Holiday Destination: Goondiwindi
Wayne Kampe

I’VE presented a few fairly diverse holiday destinations in this segment of the magazine during my forays into southern Queensland. This time, I’ve gone a bit further afield and come up with a destination that is going to suit anyone with a flair for the different and a yen to catch some fresh-water fish in a river environment. Fishing isn’t all of it of course. Like all holiday destinations, there are other diversions and the local chamber of commerce can direct visitors to the different tourist attractions. In season, the cotton processing plant is a great draw card.

Goondiwindi is one destination that is easy to find. The town is right on the New South Wales/Queensland border and is accessed via Warwick, Toowoomba or Millmerran. Any reasonable map of south Queensland will show this important regional centre located at the gateway to the Newell Highway and New South Wales.

Goondiwindi has every amenity one would expect in a fairly large town. Full medical facilities, all sporting and recreational clubs, supermarkets and stores of all kinds, including the all-important bait and tackle outlets. Accommodation for visitors is easy to come by as there are several caravan parks in the area.

The local District Promotions Association is very keen to assist visitors and can help with such diverse queries as: accommodation, bait and tackle outlets and the angling rules that apply in both states. Mind you, if you fish only on the Queensland side of the river, only Queensland laws will apply.

District Promotions are at 52 Marshall Street, Goondiwindi and are contactable on Ph. (07) 4671 3264. David McMahon is the hard-working representative of this organisation. As David explains, ‘Country towns are different. People are friendly and it’s a very laid back way of life.’ The lifestyle might be easy but the fishing on the Macintyre River sure isn’t....but more on this later.

WEIR TO WEIR ANGLING

The town is obviously blessed with its fair share of anglers. The local Weir to Weir angling club – there are weirs at both Goondiwindi and the adjoining town of Boggabilla – is a thriving organisation. Club facilities overlook the river and would be the envy of a lot of other such groups. Trailer boats sit in more yards in this town than one sees around the suburbs of most cities. Stocking groups from within the several clubs in the area are active and contribute hugely to the river’s fecundity by re-stocking with fingerlings of cod, as well as golden and silver perch.

Did I mention the boat ramp? No? Well it’s simply the best I’ve ever seen. It is wide, gently-sloping, has a beaut non-slip surface and gives access to the huge expanse of water between the two weirs What a set up!

I make no excuses for the fact that I was pretty much taken with what I saw at Goondiwindi. OK, I’ll admit that I’m a bushie at heart but the fishing really was terrific.

Now, from the outset, let’s get all of this into perspective. My previous experience with inland river fishing has not been all that flash. In fact, some of it was downright bad. Yes, I know it’s a well-documented fact that golden perch, silver perch and cod will fire in the dams around the State if the bar is high but impoundment fish seem to behave differently to their mates in their original environment. I well remember the mixed success I had when chasing yellowbelly in places like Surat, Charleville, Morven and Barcaldine quite a few years ago – I starved.

At Goondiwindi it is an entirely different ball game. As Peter Elsley, local angling identity and my fishing host for a recent trip to the area explained ‘ In the old days the Mac would become a series of waterholes during the dry times. Now, with the upstream weir at Boggabilla maintaining a constant supply of irrigation water from the large dams well upstream, the river is always flowing, it’s merely a matter of the degree.’ Peter believes that the Macintyre fishes best during periods of dropping water level. As luck would have it, my all too short sojourn there coincided with such a drop. And, the fish were on!

We fished from Peter’s punt in a moderate flow of fairly clear water. The main difference between this and the other inland rivers I’d fished was clarity; the others being like cocoa by comparison. While Peter was of the opinion that the water was not clear enough for successful lure angling, it sure as heck was ideal for bait. Understand, if you will, that there are a lot of snags in the Macintyre, seemingly every twenty metres in some places.. By drifting onto a snag and simply lobbing a lightly weighted shrimp or cray right into the timber, a hook-up would take only a matter of seconds.

We landed and lost stacks of representatives of all major fresh water fish. Cod, golden perch, silver perch, eel-tailed catties and a goodly lot of strong, fighting European carp. Peter’s rig, of stout Ugly Stick and nine kilo braid, was ideal for that brawling style of set-the-hook-and–hang- on sort of river fishing. Even then, some fish were unstoppable. I had my noodle of a six weight fly rod rigged up with a bait set up. I didn’t just get bricked, I got monstered, landing one fish in about seven hooked. But then, as I explained to Peter, angling writers don’t always catch fish.

NO NEED FOR A BOAT

A boat is a great asset but not a necessity. Launching at the ramp is child’s play and there is a huge amount of parking nearby. The fishing then becomes a matter of selecting the group of snags that takes your fancy and giving it a go. When the river clears sufficiently, lure casting is productive and for the fly-angler the finned tractors called European carp can be taken at daylight and evening as they mooch about under the river gums in search of insects. A black beetle or small wet fly will trip their wire. Be warned, these are strong fish and will run into snags as well. I reckon a six or eight weight rod would be ideal to use. I would have given anything to have caught a few of these suckers on my fly rod but we were doing other things at the time they were surface feeding. Next time! Remember, as carp are noxious fish they must not be released back into the river.

For the non-boating angler it will be a matter of finding a bit of river that can be accessed on foot and then fishing from a shady place that takes your fancy. As I mentioned earlier, it’s a very laid back way of life. The Macintyre River at Goondiwindi is magnificent and the stately gums standing tall on the banks just add to the vista of a very unique river fishery that is thriving, thanks to the efforts of the local people who don’t mind at all sharing it with visitors. Call in and see it for yourself. I’m sure you will find the District Promotions people only too willing to make your stay a memorable one.