queensland Cairns advice needed

[willmcleay]

Hey fellas, I am heading up to cairns for a mates wedding at the end of August for a week, and will prob be doing a charter with a few blokes.

I will be staying in palm cove, so was going to bring a travel rod up for flicking off the beach or something. Im from Adelaide SA and have never been up before so dont know what to expect.

Question is what setups would I need/use up there?

Will be bringing a 6-8kg travel rod with 3500 size reel and 300m 30lb

Considering what other setups to bring??

8-14lb luvias, 2500R with 15lb

Saltiga GT 8'6 PE6-8 and Saltiga dogfight with 60lb

50lb Catalina jig combo (for charters)

Didnt know if i would just get by with the 6-8kg setup? Also any tips on lures/where to fish etc would be greatly appreciated. Dont know if I can receive PM's yet as am a new member.

Cheers

Will

[tiotony]

Hey mate I'm from Cairns, sorry I just found your post otherwise I would have replied earlier.

As you are staying at Palm cove, I would just concentrate on fishing the jetty and the beach as it will be walking distance for you.

For the end of August, you may just get the big run of these whitebait type fish when they hit the beach (although its normally early September). If you get it you will have insane blue and king salmon fishing on the beach, as well as jewies, tripletail and all sorts of things smashing into the bait. You also have Palm cove jetty which is very much a tourist spot, but you are coming in the exact right time of the year for doggie mackeral off that jetty. A 4-6kg outfit and some high speed spinners will do the trick, although if you can castnet or jig some livies around the jetty they are deadly fished unweighted. If you want to get really stretched, bring your Saltiga and fish the biggest livie you can get- there are some locals that fish at the end of the wharf regularly and get things like 40kg spaniards and GT's, although blacktip and hammerhead sharks are a real nuiscance on all Cairns beaches.

Worst comes to worst just buy a handfull of king prawns and fish off the beach of an evening, most of the time you'll pick up a salmon or two.

Your Catlina should be fine for a reef charter too, whether bottom bouncing, trolling or jigging.

Cheers,

Tony

[tiotony]

Sorry forgot to mention its definately worthwhile bringing a 2-4kg SP outfit- chuck plastics under the jetty lights at night for GT's etc, and also can generally pick up a grunter or something walking the beach of an early morning, chucking 2 inch gulps or the like.

[willmcleay]

G'day mate thanks for the reply. Can't wait. Will be bringing a 4-6kg outfit plus the 6-8. Worth bringing up a heavy popper setup or just livebait off the jetties with my jig outfit? Any tips on lures or anything worth bringing up with me? Won't be bringing much in the way of clothes if I can fit as much fishing gear as I can!! Any advice is appreciated mate. Will def try some nights off the jetty and beach when I can. Staying at peppers resort at palm cove, looked like a nice heaand not far away from the resort. Worth a fish? North of palm cove but not by much

[tiotony]

No worries mate, just hope you get some good calm weather when you come up; you should do that time of year. Also be sure to drop me a PM when you arrive and I'll come and meet you to show you around if I'm not away for work. If I'm in town then, I'll be very focused on chasing salmon off the beach!

I find in Cairns there's plenty of good fish around, but they are EXTREMELY shy compared to further north where there is less fishing pressure. In Palm cove I would suggest the following:

Daytime high tide: fish the jetty for mackeral. 4-6kg outfit is more than sufficient as most fish are around 4kg school mackeral (doggie mackeral). I don't use wire, just a 30 pound flourocarbon leader as they are shy buggers, you get a few biteoffs and will almost definately be bitten off if you hook a bigger spaniard, but its worth the loss as you will just get so many more hits. Have found high speed metal gets them fired (spanyids, halco twistys etc), but a lot of the time they will just follow and not hit. An unweighted livie is really the go and you will see plenty of locals doing just that at that time of year. If the wind is up and the water is cloudy don't bother as the mackeral won't come in, better just to fish the bottom and put up with the sharks till a salmon comes along, or bounce some plastics around the pylons.

All of those headlands going north of Palm cove are renowned big barra spots, although I rarely fish them myself. Suggest the usual barra lures eg: gold bombers, any killalures, barra classics, mad mullets etc etc. I find a 3 sharp jerk then complete stop retrieve is the go.

You should pick up king salmon on the beach of an evening, also big grunter early morning. Live prawns or yabbies will outfish everything, but they will still go a peeled king prawn or butterflied herring, but sadly so do the sharks. Don't cast out too far. You will also still get runs during the day but not as much. Also use 30 pound leader as salmon are nasty on leaders. For some reason I only have marginal success with plastics on the beach but worth a try I suppose.

Definately hit under the jetty lights at night with plastics, as long as the water is clear there is ALWAYS things busting into bait under the lights. Try 2" gulp shrimp, 3" powerbait minnows, basically any smallish plastic. You may also get smashed jigging 5" jerk shads under the wharf in the shadows.

Cheers,

Tony

[willmcleay]

Thanks mate really appreciate all the advice. I will head in and get a few barra lures before I head up. Not sure what the headland is called but it sticks out a fair way and looks pretty sick! Got stacks of lures for down here but mostly in dark blues and silvers that look like the pillies. Barra off the headlands sounds all time. So keen. Fly in august 18th pm, and there til the 24th arvo. Wedding on the Sunday and hopefully a charter on the Friday. If not I will just flick beaches at first light. Appreciate all the advice mate.

[tiotony]

My pleasure, I'm currently offshore in Bass Strait so got nothing better to do but read and respond to posts on AFO!

I just hope you get onto some fish, I haven't fished Palm Cove much as I have my spots pretty wired closer to town, plus I'm lazy and the 20 minute drive there from home seems all too hard! I think I know the headland you are talking about, with twin island straight out from it. Went for a walk there once years ago and it looked pretty fishy. Don't see why your pillie style lures wouldn't work there and also off the wharf, especially at first light- the beach I fish closer to town always fires at first light.

Bound for Timor on the 8th, and will hopefully make it back home to take you to a really good spot in town which your saltiga will definately get a workout at- refer my 'barra corner' topics I've posted over the last year or so.

[willmcleay]

Brilliant mate all sounds awesome. I'll prob settle with bringing the Saltiga/dogfight setup, 6-8kg/3500 setup and maybe the 4-6. Will prob hire a car so we can drive around and find places to fish. What's the diving like around there off the beach? Considering bringing mask and snorkel up for some freedive stuff chasing crays or something. If it's not worth it, let me know. Can't wait to get up there and flick some lures. Cheers mate

[tiotony]

Would probably be good diving around the headlands and likely some crays, however I don't know how fearless you are when it comes to crocodiles. They have been very active this year, and I have seen a very large saltie off the Palm cove jetty before. there was also an attack a few km north at Ellis beach a few years back.

Getting home on monday so I've got a good excuse to go and do a recon of Palm Cove next week. Will let you know how it goes. Going by previous years, I reckon as long as the weather is calm there should be mackeral about right through August. Out of interest I just googled 'palm cove jetty fishing', and all the info basically boiled down to a)high speed spinning for mackeral and b)unweighted livebaits for mackeral. All this talk of palm cove jetty is getting me excited to go and catch a mackeral myself now!

[willmcleay]

Jeez didn't really consider crocodiles up there hey. If it's a bit hairy I might give it a miss, although there's big pointers down here and we still dive so who knows hey. Crocs would come shallower tho.

Might have to stock up on the big raider metals. Poppers for gt's off the jetty sounds fun as too. Just stocked up for a trip chasing kings monday tues this week, will have to head back in and top up the tackle box!

What is the link to your barra corner thread? I couldn't find it.

Cheers mate!

[tiotony]

Heres a link to my report from the last time I went down there:
/>http://www.australianfishing.com.au/forum/80-north-queensland-reports/336150-evening-sesh-at-barra-corner

Don't worry about going too big on the metals, 40-80 gram would be the go.

Also I haven't used poppers at Palm cove, might go good on the mackeral.

Cheers

Tony