How do you decide what gear to pack for the trip of a lifetime? JIM HARNWELL explains how to avoid confrontation at the airline baggage counter and still be equipped for the majority of species you'll encounter up north.
EVERY fishing trip should be focused on achieving the best result possible. For most of us, that means catching as many fish of different types as is feasible while also having a bloody good time. This philosophy applies equally to almost all fishing situations. It doesn't matter if you're taking the kids down to the local wharf to catch mullet or yakkas for bait or spending the big bucks to head off on the fishing adventure of a lifetime you should go forth with the mindset of catching fish and having fun.
Some anglers are goal specific, they want to catch a certain species, a particularly big fish, large numbers of fish, a record or perhaps break new ground by using specific tackle or techniques. Most fishermen have had experience in goal-orientated fishing at one time or another but I'd argue that most of us take a more general approach to our fishing most of the time.
As with all fishing situations being prepared is the key to obtaining the best results. I made a conscious effort to be as prepared for just about all contingencies when I readied my gear for a recent trip aboard Carpentaria Mist. This luxury 40-foot mothership is operated by my good friends Greg and Jenny Bethune of Carpentaria Seafaris and involves a week-long run along the western side of Cape York in far north Queensland fishing various reefs, rivers and flats on the way.
On a previous trip Peter Pakula and I decided to go fly only. That trip, documented in the May 2000 edition of Fisho, resulted in some memorable fishing action on golden trevally, tarpon, giant herring, queenfish, longtail tuna and various other species.
Pete and I had a ball and cast our arms off for a swag of top fly captures from the flats and river mouths that abound on this remote section of coast. We'd set goals and achieved them, which was more than satisfying as well as being highly enjoyable. This time around I was keen to try conventional tackle on a range of different species as well as fly-fishing for some old favourites. I didn't have any particular strategy or goal in mind Ð I just wanted to catch as many fish as I could and have a bit of a break after a very hectic time at work.Selecting tackle
There are certain challenges inherent to wanting to target everything, especially in a fishery as diverse as that offered by a trip with Carpentaria Seafaris. To do everything properly would have resulted in me dragging half a tackle shop along. That obviously wasn't practical so I packed all the gear I thought I'd need and then cut it by half.
This resulted in the following gear, which I'd recommend as being a good basic arsenal for similar tropical sportfishing expeditions. All the rods mentioned are three-piece travel rods, utilised mainly because I hate travelling with great long rod tubes.
Three piece 6-8 kilo custom Pacific Composites baitcaster teamed with an ABU 6600C3LD spooled with 30lb Bionic Braid.Three piece 4-6 kilo Strudwick spin rod teamed with a Shimano FX2000A threadline spooled with four-kilo Maxima Fibre Glow.Three-piece eight weight Strudwick DBT fly rod with 8/9 Scientific Anglers Mastery reel and #9 intermediate Striper Taper line plus spare #8 Bonefish Taper intermediate and floating (both unused).
Three-piece 10 weight Strudwick DBT fly rod with 10/11 Scientific Anglers Mastery reel and #10 Bluewater Taper sinking line plus spare #10 Tarpon intermediate (unused).
I thought about bring a heavier overhead outfit (a Calcutta 700 spooled with 50lb Super-Braid on a 10 kilo rod) but decided against it at the last minute because of weight restrictions on the charter plane from Cairns to Bamaga. This proved a good idea as such heavy gear was not necessary. I should have scrapped the 10 weight fly rod as well as I didn't even get to cast with it, let alone catch a fish.
A light baitcaster around the four-kilo mark would have been useful, especially when flicking lures around the mangroves. Ditto a heavier spin rod six or eight kilo Ð for dealing with some of the big GTs lurking around the reefs.
Lures & flies
I took a good selection of about 40 different lures including small divers (Tilsan Barras, Gold Bombers, 90mm Scorpions), large divers (Halco Laser Pros, Lively Lures Blue Pillies), metal slices (40 gram Raiders, Lazers, Halco Twisties), skirts (Pink Squids, Pakula Uzis, assorted jetheads) and various jigs (Demon Jigs, home made models). A couple of poppers Ð large and small sizes Ð were also included.
I used all the different types with fairly consistent success, although the large divers and metals/jigs probably proved most effective. I should have taken a few extra Laser Pros and Blue Pillies (lost some to mackerel) and more Raiders.
Over the past six years I've learnt that taking too many lures leads to indecision and frustration as I tend to spend more time poking around in my tackle box than I do actually fishing. Nowadays, depending on where I'm going, I limit the lure load to a few dozen proven favourites and leave it at that. In tropical waters I reckon metal slices and jigs are a definite must Ð you can probably never have too many Raiders and Lazers with the benefits being that they are relatively cheap, easy to pack, catch just about everything that swims and can be used in a variety of ways (spin, jig, troll). A downside to consider is that they can be heavy, especially in larger sizes.
I took about a million flies, which was stupid as I ended up using about five. Next time I'll take a dozen or so Clouser Minnows in various colours and sizes, the same in Surf Candies, four or five Flashy Profiles and a handful of Polar Fibre Minnows. A couple of extra big baitfish profiles would also come in handy if chasing big queenies on the flats.
Terminal tackle
As I was keen on doing some reef fishing I took a comprehensive selection of hooks and sinkers, mainly based around circle patterns in various sizes from the Black Magic, Gamakatsu and Mustad stables. These proved invaluable when fishing the reefs for varied species. A few spare trebles, shark rigs and livebaiting rigs were included, but not used. Sinkers were small to medium balls with a few snapper leads thrown in as well. I took a pack or two of swivels but never used them. Trace included 20, 40, 60 and 80 pound spools, Speedline and Black Magic brands, and also spools of three, six and 10-kilo fluorocarbon (Fulling Mill, Black Magic and Platil brands). I only used the 10 kilo when fly-fishing and seemed to work fine on all species targeted. A coil of single strand wire came in handy when rigging lures for mackerel. Split ring pliers, a Leatherman Supertool, knife, braid scissors, file and can of Tackle Guard also came along for the ride.
All the lures and flies fitted into three flat clear plastic Plano tackle boxes carried in my main bag along with clothes (long sleeve shirts and shorts), sandals, books, toiletries and other odds and ends. Reels travelled wrapped in shirts to protect against damage. The pliers, trace and so on fitted into a bum bag along with suncreen and insect repellant and were carried with me when on in the fishing boats or when wading. The rods were secreted in four short tubes, taped together and came with me as cabin luggage along with my camera gear.
It was all pretty compact and easy Ð much less stressful than previous trips when I've taken everything but the kitchen sink and used hardly anything.
The fishing
I can't think of too many things I'd rather do than spend a week on Capricorn Mist. The fishing is incredibly varied and exciting, the accommodation and food amazing and Greg's a good bloke to sit on the back deck and yarn with after a long day on the water.
Greg's plan was to head south-west down the inside of Cape York to a virgin reef system about 25 miles from land, fish that, and then head into the coast to attack the inshore reefs, rivers and flats. The long trip to the reef was punctuated by regular strikes from mackerel and cobia, including one beauty of about 40lbs that engulfed a blue Laser Pro and just about melted the drag on my 6600C3LD. I got spooled by something bigger a little while later, reinforcing the fact that I should have bought some spare line along. Luckily, Greg had a spool lying around.
We reached the reef at night, where a couple of exploratory lines resulted only in sharks. First thing next morning I dropped a white lead head job 25m to the bottom and latched onto a respectable coral trout. Then things went mental with a procession of reef fish bending rods for what seemed like hours. The predominant species were large-mouth nannygai, a beautiful silver-pink lutjanid which fought hard, looked great and tasted even better. A great session on great fish was augmented by the odd cobia poking around in our berley trail.
Heading inshore we anchored in a number of rivers over the ensuing week fishing the tides for barra in the rivers and flats species out the front. A highlight for Pete and I was Greg spotting a school of big blue salmon cruising up the beach. We headed in, fly rods at the ready, and ran up the beach after the fish. One of us would cast in, hook up and fight the fish while the other continued the chase. This went on for at least a kilometre. Great fishing and good exercise to boot!
Innumerable queenies infested the river mouths, providing excellent fun on fly and light spin gear. I got five in as many casts one afternoon and then got a giant herring on the sixth cast. We fished the close-in reefs in the mornings, spinning and fly casting to busting schools of longtail and mack tuna. Anchoring and laying out a fine berley trail resulted in vast schools of big bludger and golden trevally, as well as some large queenies, sweeping around the boat like shimmering curtains of fish.
In the rivers barra were available around creek mouths and snags. Pete got some nice ones on fly and I scored a slightly bigger than usual one twitching a gold Bomber through the snags. Trolling in the big boat between locations resulted in macks of all sizes smashing our lures and baits, as well as quite a few cobia.
The last significant fish of the trip was a beaut pennant trevally caught by Pete's mate Lefty while fishing a small creek system from the bank. Then a huge squall came over and we made a mad dash back to the comforts of the mothership and, regrettably, a day or so later, civilisation.
Conclusion
The time spent packing gear aimed at fishing for everything paid off. Careful selection meant all foreseeable situations were catered for without having to lug around huge amounts of luggage. I also enjoyed being able to swap tackle and techniques to best suit the situation. Spinning up a tuna, unhooking it and then picking up the fly rod to get another one proved to be pretty good fun. Mix and match fishing, if you like.
Jim Harnwell fished Cape York as a guest of Carpentaria Seafaris.
A Great Trip. I'VE been lucky enough to fish aboard Carpentaria Mist twice and both times have been standout fishing adventures. A week with Greg and Jenny aboard
their comfortable mothership is a great way to explore this wonderful fishery. I highly recommended it to all interested readers. All fishing styles are catered for
with a wide range of popular tropical sportfish being available pretty much year round. Carpentaria Seafaris will be upgrading to a larger custom-built 17m vessel
in early 2002, which will provide even better accommodation facilities as well as opening up exciting new waters. Phone the Carpentaria Seafaris
booking office at on (07) 40965632 or email joseph@seafaris.com for more information. You can also check out a comprehensive website at www.seafaris.com.
