Tourism Qld Film Shoot

by Luke Galea

I was pretty damn excited to receive a phone call from Tourism Queensland asking if they could come up and film me fishing for 2 days in a bid to promote fishing tourism in Mackay and in a conscious effort to put Mackay on the radar as a fishing destination in its own right and not just a stopover on your way somewhere else. I was just so wrapped to be able to promote my passion and promote the city I love living in – Mackay!

The filming took place and it went great. We fished 4 locations and came up trumps….Not only was the fishing awesome but the spots were pretty picturesque which always looks good on the camera.

We caught sootys and saratoga on topwater lures (predominately Megabass Dog-X’s and Dog X Jnr’s) which would have made great footage with the aggressive surface strike. These were caught in a freshwater waterhole, and then we went to the other end of the spectrum and trekked a beautiful rainforest stream with cascasding waterfalls for a few more sootys. I used my Samurai Kestrel 302 (6-12lb) matched with my Shimano Stella 3000FE for these fish.

I so badly wanted to promote Kinchant Dam so we did a sunrise session here as well in an attempt to snare a large impoundment barra for the camera. My mate Rhys was the first to gain a strike from a nice fish but unfortunately the hooks failed to find their mark. An hour or so later and I was onto a nice fish which leapt clear of the water and then managed to chaff through my 60lb leader. I was so dirty on myself for losing this fish and it would have been extremely close to that magical metre mark as well at first glance. I then hooked another fish and I managed to pull the hooks. By now I was pretty ropable because as every impoundment fisher would know, you have to work so hard for each bite and to lose my first 2 was just so devastating. Being a massive reason why people fish Mackay, I really wanted a Kinchant fish for the camera. My prayers were answered at 9am when my Inflict 10-17 baitcast rod buckled over and braid started tearing from my curado. I was hoping like crazy that everything stuck this time and thankfully everything did. It wasn’t a bad fish. Probably around 85cm which was a respectable camera fish. We were using large fish profiled plastics matched with 7/0 Gamakatsu EWG hooks.

That afternoon we decided to try some landbased saltwater action and Rhys was the first to hook up and lose a massive fish but then redeemed himself an hour or so later with a lovely 63cm salty barra and 50cm flathead. It was getting late so I tied on my Megabass Giant Dog-X SW stickbait and starting working the eddying flow in hope of a pelagic. I registered a couple of missed hits before landing a descent sized cod and small GT. What happened next completely blew me away… My Samurai Kestrel 402 (10-20lb) buckled over and 24lb Unitika braid started burning of my shimano sustain 4000. This was a mega queenie! It jumped at least half a dozen times which were all caught on camera. Drag screaming runs were insane with it tearing off 50-60m of braid with each run. I couldn’t believe the size of this thing and with the camera rolling at my back and this fish leaping out of the water, I was just hoping like mad my knots stayed true and my trebles were strong enough. After about a 10-15minute battle, I had defeated this fish. It turned out to be 125cm in length, smashing my previous PB of 103cm…

The final video can be viewed by typing “Hooked On Mackay” into Youtube.

Live It….Breathe It….

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