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Fishing Port Douglas


peahead

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Hi lads

I am headed to Port Douglas around September for a week with the wife and 2 kids. I was hoping the fishraider community could help me with recommending any good charter operators. My mrs loves mud crabs so any recommended operator would be appreciated. I believe there are drive yourself flat bottom boats out of Mirage marina, are these any good and any spots to visit from a hire boat or land based?

Appreciate all the help available

Jimmy....

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Hey Jimmy

I just spent 5 days camping at Port Douglas - I highly recommend the Tropical Breeze caravan park (sweet when you're paying $20 a night for your family to stay - right next to people pay $500 a night!)

In terms of fishing charters, you have a choice of "Reef" fishing (going out to the Great Barrier Reef to fish) or "Estuary Fishing" - fishing in the estuary.

The Estuary fishing is much closer, and will cost you about $130 pp. However, it is catch and release, and just fishing the estuary. The guides (so I'm told) are good - but you'll just be fishing from a tinnie, and only have access to what you can easily get access to yourself in a hire boat. Mind you - they'll also know best baits, times, places etc.

The Reef fishing will cost you about $200, and take you out to the outer barrier reef. Likely to get bigger fish - but no guarantee. There are a few options, one being Bianca, which is who I went with. Bianca was good, and lots of fun. They put me onto some good fish. However, their gear was pretty old and disappointing (I wish I had brought my own), and I note they've only been operating in the area for a few years.

We also hired a tinny to fish the estuary. It cost about $35 an hour - 10hp motor etc. That was great fun - and we fished near several of the Estuary charters. We caught a couple of little fish, and a decent size mud-crab. We also saw several crocs (one being quite big - 4m or so). We had lots of fun. It didn't look like anyone on the charters did much better.

Have fun! Port Douglas is a great place.

Mike

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Hi Jimmy

I'm also going up to port Douglas in the september school holidays and was looking for a charter.

I googled up a guiding service that use a 6m boat so it's not crowded. I ll pm you with the details if you're interested.

Dez

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