Weipa Fishing Report
September 2006.
I was dumbfounded to hear the tragic news of Steve Irwin been killed by a Stingray. I admired Steve & what he was doing for not only Australian animals & reptiles but for creatures all over the world. It was a shame to see his life end so early. Although I never got to meet Steve he was regular visitor to Weipa and was here only a few days before his tragic accident. He would drop-in to the Weipa school talk to the children on his visits to town, my kids would come home after one Steve’s talks and be so excited to retell me his hole conversations what would seen to me almost word for word. Talking to the local kids would not gain him more publicity, just simply sharing his passion something he done so well. I always thought I would get to meet Steve, in hindsight I wish I would of went out of my way to track him down & shake his hand. “Croc’s Rule”
Weather:
Southeasterly winds were 15 to 25 knots for most of the month, with a temperature of 18 to 34c.
Fishing:
Rivers; September river fishing was still a little quiet because of the cooler water temperature. Again we found best Barramundi fishing on the bottom of the run-out tides and yes, fish where found on the shallow flats and gutter mouths in the warmer water.
Because of the quiet river fishing around town I arranged a few trips up to the Wenlock River about an hour drive on a dirt road north of Weipa. We traveled upstream to fish in the freshwater and out to the saltwater mouth only to find the fishing slightly better then the local creeks.
On a day-off I managed to get away with a friend for a play day. Now for someone that spends most days watching his clients catching fish what could be better then putting my own teachings to the test. We decided to fish the upper reaches of the Pine River. The Pine River is about 16 km northwest of Weipa in the north end of Albatross bay, a catch & released only river system so fish can be pretty good from time to time. To minimize noise switched off the outboard and rowed the boat in the tiny creeks, this paid off as we enjoyed sight casting small flies & unweighted plastics to hungry Barramundi that we spotted hiding in the mangrove snags. We caught 34 barramundi for the day, most where 50 to 60 cm in length, dropping one fish well over a metre.
Blue water; Tuna numbers started to drop-off during September, most schools where found far south in the Thud Point area. The good news was that more & more Trevally where showing up on the bait balls.
A few big Queenfish where turning up along the rock walls of Pera Heads, Thud Point & Boyd Bay. These 80 cm to a metre long Queenfish where eager to eat both flies & lures. However my favorite way of catching them has got to be spinning with poppers.
Out on the pylons Brassy Trevally numbers increased fish to 8kg pulled hard and anglers had to work overtime keeping them out of the pylons.
A Croc that grabbed a lure, we decided to bring it aboard for a few quick photos.
Put the boat in at Glough’s Landing on the Wenlock River.
We managed to catch a few muddies in the Wenlock.
XOS Gold Spot.
Walter caught this highflying Queenfish in Boyd’s Bay.
Good friend Glen with a Catfish he was trying to let go before I got the camera out, “Got Ya”
"Good Fishing"
Craig Jenkins,
Strikezone Fly & Sportsfishing
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