Xmas end of 2006

Permit doing the covered wagon deal

Hi everyone!
We havent posted much of late as we have finished fishing for the year.
Duane has gone down to Newcastle for a month, and Notso has just arrived back after his heavy tackle marlin season. I have been busily working around the house doing all the jobs that I don't get to do during my season. groover was up a few weeks ago to do a little fishing, and we went camping for a few day's and had a ball catching barra's and threadies and some great queenie and GT action.
It really is good to have a break, and pick up a rod!
My son Brynn and his girlfreind arrive tommorrow from Cairns and with Notso and Kristy,Sue and I are all going camping for a few day's over Xmas.

Next year is really shaping up well and looks like we have a new guide working with our team, Lee
Has guided with DeJaVu and also with Carpentaria Seafari's and has done a bit of work with Notso on the marlin boat. He is only 19 but according to Notso and Groover who have both worked with him are both impressed by his abilities and work ethic.
As we now have a full time 4th guide we still have a few vacancies left for one boat in prime time Apr/May/June so if you did miss out give me a call or email and see if we can work something out!
So to all our valued clients both new and repeat We at F.F.& S. wish you all a very Merry Xmas and a happy New Year and look forward to fishing with you and having a few laughs again in 2007

The last week in October seen the last charter that was a shame because the fish were jumping in the boat. We were heading down the coast to do some reef fishing when I seen this sailfish fining on the surface as we pulled up the fish came over to investigate. I had the still frozen mulet out of the esky and was feeding them over the back while getting a trace ready. As I looked over the side I could see the fish ten feet down eating the mulet

one at a time. We baited the hook and dropped it over, the fish swam up and eat the still half frozen mulet the hook was set and the game was on. After about 15 minute of great boat driving the sail was ours for some quick photos before release. The tuna were so thick you could have walked on there backs this 24 pounder was the size of quite a lot of them. We also got up the river for one and a half days with 50 barra caught and released and many other species these guys had a great time and will be back. It was a shame to finish at the end of October with the fish jumping in the boat.

Gordon @ Charles were the two novice fishers that came up with a group of seven guys lead by Dean Butler I took them to the bait schools off Norman creek on the second day of there trip the morning sea conditions were perfect. As we came closer to were the bait had been you could see the water was bulging with the bait being pushed to the surface by all types off predators. By 1pm we left to avoid the westerly the guys arms felt like they were twice as long as in the morning and the esky was full of mackerals bodies.

Four mates in the middle off October two of them second time fishing.They must think fishing is easy with catches of thirty barra one day fifty the next forty the day after.In between barra all the other river fish were on the bite as

well with king salmon, jack, queenies cods and more ready to eat anything that came its way. Down the coast the reef fished well for fingermark trevaly and nannygai while the pelagics were moving in on the bait schools that had been moving around for days.

Delay

G'Day Guys,

So sorry for the delay in entries, we have been pushed off our feet with work catching up on things.

Notso has been away captaining Wild Turkey ( a marlin chartering boat) since august now and has been doing quite well, if you want to know updates go to http://wildturkeycharters.blogspot.com/.

Fish has been away in cairns catching up on a few things and will give you an update in the next couple of days about the last few trips in the end of the season.

Again I apologise for the neglect of our blog, i hope we still have you attention.

Kind Regards
Kristy (Fish's Daughter)

3 Days of variety in the tropics

I recently returned to Weipa for a week from the Cairns marlin season to take some clients on tour of the wilds of Weipa. A day spent offshore produced spanish mackerel, tuna, trevally etc, while the next couple of days were spent in the creeks catching barramundi, mangrove jacks, estuary cod, bream, fingermark and tangles with some unstoppable snag dwelling creatures. On the wildlife side not to much was missed with sea snakes, a couple of species of dolphins, turtles, kangaroos, pigs, box jellyfish and of course crocodiles observed at times from extremely close quarters. Pictured is "Mackerel Boy" Mike with an average sized spanish; a couple of barras for Graham and Mike; Graham with a nice jack; Peter with one of the few estuary cod which could be stopped.

These guys had a very good five days with lots of great video of bait balls and triple hook ups on macks, tuna, GTs and other trevalys. At the end of the week the guys reels will need rebuilding with bits falling off and smoke almost coming out of there drags.I think we might see them again.

Affter going down the coast on the first day and catching fingermark,tuna,trevaly and lots of other reef criters we were up the rivers for the next five days.We had two slow days in the middle were the tide didnt move much.The other days were good with everyone catching barra on well cast lures.This king Salmon was one off 21 we released on one day.

Jack with his blue basted and black spot tuskfish very happy walking the beach and casting to nice fish like this,he also had a shot at a school of feeding permit but the fly landed like a stone right in the middle of the fish.Jacks none fly fishing buddy was happy to leave the beaches and get into the tuna,macks@trevaly offshore at every opportunity.

Stripe on Fly

We have a a video attached here, it is of me catching a beautiful Stripe Marlin on Fly in Port Stephen's in New South Wales early in this year.

All you have to do is click on the attachment below. Happy Watching.

Stripe Marlin on Fly

Japanese magazine visit

"Chopstick" (another nick name)finally catching the tuna that he wished for.
"Chopstick" aptly named for his very slight frame, was one of 3 japanese in Weipa recently putting together a fishing article for a japanese fishing magazine.
The fishing could have been easier however we did manage to have a few good sessions.
The 3 day's finishing with an amazing barra bite, that left them wanting more and still very excited and talking about returning, as I drove them out to the plane to fly back to Japan.

Hollywood (nick name) with nice barra taken on a lure in Waldrum creek.

"This might go down well with another bottle of Houghtons white burgundy or two"

Last week the weather could not be worse the first couple of days with westerly winds and 2m of swell. The rivers got a good work out with a bunch of small barras and lots of trees caught it was good to have the weather improve for the last two days. With lots of bait and cleaner water off Pera Tuna, Trevaly, and macks were on offer. The last day we even managed 6 legal size barras in the mouth of Walldrum creek on the way back from down the coast.

My stepdaughter JoJo during the Weipa fishing comp this 4.5kg golden trevaly gave Jo a very good fight on light line.She as you can see was very happy with that fish and a couple of others that she cought.Sorry i cant find more time to catch more fish with you.

Peter with his 90cm barra after casting lures all morrning with a buntch off very unbig barra we live baited on the run in tide. With the tide pushing in lots of different fish species came too, this barra was the second 90cm fish to come to the boat.Enjoy the finals Pete and go the Nights.

Peter and Con on the 7th of September with two off eight spanish mackeral happy after catching tuna, trevaly and mad fish all day. Hopefuly the rest of Saptember is as good as last with lots of macks.

The two girls my beautiful Linda and her friend Terry end of August with two off five barras one 62 & 65cm. Terry had a great time getting a tan to take back to Gloucester to show family and friend. The fishing was good to with tuna and trevaly down the cost.

Newsflash - Steve Irwin the crocodile hunter has just been killed at 11 am this morning.

He was spiked by a stingray in the chest while filming a documentary at Batt reef Port Douglass

He will be sadly missed by all his fans

Rick Boebel from NZ with a 19lb longtail captured on fly in August.

You finally caught a bigger fish than Dougall, congrats, looks like the casting practice is paying off.

My mum and dad were just up on the 20th of July and we cought lots of big queenfish down the coast.The weather was very nice with a lot of tunas out a bit wider.We had a bit of a problem with some sharks but as you can see dad enjoed fixing the problem.

Even though it is the middle of winter we can still manage to find a few nice fish.This 91cm barra came of a drain in the mud flats on the start of the run in tide.Guido,s wife Caroline also cought a 70cm and 52cm barra at the same place.

Luke Gower, bass player for the Sydney band Cog www.cog.com.au with his first barra, not huge but made a happy man none the less. Luke fished with us this year as Jimmy Barnes cancelled, due to an appointment to sing the National anthem for the soccaroo's at the World cup in Germany.Luke had a great trip fishing with Richie Netes from Perth.

Ther have been quite a few of these around on the mud banks during the cooler weather, we even seen quite a large one floating around off Boyd point yesterday.

Vic Hislop eat your heart out!

Notso with an example of what has been eating all our tuna every time we hook one.

Only another thousand to go! This is an average size bull shark that makes landin an more importantly releasing a trophy fish in Weipa.

We have been plagued with these pests for the last few years every time the tuna schools arrive.

Holding Fish

Posing with a fish is what everyone's holiday to Weipa is all about. It is too hard to bring them all back, so we like to take pictures of them all and brag to our mates about them, with some hard pictorial evidence to back the stories up. Just recently we used our fish holding "crash test dummy", Paul from Brisbane to demonstrate the incorrect and correct ways to pose with a slippery tarpon. The first couple of pictures Paul demonstrated the wrong, however amusing way to get a grip on slippery fish. Paul then demonstrated how to hold a fish still to grab a quick happy snap. We at Fish's Fly and Sportfishing wish to thank Paul for his fish grasping capabilities.

Great Beach Fishing

Rod Kimberley and Jeff Birtles recently enjoyed a weeks fly fishing here in Weipa. The tides and conditions were ideal for the beaches.

Among golden trevally, queenies, giant herring, bream, blue and threadfin salmon, Rod caught this magnificent 103cm Queenfish off the beach.




A relative newcomer to the sport, Jeff caught several small queenies and lost a couple of nice Giant Herring before staying connected to this great fish. Well done!! To prove it wasn't a fluke, he then went ahead to land another 3 GH's! The tunas were also in full swing this week (along with some sharks) and the guys also were treated to a hot spanish mackerel bite one afternoon, the biggest being about 25lb.

When the wind blows....

We are having some terrible weather at the moment, 30knot winds and a big swell making conditions along the coast less than ideal. However we are lucky to have some great estuary systems to spend the day in, targeting a wide variety of tropical species. Lurlene and Arthur Higson from the Sunshine Coast are spending a few days catching some quality fish this week. Pictured are the happy couple with a beaut mangrove jack that Arthur caught. Not to be out done, Lurlene pulled this barra from a low tide drain on a live bait. Other species caught today were fingermark, blue salmon, queenfish and the ever present sharks and catfish.

Quality Fish on Fly

It was one of those days where the fishing wasn't red hot but some quality fish were taken on fly. Here Stu Cottrell and Tony Stent, fly fishermen from Tassie, persisted over some shallow reef to tempt an assortment of tropical species. Tony released this barracuda, fortunately hooked in the corner of the mouth, away from those savage teeth while his fishing partener Stu, landed (for the table) this fine fingermark of 64cm. It should be mentioned that Stu also landed a smaller fish (55cm) and lost a monster fingermark estimated at over 70cm. Well dome guys! For the day 13 species were taken on fly while shots were had at another 5 or 6 species.

Big Fish - Great Fun, But Expensive!!

As Fish has already shown, we have had an amazing couple of days fishing among literally hundreds of Manta Rays offshore. Pictured here is John Wright, avid fly fisherman with the most expensive (and biggest) cobia he has caught to date. After 15 minutes of serious tug of war, sharks were beginning to show interest in the tiring fish, so John redlined his gear to the max - unfortunately for a moment too long. The 4 piece became a 7 piece, but luckily the fish was still able to be landed just as another JAWS episode was about to unfold. The broken rod topped off a more expensive day than usual with John losing a fly line to an unseen speedster (we think the backing loop was chewed through) and another sinking line was being untangled when a tuna ate the fly and pulled the mess into a super tight "WIND" knot!! It always pays to have spares in Weipa.

Specials

Hi guy's as we have still a few spaces left in July /August we have decided to offer a few specials for you to consider.
So if any one was thinking of slipping up for a few day's here is the chance.
Check this out!
Based on twin share includes GST and valid for July/ August 2006
4 Nights accommodation at the new fishing lodge including meals prepared by private chef.
transfers to and from airport
and 3 day's fully guided fishing
$1500 per person
There was some great fishing last July and August and the fishing hasn't really beenup to expectations through Mayand june so it just might happen a little later this year?

Nick Durant with a fine queenfish caught during August 2005

Peter Curro captured and rteleased this fine cobia from the behind a manta ray.

On this particular day we saw literally hundreds of Manta's some with cobia on them some others just feeding on plankton many miles from shore.

The tuna were al;so thick on this day and as you can see the weather was spectacular.

Certainly a day to go into the memory banks as one of the best.

Dai Yamanoi visiting famous japanese flyfisherman with a fine Goldie sight cast to on the Roberts creek flats











Dai's freind, Mr Imai with a tea leaf trevally. Both of these fine japanese anglers have vowed to return to Weipa next year!

Col Merriman's Weipa Trip

Col Merriman, from Southern NSW recently spent a week up here predominantly fly fishing. Although the fishing was a little tough at times, Col still managed some nice fish on fly. Having never caught a barramundi before, he was keen to fly fish for them on the low tide drains. Finding the barras wasn't as hard as it was to get them to bite. They were feeding on a particular small type of baitfish on a low tide drain and after several changes in fly, the "hatch was matched" and Col caught his first barra ever, about 30cm. To prove it wasn't a fluke, he then proceeded to catch another couple, the biggest, 62cm (pictured).

Windy's week

Windy Wilson from Mornington peninsular with his first blue bastard or painted sweetlip.

These fish can be caught sightfishing the shallows and are a great challenge as they do not alway's respond to the fly, hence the name blue bastard.

These fish are becoming a challenging capture around the country, as they frequent very shallow water and tail in the sand as they fossic the flats for crustaceans and the like.

What more could a fly fisherman ask for? Almost like a poor man's permit!

Windy has been trying to catch one of these for the past 3 years and caught 3 on this trip.

2 while wading and the first was cast to from the boat.

Congratulations Windy, a great fly caster! A very enjoyable day for me also, you as alway's were a pleasure to fish with.

Bill Jeans also made a few great casts that day to catch his first sight cast blue bastard.

With blue skies and clear water and plenty of fish generally makes for a memorable fly fishing day. On ya Bill!