Booked a houseboat for 5 days up at Weipa, Cape York. These boats are generally booked out for months in advance. Luckily Steve had a cancellation so I snapped it up. Going through the usual questions when booking; where you coming from, do you have a license, how many in your crew??
He wasn’t prepared for my answer to the last question. “Just 2, me n the missus; thought we would come up n have a bit of a fish.” Turns out he had never let his boats out to a crew of 2 before. Lots involved in anchoring, mooring, keeping out of shallows and trying to avoid getting eaten by the crocs & sharks. These boats are built to sleep 10.
I think Steve was a bit nervous when we rocked up; a couple of landlubbers getting ready to embark on a self guided fishing tour of one of the most remote river systems in Australia, if not the world.Got all of our provisions / tackle etc on board. Again, Steve looked rather nervous at the amount of booze getting loaded on board. “I thought you said there were only the 2 of you…….” “That’s right Steve, gotta keep the fluids up.”
My missus Sue; her face was a picture when she stepped onto the Tillymay. This is a boat built specifically for fishing in the remote waters around Weipa. It is not a ‘honeymoon cruiser’.
Anyway, Steve gave us the induction, bid us good luck n set us on our way. 1st night we thought we would stay in the Hey River system whilst we got used to the boat. Anchored up that night in 6m water just at the mouth of a fishy looking creek. After chucking a few lures around for a bit, I got impatient & chucked in a big slab of squid. Seconds later, a bite, then nothing. Bitten off (100lb leader) before it even hit the bottom. Rerigged with 1m long wire trace. Chucked in another slab of squid. Again, seconds later, a bite then nothing. Unreal. This fish had snaffled my hook, line, sinker, wire trace and bitten clean through 50lb braid! Question was then, how do we catch a fish when we are being smashed by sharks before bait hits the bottom??? Tried metal slices; jigging them straight up n down. Same result; 3 lost lures in 5 mins……. No problem of me running out of tackle thought. Had a whole suitcase full of lures, line, hooks, reels etc. It got dark then we started getting nervous. Lots of crocs up this way. Lots of noises around the boat. Very intimidating place. If you get into trouble, helps not going to arrive quickly. Once it got dark, the biiiig sharks seemed to disappear, & we started getting into some little schoolies & soapies (small mulloway).
Woke up in the morn to a decent sized croc sunning itself on the bank 100m from the boat.
Lunch sorted, time to give the tinnie a bash & head up some creeks for some barra. Sue wasn’t game for getting into the tinnie. Convinced she would end up eaten by something. Off I went; saw a croc sitting on a sandbar.
Fished from the houseboat for the next 3 days. That night, catfish….. Pull like a train.
Day 3; still in the Hey River. Headed upstream as far as we dared. Don’t want to run a ground where no one could hear us scream….. More of the same, catfish, macks, sharks, soapies, grunter.
Great fun. That night, sick of catching small sharks and thinking about an early night, something took a like to my pilchard bait. 40 mins later, we saw colour in the water. Had no idea what it could be, only that it was substantial. Up it came; 3m long shovelnose shark. I have caught many of these fish around Bowen, but never
even heard of a 3m shovelnose. Awesome.
Well over 100lb. Couldn’t get it onto the boat & couldn’t get a good photo as it was too dark. Call for the knife & cut her off. Swam away strongly.
Day 4; still in the Hey River. Was really too windy to head elsewhere. Tucked ourselves into the mangroves to get out of the prevailing easterlies. 
Sue even had a drive of the boat.
Getting braver…. She caught lunch n dinner of some more fresh macks.
Whilst chilling a bit, I hooked onto something I couldn’t pick. By this point, we were getting pretty good at picking the fish. This one was a little more violent than the macks; just felt different. Took nearly 10 mins to get it aboard. Biggest queenfish I have ever caught.
Talk about chuffed. If we didn’t catch another fish all trip I would have been happy. 90cm long & too
big for me n Sue to eat; back she went.
That’s about it. Did our best to finish off the booze & crashed out for the night. Up early for the trip back to Evans Landing & dry land….. Steve, who owns the boat; happy to see us back safe n sound (and a bit sore in the head).
We will certainly be headed back up that way next year; with a slightly bigger crew…… What a trip…..
Tight lines mateys!
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