Jewhunter Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 G’day all. I returned from my Weipa adventure late last week & what a fantastic trip it was! The crew consisted of myself & mates Mick, Bubba, Swampy, Pete, Benno & his brother Tim. I think what makes a trip like this so enjoyable is the people that you are with & I can tell you that these boys are all top blokes & very good fishos. The company & laughs were first class & everyone chipped in to do their bit. Our mothership was a 12 berth houseboat, the Tillitoo, & behind her were 2 tinnies & a poly all around 4.5mtrs with 50hp 4 stroke yammies on the back. Good solid fishing boats. We boarded the houseboat on Weds the 23rd & were due back on on Tues the 29th. We had a ridiculous amount of fishing gear & beer with us. We were prepared for anything. Everything from saltigas to light spin sticks & the whole range in between. Forward thinking saw the boys bring a handheld gps for all the tenders & some two way radios so we could all stay in touch. Top stuff. As soon as the gear was stowed away Bubba whacked on a gold rattling spot & started casting around the boat as we waited for the induction. It didn’t take long before we heard “Yep!” & he was on. A good fight followed & a very nice golden trevally hit the deck for a few pics before release. What a start! I think the best way to describe our time is to give a day by day account so here goes. TUESDAY; Bubba starts the trip with a nice goldy. We decide to park the houseboat close to a sandspit & the channel lead markers. All three boats head to the lead markers for a bash. I’m with Mick & Swampy. We hit marker 5 first. Swampy fires of a metal only to be bitten off 3 secs after hitting the water. I’ve got a loomis pro blue loaded with 50lb braid & Mick is using similar gear. I cast a big tsunami shad near the pole & whack, I’m on. Mick’s on as well on a 7” jerkshad. Double hookup first cast. This thing is giving me plenty & heads back for the pole so I up the ante & all of a sudden it’s gone. Damn good fish too. I straightened a 70lb egg clip. Micks’ fish takes a dive & rubs him off on some reef. Mmmm. We hit some more markers for some average school & spotted mackerel. The other boats also had stories of big bustoffs & bite offs. Time to regroup. We have a feed & head off again. We fished near the sandspit as there were heaps of birds working & bustups everywhere. I nail my first queenfish & we all get into them. Loads of fun. One of the boats headed into a nearby creek & found a sunken tree loaded with queenies & small gt’s. We are all having ball. I decided to have a dusk fish right near the houseboat along a rocky bank. Mick & Benno jumped on as well. I wanted to practice using the raider rod & curado as it had been a while. Mick & Benno go the plastics while I twitch a gold bomber. Mick scores a beaut diamond trevally & a cod. Benno is giving me instructions on giving the lure more action. I say “like this” he says that’s it & I’m on. My first golden trevally. We all hit the houseboat for a fresh queenie dinner & some beers. There is a lot of stories of lost fish so we set a new game plan. After dinner Bubba decides that he wants’ to play with sharks on the saltiga & t-curve . No probs. I whack on a mackerel head for him & he’s away. We all take turns on the black tip reef sharks. Benno throws out a livie & nails a nice cod. Sea snakes swim around in the light from the houseboat. I hit the sack thinking “how good is this!” WEDNESDAY; One boat stays in close to play with the queenies & mackerel. I’m with Bubba & Benno on the outer markers where Benno got cleaned up big time the evening before. It’s a bit quiet. We nail a few spottie mackerel & head in for a feed. Mick & Swampy come in & Swampy has nailed a 12 kg spaniard on his barra stick & little curado without wire. His squidgy slick rig pins the fish neatly in the side of the jaw. Top effort on that gear . They drop off the fish & go back out again. Mick nails a great 5kg+ golden snapper. After lunch we all head out again. We pull up near Mick on the last marker & he informs us of a huge cod that ate a hooked trev at the boat. We tell him we’ll have a crack & he laughs & wishes us luck. Benno hooks a good fish & gets it half way up when his rod bucks & heads straight down. 80lb braid whistles through the guides & he can’t stop this thing on a big saltiga. When it pops we have to save him from going backwards over the side. Bubba’s next. Same thing. I hookup & crank a mackerel up with the cod hot on it’s tail. This is our first look at him & we were all gobsmacked. Bob the cod was half as long as the boat & fatter than an oil drum. I called it around 200 – 250kgs. I teased him with the fish for a couple of minutes until I thought he’d lost interest. The cheeky bugger was laying up under the boat & when my fish got a bit deep he inhaled it.” Ohhh nooooo” I yelled as he headed home. Zzzzzzzzz pop. Mmmm. No more fishing there today. That thing used 10/0 hooks as toothpicks. One of the boats was on the outer lead marker when a big trawler pulls up besides them & asks if they could drop a crewman back to Weipa as he had broken his arm. Being the top blokes they are they stopped fishing & helped out. The thankyou gift from the trawler was huge bag of banana prawns. There must have been 5-6 kgs of them. Yum. I head out to the markers again with Bubba & Benno but it is quiet. I spend the arvo with the same lads close by & we have a hot queenie session. Benno & I are on constant double hookups while Bubba drives. There are heaps of boats & guides around us using big poppers but we brain them on the metals. Gee they go hard on light gear in 2ft of water. Tim fishes the rocky shore again for a diamond trev & a couple of cod. We spend the evening eating fresh Spaniard, golden snapper & prawns washed down with a few beers. Bubba wants to play with sharks again so they get into them. THURSDAY; The tenders head for a fish at the markers while I stay on the houseboat with Mick & Swampy for the trip north to the Pine river system. Bubba radios in a nice black jew that Bob the cod leaves alone. Both boats get a few mackerel. 3 hrs later we arrive & anchor up. The tenders arrive & Benno gets the crab pots out. I head up the Nomanade river with Mick & Swampy but we are a bit late on the tide go fishless. Bubba headed out front & got cleaned up by big gt’s on poppers. Tim & Pete find a nice snag near the mouth of a creek & get into grunter, trevs & fingermark. I end up fishless for the day. Didn’t the boys give me some curry. Friday; I head up the same river. Same crews on the boats. Swampy nails a queenie off a snag & then Mick gets our 1st barra of the trip. Not big but still a barra. We work hard & Swampy gets a 55cm barra & Mick gets another. We keep working likely looking snags but the fishing is tough. I finally get my first barra. Only 50cm’s but it’s my 1st so I’m stoked. Mick gets another & jumps a couple off. His experience is starting to show. I finally get a decent hit & this thing jumps & zips around everywhere. I land a good threadfin salmon which is kept for dinner. We head back for lunch & a team meeting. I was knackered & stayed on the houseboat while the boys fished. Benno & Mick had a top session on the inshore bommies getting into gt’s, nice queenies & blue salmon. Bubba got some nice long tom. The crab pots are checked but no crabs. We cook up the threadie for dinner & all agree that it was best eating fish of the trip. We make our plans for tomorrow. SATURDAY; Benno & Bubba hit a rock bar for a variety of reefies. Tim & Pete find a creek full of barra that won’t bite but get some nice fingermark & trevs. We head into the Pine river for a look. As we’re heading up the river we spot a big snag that we couldn’t pass up. I twitch the now not so gold bomber in front of the snag & a little barra races out & belts it but misses the hooks. Swampy puts his lure in the zone & right in front of the snag a big barra comes out & grabs his lure. I was standing up front & could see the fish & it was a good one, at least 80cm. It ran straight at the boat & the hooks fell out. We kept going up the Pine for 10kms & then diverted off into a creek. This whole area looks fishy. I drop a mangrove jack & get a queenie. Swampy gets a nice 45cm jack & Mick follows suit with an almost identical fish. While getting it out of the net the fish goes nuts & embeds both trebles into Micks’ hand. We cut the hooks & get them out. He still manages a smile for the camera though. We have to get out to beat the tide. We all agree that we should have spent the previous day up here. It looks awesome. We have a fish out front where the boys found the action the day prior but conditions had changed & it was quiet. Back to the boat for a jacks, grunter & prawns dinner. It was up in these rivers that the gps systems came into there own. There are a lot of massive sandbars & really only one channel to navigate through. There is no way we would have been able to cover the area we did without gps showing us where the channel was. Great thinking by the boys to bring them. SUNDAY; I stay on the boat with Mick & Swampy for the run back. The boys fish in the tenders. We troll up a couple of mackerel while the boys got dusted by some very big fish on the way down. We anchor up & head off in the tenders to hit the markers again. More mackerel & then we play with the queenies on the way back in. I fish the rocky shore in the arvo but only manage more queenies. A bit quiet on the big fish front today. MONDAY; Swampy & I decide to stay close & fish a creek so we wait a bit for the tide. The other boats head some 40kms south to fish bommies. While we wait on the boat there is bait rippling the surface all around us. Queenies & mackerel are getting stuck into them but we are tired of them by now. Stupidly we drive away from the bait & down a barren creek . Pretty quiet apart from Swampy getting bricked by a jack & me pulling a small gt. Bloody hot. We head back to the boat. The other boys had a quiet time down south with a few cod & small coral trout. We hit the markers again after lunch but the wind picks up & it’s very bumpy. Not many fish caught. Back to base & for the first time it looks like we won’t be having fresh fish for dinner. Tim sneaks of by himself to fish the rocky shore. As he heads back in the dark I can see his smile from a mile away. He nailed a nice 76cm barra on a plastic. We were rapted for him. So were out tummies! Barra & beers. TUESDAY; Time to go home. Boohooo. Bubba, Mick & Benno hit the lead markers one last time. Tim & Pete stick near us along the shore. There are boofs & crashes all around us. Swampy gets a small barra & drops a good one. I switch to the 5’ jerkshad & pull the hooks on a good fish. I dropped a couple of more. I’m standing up front & at the end of one my retrieves a fell a small tap. I look into the water & see this bloody huge barra sitting behind the plastic. I let it drop then jerk it & shake it but the fish loses interest & I’m left shaking. That barra was around a metre & very thick across the shoulders. We had another good look at him as he finned on the surface a few metres in front of the boat. Ahh well. It was a frustrating morning. Back to the boat to pack & have a toast to a great trip. We head back to Weipa to drop the boats back. So sadly it had to end. We all had a huge feed at the Oasis resort with plenty of beers as well. It was an awesome trip with some good, thinking fishos. There was no attitude or agro on the boat & everyone shared their tackle if you needed something. We all helped each other out. A big thanks to the boys for inviting me along. The fishing wasn't red hot but it was still good. We worked hard for our fish but what impressed me most was the huge variety of species that were landed. You just never knew what you were going to hook. All fish were caught on hardbody lures & soft plastics, except the sharks of course. How could I forget the sunsets? Every evening was a show in itself. Bloody magnificent. It's a trip I’ll never forget it. Cheers, Grant. Here's the pics; Bubba starts us off My 1st Goldy Mick's Daimond trev Bennos' houseboat cod One of Bubbas' sharks My 1st Queenie Swampys' Spaniard Micks' cracker Golden Snapper Me with another Queenie Bubbas' Black Jew Tim with a couple of Fingermark My 1st Barra & my 1st Threadie Who's got the biggest whiskers? Mick & G.T Benno with a Blue Salmon Bubba with a Long Tom Swampy & a nice Jack Mick & Jack Pete with nice Cod Mick with another Tims' Diamond Trev Tim with the best Barra of the trip Swampy & a last session Barra Tim & a nice Queenie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flightmanager Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 You are a horrible man and we all hate you. Great read and pics Grant , must get up there one of these days !! Ross MUYC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boban Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 Ummmm shouldn't you be digging holes and filling them up with water? Now I will refrain from swearing and say "noice, very noice mate" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mik Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 on both of the above, you are banned from posting anymore reports for 12 months, you've had your fill mate! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve07 Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 What a great trip,a fantastic report & top photo's of some nice fish too. Brings back heaps of memories for me too,been there a couple of times & always produces so many fish,one of the best places in the country ive fished at.You simply must go there at least once. Well done guy's! STEVE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Iceman Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 Great read and nice pics I hate to tell you but thats not a blue salmon bennos holding Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robeebee Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 great report and pics must have been a fantastic trip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve07 Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 Great read and nice pics I hate to tell you but thats not a blue salmon bennos holding That fish in the photo with Benno is a giant herring. A top fighting fish that strips line of reels very quickly. Nice one too!! cheers Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodgey Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 Great yarn, Grant! Brilliant company, terrific weather, a wide variety of fish ... AND ????? Congrats on the trip mate, and some top photos. Betcha still hearing screamin' reels in ya sleep! Hodgey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brendong Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 Got to get there........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jewhunter Posted May 7, 2008 Author Share Posted May 7, 2008 Great read and nice pics I hate to tell you but thats not a blue salmon bennos holding Sorry about that. It was next to this one from Bubba & I mixed them up. Too many photos! Cheers, Grant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Iceman Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 Thats the one A great fighting fish and good to eat as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outdoordan Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 Well done to you and the rest of the boys, Sounds like a bloody top trip, and what a huge variety of fish landed, I reckon you'll be reliving a few of those stories over a for many many years to come. Did you measure your arms before and after, i bet they would have stretched a good inch or two. As if livin in god's country isn't enough, then you gotta rub salt in the wound with that Top report mate, and congratulations. Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Dan Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 Dam thats a lot of fish, well done mate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jewgaffer Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 Great Top End report Grant. There seems to be a fish missing from page nineteen There's some great fighting fish in that lot by the look of it. How long do you reckon before they'll hit the road bridge Cheers jewgaffer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 (edited) Well done Grant and boys, the title sums it all up, ADVENTURE penguin Edited May 8, 2008 by penguin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arpie Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 Fan-BLOODY-tastic Grant!! Am at the library at Byron Bay just now, so will read all the report & replies better next week when I get home!! :) Hope to catch up tomorrow! Cheerio Roberta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 Wow Grant ,that sounds like that sort of trip is right up my alley Awesome fishing and that fingermark is a thumper. Congrats to you and the crew ,looks like you all had a fabulous time. Great report and pics to mate. MUYC Cheers Stewy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softplasticsjunkie Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 great photos mate... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rizzo Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 Well done guys on all your efforts great fish too its been on the back burner too long for and always dream about it what if about Weipa,Seisha and many northern destinations i'd love to fish and explore,i should pull the bull by the horns and make it happen in a couple of years i hope and if i say to much my will kick my butt from here to Beirut and back Cheers Rizzo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tricks Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 geez what do you say too that awesome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glennmreid Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 Great report and pics Grant. Sounds like you had a great time you lucky bugger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazy Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 well done boys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bawley Posted May 10, 2008 Share Posted May 10, 2008 Well done guys on all your efforts great fish too its been on the back burner too long for and always dream about it what if about Weipa,Seisha and many northern destinations i'd love to fish and explore,i should pull the bull by the horns and make it happen in a couple of years i hope and if i say to much my will kick my butt from here to Beirut and back Cheers Rizzo GREAT PICS MATE.. THAT BLACK JEW LOOKS GREAT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FishingBear Posted June 2, 2008 Share Posted June 2, 2008 Awsome Mate Lovely Pics. Now what are you gonna do to top that? Cheers Bear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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