Fishing in Queensland is highly regulated, with different levels of permission in different areas. e.g in a pink zone you need a permit to even enter, green zone has no fishing,  and then the dark blue and light blue areas are open for most kinds of recreational fishing. (there are some other colours too!)  These zones start and stop all over the place, and are of differing sizes.  Sounded very complicated until I contacted the Marine Fishing Authorities, who sent us a thick pack of 19 full colour charts showing exactly where, and what, you can and cant do.  We also discovered that our electronic charts have an overlay of the zones.

 

As you can imagine, these “zones” are influencing the areas we visit. At Lady Musgrave, about 1/2 of the atoll was a light blue area, and Mike had great fun with his spear gun, getting us a Slate Bream and then a Coral Trout (tasting very much like the delicious Groupers of the Bahamas)

 

 

 

We left Lady Musgrave in the late afternoon on the high tide – to get through the narrow and shallow entrance, and it was then a rush to get through the Green Zone and back into the Light Blue zone, so Mike could put out a line. He was determined to catch a fish before sunset ...and he did, a very big Wahoo. (Caught on a handmade Tommy Frasier lure!)   This is the first Wahoo caught on Time2 – and the freezer is full!

 

 

 

We motored overnight in very good conditions up to the Keppel Islands, where we are now anchored at Great Keppel island.  Its a bit rolly here, so we have put out the flopper stopper to give us a bit more stability. It took us a while to get it together, as we have forgotten how to use it – last time we needed it was in the Marquesas. This is a barren island with nice beaches, but not much else going on - I don't think we will stay here for long. As we are about 18kms from the mainland, we have a decent internet signal and can catch up on emails.