fishing trip - weipa

[david88]

Hey guys, I have decided to organise a fishing trip with my old man and 1 or 2 other father son combos.

I was thinking about maybe organising a houseboat in weipa as i like the idea of having a place to chillout, eat, drink and fish at night.

So here goes with my list of questions that i couldnt answer off other posts.

as far as weipa goes, how is the weather/fishing around september and october? are there better places this time of year?

Can you anchor the houseboats in good fishing locations (black jew, reef species etc)?

if i get a whole lot of maps/ descriptions of locations will i find it easy enough to find good fishing or is it best to have a guide for the first day to show us the ropes for the area? how much would a guide cost and can you follow them around in your own tender (dont expect to be able to fit 6 fishermen on the one boat).

I know the barra and sportfish such as queenies are amazing around here and i know general places that you would find these but is it easy enough to find/ chase down the schools of tuna / pelagics? also how easy is it to find the reefs which produce the best eating fish(this is the type of fishing that i really love), and are these areas accessible by the houseboat?

my old man has offered to pay my way for the trip but im sure he wont be willing to pay tackle, how much money worth of tackle do you guys normally take per person?

Can it get rough in this area, i would hate for one of the guests to feel seasick for an extended period.

Also any other tips to do with organising, companies or fishing tips would be extremely appreciated.

Thanks to all the guys on fishraider who put up nice reports of there time here, that is what inspired me to pick this place. i look forward to doing one of my own.

Thanke heaps

Regards David Esber

[rjc123]

i fished here last september amazing!!!!!! in september you have your mackerel and gt's n with the barra and jacks starting to fire up too! these are only fraction of the species you will come across. I would however highly recommend a guide for a few days fishing. They know the place so well and put you on all the fish! if you decide to go with houseboat then it will come with a tender (dinghie) that you can take out to the reefs. It will set you back about $650 a day. I have to go now even though there is so much to say but ill flick u a pm later today. look up a few guides, we went out with 2 different and they were fantastic!

[cheap charlie]

Hey Dave,

Any chance you could post up costings for the trip as the info comes to hand?

Flights

House boat

Guides

Etc?

[david88]

thanks for the reply, and yeah mate ill put up the cost as i work it out however that wont be for a while.

[Hodgey]

Dave

Member 'hookerbruce' did something (at Easter) very similar to what you're looking at. Maybe send him a PM? From memory, he was looking at roughly $1300 per person ( + airfairs) for a week? A great part of the world with some extraordinary fishing available. I'm sure you'll have an awesome time!

Cheers

Hodgey

[cheap charlie]

Weipa social coming on?

[Basil D]

would love that assuming the timing is right

Edited July 27, 2011 by Groper

[rooster]

Hey David,

How did you go geting info together and making decisions?

September is when the fishing improves October is the build up to the wet, I find it comfortable and the fishing is very good.

I have never been to Weipa before but am heading up there next week with some mates that have been going evey year for ten years to do some pigging

and fishing.

Will be able to answer better when I get back.

When you decide to book the boat book your flights as soon as possible, some of the lads who left it a bit are paying nearly double.

Factor in a tender(or 2)$150.00 approx per day .

Gear wise i am taking a 5 -8 extra fast action spin and the same again in bait cast and a 6 - 10 snapper rod and a 15kg for the reefs.

lots of small to medium metals, loads of surface lures sammys and poppers, warlocks, classic barras, gold bombers, split rings and extra trebles.

Tried to get my old man to go - he said I would rather go to a five star resort and look at girls in bikinis. fair enough.

[raysenior]

Hey Rooster , How did you go up there ?In the throes of planning a trip for next year in september !!

cheers snr

[rooster]

Hi Mate . . .

What a hoot

For all levels with some experience this is a safe, well communicated, well equiped operation.

Apparently July and August are slower for fishing, we found everything except sails.

Anchorages suggested by the business operator or dictated by weather conditions were good fishing locations for river and reef.

Reef fishing started about 20 metres from shore, if you were standing on land anywhere around weipa and threw a stick in the water

there would be good fishing there, don't go in after your stick.

I generally hook up a fishing guide early if its a new area, however the guys I was with knew the area well, if its in your budget great however I think it is probably not necessary. Care should be taken around river mouths for flushed out logs or a dropping tide.

Pelagics were fairly easy to find, run west for a few NM then drop a couple of 150ml 2m+ divers for spannos and watch the birds when they start working gun it over to them and lob metals into the bait balls on wire traces qaulity single hooks are helpful here.

Reefs are everywhere , we sounded our own reefs out easily, they are accessible by houseboat careful attention to the tides is important in the rivers and parking the houseboat near reef.

Quality , serviced gear was essential,the cheap rod onboard exploded on the first fish of the trip, an average quality reel seized.

15 Kilo rods were the norm for reef or trolling. My new 5-10 7.2 T curve snapper rod after it's first longtail became handy to strap a wireless modem to for better reception, great fight but took too long to bring in and we would lose the schools or the bait balls. A 7.5 foot 8 - 15 kilo spin would be better. 5-8kg 6ft spin or baitcast for the rivers.

190ml 7m+ Divers were great on large GT's. spare wire, hooks and rings, lip grippers, pliers, hand held GPS ( not essential )Cheap radios, for communication between tenders and main vessel would be handy (talk to operator about this)

There can be a fairly aggressive chop on the water this usually lasts for a little while it is mostly calm with a light breeze in the winter months, land is easily accesible by tender. Tenders were great for maximum 3 perons to fish out of better with two.

There is a large food outlet that is fairly priced for most things, fresh food comes in on Monday, it is closed on Public Holidays, Saturday arvo's

and all day Sunday.

Next door is the bottle shop.

Important lesson 1. 4 boxes of beer in one hit only, this is not a tourist destination and so they are helpful, either fill in the paper work

or each person buys a couple.

There are two places to buy tackle, the newsagent and next to the large food outlet they have everything at fair prices, we bought sinkers here.

The Mother ship is well equiped with ice, freezers and refridgeration and cooking facilities, borrow a smoker of the operator for a bit of variety.

There is a manual fuel pump to fill the tenders. Insects are only a problem on shore at sunset or up the rivers, bushmans settle this down.

Important lesson 2. The main vessel was well stocked with 20 litres of vinegar. A fantastic bit of planning by the operator, and i managed to save 50 cents on salad dressing with a lovely tang which everyone enjoyed. However on returning the vessel we all found out that the vinegar was for wiping the fly urine of your body so the skin doesn't get infected.

I am pretty sure the operator is still p###ing himself laughing at the expression on everyones faces

Heh heh

Pricing as hodgeys post.

Raysenior September is when I would love to be up there mate you will have a ball.

[raysenior]

Thanks Rooster Great roundup of the place, i went with hookerbruce and freinds at easter, my first time and am really keen to go back . i will post a separate thread about this soon looking for partners in crime LOL .

So Getting back to David , i say to do it if you can , it appears to be a very safe location in normal weather , the houseboat is restricted to enclosed waters however the bay is very open to the sea but the wind is usually offshore which keeps it relatively flat . i would doubt if you would get seasick on the houseboat ,

we spent 10 days , 3 nights at weipa campground in a cabin (2 days dingy hire and local fishing) then 7 days on the houseboat with 2 tenders (3 each tender) all up expenses not including personal purchases (beer smokes etc) was $1400 each , thats a really cost effective holiday . key to this is working as a group , yous have to share all the responsibilities and the chores!! we did a lot of shore fishing with small plastics for many different species , the high point for me was my first barra up one of the creeks when bruce tells usa barra followed his lure in, i cast into the same area and immediately hooked up to this jumping barra then Bruce cast next to me and hooked up , not to be outdone Warren (our 3rd man on board) cast next to us and he hooked up as well. A triple hookup on barra , and we landed them all all went about 60cm and all went back , between us we scored about 13 barra in that little session.

cheers snr

[rooster]

Ahhh , I see

great information there Raysenior . . . . .

deckie available

[raysenior]

Hi Rooster

PM sent

snr