Daintree Fishing this NYE

[ryeham]

Hi All

Heading up to the Daintree for the first time this new year. From all reports it seems like the Daintree is a pretty hard fish unfortunately especially for Daintree virgins.

My plan is to try and get out to Cape Kimberly and Snapper Island when the weather is calm.....are these good options?? Easier to fish than the Daintree river itself?? If the weather is crap my plan is to fish the river but mostly around the river mouth itself.

Also, crabbing in the Daintree, is it worth putting the pots in or have the crabs been flogged like everything else??

My question is, am I on the right track?? and can anyone give me any advice on other areas to fish in that area??

Thanks for all your input.
Cheers
Ryan

[Moffy]

Hi Ryan,

Mate the Daintree is like most places - some days its very frustrating and others doing the same things will see you brain them. If you stick with the right tactics you will come up trumps eventually.

Live bait is key. And fish your tide changes. Bottom of the tide (last couple hours of the run out and the first hour in) are my pick of the tides. Usual spots like sand bar drop offs and the snags/holes will produce.

The river also seems to fish better on the bigger tides - haven't had my success myself on the neaps - though others may have.

Down near the mouth is a good option. The mouth of Doyle's creek can really fire at low tide. the sandbar dropoff opposite is a worthwhile stop for grunter (mullet fillet bait rocks) and trevally.

Check out Google earth to map the sandbars and other stuff (there's plenty to run into on a low tide for those that don't know the river - but no rock bars to worry about (in the downstream section i.e below the township)

Whereever you fish - always put a bait out in the middle - you never know what might swim past (have caught decent fingermark out the middle while chasing Jacks in the snags.

Sanpper/Cape Kimberly - worth a look if the weather is right. there's plenty of fringing reef - but mostly only pickers there - there is some reef in the middle of the channel - but it can be hard to find - but woth a look for it (try heading towards cape kimberly beach from the western end of the island....) - the eastern end of the island produces macks as does Cape Kimberly - there's fringing reef off cape kimberly itself as well which can produce well.

Not sure on your boat (assume you're bringing the rig in your avatar - you could probably get to Black Rock and Black Rock wreck with it ok if the weather is good - Black Rock and the wreck is marked on the charts - the wreck is not quite exact.....(on my garmin chart anyhow) - but you'll find it ok within good time doing some gridding (took us 15 mins I think)

Cheers,

Moffy

Moffy.

[ryeham]

Thanks for the post Moffy.

I'll have a look around on the charts that I've got for Black Rock and wreck. Fingers crossed the weather stay fine and we can get out do some serious fishing.

Cheers
Ryan

[deepfried]

I just returned from up there but didnt wet a line. had a good look though around the cape trib and cow bay area. If JPs are on your list i dont think you could miss out in the creeks. They are everywhere, so much so that i dont see the prestige in them in that area at least. In every hole there are stacks of them and they come right up to you. Throw anything in the water and they come up for a look. We also had a treck down to one of the river mouths looking for a crock or two with no luck but it was alive with mullet getting hit everywhere at the top of the tide. I would bet on the culprits being jacks and barra which seemed to be on every snag. I didnt check out how to get a boat into these areas but there has to be a way. That spot was masons creek i think ??. I was visiting a friend that is a local so got shown some good spots. Just a thought though if the upper creeks interest you is to ask some of the locals for help. I dont think it would be a good idea to just treck up a creek as some land owners there have some damn savage dogs protecting there horticultural interests . I was also told that there are good golden trevs off some of the beach reefs using metals and poppers.
A good place to meet the locals would be for a bbq dinner of coral trout at the cow bay pub on a friday. If you ask around some one should help. The locals are an interesting bunch to say the least but very nice people.

[Daintreeboy]

Mate I'll be up there from Boxing day to New years wetting a line. If the weather is good definitely head out to Snapper and maybe even beyond. Tongue Reef is pretty close and always good for a shot at a Mack on the western tip when the current is going past it. Same again for Pratt Rock further north. The Leapord Coral trout will be quiet though so don't expect much bottom bouncing. I'll be doing some different things like tossing poppers for GT's
Everything Moffy said is pretty much on the money.
My brother went out from there last weekend and this is a pic of the type of fish they were getting...p*ssed me off actually...

[ronnien]

hi bunny,
mate i thought you got that demon! it is a nice fish... going by that you should crack that 10kg very soon.

ron.

[ryeham]

Daintreeboy - thanks for your post.

I'm still wondering about muddies?? Are there any around or am I going to fighting the crocs off for some??

Also does anyone have a chartlet or mud map for navigating the river or is Google maps the best option?? I have a GPS fitted to my fishfinder however it doesn't take any charts (just a simple Humminbird monochrome)

Cheers
Ryan

[Moffy]

Hi Ryan,

Crabs are much the same as most places - they can be there in good numbers at times - but a lot of the time you pretty much come up with nothing but undersize.....

Crocs will have some fun with your pots. Having said that a lot of the time they leave them alone (its really down to luck of the draw there).

Keep in mind there'll likely be a lot of people on the water up there over christmas - like anywhere some of them will be pot thieving mong3ls.....

similar to the fishing big tides are the best for crabs.

If you want an aerial photo or similar mud map you can take in your boat - the fish finder magazine has a good aerial map which shows the sand bars etc. (will also point out some good spots to start fishing as well (its in most newsagents)

Moffy

[ryeham]

Yeah I thought it might be that way but figured I'd ask anyway.

Thanks for your help.
Cheers
Ryan