More Hot Fishing On Cape York's West Coast

[Steve07]

Here is the next part of my fishing report from our october trip to weipa cape york,which is about the

fantastic sightcast fishing we had along the miles of clear sandy beaches & shallow sand flats at the mouth

of the great wenlock,jackson & scardon river systems on cape york's western coastline.

This is the most exciting form of fishing you will get in this part of the world,its mainly what we came for &

our anticipation was sky high.The 3 tinnys with two fisho's each on board would idle along the shallow flats

& crystal clear sandy beaches in 2 to 5 metres of water,casting lures at feeding schools of golden,giant,

bludger & diamond trevally,plus queenfish,blue threadfin salmon,giant herring & even the odd school of

snub nosed dart,which non of those unfortunately showed any interest in our assortment of flies & plastics.

Here we had most success on small plastics in the 3 to 4 inch range,small silver or gold 20 gram metal lures,

or for those in our group like stan,mitch & james that could fly cast,any 3inch fly's with either white,pink,

yellow & green proved successful,especially on giant trevally & queenfish.

Also the lure casting tackle had to be light,around 10 or 15 lb braid with at least 250m on the reel,and able

to cast these small lures at least 30metres ahead of us were the small schools of trevally,queenys,salmon

& giant herring would be feeding.IT was a matter of spotting the fish & getting your cast right beside a

group of 4 or 5 goldens,then a fish would turn & slam your slowly sinking plastic,then it was hang on as a

6kg trevally would sizzle off in a 200m run across the shallow flats,absolutely awesome fishing.MY tackle

i used was a 4000stradic with 15lb braid,a daiwa procaster Z graphite rod in the 8 to 15lb class,to this i

tied on a 2 metre length of 20lb flurocarbon leader with an albright knot,with 3inch bass minnows or 3 inch

caterpillar grubs on 2/0 hooks,this proved effective on solid trevally,queenfish & giant herring without any

trouble.We caught some great golden trevally to 7kg,giant trevally to 5kg,solid queenfish,giant herring to

80cm & some nice threadfin salmon,but the highlight here was a thumping 10kg diamond trevally taken on

a pink coloured 4 inch plastic.

Some of the golden & giant trevally spotted cruising the shallows were well over the 15kg mark,but very

difficult to get a cast close enough for a look in.

Most of the best fishing in the shallows was done in the early morning calm before the wind would pick up,

after that the wind chop plus dirty water would make it impossible to spot fish.Then we would just head a

couple of km's offshore to find schools of baitfish that were being rounded up by bluefin,mack tuna,queenys,

spotted & spanish mackerel.Get a good cast in the middle with a 40 gram raider get a couple of turns of the

reel in & then just hang on as a nice northern bluefin & solid mackerel would scream off 200m away.

Then after enough of that around midday,head back to the charter boat,"THE ECLIPSE" for some lunch &

a few beers.Then in the afternoon head up to some of the massive river systems in search of barra,jacks,

threadfin,tarpon & queenys.What a life hey,awesome part of the world up there! the only problem is that

its hard to come back to sydney fishing after a trip that we had.

Next report of this trip will be on fishing the many great rivers up in cape york's west coast.

thanks;

steve

[Hodgey]

Another awesome report, Steve. That's a handy little outfit you were using. Great photos, mate, and I look forward to the next installment of "Nexus' Northern Safari"

Hodgey

[mrmoshe]

Wow Steve......They are just amazing fish up there.

It must be humbling to be able to chase monsters like that up there

and come back here to the mundane fishing.

One of these days...I'm going to get up that way to have a crack at those bruisers.

Well done and a great report and pics.

Cheers,

Pete.

[The Iceman]

That would have to be my favorite form of fishing

You would be surprised at the other locations in QLD where you can do the same thing but the fish numbers arnt as many

How did you like the blue salmon ? They go hard and taste good as well

[Thunder]

You must of had a ball up there.

How much was the trip?

I will have to start saving as it sounds like a fantastic trip.

Do you have to book as a group or do they book individuals and fill the boats themselves?

Cheers

Greg

[Steve07]

You must of had a ball up there.

How much was the trip?

I will have to start saving as it sounds like a fantastic trip.

Do you have to book as a group or do they book individuals and fill the boats themselves?

Cheers

Greg

HEY GREG,

you just gotta go on a trip up in that part of the world at least once,with 5 good mates.I find late from august,september & october are the best months to fish up there as there are heaps of tuna & mackerel

schools working,the shallow flats & beaches are clearer which helps find you the golden,giant,diamond

trevally,queenfish,& other species cruising the shallow water,plus the barra fishing in the rivers is pretty

good if you can pick a week of runout tides in the afternoons.

Mate,anytime you go you will have great fishing of some sort ive been a few times & always get plenty of

fish & something between 28 to 35 species which is amazing in 10 days fishing.

Its best to have 6 people you know all book together as its more enjoyable that you no each other well

& understand what type of fishing you all want to do.But you can book a couple mates & join another group

for sure,but its a little bit harder that way as you can always get stuck with blokes that have no idea or

you dont get along with,that would be the worst if you are spending that kind of money on a once in a

lifetime trip.

A week fishing on " the eclipse"would probably be around 3 thousand,plus airfares to cairns & return.

Its the best value charter up there & you will fish in places that other people just cant get to by land,its

worth it.

cheers mate,

steve

That would have to be my favorite form of fishing

You would be surprised at the other locations in QLD where you can do the same thing but the fish numbers arnt as many

How did you like the blue salmon ? They go hard and taste good as well

hey buddy

Mate those blue threadfin salmon are awesome fun,& go so hard for there size,we caught more in our last

trip which was in november the schools on the flats that time of year are unbelievable,there were 30 or

40 salmon in each school up & down all the beaches on the cape.Fish of 3 to 4 kg taking small metals,plastics

& minnows in 3metres of water are super fun to catch,plus they are as you said a great eating fish on the

plate.

cheers mate,

steve

[greenfish]

another great report,more excellent capture's & nice photo's!

very well done,look forward to your next report!

emaG

[Steve07]

another great report,more excellent capture's & nice photo's!

very well done,look forward to your next report!

emaG

thanks very much,the only thing wrong with a trip like we just had,is that you can get a bit spoilt catching

that many fish,& so many different variety's,then you come back to fishing in botany bay & everyone know's how hard you have to work just to scrape up a feed of fish at times.

I guess that's the reason people travel so much to different locations just to wet a line & catch some quality

fish in pretty special places!

cheers,

steve