Friday, April 24, 2009

Great estuary fishing.......


Last week, Gerald Cooper, a Weipa regular shouted Grandson Michael a 16th birthday fishing trip here. Michael took to casting lures like a fish to water (pardon the pun) and had a ball catching all sorts of estuary species. The largest fish of the week was a group effort Queensland Groper measuring 147cm and weighing more than I want to deal with again!! Gerald backed up the following day with a smaller specimen, 100cm neat on his own from a mud drain. Mornings were spent on the high tide flats swatting sand flies and hoping not to catch another blue salmon - crikey they are thick in the creeks at the moment! The afternoons saw us fishing an assortment of drains which at times were a mess of blue salmon, queenies and barra as the bait fish swam the daily gauntlet. A single day was spent down the coast searching for mythical tuna - we got a shot and it fell off, but the beaches made up for it with a couple of mantas and lots of blue salmon (for something different) and a relaxing lunch in the shade of she oaks on the beach. While the pelagic scene has been slow, it shows why Weipa is so good having its diversity and generally always something to have fun with.



















Tuesday, April 14, 2009

More First Week Pictures.......

Just a few more pictures showing how good the fishing is at this time of year on the right tides. Kerry (top pictures) had never really fished the tropics before and by the end of the week had caught around 50 barras - his best at 92cm (lure caught), with biggest fish of 4 days, a groper of 110cm which took both guys to hold. His brother Glen ispictured holding 1 of 3 105cm Jewies along with a lure caught 98cm barra and a rare treat, BOTH halves of a shark attacked queenie! Glen himself managed roughly 50 barras also for the 4 days and there was a blur of countless blue salmon (some massive fish for the species), fingermark, cod, gropers, mangrove jacks (to 49cm), queenies (of course). The bussiest day saw over 70 fish landed, of which only 1 was kept for dinner. DOwn the coast has been a little quieter than the creeks of late but a few days earlier I had a day where we managed a couple of tuna from not too many shots, had a bite froma sailfish on soft plastic (fell off) and caught a 25lb blue bastard on soft palstic



































Saturday, April 11, 2009

kicked off





the big girl 109cm...on popper..
as fish said below the season is under way now with some nice fish being caught and some great weather as well with gin clear waters along the beachs making for some great visual fishing,with the fellas from the first couple of groups landing some nice fish....

Season start






Well the season has started off with some good fishing this week with a group from around Newcastle/Port Maquarie area. They managed to land over a hundred barra for the 4 day's with 7 over 90cm and 1 nice 109cm fish on a roosta popper which Owy reckons the bite was sensational. There was also a 77cm mangrove jack captured and released and a 13lb blue salmon which looked more like a pit bull.
I am sure the other boys will post some of their pics for you to enjoy!
By the way we still amazingly have a few spaces left for May! I would hate to see good fishing gone unfished?

Quinnie with his memorable Mangrove Jack.
Mick Brown with a 92cm barra!

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Start Up!






Well we are just about to start up for the season so onour last day's off we went fishing (as you do).



Things look pretty good down the coast with the water colour clearing and looking more like it should, and the tides receding back to normal.



Guess now we just have to see if the bait turns up?



There have been a few tuna at the bottom end of the bay, but are very flighty and hard to approach.



Hopefully that will all change in the coming weeks.



My sister in law Janine has come to Weipa doing some training to become a nurse so the family ventured out for a day's fishing and sight seeing.



Janine caught her first fish EVER which of course was a queenfish.



Kristy my daughter and Notso's other half captured a 8kg goldie on 10lb line from under a manta ray. We then went to red cliffs for a dip under the fresh spring water pouring from the cliffs and had a bite of lunch before heading home.



Thursday, March 19, 2009

Pre Season Warm Up

I've been home for a week or two and given the Last Cast a mini makeover in readiness for the coming year. Of course the boat needed to be run so it was a good reason to take Kristy and Calais for a fish. We found a bunch of queenies around the bridge which were fun on light gear. A few days later Fish and I went for a look along the beaches and found good numbers of queenies smashing bait and had a ball for a couple of hours with the fly rods. I also managed a nice Giant Herring which took a stationary clouser while I was waiting to make another cast - the fish were that thick!! We also found lots of good blue salmon which were willing to eat our flies as well. Later that day a bunch of barras kept us busy eating lures and flies at the mouth of some drains. We managed a couple for dinner and both lost really nice fish as well.

Kristy on a queenie with Calais checking out the action.....


This is actually my best GH on fly to date. I used my Sage 8wt TCR with 20lb leader and a white clouser. The first run took 50m or so of backing!

Monday, February 02, 2009

MORE WET SEASON.......

I'M IN PORT STEPHENS NOW PATIENTLY WAITING FOR THE MARLIN TO TURN UP - THE OCEAN CURENTS HAVEN'T BEEN ALL THAT FAVOURABLE THIS YEAR, BUT AS WITH MARLIN FISHING - WE ARE ALWAYS ONLY ONE FISH OFF HAVING A GREAT DAY!! AS I HAVE BEEN UNBELIEVABLY SLACK WITH MY BLOGGING OF LATE, HERE'S SOME FAMILIAR LOCATIONS SHOT IN UNFAMILIAR CONDITIONS IN EARLY JAN. SOME OF YOU ASK WHY WE DON'T BOOK CHARTERS IN SUMMER - THIS IS WHY.........



THIS SERENE PICTURE IS WHAT MOST OF YOU ARE USED TO AS YOU SIP A COLD ALE AFTER A LONG DAY FISHING...........





THIS IS A PIC I TOOK THE OTHER DAY OF ROUGHLY THE SAME SCENE (THEN I WENT HOME FOR A HOT CHOCOLATE)........









ROCKY POINT BOAT RAMP.......IF YOU'RE GAME














IS THAT A JET SKI FREE ZONE???

MOST OF YOU WILL BE FAMILIAR WITH THIS LOCATION.







Friday, January 16, 2009

wet season..

well guy it been a while,thought i'd put up a few pics....these first ones are from out the bush which was great fun exploring and fishing,found some nice togas,sooties and a few barras up the fresh,until it got to wet.!!!....while the buid up was humid an very hot espiecally out the bush,rather stifling at times,it made for some excellent lightning shows of the evening,managed to grab a few snaps of it...my missus thought i'd gone crazy roaring around town at 2 in the morning chasing it.!!.


Monday, December 22, 2008


Merry Xmas to all!
See you in the New Year!

Monday, December 01, 2008

Well guys, as fish said below the season has finished for the year,the last week or two of oct presented some pretty awsome sight fishing opportunities for the last couple of groups,getting plenty of shots at bb's,chasing mantas loaded with queenies an goldies and the odd cobe or two lurking underneath....


so with the season over and a little time before it gets to wet its been high tail'n it out the bush for a bit of 4x4'n and some fresh water fly fishin,will post some more pics a little later....














Saturday, November 15, 2008

Almost there again!






Things are starting to wind down for the year with only two charters left in Nov then it's off for a play around and do a bit of fishing for ourselves, and take a bit of a holiday even.



Brendan Rolt with a fine fingermark caught on a soft plastic.

I took a quick trip down to Hervey bay recently and had a fish with a couple of mates of mine to try to catch a big impoundment barra on fly.
The weather proved against us and we only caught one which was 90cm( you would be happy with that at home!)
I did manage a few nice flatties on fly the largest being 65cm.
In all the weather wasn't the best but great guiding by Mark Bargenquast who kept us on the fish under a lot of pressure.
If any of you are heading to Hervey bay give Bargy a ring he is definitely one of the best guides in the area.
Apart from getting me my flatty on fly he has guided Morsie onto some monster threadies that most of the other guides don't even know are there. I also had a shot at a permit during my trip.
Check out www.fraserguidedfishing.com.au or ring 0427 230 261

I will make another post next week to inform you of our last charters in Weipa.
Hopefully the boy's will also make a posting in the next few day's.




Monday, October 13, 2008




just a few quick snaps of a bit of whats been going
on for the past few weeks,we had some good sight fishing from the beachs,landing a number of bb's and monster gh's over a meter!!!..off shore there has been good numbers of tuna's,some big queenies, honkin gt's an great goldies