favourite Prawns

Seafood has quickly displaced Turkey as Australia’s favourite Christmas fare and prawns seem to be first on the shopping list for every order. We are lucky to have so many varieties to choose from. Sweet inshore banana prawns & endeavour prawns. The blue leg and Ocean King prawns and 3 different types of Tiger Prawns, all caught in our local waterways. You will often see prawns “graded” along the lines of “10/20’s”, “15/25’s” or” U10’s” and this is an old fashion grading system which has stuck with prawns for over 50 years. I don’t quite know its origins but it relates to numbers of prawns per pound (450 grams). So 10/20’s will be a mixed “medium to large” size which will be between 10 and 20 prawns per pound. 25 and 50 per kg. And so on it goes, the higher the count number, the smaller the prawns while a U10 grade means these are big prawns running to less than 10 per pound.

The large local tiger prawns get right down to a U6 grade and these are serious prawns, running to often almost 100 grams each and it was a plate load of these that was my contribution to a Christmas Lunch with friends.

Rather than boring old boiled and served cold with cocktail sauce I went a little extravagant with my all-time favourite prawn recipe. This really does need big green prawns but it is a sensational way to treat a wonderful local delicacy.

Take of the head, but leave the chest plate/legs and rinse out the intestines. Split the prawn down the back and remove the tube and cut with your knife, almost, but not quite, through and then flatten the prawn down with the palm of you hand, leaving the shell on one side and open prawn flesh on the other.. (The pictures will help demonstrate what I mean).

Pop in a bowl while you blitz up some olive oil, garlic, chilli and parsley, pour this mix over the prawns and massage well into the flesh side and then leave covered in the fridge for an hour or 2.

Throw them flesh side down on a smoking hot BBQ, turn after 1 minute and liberally grind over some black pepper and sea salt. If you have a BBQ with a lid, now just drop the lid, turn off the BBQ and come back after 2 minutes. DONE.  Squeeze over a lemon and peel off the shell to eat but actually try eating the crispy legs and chest plate.

This really is the best prawn recipe I have ever used and is a new staple on our Christmas Table, but something you can do any time the jumbo Prawns turn up in your local fish shop. Always ask for U6 or U8 for this recipe and if every the U3 Leader Prawns(Black Tigers) are running then this takes the dish to a whole new level.

The Mud Crab Drought is over

The annual Mud Crab drought is finally over. Every year, subject to weather conditions, the majority of our Queensland Mud Crabs head to sea, as far out as the Great Barrier Reef, to spawn and the crab drought starts. For such an iconic North Queensland staple which features so heavily both on our menu and in our marketing it is a difficult time of year. We are typically very busy, deal with a massive influx of Chinese Visitors during “Golden Week” in October and everyone wants “Muddies”. More particularly they want Chilli Crab at Fish D’Vine and it kills me. This year prices at the Sydney Fish Market topped $75 a kg and every crab caught between Darwin and Gladstone was Sydney bound. One morning I even jumped in the Ute and drove to Rockhampton and back, a round trip of 1200 kilometres just to pick up 50 live crabs at the “bargain price” of $49 a kilo. It makes it hard when we have a reputation for Chilli Crab for $59 when the crabs are costing me $50 each. In season the supply outstrips demand and the price will drop to under $20. Every year we stress, and every year, usually early in December the “drought” breaks, the “Muddies” come back and the chefs, the front of house staff and the customers are all happy again. Chinese visitors come to North Queensland for the seafood and really don’t understand “out of season”. We have been using beautiful Bay Bugs this year to make up the shortfall, doing them the same Chilli or Black Pepper style as the crabs and while the Bugs have been great, there is nothing quite like a North Queensland Mud Crab. Welcome home boys; we have missed you.