By Phil Jarratt
Actually it’s not the river that’s feeling lazy this beautiful Noosa morning but the boatman. Something to do with a late night and an early rising so we can enjoy the best of the river top of the tide before the wind gets up.
Still the gang at T-Boats make it very easy, settling us quickly into a comfortable lime-green Bowrider for our three-hour fishing special, and we’re off, puttering down the near-empty river and chucking a right into the perfectly still and glassy stretches of Weyba Creek, where it’s just us, a few kayaks in the distance, the birdlife and the odd pelican dive-bombing an unlucky top-feeder. The fish have better luck with this fairweather fisher and vulgar boatman, who catches nothing other than his breath as we drift a line down the mangrove shore.
The creek and the Sound are on my stand-up paddle route, so I know them like the back of my hand, but the missus hasn’t been on the water for a while, so we do a leisurely circuit while she checks on the latest block-long party houses going in where once lived fisho shacks and bungalows, before purring down the inlet (the Bowrider is a sweet ride) and into the main channel around Dog Beach and beat the dropping tide into the Frying Pan.
The Pan has been one of my happier hunting grounds of late, paddling around the sand bars and picking up good bream and flatties, but not today. Still, you know it’s a good day to be on the water when you really don’t care if your bucket is empty or full. With the wind starting to kick in, we pull into the protected side of my favourite sand bar and plunge into the clear water of the steep drop-off. Ah, bliss, and no one to share it with except the distant glint of another rented tinnie, and someone doing the same.
When we came to live in Noosa more than 30 years ago, I had a little fibreglass hull half cab that I used to fish the river, even venturing over the bar on dead flat days to troll the bar for mackerel. But it became too much trouble for someone with too little time, and it went the way of a lot of big boy toys in those busy family years. Sometimes I miss that boat, and living on the river again now, contemplate buying another.
But seriously, why would you bother when we have a string of excellent boat hires along the Noosaville riverfront? T-Boats can’t claim to have been around the longest – Pelican have been around more than 60 years – but they do have the biggest fleet of new and easy-to-operate boats, bowriders, pontoons and more. And the three-hour Fishing Special (tackle and fuel included) is a steal at $99, and available every day outside public and school holidays. T-Boats open at 8am and Brian and Greg and staff will have you on the water five minutes later. Perfect.
T-Boat Hire, 290 Gympie Terrace, Noosaville. Bookings advisable, phone 5449 7182 or visit www.tboathire.com
