"Slower" Tides.....

The tides were on the neaping cycle recently when Rob and Dave fished with me and although fishing became a little tougher, the weather was absolutely magic and some great fishing moments were had. As you can see by the piuctures, some nice queenies made an appearance and were caught both on jigs and poppers. Some school sized spanish mackerel were fun on poppers and jigs and although the sharks were nothing short of fierce at times we did manage two triple headers (I couldn't help myself) of tuna on the way home on the last day in 15 frantic minutes .....

Releasing a metre long popper caught queenfish.
A nice queenie double...

Dave did well to land this mackerel on a light spin rod despite Rob's being taken by bull sharks on heavier gear.

Hot Fly Fishing for 2 Weeks

Well, the last 2 weeks has left 15 flyfishermen understanding why WEIPA HAS THE BEST SALTWATER FLY FISHERY IN THE COUNTRY. Where else are you going to beach fish for metre long queenfish or barra to 75cm, or get a triple header of mangrove jacks, and cast an innocent white clouser in among bait balls being creamed by countless tuna, sharks, and even the odd billfish...

(both sailfish and marlin were seen on the last day). I don't think there was much that wasn't caught or at least cast to in the last two weeks. OK no permit were caught, but on at least one occasion a crab fly was cast in their direction. The species count for each week was around the 40 mark and included some truly fantastic fish on fly.

Bait balls, I mean when the bait is so thick that the sharks even close their

eyes and still get a mouthful of sardines were seen most days, making hooking a tuna just a matter of dangling the fly from the rod tip!

A few mantas were still around, with some cobia in accompaniment and queenies and trevally.

Some nice barras were caught in the estuaries on surface flies (gurglers and poppers) and the usual flats species were present in the lower estuaries and beaches (blue salmon, Giant herring, golden trevally, queenies etc.)

Weipa has so many options open to be fly fished at the moment which highlights just how strong this fishery is.

We had a group of regular Japanese clients fish for just a couple of days - due to available flights from Japan, so much fishing was crammed into the two days and the guys weren't disappointed. Big barra and manta rays were the order so day 1 saw us up the river with some great top water barramundi action and about 40 barras caught between the two boats and that's just on surface lures!

The biggest went 93cm and made a great sound as it inhaled the lure. Day 2 was a little shorter as the guys had a plane to catch, but the mantas played the game and several bites form cobia and queenies and small trevally kept us busy. Along the beach a few big queenies kept everyone on their toes and goldies and blue salmon made up the numbers.

Bass & Bream vs BARRA!

I had a couple of young bass and bream tournament winners fish with me last week. While they are just crazy about bass and bream, I just couldn't help notice how they rated barra and the bycatch associated with barra fishing. Also keen to fly fish a little, the guys racked up a few

nice fish in 4 days.....

Barra fishing with top water lures and fly poppers is very visual and rewarding.

Cobia on fly off manta rays was one of the highlights.

Giant Herring were a welcome catch on fly, pull most bass backwards and jump like crazy!!

A cobia double header. Mick lost one while Joel was hooked up, got re rigged and caught another!
Joel was amazed by the northern bream - spots all over them, big teeth and pull any oyster rack model backward!

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.

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

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.!!.