Fishing Weipa.

[Jewhunter]

G'day all.

I've just been advised that I'll be required to fill a spot on a houseboat towing 3 x 14ft tenders for 6 days towards the end of April to fish the runoff in Weipa.

Just thought I'd throw up a post to see if any Raiders have fished Weipa before & if you have any advice/tips that could be helpful.

Cheers,

Grant.

[hookerbruce]

Hi Grant

I'll be getting off the house boat on april 22nd.

We fly up to Weipa on the 11th of April.

This will be my 5th year on the house boat. Are you on tillitoo or tillimay ?

What do you want to know ? I can give you a list of the gear and tackle I take up, gets adjusted each year based on previous years. One year I lost 3kg of lures and gear in a week and that didn't include sinkers.

Anything you want to know I'll try to help.

Also there is a phone on the boat so you can call the boat the from the 15th April and we can give you an on water report.

Has anyone had any recent reports from Weipa.

keep on Hooking

Bruce

[Jewhunter]

Hi Grant

I'll be getting off the house boat on april 22nd.

We fly up to Weipa on the 11th of April.

This will be my 5th year on the house boat. Are you on tillitoo or tillimay ?

What do you want to know ? I can give you a list of the gear and tackle I take up, gets adjusted each year based on previous years. One year I lost 3kg of lures and gear in a week and that didn't include sinkers.

Anything you want to know I'll try to help.

Also there is a phone on the boat so you can call the boat the from the 15th April and we can give you an on water report.

Has anyone had any recent reports from Weipa.

keep on Hooking

Bruce

G'day Bruce & thanks for the reply. 3kg of lures & gear in a week! I'd better go shopping. Mate if you could p.m or e-mail me a list of tackle & your target species that would be bloody awesome. Any of your fave areas would be a help as well.

Let us know what boat you'll be on & I will definitley call the boat for an on the water report.

Not sure of the boat I'm on as yet. I will find out asap though. We could well be on the boat you're in. I fly in on the 22nd & we jump on board from the 23rd to the 29th

Thanks again mate,

Cheers,

Grant.

[Roffo]

G'Day Jew Hunter, (lucky bugger)

If you haven't been there before, it's not a trip you are going to forget in a hurry..

Depending on what you are targeting, I would take two of everything rod and reel wise for starters.

For example I spent a week there popper fishing for skinnies and GT's with 10kg gear(yes I love sport fishing), I smashed two reels (trashed the gears on one and snaped the body of the reel seat on the other) snapped a rod and went thru 700 metres of Amalin T.(I worked this out to be about 28 hours of popper fising)

A popper lasted about 7-10 casts before it was trashed by the teeth on these animals, so get hold of some electrical conduit and epoxy and get cracking you will save yourself a heap aswell.(paint them with what ever colour you have in the shed as it makes no difference what so ever)

Wire trace is a must as mono dosen't belong up there.

On 10kg gear the run of a good fish will take you to the spool and in seconds not minutes, it's a real buzz that will leave you smiling for days.

It's the only place I've seen where some locals use vanission blind cord for fishing..

You have to try fishing for black jews in the afternoon with mullets, you will get a kick out of that as well, they are huge 30-40 kgs.

Just a few tips anyway.

Cheers

Roffo

Enjoy.

[Chris 55]

Make sure you have something long enough to chase the crocs off the

boat ramp when your leaving and coming back

Chris

[hookerbruce]

Hi Grant

This is a brief idea of what we do up in Weipa.

Usually travel up a couple of days before we get on the boat and stay in a cabin at the campground.

Hire a twin-cab ute carries five and all the gear and has a towbar.

Hire a couple of tinnies either from Weipa houseboats, if available' or the campground and fish the local rivers. Usually target barras, jacks and whatever else co-operates. We usually go north in july so the cooler weather slows the fishing a little.

Fish where the small drains come off the sand flats at low tide, the best barra fishing appears to be beginning of the run in tide at the mouths of small creeks. Our best barra was a 95cm model. If the lures aren't working try using some live bait or even dead baits. Cast at anything in the water even little twigs as the fish seem to hang near them waiting for a feed.

If you go down in lure size there is some very good light line fishing for bream and other critters around the snags.

When we get on the houseboat we usually head down the coast to Red Cliffs (weather permitting) for the first night about 3hr run the dinghies travel and fish on the way down. A fantastic area to spend the night with high red cliffs to protect you from the S.E. winds. In on the beach fish back towards Weipa around the rocks for barra and other mixed fish. Fairly shallow in places so surface lures even small poppers seem to work.

If you head south along the beach you come to a large expanse of hard reef. Fish over the top of it at high tide for coral trout, long tom,trevally and GTs (our best went 12Kgs). Fish across the outside edge of the hard reef as the tide drops for all the trevallies and some macks.

If you head out to sea from Red Cliffs come across submerged continuation of the reef for about 2 kms. The mackerael and pelagics sit and ambush the bait fish schools as they go around the outside of the reef.

My best morning there was seven macks to 15kgs and a dozen other assorted fish in a couple of hours.

You can troll large diver type lures lazerpros or cast and jig metal slices in bait schools.

Be warned the sharks usually take half the fish.

The edges of this section reef are good if you want to do some bait fishing last year we had fingermark to 65 cm,coral trout,gold spot cod,emperor and lots of other mixed reef fish. water is about 6-7m ask steve for a reef pick for the dinghies so you can get the anchor up easier.

Where you anchor up for the night there is a steady stream of smaller trevally to be caught plus we usually get blue salmon,sometimes squid but nearly always the biggest catfish in the world and do they go hard on light gear. Usually anchor in about 3m of water if low tide 5m if high.

I'll continue with more of this rubbish If you like.

Bruce

[heckendorfmortgage]

I'll continue with more of this rubbish If you like.

Bruce

Yes, tell me more.

I Like.

MH

[Jewhunter]

Thanks for the tips fellas!

Bruce that is fantastic info & just what I was after. At least I'll have some input for the lads. I reckon the bloody sou'easters' will blow all week so Red Cliffs sound like a goer.

Hope you got into them on your trip. I might even run into you at the campground.

I'm leaving early tommorow & we head off in the houseboat & the tenders on Wednesday for 6 days.

We'll have plenty of gear. A couple of my mates going worked in tackle shops for years & the others are total tackle junkies. All mad keen & very good fishos. So if my 16kg's worth runs out I should be alright.

I'M EXCITED!!!!

Cheers,

Grant.