More fun & games from down-under.

Good buddy Omar just sent me the below. There are a couple of previous posts on the blog from down that way so here you go.................

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. 1^st 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.   

Time to weigh anchor and get on the move. ‘Navigated’ around for a few hours before settling on a bit of a lump on the sounder. Anchored up & set to work catching lunch. Dropped a lure over and straightaway got smashed by spotted mackerel. These weren’t massive fish but gave the light spin gear a good work out.

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.

I’m in a boat, she’ll be right mate…… Chucked out the sand anchor in 1.5m of water, intent on bashing the snags with some lures. Looked back at the croc. GONE……. Could I relax?? No. After 2 casts, scuttled back to Tillymay.

Fished from the houseboat for the next 3 days. That night, catfish….. Pull like a train.

50lb braid on a 15kg spin stick. Excellent fun. More macks for tea. That night, Sue was intent on catching some of the squid that were hanging around the back of the boat. Pesky squid were smarter than us. Sea snakes everywhere under the light at back of boat. Every so often, biiiig splashes nearby reminded us to go easy on the grog….
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.

Guts n all hanging out. Screaming for Sue to pass me the gimble belt….

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…..

Sounds like Sue & Omar had a great time (well done guys) - love the houseboat!! (the boat people can be found here: http://www.weipahouseboats.com/ )

Tight lines mateys!

Off again in a week.......but where to go?

I will be off to the UK again in a week or so, but with it looking like the wind & swell will be up I still need to decide where to head for a couple of days fishing,
The Monday & Tuesday I was thinking of fishing show swells of 10+ feet over in Pembrokeshire (far from ideal with the wind shifting to possibly colour up the sheltered marks.........grumble)
It doesn't look much better in Dorset (again the in your face west winds) but with less swell predicted (6 foot swell is as bad as it should hopefully get),but conditions like this can be dangerous & very hard to fish.

Anyway I will be keeping an eye on the forecast & hopefully things will change for the better (the following week I should get a session or two in as well so all is not lost).

Thanks for reading!

Hard Work...........

Anticipation was high for this trip, as the fishing had been excellent before I arrived (Mark had taken almost 100 fish in 3 days to over 7lb!) - what could go wrong?

Schoolies love a Zonk.

Well the weather calmed down the day I arrived, and the sprat schools seemed to dissapear overnight so the fishing was far tougher than expected.
We found ourselves having to cover alot of ground to find a few fish - hard work indeed.

One off the top.

To cut a long story short we managed to catch fish on each session (mainly schoolies), but had to work hard for them (low light early  did produce a couple of better fish for Joe & Richard).

Joe took this beaut in the dark.

6+lb of Dorset Silver!

All in all we had alot of fun (as usual).....................................

Richrad with a 6.5lb-er

Mark says love your fish!

He loves his favorite lures too!

One rucksack per car! We had an interesting choice of transport.

Great for drying out the gear though!

A big thanks to Mark, Joe, Steve, Richard, Elliot & Carl for the fun!

See you guys soon!

Gone Fishing!

Gone Fishing.

Back soon.

Next Trips............

Ive just booked a couple of trips in the hope of a fat autumn fish (way things have gone for me this year it’s a long shot, but you’ve got to be in it to win it & all that).
Last weekend of September I will be heading to Dorset, followed by a few days (possibly in Wales or Dorset) in early October. There's been talk about a late November trip to Ireland (planning would be at short notice on that one as the weather and fishing could go either way at that time of year).

I seriously cant wait to get out fishing again (its such a drag living so far from the sea sometimes but hey - that’s life!).

Hope you are all catching (but leave one for me!)

Some nice bass fluff.

I have just received these beautiful bass flies from good mate & fishing buddy Alex  Jordan, they really are pretty things (almost a crime to fish these behind a Sbirolino!).

Alex & schoolie.

Who knows - might take these along on ,my next trip & actually catch something for a change! (just thought I would share as they really are nice on the eyes).

Thanks Alex!

Happy Fishing!

The Holland blank report.

We knew the fishing was poor in Holland at the moment, but were hopeful of at least a fish or two - we were to be dissapointed.........

On arrival we checked in at our somewhat eccentric hotel and headed straight out with high hopes.

After a couple of hours we decided to head off for "breakfast" and had some great bacon and mushroom pancakes in a windmill (as one does in Holland)

Back on the water we fished a spot with a very strong current and chatted to another fisherman who confirmed that the fishing was awaful at the moment (the previous week had been fantastic and he had taken fish to 72cm!). The water did look good so we put some effort in, but nothing showed).

Next day we decided to meet with Rob Staigis who was running a bass workshop for a couple of clients while we were there (Rob had already been out on a boat - they struggled for a couple of very small schoolies).

We met up at Bass Hengelsport - a really cool shop dedicated to lure fishing for bass (they have a massive selection of softs - every colour and type you can imagine). The owner (aptly names Bas), really knows his local stuff & showed us some underwater video of large numbers of bass holding on local structure which was interesting). Bass Hengelsport is well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Off we went again - cast after cast produced nothing (we fished well on into the evening)

That evening we decided that we would leave early the next day and cut the trip short (sometimes you just know when you have been beaten).
We did have alot of fun (as soon as the boys got back to the UK they went straight out and Mark managed a couple of fish - typical!)...........

Stop Press......
Just received a message from Mark - hes out this morning.......10 fish to 76cm! (what a difference a day & 400 miles can make lol). Not jealous at all (cough cough).

Gone Fishing.

Gone Fishing!

Back Soon.

Sad Picture....

Thought I would just post this picture of a large dead bass we found earlier this year as it is quite unusual to find dead bass (I put the rod there for comparison - easy to tell this was a large old girl).

Im glad to say the above is not see something you often see............it is actually the first large bass I've found dead (hopefully the last too).
Who knows what this fish may have died of (unless it was an extremely large male, I assume it was a female which can grow much larger so perhaps disease or an encounter with a gill net or even hook damage or similar could have been the cause).

Sad demise of a beautiful predator............