Waddy Wide by Kim Martin

When I found myself on Fraser Island and heard stories of its excellent reef fishing, I was sceptical. The bottom fishing around my home waters of Central Queensland is varied and productive, and I figured Fraser was too far south for most of the species I was familiar with. The people who praised Fraser's reef fishing, I told myself, were probably just easy to please.

Talk about having to eat humble pie...

My reality check began when I stopped to yarn to a party of blokes on Orchid Beach who were cleaning fish. On the cleaning board was a big venus tuskfish and a nice red-throat emperor that I'd be very proud to catch in my home patch. Closer inspection revealed a bin almost full of assorted reef species...