Short Fuse
08-10-2014, 09:59 PM
Hi all.
Have just returned from one of our regular trips to Weipa chasing a few fish. This time, we stayed for 2 weeks and fished for 12 days of that time, mostly in the local creeks, but also down along the coast on a couple of occasions.
The road into Weipa this year was probably at its worst condition of all our trips in since 1998. There were places where the corrugation was so bad, we were down to second gear and crawling along at 10 - 15 km per hour. We did the stretch from the Archer River Crossing through to the Bamaga turnoff (approx 50km) and took 2.5 hours to do it. Despite the condition of the road, people continue to try to drive in at 100kmh and wonder why they smash their gear to pieces. Our attitude is we would rather drive in slowly, and arrive with the gear intact and then go fishing rather than spend the first couple of days in Weipa trying to get broken gear fixed.
To give an idea on the road, we departed Laura at mid day and arrived at the camp ground at Weipa just before mid night. After doing the trip over a dozen times now, we have a fairly good idea on how to set up the boat, motor and trailer to ensure they survive the trip and are useable once we get there. The following photos show the boat ready to do the return trip, so it looks nice and clean at this stage. The boat cover keeps most of the dust out of the boat. A bit does get through, but if easily washed out on the first day at the ramp. We have two heavy duty "straps" that run between the axle and the trailer frame immediately in front of the axle. The straps are a double layer of 5 ton webbing sown together by Ray Wessels and clamped to the axle and frame. Their purpose is to stop the axle from trying to depart the trailer, and wrecking every thing in the event of a broken spring. The motor sits in an A frame that was designed and built for me a number of years ago by Rob Payne. Once the motor leg is secured into the frame, and the frame is bolted onto the rear frame of the trailer, the whole motor is completely wrapped in pallet wrap, and the tilt motors and motor brackets are covered by industrial plastic and the whole lot stuck down by duct tape.
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Short_Fuse1/DSC_2973_zps36f3c16d.jpg (http://s148.photobucket.com/user/Short_Fuse1/media/DSC_2973_zps36f3c16d.jpg.html)
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Short_Fuse1/DSC_2974_zps7f461409.jpg (http://s148.photobucket.com/user/Short_Fuse1/media/DSC_2974_zps7f461409.jpg.html)
With the boat secured to the trailer at the bow, and with the tie down strap, and the A frame holding the motor rigidly, everything moves together, and their is no chance of things getting bashed to pieces. We stop at every stretch of bitumen on the Peninsula Development Road to check the load and ensure that the gear is holding up to the trip. The shots above were taken just before departure to come home, so you dont get to see the end result when it is all covered in red dust.
Rather than go into a blow by blow description on the fishing, I'll let a few photos show our results. We almost exclusively fished soft plastics this year and had a ball fishing with them. Our best days fishing saw 73 fish caught and all but 1 released. We only keep a fish each day when we need one for dinner that night. A reasonable legal barra will feed us for a few days, and we dont bring any fillets home with us. This year the tagged fish seem to be following me around, and I caught this 43cm barra in the Mission River wearing a tag.
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Short_Fuse1/DSC_2676_zps717d64dc.jpg (http://s148.photobucket.com/user/Short_Fuse1/media/DSC_2676_zps717d64dc.jpg.html)
We caught heaps of barra ranging from tiddlers through to over 80cms, but the average fish in the local creeks would range from around 40cms through to the low 60cms size.
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Short_Fuse1/DSC_2739_zpsdf7a6dff.jpg (http://s148.photobucket.com/user/Short_Fuse1/media/DSC_2739_zpsdf7a6dff.jpg.html)
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Short_Fuse1/DSC_2971_zps1b7d704c.jpg (http://s148.photobucket.com/user/Short_Fuse1/media/DSC_2971_zps1b7d704c.jpg.html)
Of course, fishing Weipa in not all about the barra fishing. We caught lots of other species including mangrove jack, fingermark, javelin fish, cod, queenfish and a number of other species.
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Short_Fuse1/DSC_2762_zps99e15f7b.jpg (http://s148.photobucket.com/user/Short_Fuse1/media/DSC_2762_zps99e15f7b.jpg.html)
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Short_Fuse1/DSC_2656_zps339e3d30.jpg (http://s148.photobucket.com/user/Short_Fuse1/media/DSC_2656_zps339e3d30.jpg.html)
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Short_Fuse1/DSC_2710_zps639aa523.jpg (http://s148.photobucket.com/user/Short_Fuse1/media/DSC_2710_zps639aa523.jpg.html)
This queenfish was busting up a pile of bait in one of the creeks one day, and I cast the plastic into the melee and hooked up immediately. Dont think he saw the lure, just bumped into it while madly smashing bait. Gave me heaps in the small creek, and it took a fair bit of fancy boat handling on the electric to keep it out of the snags until I could work it to the boat and into the landing net.
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Short_Fuse1/DSC_2952_zpsbcc807ce.jpg (http://s148.photobucket.com/user/Short_Fuse1/media/DSC_2952_zpsbcc807ce.jpg.html)
Of course, not all the locals we encountered were friendly. Run into this one right up the back of a small creek in the top of the Hey River one day. It was one of the fattest crocs I have seen in the area. We reckon he may have recently ambushed one of the local feral pigs and was kicking back soaking up a bit of sun when we came along. The creek was about a metre deep where he slid into the water, and it gave us a very eerie feeling standing on the casting deck wondering just where it had gotten to after it slid back into the water.
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Short_Fuse1/DSC_2879_zps168d4123.jpg (http://s148.photobucket.com/user/Short_Fuse1/media/DSC_2879_zps168d4123.jpg.html)
As with all good trips the end comes around far to quickly, and we did not look forward to the trip out. A couple of the worst spots had actually had a grader run over them during our stay, and we made it back over the dirt sections of the PBR in just over 10 hours. The trip home to Brisbane took 3 days and I have spent nearly 2 days cleaning the dust off the camping gear, boat and trailer getting it ready to use back down here. Going to take a while to get back to looking forward to throwing a plastic into a creek down here with only a bream or flathead the likely suspects to grab it.
cheers
Jeff
Have just returned from one of our regular trips to Weipa chasing a few fish. This time, we stayed for 2 weeks and fished for 12 days of that time, mostly in the local creeks, but also down along the coast on a couple of occasions.
The road into Weipa this year was probably at its worst condition of all our trips in since 1998. There were places where the corrugation was so bad, we were down to second gear and crawling along at 10 - 15 km per hour. We did the stretch from the Archer River Crossing through to the Bamaga turnoff (approx 50km) and took 2.5 hours to do it. Despite the condition of the road, people continue to try to drive in at 100kmh and wonder why they smash their gear to pieces. Our attitude is we would rather drive in slowly, and arrive with the gear intact and then go fishing rather than spend the first couple of days in Weipa trying to get broken gear fixed.
To give an idea on the road, we departed Laura at mid day and arrived at the camp ground at Weipa just before mid night. After doing the trip over a dozen times now, we have a fairly good idea on how to set up the boat, motor and trailer to ensure they survive the trip and are useable once we get there. The following photos show the boat ready to do the return trip, so it looks nice and clean at this stage. The boat cover keeps most of the dust out of the boat. A bit does get through, but if easily washed out on the first day at the ramp. We have two heavy duty "straps" that run between the axle and the trailer frame immediately in front of the axle. The straps are a double layer of 5 ton webbing sown together by Ray Wessels and clamped to the axle and frame. Their purpose is to stop the axle from trying to depart the trailer, and wrecking every thing in the event of a broken spring. The motor sits in an A frame that was designed and built for me a number of years ago by Rob Payne. Once the motor leg is secured into the frame, and the frame is bolted onto the rear frame of the trailer, the whole motor is completely wrapped in pallet wrap, and the tilt motors and motor brackets are covered by industrial plastic and the whole lot stuck down by duct tape.
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Short_Fuse1/DSC_2973_zps36f3c16d.jpg (http://s148.photobucket.com/user/Short_Fuse1/media/DSC_2973_zps36f3c16d.jpg.html)
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Short_Fuse1/DSC_2974_zps7f461409.jpg (http://s148.photobucket.com/user/Short_Fuse1/media/DSC_2974_zps7f461409.jpg.html)
With the boat secured to the trailer at the bow, and with the tie down strap, and the A frame holding the motor rigidly, everything moves together, and their is no chance of things getting bashed to pieces. We stop at every stretch of bitumen on the Peninsula Development Road to check the load and ensure that the gear is holding up to the trip. The shots above were taken just before departure to come home, so you dont get to see the end result when it is all covered in red dust.
Rather than go into a blow by blow description on the fishing, I'll let a few photos show our results. We almost exclusively fished soft plastics this year and had a ball fishing with them. Our best days fishing saw 73 fish caught and all but 1 released. We only keep a fish each day when we need one for dinner that night. A reasonable legal barra will feed us for a few days, and we dont bring any fillets home with us. This year the tagged fish seem to be following me around, and I caught this 43cm barra in the Mission River wearing a tag.
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Short_Fuse1/DSC_2676_zps717d64dc.jpg (http://s148.photobucket.com/user/Short_Fuse1/media/DSC_2676_zps717d64dc.jpg.html)
We caught heaps of barra ranging from tiddlers through to over 80cms, but the average fish in the local creeks would range from around 40cms through to the low 60cms size.
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Short_Fuse1/DSC_2739_zpsdf7a6dff.jpg (http://s148.photobucket.com/user/Short_Fuse1/media/DSC_2739_zpsdf7a6dff.jpg.html)
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Short_Fuse1/DSC_2971_zps1b7d704c.jpg (http://s148.photobucket.com/user/Short_Fuse1/media/DSC_2971_zps1b7d704c.jpg.html)
Of course, fishing Weipa in not all about the barra fishing. We caught lots of other species including mangrove jack, fingermark, javelin fish, cod, queenfish and a number of other species.
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Short_Fuse1/DSC_2762_zps99e15f7b.jpg (http://s148.photobucket.com/user/Short_Fuse1/media/DSC_2762_zps99e15f7b.jpg.html)
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Short_Fuse1/DSC_2656_zps339e3d30.jpg (http://s148.photobucket.com/user/Short_Fuse1/media/DSC_2656_zps339e3d30.jpg.html)
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Short_Fuse1/DSC_2710_zps639aa523.jpg (http://s148.photobucket.com/user/Short_Fuse1/media/DSC_2710_zps639aa523.jpg.html)
This queenfish was busting up a pile of bait in one of the creeks one day, and I cast the plastic into the melee and hooked up immediately. Dont think he saw the lure, just bumped into it while madly smashing bait. Gave me heaps in the small creek, and it took a fair bit of fancy boat handling on the electric to keep it out of the snags until I could work it to the boat and into the landing net.
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Short_Fuse1/DSC_2952_zpsbcc807ce.jpg (http://s148.photobucket.com/user/Short_Fuse1/media/DSC_2952_zpsbcc807ce.jpg.html)
Of course, not all the locals we encountered were friendly. Run into this one right up the back of a small creek in the top of the Hey River one day. It was one of the fattest crocs I have seen in the area. We reckon he may have recently ambushed one of the local feral pigs and was kicking back soaking up a bit of sun when we came along. The creek was about a metre deep where he slid into the water, and it gave us a very eerie feeling standing on the casting deck wondering just where it had gotten to after it slid back into the water.
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Short_Fuse1/DSC_2879_zps168d4123.jpg (http://s148.photobucket.com/user/Short_Fuse1/media/DSC_2879_zps168d4123.jpg.html)
As with all good trips the end comes around far to quickly, and we did not look forward to the trip out. A couple of the worst spots had actually had a grader run over them during our stay, and we made it back over the dirt sections of the PBR in just over 10 hours. The trip home to Brisbane took 3 days and I have spent nearly 2 days cleaning the dust off the camping gear, boat and trailer getting it ready to use back down here. Going to take a while to get back to looking forward to throwing a plastic into a creek down here with only a bream or flathead the likely suspects to grab it.
cheers
Jeff