Fisherman sinks line amid hype
THE newly installed Shute Harbour fishing pontoon is being put to good use if Sean McCarthy's experience is anything to go by.
While most of the Whitsunday community was occupied with the Melbourne Cup hype on Tuesday afternoon, Mr McCarthy took the opportunity to spend a solid four hours sinking a line.
And there were surprises popping up to the surface.
"I saw a 30kg great trevally come up, that's why I kept fishing all morning,” he said.
The pontoon was installed last Friday as a "temporary arrangement” as council prepares to revamp the facility.
Division 1 Councillor Jan Clifford said the council was preparing to get Shute Harbour "back to where it was”.
"People need somewhere to tie up their boats when they come in off yacht,” she said.
"It's only a temporary solution until we bed down what we are going to do down there.
"The pontoons we are going to be using are in Mackay to be refurbished and the project team is drawing up the final layouts for Shute Harbour and the toilet blocks and the existing buildings will all come down in the next couple of weeks.”
The council will bundle $18million in Category D funding as well as extra insurance funds to "pretty up” the harbour.
