catchin up

First post for me,so it might take a couple to catch up as i've hundreds of pic to sort through,so here are a few from the start of the season,with a bit of madness and mayhem down the coast on bait balls,manta's on the beachs,and clean water for sight casting b.b's,a few barra'san threadies up the rivers also....

Long time between drinks!

I know I promised to update more often but I have been a bit slack as we have just been stuffed in the evenings.

It has been quite hard fishing this month with awful weather and dirty water on the beaches, making finding fish quite tough, nothing like last August.

The fingermark fishing with soft plastics was pretty good with 3 of us catching between 40 -50 in one session

There was a few nice macks around in late July/August but with the inclement weather we opted to do quite a bit of fishing up the river.

As the weather being so cold and not a lot of clear sky the crocs were out on the mud banks in abundance. This one took a liking to the hookless popper and didn't want to give it back.

I am hoping that the weather is about to change for the better real soon.

Unfortunately there is little we can do to control it, lucky we live in Weipa, at least there is alway's something to do.

Barramundi Tag Recaptures

The First week of July was surprising for me catching 3 previously tagged barramundi. In 4 years I have guided here, I have only crossed paths with 2 other tagged barras.

The first (pictured) was recaptured in the Pine River by Allan Murray at 620mm on 3 July, having been origonally tagged on April 17 2002 by local angler Phil Aspinall at 500mm.

The second was recapture in the Embley River two days later by Art Severn of Yowie Bay at 730mm. This fish had origonally been tagged on 18 October 2003 at 435mm, While the last fish was recaptured later that same day by Bob Gardner. His fish measured 520mm and was tagged origonally on 13 November 2006 at 480mm.

As you can see, the Weipa strain of barramundi seems to be surprisingly slow growing. This data was supplied by Bill Sawynok of Suntag who is in charge of the inshore finfish tagging program in Queensland. He confirmed that the Weipa barras do seem to have a slow growth rate compared with those on the east coast or even further south in the gulf. I guess this is another good reason to reduce the indiscriminate commercial pressure on this valuable resource.

Blowing in the wind

This week just gone was a little blowy with some big swells earlier , however ther was some great pelagic activity with macks and tuna and thankfully not too many sharks.

Some of the crew though didn't fair too well in the drinking stakes and opted for an easy day!

FUN WEEK FOR ILLAWARRA FLY FISHERMEN

Although we had what I would say were poor conditions this week, these guys had some excellent fly fishing. A bad combination of swell and wind made offshore and beach fishing very difficult, so much time was spent in the rivers.....


ARCHER FISH ABOUND IN THE RIVERS AND ARE A WELCOME BYCATCH




A WONDERFUL GOLDIE SESSION WAS HAD ON THE LAST MORNING









3 BOATS, ALL SIGHT FISHING NICE GOLDIES ON THE FLAT








GREAT BREAM FROM A SUNKEN SNAG









I'M SURE THIS WAS THE LAST FISH OF THE TRIP








SOME EXCELLENT SIGHT FISHING TO BIG BARRAS WAS HAD ALSO (NOTE THE .22 SHELL FLY)








A SPOT OF ESTUARY / BEACH FISHING YIELDED SOME UNUSUAL CAPTURES - CALE CALE AND DIAMOND TREVALLIES







THE BEAUTIFUL DIAMOND TREVALLY








MORE ESTUARY SPECIES - A FINGERMARK







AT TIMES THE BARRAS WERE THICK IF THE FLY WAS IN THE RIGHT SPOT

ACROBATIC TARPON ARE FUN

THE INCIDENTAL QUEENIE KEPT EVERYONE ON THEIR TOES!

DECIEVED TARPON


ANOTHER GOOD BARRA ON AN EXPERIMENTAL HOME TIED FLY

Great Pelagics

Some excellent pelagic fishing has been had this year, although patchy at times, there have been both longtail and mack tuna, GTs, Bludgers, spaniards and even an occasional billfish showing up.



A nice GT on Jig





Tuna on Fly





Yes, this rod did break!!




Some great spanish on fly opportunities have presented themselves



















A Pair of hard pulling Bludgers (the fish, not the fishermen)















Another First Fly caught Spanish.












A surprise 350lb black marlin which ate a 10lb spanish mackerel whilst being fought on 30 lb spin tackle - boatside in just over 2 hours!!

A FEW UNUSUAL CUSTOMERS......

A Couple of Kissing (Fighting??) Blue Bastards

Estuarine Stonefish....

Floss with a couple of much sought after species on the fly - a nice diamond trevally and a rare tripletail.

First Day Ever Saltwarter Fly Fishing...

WHAT A WAY TO KICK OFF YOUR SALTWATER FLY FISHING CAREER - QUEENIES, GOLDIES, BLUE SALMON, BIG COBIA, A FEW REEFIES FOLLOWED BY A SIGHT FISHED BLUE BASTARD AND ENDING UP WITH A BARRA, WELL OK THE BARRA WASN'T CAUGHT BY MAX (GRAHAM CAUGHT IT) BUT HE DID CATCH ALL THE OTHERS AND MORE, JUST ON DAY 1. WHERE ELSE BUT WEIPA.

A Picture Says a Thousand Words......

Hi all and my apologies for not posting news and pictures for some time, so I'll put lots of pictures here in the next few days which will give an overview of the last couple of months. Enjoy!!

A few nice jewies have been making an apearance.

Barras too.....

No time to scratch!

Well I know I said i would keep things up to date but when you get home from work and clean the boat for the next day and then do emails for an hour, you just don't have the fuel to think about posting an entry onthe blog.

Even Notso has been just too tired to make an entry.

Anyhow the fishing has been pretty good since last entry which is about 3 weeks. Plenty of spaniards around and quite a few tuna although they are infrequently showing themselves staying deep and under cover. A week ago there were spaniards leaping in the air and visible in just about every direction there were so many.

Ther have also been a few schools of bludger trevally around, these fish pull hard like a kingie or samson fish and are great fun.

And of course there are the everpresent sharks making a pain in the butt out of themselves.

There is the odd day out there though when they are not around and it sure is good to play a fish to the boat and not be harrassed by them. Plenty of good blue salmon on the beaches also.

Here is a few pics to drool over for the moment. I will update as soon as I can.