A trip I look forward to every year, Pat and Mick from the Villawood Compleat Angler and a party
of guys that patronize the best tackle store in the Sydney suburbs. Armed with all the beautiful
new gear collected over the past year combined with unbridled enthusiasm these guys are as efficient
a fishing machine as you can get. This is going to be a good trip, not that we have bad trips, if you
want a bad trip you have to go somewhere else.
Wednesday night #1, anchored safely in the river, skiffs launched and after one of Adams fabulous meals Mick
announces a little tournament as he reveals a nice trophy complete with jumping fish and a plaque engraved..
Reel buster award 2004, Team Compleat Angler Cape York Quest.. He and Pat have brought with them a bunch
of small spin reels not much better quality than you would expect in a show bag or cereal box, I believe
they retail as a combo rod and reel pack for $12. The comp. or "Quest" is... everyone on the last day
using whatever rod / lure / bait / squidgy they like has to digitally record a capture with out blowing up
the issued reel. The only stipulation, use this reel and the line there on.. which must be all of 4 pound
with a front drag that is either on or off. This will be fun... we’ll see what eventuates. I think they
just want to see the reels blow on the fish they will encounter.. I think I broke one just winding it.
Morning number one.. for me, a shocker, first the 70hp on the Fishaholic won’t start, slow cranking, I get
a new battery from on of the gensets.. same. Sparks on all cylinders but "no startie" a little bit of fuel
in each pot and we are away but only running on 2 out of 3. Sparks on all 3 but top plug doesn’t get hot,
deduction says pull the top carby apart and blow the jets out.. still no full power, check compression..
and there is none on the top cylinder... BITCH. So I finally got to wear one of these Tohatsus out, a
bit of rough figuring reveals this motor is just under 5 years old has burned conservatively, in excess
of 30,000 litres of fuel (that’s right 30K I got the shock of my life and double checked the figures)
and has probably covered as many miles doing so. I know it takes me an hour and a 20l tank to go to TI
from Seisia which is 20NM. The dam thing still runs well but only on 2 out of 3 cylinders, I’ve ordered a new
70 on the sat phone this morning.
I love these Tohatsu motors, they are a bit agricultural in some respects but for honest power and reliability
they can’t be beaten. A little known fact, lots of other brands use these motors and just badge them Merc. for
argument sake. Merc 25,30,40 and 50 and recently I discovered Yam 30 4 stroke is also Tohatsu. All this mechanical
crap made for a late start to set the crab pots and my motor wows hadn’t ended just yet.. tilting the motor down I
got the tiller caught under the seat and broke the tiller handle on the 30 of the chase boat / crab tender. Just
not my day, so driving now by hanging on to the carry handle for steering and a string onto the timing advance / throttle
for speed control down to the next river south we go for a major drama getting the crab pots from secret hiding spot 101
because of the now low tide. Behind schedule and not as maneuverable as normal and trying some new set locations for the
pots I say to Amanda "I’ll keep the boat on the plane and you launch the pots into the 5 drains coming up on he right as they appear".
The first pot she launches, gets her upper body tangled in the rope and she was bulled back ward and to the floor, if it was not
for me and the outboard in the way she would have been pulled over the side. Shaken scratched and bruised, that hopefully is to
be the end of the bad luck. (Post script) and it was.. thank Dog.
Booring, another Permit, I have honestly lost count of how many of these fish we have caught.
Morning fishing out the front was a little rough at first but calmed off in the latter morning and then came up again in the arvo. Some Mac Tunas and
a couple of Long tails, the highlight of the day was a permit caught on a Fluro Halco scorpion by Goran mooching around among the inner river sandbars
with young Pat.
This evening I type to the whoops and yells and splashing jumps of 6 pound tarpon being hooked, jumped off and some landed in the
soft light thrown out of the saloon windows. The trick we have learnt with the evening Poon fishing is, less is more when it comes
to light. 6 fish in to the boat, 12 jumped and gropers got another 2.
These 2 photos make it look easy, but it’s not, these little suckers really pull, dart and jump and are a real test on light spin tackle after dinner.
The next day out the front was the same, only the Mac Tunas of yesterday are replaced by Longtails, and plenty of them, double and triple hookups most every time, if there were 5 anglers in a boat you would have quintuple hookups.
There is plenty of Permits around as well with another being caught in the mouth of the river by an unsuspecting angler. I think the up coming
peak season for them when all the high end fly rodders come out from under their rocks should be good. The tides are good for the coming
trips and I have high hopes for the "tracanotus bloccii" catches. I am reasonably sure that a fly angler this week blind dredging the river
chanels in between sight casting opportunities would account for more than just a couple of the fish that everyone wants to catch.
Late in the arvo big Phil called on the radio to inform all that there were GT’s and Goldens every cast at PalAl’s rock, a new location discovered
a couple of trips ago (see archived reports below) Some guys were back showered and relaxing and reckoned they had caught more than enough for the
day. Dan took Peter out for another arm stretch "The Complete Angler" boys had heard the call on their radio, stopped by the mothership for a cold
can each and headed off. In an hour and a half 4 boats and 8 anglers caught and released in excess of 75 Golden and or Giant trevalley in the
6 to 9 kilo range as the sun set.
This evenings Tarpon session I went to bed when the boys couldn’t remember if they landed 15 or 13, they have worked out how to play the fish out get it boat side
and give slack line and a selected jiggle, 90% of the time the fish throws the hook. I fell asleep to the Poons splashing and good natured arguments..
"get out of it, you’re over me, no under, get your fish away from mine... look at this one jump"
Nice mackerel, Chef Adam said to me during lunch... You know what I love about this job? I was stressing over what I was going to have for dinner and look what arrives back on the boat..
Left the crab pots in for 2 nights instead of one because of the late time setting them and big low tides,
didn’t work as well as planned and only got 8, real good crabs though. Adam worked his magic and made them go the distance by "watering" the
chilly crab down with Gulf prawns and Arrow squid.
Two pods of permit were sited this afternoon doing the typical spawning daisy chains. One was a standard size school of
around 25 to 30 fish and the other must have had 100 fish. A cast at them with a Squidgy saw the only queen fish in the
school nail the soft plastic and bolt off the flat sending the permit with it.
Fishing, you never cease to be amazed or stop learning, the bait school that has been in the same
location for the past 5 or 6 trips now for some reason has no real predators beating up on it for the past
2 days. Just "doggie mackerel" and some giant herring or lady fish. One long drawn out thin shadow strip
of bait in the shallows close up to the beach. A couple of visits has proven to produce nothing like the
action and fish of previous trips... until today. The bait is no longer in a long thin strip bit busted
up into balls tightly packed with massive Queenies beating them up. Predators of other trips must have
moved along to warmer / colder fresher / saltier or whatever water for what ever reason and there was a
couple of days before the next school discovered the succulent easy picking anchovies.
Day last as usual I take the paradise out of the river and anchor on the beach a little to the north, talking to Phil
on the radio everyone is into the Queenies in the bait and very happy. Everyone has taken the little goofy spin reels to
blow up on fish, lunch time reports will be interesting. Bait school we have been beating up on for I don’t know how
many trips now really turned it on again this morning, Queenies and Goldens, Tunas were not far away as well and the
boys had some fun with the "dinky" spin reels, handles breaking off, drag nuts coming un done and spools leaping
around trying to get through the striping guide.
One fine gentleman angler, Gordon managed to land a Tuna on his 3 dollar reel, and win the inaugural event. I don’t know how the handle broke off in his hand.
The End.. thank you very much, Mick and Greg fished out after an arvo on the bait heading back to "Mother" Previous Fishing Trip Reports:
