Cape York Headland Barra

[nickstock]

With the nice flat seas that Cape york is experiencing at the moment, I decided that this weekend was a good weekend for chasing shallow water headland fish.

I called my regular fishing buddy, Shane Miller fom Cooktown Barra Charters and left Cooktown at around 7 am.

We were greeted with dead flat seas so we decided to hit an inshore coral / rock bar that holds good fish at this time of year. First cast at a weed covered rock ledge, Shane hooks up and boats a nice little 67cm Barra to start the day. We managed to spook 5 more fish from this ledge during the fight and could clearly see them swimming away in the shallow, gin clear 6 feet deep water.

After playing with a school of just legal Jacks and a heap of Trevally, we decide to move a little deeper and flick a few plastics for Trout. Shane landed 2 nice Trout to 62cms on a 7 inch Pilchard Gulp that we kept for the table and I was smoked by a big Cobia on 15 spin gear. After landing plauges of cod and playing with a school of Queenfish, we decided that we would have enough water to get up onto the shallow flats.

We landed 8 fish over 65cms, with my biggest wild fish for 2010 going 90cms.

A top day in all in dead flat seas with plenty of Barra, Jacks and Trout landed with the usual Trevally, Queenies, Cod and Barracuda making a pest of themselves.

The only negative to the day was the 34 deg day and 100% humidity . On the way home we saw two shit for brains tourists swimming around in the river and when we politely reminded them about the resident 12 foot croc in that area the told us not to stress as they had a knife on them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for reading,

Nick Stock

My best fish for today



Shanes typical Barra's

[cammo79]

isnt it closed season in qld, i thought in closed season it was illegal to activily target barra or is that just for the east coast

[Shane Miller]

hi nick i thought that was cooktown barra and blue water charters

[LostNearBribie]

A top day in all in dead flat seas with plenty of Barra, Jacks and Trout landed with the usual Trevally, Queenies, Cod and Barracuda making a pest of themselves.

Gee, your poor thing. Try stingrays, catfish, grinners and toads for pests mate!
Most people pay to catch "Pests" like that...

[darylive]

isnt it closed season in qld, i thought in closed season it was illegal to activily target barra or is that just for the east coast

No doubt they were tageting Trevally, Queenies, and cod and he has made a fopar in the report.

I expect they were all released

Thanks for the report Nick, looks like an idealic spot.

As for the tourisits with the knife in the croc pond, that's the darwin principal at work. Especially once they have been cautioned by a local.

[cammo79]

thats what i was hoping for, it a bit of a fopar but when the title of the post only contains 1 type of fish, there is no need to post about such things in the current situation rec fishers are in, why tell the whole world you activaly broke the law and be proud of it when greenies frequent this site. more ammo for them to use against us.

other than that well done, glad someone has good weather somewhere in qld

[Dan5]

Good report mate........good to see some Wild saltwater barra being caught,

Dan

[wamjam]

Nice !!! thanks for showing .

Scott

[nickstock]

isnt it closed season in qld, i thought in closed season it was illegal to activily target barra or is that just for the east coast

Cammo79,

I have changed the title to keep the pen pushers and yourself happy. Anyone that thinks that C&R of wild Barra is a valid issue for the greens have no idea about how the real world works out of the busy CBD's and regional centres.

If you want to give ammo to the Green's, your more than welcome to head up to Cape York and photograph all of the illegal netting that takes place here on a daily basis. Perhaps the Greenies would like to put a stop to the hundreds of out of season, over sized and under sized Barra that indigenous Australians are taking every year

Between Shane and I, we probably caught over 300 odd wild Barra this year and have not kept a single one for the table.

All Barra were, and always are, released unharmed after a very quick photo. Do a search for my other threads and you will see how many Nannygai, Trout and Spangled's I release every trip to the reef and give that to the Greenies for notes on a sustainable fishery.


I thought that it would be nice for other keen WILD fish anglers to see some good fish. Everyone that knows me, knows how much I promote and encourage Catch & Release and that I release 99% of the fish that I catch.

[nathank]

nice one mate.... green with envy

[Shane Miller]

nick out of the 300 barra did i catch more then u ?

[nickstock]

nick out of the 300 barra did i catch more then u ?

Hey mate,

I was just talking to Holly and on second thoughts it would probably be well over 300 between us. One session at Starkey at 34 in the morning, another near Starkey at 55 for the first day and two more days of over 25 a day. 80 odd on the last trip to Weipa, plenty of 10 fish sessions in Lakefield and don't even get me started on the trip you did to Weipa WITHOUT me earlier on in the year when you smashed 150 in 2 days.

It sure does suck to live in Cape York hey mate.

[cammo79]

mate i wasnt having a go at you personally, just seen references recently where the media takes quotes from sites like this and uses them as they see fit to suit their agenda, to not target barra in the waterways in closed season you would pretty much have to not fish, i think its great cape york area is doing so well even with the illegal netting that goes on.

like it or not we are in a battle for our right to fish and because of all the greens who live in a city and havent lived in the outdoors will only see what they want to see.

they will have t arrest me before i stop fishing/camping/hunting/4wding

once again congrats on the good fishing

[Pazz01]

Top effort there guys. Some quality barra there nick. Love catching them off the headlands. I reckon its awesome.

Pazz

[DAZMC1]

Top stuff, good looking fish, Iv,e never caught a Barra so I think I should give it a go.