School holidays have kicked off and the traffic on the water has increased with the young anglers making the most of their time off. Whether they are on a family holiday out bush or just have some spare time on their hands, the juniors are finding any opportunity to wet a line. Reports throughout the week have come in with a wide variety of species captured across Far North Queensland. From the outer edges of the Great Barrier Reef chasing game fish, to Tinaroo barra, there have even been some ripper catches close to home. Further from town, into remote destinations out bush and including Cape York, it's been an exceptional week on the water with anglers getting out and hooking into some quality fish across FNQ.
Local Estuary Systems
Busy waterways through the Inlet have seen the majority of the snags and drains with boats parked on them, wetting a line. Mangrove jacks and cod have been keeping the anglers snag bashing busy, working deep diving hard bodies through the mangrove edges. Snake drains have been working well for the barra, slowly burning soft plastic prawns and paddle tails through the strike zone. The old wrecks throughout the Inlet have been producing some great sized golden snapper hopping vibes past the wrecks and soaking live mullet next to the structure. Even some little Black Jewfish have started to turn up off the local wrecks.
The Daintree River has been seeing barra plucked out with shallow diving hard bodies cast and twitched across timber laydowns and the thick cottonwood trees. Towards the mouth, solid Giant Trevally and Queenfish are causing a ruckus, blowing up on mullet and garfish schools, making for the perfect opportunity to sight-cast these inshore pelagics.
The crew aboard Gone Fishing Cairns got stuck into this solid finger mark from the local wrecks.
A nice little Black Jewfish caught aboard Gone Fishing Cairns by catch while chasing the golden snapper.
Rick with a cracker Jack from the mangroves.
Jack is still getting stuck into the barramundi from the inlet, slowly cracking the code.
Game and Reef Fishing
Travelling anglers setting out around the Australian coastline are using the trade winds off our coast to their advantage for smooth sailing and better fuel economy. Unfortunately, it's still the larger boats being the only capable vessels heading out and having a crack for some game species and pelagics. Yachts trolling between the reefs on their travels are picking up mackerel almost too quickly, flicking the mackerel handlines out the back and filling their bag limits within minutes. Game boats attempting to troll skirts off the outer reefs have found themselves jellybean-sized yellowfin tuna; these little tackers would be a perfect bait size for the heavy tackle marlin season. Juvenile black marlin have been captured trolling skirts and swimming garfish around the outer reef edges.
Bottom bashing the reef has seen those braving the weather cleaning up on various demersal species such as nannygai, coral trout and red emperor. Inshore rubble patches and wonky holes have been attracting some good numbers of these desirable species and are more of an accessible location to fish in the unfavourable conditions.
The crew aboard Reel Distraction have found themselves a nice desirable juvenile black marlin estimated around the 60-70kg weight range.
Another angle of this nice black marlin.
Little Jellybean Yellowfin Tuna caught from Reel Distraction, beautiful sashimi.
Logan showing off with some ripper nannies and a nice Fingermark.
Freshwater Rivers and Dams
Cool conditions up the hill have seen barra slowing down and feeding in shorter bite windows. Tempting them to eat can be difficult, but natural profiles such as a red claw imitation working slowly along the bottom has fooled some fish over the week. Mouth almighties have been eating small soft plastic profiles; casting them around the grass and weed edges is ideal as they generally hide themselves in the plants and ambush small fish or crustaceans going past. Mouth almighties make for an excellent live bait for the lazy barra over the cooler months; soaking them unweighted or on a float rig could potentially see you with some results.
Hiking through the scenic streams and freshwater rivers, the young groms on their holidays have been nailing numbers of Sooty Grunter and jungle perch on their adventures. Various lures from poppers and walk the dog lures through to swimbaits and soft plastics have all been working well. These fish aren't the fussiest of species, eating almost anything that is cast past them; however, jungle perch in particular are quite wise little critters. Hiding your own figure from these fish and using light leaders can drastically increase the number of fish caught and potentially fool the larger and smarter models into an inquiry. Casting at the target pool from as far away as possible is ideal, whilst crouching up to pools and using the landscape as cover like trees or boulders to hide yourself from the fish is another little trick to hide your profile. Being stealthy is effective, especially in pressured freshwater systems, and will see an increase in your catch if the fish don't even know you're there.
Cat and Gil from Lifeadriftau manage to convince this solid freshie to chew a red claw imitation up the dam.
Ethan with a golden freshie caught fishing in the swamps.
Apatchy Punt found this nice dark sooty from the fresh.
Another nice sooty grunter from Apatchy Punt.
Out Bush
Families travelling to the bush for the school holidays have been finding a fair range of species through different freshwater locations. Sooty Grunter in the western rivers out of Chillagoe have been on fire eating all sorts of lures for the anglers keen to walk some kilometres, where the laid back families have been soaking pots for Cherabin and Red Claw, using these quality crustaceans as live baits, and what they don't use goes towards a tasty campfire cook up. Lakefield is another one of these hot spot destinations everyone is heading to for a holiday chasing the classic barramundi. Early morning and late afternoons where the water still has shadows cast onto it, soft plastic frogs and small poppers have been getting some top water boofs. During the day when the sun's out in full, the classic Gulp Prawn sinking it down deep next to the sticks has been very effective, convincing many barra to have a bite. Saratoga are another species being captured in isolated lagoons and freshwater river systems through the Cape York region. Scleropages jardinii, the Northern Saratoga species, being an elusive fish to come across, mostly found in the Cape York region and other remote areas across northern Australia, is a popular species on many anglers' bucket lists. With their prehistoric appearance and aggressive behaviours similar to barra, it's no wonder why they are such a highly prized fish for some.
Jonty ticked this nice Saratoga off his bucket list from the Cape.
Another ripper Toga Callum caught on his Cape York trip.
Logan got his clients onto some nice barra up in the Archer River.
A well conditioned barra from the Archer Logan got his client onto.
Weekend Outlook
With another week of school holidays to come, the young and keen anglers will persist in finding any way possible to wet a line fishing the freshwater streams and local rivers. A little bit more drizzly weather is on the way, but that won't stop the eager punters heading out on their time off, and it will likely see more anglers heading out bush to find some clear blue skies. Smaller tides through the local waterways will see more finger mark from the wrecks and hopefully see some larger model Black Jewfish burning some drags. If you're heading out on the water this week, stay safe and tight lines!
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