Another Wazza

Returned this week from a camping fishing trip to Cape York. I have done a few of these trips with the same guys so I knew we would have a good time, with lots of laughs, too many beers and a lot of hard yakka for us old fellas. 
None of my camping buddies are social media fans and we have a pact that we won’t post pictures that would identify each other or the locations we fished. None of these spots are secrets but the fear is that the more online exposure they get, the more people will come and take away some of the remote feel. It wouldn’t be a problem anyway since zero coverage meant the phones were usually left at the camp uncharged. 
The original plan was to head north in the boats from Mapoon on the western Cape to camp at one of the rivers between Cullen Point and Seisha. The fishing there is insane. Unfortunately the road was still closed at Archer River, and since we were towing a couple of tonnes of boat and gear we decided that it would be a tough trip before the first grade of the dry season. So the decision was made to head to a location near Princess Charlotte Bay which we knew would be accessible and where we had caught barra and jacks previously. 
It was a long camp (16 nights) but we were well set up with plenty of solar, a 200 litre water bladder that we could refill from a freshwater dam not too far from camp, lots of food, 16 cartons of beer, a couple of cartons of wine and several bottles of spirits. 
Last time I went there it was virtually empty. This time there was a surprising number of camps. The May long weekend and the road closure may have contributed. People came and went over the period of our stay. The place is extremely croccie so I was pleased we camped well back from the water. This big fella was floating around in front of the camp, up and down with the tide for most of the time we were there. We called him Mr Stinky and estimated he was at least 4.5 metres 

Not sure if he was shot by someone or died of natural causes  
The first 2 days was the run up to the new moon and Barra were boofing everywhere. Others were using livies and it took us most of  the first day to find them. We tried trolling but only managed blue salmon which were good size but not what we came for so they were used as strip bait and crab bait. That worked a treat and we started getting big threadies (or kingies as they call them up north).  I don’t know how many we caught but several each and none were under the magic metre mark.

The Barra were getting harder to find as tides started to get smaller, as were the livies. We switched back to lures and got a few. They were all 70cm+ so the quality was there even if the numbers were down  I got my PB of 85cm (previously 82cm) but am yet to crack the metre.

The last few days the barra and threadies slowed right down and we were catching more sharks and catfish. Blue salmon kept biting but we didn’t get a single jack, which is unusual there.  Mud crabs were pretty reliable and we only lost 2 pots to crocs or sharks. 
By the end of the camp we were all pretty tired and over the mosquitoes and snakes, so ready for the big pack up and 2 day trip back to Cairns. We had a few mechanical failures as is usual on those sorts of trips (2 blown trailer tyres, 1 blown tyre on the tow vehicle, trailer hydraulic brakes taken out by a flapping blown tyre, and one of the batteries for the Minn Kota stopped charging on the last day) so overall not a bad result. We are planning to make this an annual trip now that most of us are retired. Fish while you can! Sorry there are not more photos but you can get the idea. Tight lines everyone  
 
 

Following on from Max's landbased Spaniard last month, the kids had another crack at landbased pelagics at Amity Point and they were not disappointed. The highlight was a metre plus longtail tuna that Max caught on live bait. He lost a much bigger one. Max and Eva also got a few mac tuna on various chrome slugs and plenty of Watson's leaping bonito. 
 
 
 

Headed out with Jason for a quick fish this morning, heaps of bait still around in southern bay. We kept 3 squire at around 45cm for lunch and released a 70cm which always gives me a warmnfuzzy to watch swim back down.
By catch was an ugly old stone fish 🤮

Just finished this spin rod for a mate. 7’5 graphite blank built for a 5k Stradic loaded with 30lb braid. All Fuji components. Loving how it turned out!
This will be used to chase snapper and trout on plastics up to 1oz, as well as tuna and mackerel on slugs up to 40g. Could even cast small stickbaits at reef edges too - proper Swiss Army knife!

This came up on my phone and thought I would share 
https://youtube.com/shorts/U6iAV2HJiTg?feature=shared

Hi all, 
I've been out for two sessions at my local park recently. One was a couple of weeks ago and very unsuccessful, as the only thing I caught in the net was a catfish and there were many logs drifting by making fishing difficult. The second was on low tide one Friday arvo where I got enough prawns to have a cast and a couple of small catfish. Both were pretty disappointing sessions, but it was better than not going fishing. 
Quick Stats:
Tide: Varied, low and rising. 
Fish Caught: Nothing good
Bait Used: Prawns
The next session was last night/this morning with Thorbjorn on his tinny. We launched at POB boat ramp with a rather calm river awaiting us. After going through Boat Passage, it wasn't long before we managed to get a good amount of herring and mullet at Luggage Point. Following that, we went to the first fishing spot of the night, where Thorbjorn had some good success on snapper the night before, and dropped our lines down. 
The bites were a bit quiet at first, but just as I was about to cook my dinner my rod had a few taps. Sure enough I was on, and pulled in a small but legal snapper that was kept for dinner.

Snap
The bites stayed quiet here though, so we moved spots after an hour or so more of fishing and sporadic rain. 
It wasn't long before Thorbjorn had a good run at the next spot, but unluckily it didn't hook up. We sent baits back down, and after a decently long wait Thorbs was on again. This time the fish was hooked, and after a few nice runs and big headshakes we had a solid jewie on the boat (about 85cm I think). After a quick pic we vented and released the jewie, which eventually kicked off strongly. 

Jewfish
After this, we were hopeful of some more action and the fishing didn't disappoint, with Thorbs pulling in a nice 45cm or so snap on a livie that was also kept.

Snap
A catty later Thorbjorn had some jewie looking nibbles on his rod before hooking up to a very good fish. It was taking some pretty fast runs and plenty of headshakes, but before we could see it, the hook came out. We were both pretty disappointed about this but sent some baits down and continued fishing until after midnight. We finished up when we ran out of livies and because I sadly have a couple exams I needed to study for today that are in coming weeks. Thanks again for taking me out @Thorbjorn Hale it was a fun night, here are the stats of the trip for anyone interested:
Stats of Trip:
Tide: 6:50PM, 2.1M, High, 1:00AM, .6M, Low.
Moon Phase: 23%
Air Pressure: 1013
Humidity: 88%
Bait Used: Live herring and mullet
Fish Caught: Jewie x 1, snapper x 2, catfish x 1
Overall Success Rate: 100%, some nice fish landed. 
Thanks for reading the report,
Cheers Hamish. 

Still a good effort @Andrew_P considering the conditions, and yes, it seems whoever did the bay forecast was smoking that exact same weed, it was pretty average out there early until around 8am, then it came good.

Still a good effort @Andrew_P considering the conditions, and yes, it seems whoever did the bay forecast was smoking that exact same weed, it was pretty average out there early until around 8am, then it came good.

Still a good effort @Andrew_P considering the conditions, and yes, it seems whoever did the bay forecast was smoking that exact same weed, it was pretty average out there early until around 8am, then it came good.

Still a good effort @Andrew_P considering the conditions, and yes, it seems whoever did the bay forecast was smoking that exact same weed, it was pretty average out there early until around 8am, then it came good.

Still a good effort @Andrew_P considering the conditions, and yes, it seems whoever did the bay forecast was smoking that exact same weed, it was pretty average out there early until around 8am, then it came good.

A fall from grace indeed, Jew wrangler one day, grinner whisperer the next, I'm glad you left the sea toad out of it to Brian, hahaha

Quality land based Mackerel!, nicely done

A fall from grace indeed, Jew wrangler one day, grinner whisperer the next, I'm glad you left the sea toad out of it to Brian, hahaha

A fall from grace indeed, Jew wrangler one day, grinner whisperer the next, I'm glad you left the sea toad out of it to Brian, hahaha

A fall from grace indeed, Jew wrangler one day, grinner whisperer the next, I'm glad you left the sea toad out of it to Brian, hahaha

A fall from grace indeed, Jew wrangler one day, grinner whisperer the next, I'm glad you left the sea toad out of it to Brian, hahaha

A fall from grace indeed, Jew wrangler one day, grinner whisperer the next, I'm glad you left the sea toad out of it to Brian, hahaha

Quality land based Mackerel!, nicely done

Quality land based Mackerel!, nicely done

Extra points if he was spinning with his alvey!

My son spent some time fishing over at Amity Point without me. 
He wanted to target pelagics landbased and he certainly produced the goods. He was targeting bonito on small metals next to the boat ramp. He was  doing okay when a ripper of a Spanish mackerel grabbed the small lure. He wasn't fishing with wire and managed to hook it squarely in the mouth. He also didn't have a gaff. There was a big crowd of onlookers watching him land the fish and several boats returning back to the ramp with donuts. It could be a long time before he gets a bigger one landbased. 
 
 

Great work @Another Wazza. Lots of good fish there.

Thanks Ted, the funny thing about that is I actually haven't caught an undersized one yet, the smallest to date was 77cm caught with Brian. They are a great fish that tick all the boxes.

Can you believe it, the weather is mint offshore, it is the weekend, the almanac is good, and I have decided to give it a miss?  I could not justify going out and catching more fish when I already have a full freezer.  I must be sick or something.