END OF 2009 SEASON

And what a way to go! Even though it was well past the acknowledged Mackerel Season, we had a couple of nice 12 kilo specimens caught, along with a nice range of other species.

The boys from Julia Creek also caught some nice size Parrot and Coral Trout. The guys had a fair way to travel back home, so they released a lot of their catch (including the big Cod) and kept some fine fish for eating back home.

REEF & BEEF ON SWEERS...

With several trips here this year, Rob Pierce is nearly a 'local' now! Together with Jim Liston and some more north queenslanders from the Tablelands, Ingham, and Tully area - they managed to get some good fishing in, before yet another duststorm blew the Gulf up into a foamy, dusty, fury...

Father and son team Alan and Aston got some great fish including this magnificent Red Emperor - Tex says it is the biggest one he's ever seen!

(Thanks guys, for sending in these great photos!)

Last time Rob was here, he took some fish back, and he took it on a trip to Maree, where he and some friends met up with his old mate Ross to fly and view Lake Eyre in flood. The fish remained frozen solid in the esky as they flew from Longreach to Birdsville, Lake Eyre and finally, Maree. Jim and John had frozen fingers after thawing it out in an esky full of Marree bore water but Rob says this did not affect the flavour at all!  Ross and his mates are all off the land from western Queensland and do not see too much fresh fish so they are still talking about it. Even the North Queenslanders were impressed! So much so, that Ross, who breeds Wagyu cattle on his property 'Conloi', reciprocated with some tender Wagyu beef, which Rob brought to Sweers - this meat is intensly marbled with the 'good fats' = monounsaturated. The marbling not only provides good oils to the eater, but it may even be able to lower cholesterol. Wag'yu means 'Japanese Cow' and the original cattle were used to pull wagons and farm equipment, so they developed heavy muscle; meanwhile a couple of hundred years' ban on eating beef or importing new breeds, meant that they developed into a unique breed, many of them standing around, Zen-like, relaxed, tender! Myths arose about how the farmers fed them beer and massaged them, but this is more than likely because cramped conditions meant farmers fed them beer to stimulate their appetite, and used straw to wipe them down. Good story though! And the practice of keeping the cattle relaxed and calm has certainly resulted in stress free animals who hopefully meet their destiny philosophically, and whose tender juicy meat has to be tried to be believed.

Here is Rob and the gang enjoying some Sweers Island Reef Fish in Maree earlier this year: click on the photo below of Rob cooking, to see the end result!

And here we all are enjoying some Australian Wagyu: click on the photo below of Mick barbecuing the steaks to see the end result!

And on his most recent visit, the guys cooked up some Namus - lovely fresh pickled fish (this was Trevally) - which went down a treat later on with the rest of the crew!

And here are a couple of magnificent photos of the Lake Eyre floods, taken by John Baird:

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