Daintree River mouth

[Richard]

Gday everyone,

Been in Cairns almost two years now and been saying that I'm going to go up and fish the mouth of the Daintree sometime.

Well, with the windy weather knocking out a reef trip, I'm going to do it this weekend (Sun/Mon).

Anyone got any tips for fishing the area down from the ferry boatramp ?


cheers

Richard

[smclaren]

Anyone got any tips for fishing the area down from the ferry boatramp ?

Yep ... stay away from the waters edge ! You know what I mean .... :o

Nice part of the world, the Daintree !

[Moffy]

Sorry Richard - Didn't see this till now - could have given you a few pointers - how'd you go?

Moffy

[FNQCairns]

Sorry Richard - Didn't see this till now - could have given you a few pointers - how'd you go?

Moffy

Bet he hit a sand/mud bank or two, i do up there, that's a hard area to fish the few times I have tried.

I remember you blokes from a few years ago used to land some nice fish on overnighters in the creek.

[Richard]

Thanks Moffy,

Only hit one sand bank but i knew it was there and was testing my luck by keeping on the plane :) had the advantage of getting a really low tide early on in hte trip so all the sand banks were out. Then it was just a matter of following GPS tracks to avoid them..

It was a bit quiet actually. the wind was right up so anywhere near the mouth was choppy, especially with the outgoing tide working against the wind.

Didn't manage to get any fingermark which is what we were after but did manage about 6 other species. Nicest fish was a good size jack. No barra at all though.

Found plenty of nice structure that i think will go off in the warmer months, both bottom structure (right in the middle of nowhere in the channels) and fallen timber. Flicked lures at it for ages wondering why there were no fish there but with a water temp of about 23 degrees, that probablyh shut a lot of the fish down. Can't wait for it to warm up a bit and hit this structure again.

So despite the lack of good fish, I'm still keen to get back up there so any pointers would still be appreciated.

cheers

Richard

[Richard]

and suprisingly, didn't see a single croc.. even on low tide with the sun out.

[Moffy]

Yeah the sandbars are a trap - one of favourite passtimes when sitting up the river - watching boats hit sandbars at speed......- as good as watching weekend warriors at the ramp - plenty of visitors come unstuck - also get asked which way back to the ramp a lot too.....

Barra can be a hard ask in the Daintree when its colder - having said that we did catch one (legal!!) on a lure in the middle of July one time - rareity though (for me anyhow - am sure some track them down).

This time of year is generally better for grunter and decent golden trevally (3kg+) and queenies and GTs - live baits adjacent to the flats are the go (and fresh mullet fillet for the grunter). Try downstream end of the "shortcut" - last creek running into main river at the mouth) - you'll see a big sandbar there - anywhere along it works as well.

Rivermouth can be very bumpy wind against tide (south arm as well).

6 species - keeper size? - sounds like you did alright.

Cheers,

Moffy

[Daintreeboy]

Don't forget to try spot x too, we always do alright there!!

Seriously though the Daintree can shut down fully at times and that weekend it did indeed. Did you see a little orange tinny around the mouth?

[Richard]

Yeah did see that little orange tinny.. thought it was a poly one at first :) saw it over near where the campers go at the mouth there i think.. ?

The species we caught were pikey bream, barracuda (-1 point), queenie (little rat), trevally (up to 60cm or so), black spot estuary cod and a jack. Best fish was the jack which went about 42cm. Apart from the cod and jack which took live baits, the others were caught on lures, mixture of HB and plastics..

[Pridey]

Nice work mate.

Im heading up that way in about a months time. Not taking the boat though.
Is it worthwile doing anything bankside ?

[Daintreeboy]

Yeah that's where they were. My boat but I wasn't there. My brother was up there in a 6 metre polycraft centre console with full canopy (pressure point).

The boys cleaned up on crabs but the fishing was slow. You did alright by the sounds of it, do the same again when the time is right and the fish will come.

[Daintreeboy]

By the way pridey if you are not taking bait bankside fishing could turn out very ordinary for you, plus it's dangerous.

[Pridey]

So It is possible to get some livies etc and as long as Im carefull there are some spots to fish from ? I get the croc situation, deal with it most weekends in my local rivers.

[Daintreeboy]

You may be able to get some from the boat ramp just upstream from the ferry. You could even toss a livie out there as well or from the public pontoon just up from it. Outside the mouth on the sandbars have mullet in the shallows and the last bit of sand on the south side has bait and is not a bad spot to fish off either.

I guess another big issue land based wise is access. Apart from the boat ramp area there are not really any other places that you can drive too. Taking a 4 wheeler or walking to the mouth from Wonga or Pinnacle village opens up your options with the inner channel etc but car wise you are very limited.

There are spots way upstream in the fresh as the road joins the river but for salt it is limited.

[Richard]

yeah Pridey, we got plenty of herring around the boat ramp which is near the ferry. They have a pontoon there now so it gives them something to congregate around..

good spot to collect bait.. and probably drop one in on a hook as daintree boy suggested..

[Pridey]

Cheers lads.

Im just getting a collection of land based spots as I travel north in the 4by.

Wish I could take the boat, but unfortunatley i cant on this one.

Thanks again.