Prawns In FNQ

[Dyl]

Hi guys,

Well i know its back to summer and with all this rain we have had (still more to come i belive) where are the places to go and get the prawns from with a castnet!

Cheers Dyl

[Synful]

Hi guys,

Well i know its back to summer and with all this rain we have had (still more to come i belive) where are the places to go and get the prawns from with a castnet!

Cheers Dyl

Dyl, where are you located?

[Dyl]

Im in Cairns (topic called Prawns in FNQ)

I Hope you can help!

[Synful]

Ok,

I was thinking about giving Barron river a crack at some stage this week early morning (4:30am onwards) before work; interested in a trip?

If so send me a PM and we'll arrange something once the tides etc. have all been sorted. Hopefully the fresh is starting to drain out of the Barron, it used to be a good reliable spot prior to the rain hitting a few weeks ago.

With a bit of luck we'll get something; really getting sick of buying bait lately :)

[Dyl]

Nah busy mate thanks for offer though!!

Yah will have to check out barron River
U know any land based places?? (for the prawns)

[Dyl]

Hey i also noticed (visted ur website) that u fish in kewarra beach dead mans creek wats that like any good what u catch there???

Aswell tell me how u go in the barron!!

[Synful]

Nah busy mate thanks for offer though!!

Yah will have to check out barron River
U know any land based places?? (for the prawns)


Evening Dyl,

OK, there's only two main ones that i know of and one possible one, I'm sure that there are more but not that I have found yet.
The old Barron River bridge; as you walk out on the walkway / bridge, have a cast on the left and right hand side near the banks. Be careful on the right hand side as there are some nasty snags, but this does yield some nice catches of bananna prawns on both sides. Just out past the first pylon, try both sides beside the pylons; again being careful not to get the pylon or you will have a ripped net.
Machans Beach; especially after a fair bit of rain I've heard of them getting up to 1kg of bananna prawns with each cast at the mouth. You will need to wade out up to your waist from what I am told - be careful if you do, there are crocs in there. That's one reason that I haven't tried it; I've only seen one croc in the Barron just under a metre but even at that size it's enough to take a decent chunk out of you. Personally I find that it's cheaper to buy your prawns than it is to get microsurgery performed on tendons; I can confirm that the signs aren't there for decoration.
Kewarra Beach; as you walk out onto the beach there's two creeks. Turn right and walk up to the end until you reach it. I have no idea of the success rate here as I've never tried it but have seen people cast netting there before. Again, be careful there is a croc known to be in this creek around 2m in size from what I understand. I've tried the creek on the left hand side of the beach but haven't got anything there in terms of prawns or bait; another good reason to fish from this one is there is a cut out escape route to the beach behind if a croc does come down the creek so you can't get trapped ;); if you go to the left hand side you'll see what I mean.Hope that helps; don't know where you're from originally but can't stress enough the danger of crocs in FNQ.

If you want an eye opener, take the family up to Hartley's crocodile farm to get an understanding of what these beasts are capable of doing and how quiet and near invisible they are until it's too late. These things aren't the last surviving dinosaur because they are stupid; if you see or think you've seen one, you leave keeping an eye out for a second one possibly sneaking up behind you. No fish, prawns or crab is worth risking your life over.

I don't mean to sound like i'm paranoid but I don't want to hear of anyone going into a creek and coming off second best, I'd rather give you too much info than too little.

That being said, good luck and let me know how you go. :)

[Synful]

Hey i also noticed (visted ur website) that u fish in kewarra beach dead mans creek wats that like any good what u catch there???

Aswell tell me how u go in the barron!!

Dead mans creek has loads of little jacks in it around the 7cm mark, but I can tell you there are some large fish in there too worth chasing; make sure that you heed my warnings about the crocs there though.

The Barron River, well I'm still trying to get my bearing in this one - it's definitely somewhere that you acquire a knowledge of over time.

I've caught salmon, barra , catfish, grunter, moonfish and rays in there; have a go at Yorky's Knob too particularly early in the morning just on sun up on the ocean side. Yorky's tends to drop off though by about 10:00am at the latest.

[Dyl]

Cool might have to check out the good old deadmans creek! what bait u use in there might give lures a crack what u think!!

I know all about the crocs have lived in the tropics for 10 years and have loved it!!;D Also there is 1 spot i can tell you to visit in the barron iff u like your whiting bream etc you go down river to the right past airport lights bridge when you see redan creek open up to right there is a awsum hole right at the mouth there always worth a crack caught 30+ even a 35 cm Bream in there!!! A few good crabbing spots in the barron aswell!

Well keep in touch mate cheers Dyl

[Synful]

Cool might have to check out the good old deadmans creek! what bait u use in there might give lures a crack what u think!!

I know all about the crocs have lived in the tropics for 10 years and have loved it!!;D Also there is 1 spot i can tell you to visit in the barron iff u like your whiting bream etc you go down river to the right past airport lights bridge when you see redan creek open up to right there is a awsum hole right at the mouth there always worth a crack caught 30+ even a 35 cm Bream in there!!! A few good crabbing spots in the barron aswell!

Well keep in touch mate cheers Dyl


Lures can't hurt in dead mans creek; I used mud herring last time and got about three quality bites and let's face it with all those juvenile Jacks in there, there has to be some larger ones amongst them.... ::)

Thanks for the tip about Reddan creek, tried that hole but not had any luck there for some reason. :-[

Another spot as you head out to the mouth on the right hand side near the Machans Beach caravan park on the left is an old trawler in the mangroves which has produced some nice grunter before on the high tide; I reckon there would be a Jack and Barra or two in there as well. best of all I have not seen too many people fishing it the odd times I've been in a boat.

Just opposite the old Barron River Bridge there must be some good crab holes there; more than once I've seen crabs be pulled in people on the bridge close to the size of a dinner plate only for them to let go 30 seconds after broaching the surface. ;D

Let me know if you want to go for a fish sometime - always keen to wet a line 8-) 8-) 8-)

[Dyl]

Ok mate tell me how you go in the barron! i will be intrested after all this rain how things are!

Another place for free bait is pumping yabbies out the mouth of barron river there is the end of machans to the right (You can get here by car) then you go left and there is big sand/mud flats There a thousands of yabbies there have got a few there my self might be worth a crack iff u like your live bait:D

I have caught a bucketfull of prawns off the Jetty down at stratford around last year sometime there were going crazy!!!! Havent seen many cauhgt since though??

Might have to give the castnet a crack though!

Cheers Dyl!

[Synful]

Will do.

Might not get there before the weekend though, had some sh1+ hit the fan @ work today so I have to get in reasonably early to clean it up; also have to check the tides as well to see if it's worth going.

Tks for the tip off for the yabbies, hadn't though about that one before but makes sense when you think about it !

[devocean]

Bit of advice I picked up of an old bloke the other day. Afer a decent downpoor wait a couple of days and cast the beaches near the river mouth. During a dry spell go back up the creek and look for small gutters. Also watch out for crocs