Fishing Charters & Wilderness Tours, Cape York

LATEST REPORT

P.O. Box 52
Bamaga QLD 4876
Phone 07 4069 3301
Email Us
Your Hosts:
Lesley and Tim

Latest Report October - December 2007

Well here we go again. Early October we actually had a late cancellation and decided to take advantage of that and we went south to see family, very good.

Mid month saw Darius Petrauskas from Lithuania, come off another tour to fish with us. He cast very well and was rewarded with some nice Barramundi, Tarpon. Cod, GT’s, Fingermark - one being 70cm, Saratoga, and all the usual estuary species . A very interesting gentlemen, a pleasure to have on board albeit only for 2 days.

Then came the Taylor group 10 in number, Geoff, Andrew, Matt, Cain, Simon, Chris, James, Daniel, Matt and Mark. We started the trip with a mixture of GOOD fish and BAD motor trouble with one boat. Thankfully it held in for the trip – JUST, but it was a pain moving along slightly slower than normal - thanks fella’s for being good sports about it. Some nice Queenfish to 18lb, Grey and Spotted Mackerel, plus two Spanirds around 20lb. Geoff was very unlucky, sportingly releasing a couple before getting them to the boat. Geoff had also told stories to both Mark and James (from England and Amsterdam) that the Croc’s and sharks would jump into the boat etc etc the poor buggers were a little concerned, but were OK until Tuna day when they came face to face with some of our grey coated friends, you get that.

The Estuaries provided some nice Mangrove Jack, Cod, Tarpon, Grunter, Barramundi, GT, Queenfish, Nannygai’s, Fingermark, and Bream. We did however, have two quiet days mainly due to the winds, making the blue water unreachable as it just blew too hard. We did manage to get out over the last two days and had some fun with the Tuna they really do test everything both angler and gear, and everyone has great fun catching them. We also managed to beat the sharks on most occasions, but everyone did land one.

Our thanks to all the group for this was a difficult trip with high winds shutting down the action to a degree, but we still managed to have some very good entertainment.

Late October early November we saw the Kiwi invasion with Russel, Hamish, Vincent and Clive arriving. Very funny and nice fellows. Those blessed winds were still around though.

The Jacky Jacky still produced Barramundi, Fingermark, Cod, GT’s, Queenfish, Bream and Grunter. While the West Coast provided some entertainment with Barramundi, Fingermark, and the usual estuary species, as well as a few sessions with Mackerel to 14lb, Coral Trout, Stripeys and Parrot Fish. The Blue water provided us some nice Tuna on offer, in particular one by Vincent, a 30lb+ Northern Blue Tuna winning him the honour of the Sea Dredge Cup (something the boys compete in where ever they go). There were some very good fish on offer that day, with the sharks having their fair share as well. When the wind dropped off we took the opportunity to try one of the outer Islands. We were having some good fun with good Queenfish, Gold Spot and Giant Trevally and some reef fish when again the sharks arrived (small ones only about 1.5m), but only affecting Tim’s boat, while Lesley’s was 15m away and they continued to get fish with NO sharks Hmmmmmm!! The wind came back with a vengence so off we went.

The last couple of days were spent in the Jacky Jacky with fair catches of Barramundi, Fingermark, Cod, Queenfish, and GT’s. About mid way through the last day Hamish, was sure he was heading home without the elusive Barramundi. Not to be, Lesley took him to one of those ‘very secret spots’, and not only did he catch a Barra on his first cast, he caught another on his second cast and they were both legal – easy stuff this Barra fishing. It was indeed a pleasure to have them on board and we enjoyed their company very much, thanks guys, hope to see you again.

Mid November, Phil Newton’s group arrived, with Tony, Gentleman Jim, Gary, Max, Rob and of course Phil. The first couple of days we spent over the east coast, with Barramundi, Fingermark, Mackerel, Tarpon, GT’s, Queenfish, Mahgrove Jack, Bream, and Cod keeping us all busy and entertained. We found a creek where the Barramundi were obviously active producing some great excitement as Phil and Jim landed some 19 nice girls along with some good quality Mangrove Jack and Fingermark.

Down the west coast saw us get into the Mackerel with 30lb being the bencemark, the boys ate well. We however, only managed to land the one Tuna for the week, with the Tuna season finally ending and them proving elusive – well done Phil. Then came CYCLONE GUBA and a huge drop in the Barometre, causing the fish to shut down somewhat. We had a worrying time but all was well in the end and instead of passing straight over the top of us GUBA took a change in course and headed to PNG, thanks to whoever arranged that! Back over the east coast again saw some nice fish come in with Barramundi to 78cm, Fingermark, Trevally, Queenfish, and all the normal estuary species. At this stage Rob became bedridden with the flu for the last two days and then he decided it best to share. By the end of the trip about half of us started to feel the effects. As we waved goodbye to the group Tim started feeling not too well (and spent the next week in bed after that) as did some others. We throughly enjoyed all your company even your’s Rob, hope to see you all again in the not too distant future to compete in the Infamous “Guba Cup”.

December saw John White (sole charter) and Gerry and Malou Hillier arrive. John loves his Barramundi fishing (the hunting), and we managed to give him his best trip with us to date, and he has had some good ones. We saw several sessions with Barramundi to 80cm caught and released. John will not take a Barramundi to eat (even though the season is closed) too nice a fish he reckon’s. He managed to get several nice Fingermark, Golden Trevally and the usual estuary fun. We spent a morning in the Blue water, where John caught some nice GT’s, Barracuda’s and then got sharked on a good Spaniard only to out do himself while casting with a soft plastic to small GT’s we saw a large Mackerel come out of the water heading away at a great rate of knots. The call was ‘what’s chasing that!’, then all of a sudden we find out ‘we are’. After a long and careful fight we landed a good sized Mackerel around 25lb on a little plastic with mono leader, well done big fella. We then had some fun with some Stripeys, Parrot and Coral Trout on the plastic just to prove a point.

We had a final session on his beloved Barramundi on the final day with 13 coming in the boat - all good fish. We had some great strikes and jumps that together with the other species on offer made for a very good trip for John. We had a good week, thanks mate both Lesley and I enjoyed your company. Look forward to next year.

Gerry and Malou from the Phillipines, only had a couple of days with us this year but also enjoyed some good Barramundi excitement with 24 quality fish, also some good Mangrove Jack to 55cm, Fingermark, Cod, and Trevally. Gerry being an experienced fisherman with a good casting arm was rewarded for his efforts but it was wife Malou, who had not fished with a rod and reel before, did not take long to catch on to what’s what, she did very well with some memorable Barramundi, Mangrove Jack and a particular Queenfish making her run all round the boat, which brought some big smiles to both Gerry and Tim. Also looking forward to seeing you again in 2008

Mid December saw Don Park arrive with friends Peter and Kevin from Cairns. You had to be carefull what you said because the boys were very sharp, Tim copped a flogging all week. We did have lots of laughs.

Don and Peter were the casters of the group while Kev (the most improved as voted by Kev) provided the dinner each night, with a beautiful 60cm Fingermark, A large Cod, some nice Nannygai, and Mackerel. Well done Kevin. We had some good fun in the estuary again Barramundi each day (11 on the last day), Grunter, Sand Bass, Bream, GT’s and Queenfish. The weather allowed us a day out on one of the outer Islands, had some great fun with a big school of Queenfish, all around us with me getting very excited wanting to get as many lures and plastics in as possible only to see the boys just looking and saying isn’t that just fantasic, with me going off ‘get in there’.
Thanks fella’s really enjoyed your company, don’t ever ask two accountants and a superannuation expert for advice, talk about confusion and all they want to do is get their hands on your money, I’ll just take them fishing!!!!!

Last Job for 2007 saw Dan and Lindy Kiazim with us for a couple of days on the wrong moon phase but that’s the only time they had. We did not do too bad at all thanks very much.
We saw them both loose their Barramundi virginity with Lindy showing the way early only to be outdone by Dan in the afternoon with a nice Barra around the 80cm mark, also got amongst the Queenfish, Cod, Tarpon and Grunter. Then we had a very good (but highly unusual for moon) session on good Queenfish to 20lb, with Lindy stating they are too hard to pull in, she got no sympathy from Dan and I - cruel buggers aren’t we. We continued until the arrival of the Sharks, again providing some pretty impressive sights. We had some great fun on plastics with Trevally and Queenfish, Mackerel, Barracuuda and Cod, ending up with Coral Trout for dinner. We did manage to avoid a rather large storm (still got very wet though). Thanks you two have an enjoyable end to your holiday, hope to see you again.

Thanks to everyone for a very successful year. We look forward to seeing you all again in the near future. We are just starting our break – with the ‘WET SEASON’ upon us. With our 2008 season starting in early April our next report will be posted in June/July 2008.

Until then, take care and TIGHT LINES.
Tim and Lesley

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