THE week after new year was a slow fishing week for Joe Greco, who took his Bow Rider boat up to Hervey Bay for a week of fishing.
The muddy waters yielded plenty of sharks, some flathead and grunter.
“I kept some of the metre- long sharks. They are quite edible and taste good – even better when they are fresh,” he said.
“When the water is dirty and there are northerly winds with choppy conditions, it means there isn’t too much around.”
Joe, 67, of Alexandra Hills is hoping for a better yield this week when he plans to take his boat out to fish the channel in front of Stradbroke Island.
“It’s a good spot and you can catch pretty much everything. I also like the northern tip of Macleay Island,” he said.
But while Joe enjoys his fishing, for him it is about relaxing and sitting out on the water watching the scenery as much as it is about catching something.
“I don’t go out to catch dozens of fish. Three or four are enough and I might set a couple of crab pots too,” he said.
Joe’s fishing companions include his son Brent and wife Sheryl, and the couple often take their grandchildren and spend some time on one of the islands.
His love of fishing started at age 15 when he and his friend Ted Lammas used to row Ted’s father’s boat to Manly to fish on the weekends.
“Ted’s father was a builder and he built a boat which he kept tied to the mangroves at Wellington Point. At the start, it didn’t have a motor. In the middle of the bay, you could catch some huge whiting using sea worms that we dug from the mangroves,” he said.
Joe said his father Sam was an Italian immigrant and the family grew mixed vegetables on six acres of farmland at Wellington Point.
He attended Wellington Point Primary and Cleveland High schools.
“It’s been a good life and now that I’ve retired, I do have more time for fishing, although there is always a lot of work to do at home.”
