Mapoon

[Daintreeboy]

After an early start from Wonga Beach we were held up a bit trying to catch the owner of the Lakeland servo's new dog for him followed by the mother of all blowouts near laura. After a lunch stop at Musgrave we still made Weipa campground before sunset leaving us a short stint to Mapoon and Cullen point the next day.
The little orange tinnie was in the water before 10.30 and a quick beach troll netted a goldspot cod within 100 metres. Two nice Golden Trevally followed within another couple of hundred metres before things died off for a bit. After a nice Island Trout was pulled up trolling over some shallow reef I chucked a soft plastic on to see what all the fuss was about. Within a couple of casts a nice trout smashed the lure only to fall off. Being nice and rubbery he came back and belted the lure boatside giving me enough leeway to keep him out of the reef and onto the dinner plate, great fun.
A quick baitfish of these bommies yeilded more trout and dozens of bluebone parrot, various cod, one of those yellow lined sea perch I was asking ID about some time ago (it was caught in 8 feet of water, so much for the deep water fish theory) plus the biggest Grass sweetlip I've ever caught.
Some big fellas moved in and blew us away on the rods (30lb braid) before giving up and heading for home.
The folks at camp had also been having a good time of it with some nice Salmon, Queenies and Golden Trevally to keep them company, plus a massive unknown that busted my dads gear up big time.
Thae first arvo's beach session was a sign of things to come with Blue Salmon biting but not around in great numbers. The Queenfish however were there in their hundreds and of good quality too with fish around the 6 kilo mark being landed. Often there were 3 or 4 lines going at once, all with good quality fish.
The next day the pots were set at Mamalita creek where the fishing was quiet compared to what it can produce. Lots of Goldspot cod were landed, some big Pikey Bream and good Fingermark were also boated but the Jacks and Barra laid low with the slightly colder than usual temps and bad tides.
We repeatedly got blown away by some huge fish along one snaggy bank.
The weather blew it's proverbial off until the lat two days where we were able to duck out to Kerr Reef for a first time explore. I was able to get out the last day for a couple of hours before packing up camp so only trolling and tuna chasing was done but all in all another great trip was had with everyone catching lots of fish and good quality ones at that.
Next time we'll look to head up at a more productive time for the Barra, probably Easter and get stuck right into them.
Cheers, Mark
[smiley=2thumbsup.gif]
Vehicle one

[Daintreeboy]

vehicle two.

[Daintreeboy]

vehicle three

[Daintreeboy]

A very cold Weipa morning

[Daintreeboy]

Some good size Goldie's, caught right off camp within the first ten minutes trolling. 8)

[Daintreeboy]

This Grassy was about 2.5 to 3 kilos, my biggest by far.

[Daintreeboy]

Sunset Salmon. 8)

[Daintreeboy]

Sunset Queenie's, one of countless doubles. The main school went berserk right on dark with every line getting creamed by queenies. They were thrashing about hitting mullet in their hundreds.

[Daintreeboy]

We put some handline's down to find out what was blowing us away in the snags and, as expected up came Grouper.
Some of them were that big we still couldn't stop them on handlines, even when they swam out into the middle at the start of the fight!! This little guy is probably around 14 kilos. He was part of a double hookup of Grouper.

[Daintreeboy]

The beautiful Janie Creek. This is the place where I lost my Calcutta CT250 and Wilson Live Fibre to a fish that took the bait while Brendan (pictured) and I ducked up the beach to get some smaller mullet for bait. We came back to see a fallen chair and a trail leading to the waters edge. Brendan rigged up his rod with two trebles and believe it or not, second cast he hooked it, fish still on swimming around!! We busted the line so never got to see the fish but I think it was a big Queenfish. I caught one earlier at least 6 kilo in the same spot. The braid had cut in on itself and locked up so the fish was able to pull the holder out of the sand and inot the drink. I'll learn one day...

[agnes_jack]

Well done Mark!
Sounds like ya had a ball.Nice pair of goldens.
Top report and pics

Regards, Tony

[Daintreeboy]

Caught this sucker in over 60 feet of water in the cast net!! Too many sharks in this spot meant he had a date with the dinner table

[Daintreeboy]

sunrise over Port Musgrave.

[Daintreeboy]

Nice Northern Bluefin caught at Kerr Reef. Take that Moffy!!

[Daintreeboy]

and that!