FANTASTIC FLY FISHING CONTINUESIN WEIPA

Well, I've been chartering/guiding now for some 16 years on afull-time basis and I can honestly say that 2000 has been my mostproductive fish-wise of any of those years! Yes, Weipa just keepsgetting better and better and, it seems that the harder you look,the more you find.

This certainly applies on the fly fishing front with many ofmy SWF clients, this year, going home absolutely raving abouttheir trip. While I haven't managed to connect my clients withany snub nosed dart (permit) to date, we've certainly seen andcast to plenty, and thanks to some hints from Peter Morse (whohas landed consistent catches north of Weipa in the second halfof this year), we might just come a bit closer in the comingseason.

However, Weipa has plenty to offer besides the elusive'permit'. Besides the usual tropical glamour species likebarramundi, mangrove jack, queenfish, the various trevallies andlongtail tuna, there have been quite a number of other regularfly eaters including fingermark, estuary cod, blue and kingthreadfin salmon, coral trout, mackerel, giant herring, batfish,swallowtail dart, cobia, longtom, tarpon, and barracuda.

This year saw some of the largest giant herring I've ever seencome to boat including quite a number around the 5-kilo mark onfly. GH have the reputation of being one of the fastest inshorefish around and let me tell you, if you hook one of 5 kilos onfly, keep those knuckles well clear of reel handles. We saw quitea few spools down 200 metres of backing with the silver streaksstill jumping in the distance!

There is no doubt that golden trevally are one of the mostsatisfying fly rod catches! They can be found from the sandyflats to the offshore reefs, they always fight exceptionally hardand the fly has plenty of soft mouth structure to find purchase.Goldens are at their best off the beaches and flats, and Weipa isa place with heaps of opportunities in this department. Thisyear, we've gone to smaller flies for the goldies with Clousersand Flashabou shrimps being popular patterns.

At times, the longtail tuna were just too easy, particularlyduring July and August when schools regularly turned up in theEmbley River just off the Evans Landing boat ramp. On a couple ofmornings, my clients landed better than a dozen tuna on 7 to 9weight rods without even passing the river mouth. It waschampagne stuff with fish averaging from 6 to 10 kilos.

Batfish were an unusual catch but after fighting a specimeneasily 60cm (2 feet) across myself, I can vouch for theirstubborn resistance. With plenty of big batfish in the vacinityof the harbour leads, there is obviously the opportunity to landplenty more once suitable fly patterns are developed.

The 'staple' species of the fly rodder in Weipa would have tobe the queenfish. They are nearly always receptive to a properlypresented fly and, at times, are just about impossible to avoid.Some of our 'cricket score' catches this year have featuredqueenies, including one memorable bout where something like 70fish were landed in 3 hours by 2 clients and myself. We've landedsome big queenfish too, some approaching 10kgs, a fight any flyrodder will remember for a long time.

With the charter season in recess for the 'wet' up here, thefishing continues to impress. Just look at this report from lastweekend:

Bananas aren't ever allowed on my boat! I'm sure most anglerswill be well aware of the curse attributed to carrying the yellowfruit on fishing trips. Some year’s back, I speculated in amagazine article on whether the carrying of banana products,namely banana cake, could invoke the 'curse'. However, in thatinstance, just in case, we decided to devour the cake beforecommencing fishing - with what seemed like a favourable result.

Last Sunday, I enjoyed an 'end of season' boys fishing morningwith local SUNFISH president Lance Jarrett and fisheriesinspector, Peter McCulkin. Peter and I are both firm believers inthe effectiveness of lead head jigs, but not so (at that stage)President Lance. We started the morning at one of our favouriteWeipa harbour leads but instead of the usual 5 kilo plus GT's,all we could land were a couple of tiny models. Peter and Iimmediately directed our vitriol to 'Jonah Jarrett' - he was theobvious cause of our unusually bad fishing. The situationcontinued for a couple of hours during which time Lance keptaccumulating more and more of our verbal excretia!

Then, Peter unveiled his morning smoko - a slab of wifeJulia's freshly baked BANANA cake!! The real cause of our lack ofaction was suddenly revealed, so we quickly decided to follow themethodology of my previous example and eat the cake - quickly!

We then decided to try another channel marker, Peter spottedsome hovering birds on the way, and we arrived at a scene fromfisherman’s heaven. The water was boiling with queenies,trevally and school sharks feeding on pods of golden baitfish.While P & L jigged, I broke out the fly rod. We landedqueenies to 10kg, trevally to 6kg and sharks to 8 kg (Jonah J.landed most of the sharks!) I managed a 9kg queenie then popped amuch larger fish after a 150 metre run, a couple of 5 kg trevallyafter the smaller fish consistently beat the 20kg models swimmingnearby to the fly, then topped the morning off with a greatfingermark of 4kg. The golden baitfish ended up beingregurgitated all over the boat by the landed fish revealingthemselves as juvenile forked tail catfish! Very unusual! Thereshould be a lesson there somewhere.

We had to leave the fish biting as I had a plane to catch, butit certainly proved that once banana cake is under the influenceof stomach acid, the 'curse' is lifted!

Have a fish-filled New Year, BarraDave Donald, Dave DonaldSPORTFISHING