29 January 2001 - Volume 5 Issue 1

Weather? What Weather?

I'm not real sure that I should make this next comment - because as sure as hell - the moment I type it, the weather God's will rebel.

Calendar 2000 was the wettest year on record - since Christmas however, we have hardly had a drop. Sure there has been a few storms around in the evenings but this past few weeks has just been phenomenal for this time of the year. Now I walk my dog "Ben" every morning (almost - except when I've had a few too many beers the night before) and a quick stroll down to the esplanade at Trinity Beach has been just fantastic of late.

The sea is like glass, as blue as I have even seen it up this way and the gently swaying coconut palms just offering a hint of another glorious day in tropical paradise.

The reef boats and diving enthusiasts are just ecstatic, the calm conditions offering under water visibility and a diving / snorkelling experience not usually seen during January. The Great Barrier Reef is truly a natural wonder and we are experiencing it in all its glory / splendour.

The Rivers

Here too the lack of fresh in the systems is enabling the clean tidal flows to penetrate far upstream. With a plentiful supply of livies (sardines, mullet, herring and prawn) the predators are on the job. Dozens of juvenile mangrove jacks have been marauding bait cast near any holding structure, a good sign for the years to come. And the barra, well they are about in numbers and good sizes also - fish to 85 cm quite common. Its still closed season until midday on the 1st February - but boy, there will be some hectic activity on all our waterways come Thursday afternoon. Now is the time to check your gear, service those drags and maybe buy a few new shiny lures - make sure it's a gold one though!

Lake Tinaroo

This fishery is really coming of age - there are monster barra up there - world record fish. And the persistent angler is reaping the reward for their efforts spent searching, trying new lures and techniques, staying around that bit later in the evening or starting that few hours earlier in the morning. Sixty-pound plus fish are almost regular catches now for those in the know! You don't catch cricket scores, but a few beauties like that will keep you going I'm sure.

Trinity Inlet

You guessed it; conditions have been ideal here also although the tide does play a major part in the success rate. Remember to fish the shallow flats on the big tides and the deep water snags and more structured areas on the neaps. In between is a time to mix it up a bit and try your luck in mid water depths - try the 18 to 22 feet mark. Everything from trevally, grunter, salmon, jacks, queenfish, fingermark and of course "ol' bucket mouth" himself are coming onboard. Plenty of succulent prawns about at the bottom of the tide.

Blue Water / Reef Fishing

The calm conditions have seen plenty of activity on the blue yonder but everything in nature has its balancing out side too. Still seas mean warm water, too warm for a lot of the usual reef targets and they have headed further out to deep water. Reports came in yesterday however of some excellent large mouth nannygai captures, fish averaging 10 kg apiece were pulled from water 55 - 60 metres deep on an overnight charter. Coral trout are a bit scarce and the usual tricky snapper, red emperor and sweetlip captures have been a bit slow. The occasional spaniard can still be caught on a floating pilchard rig and its always a good idea to have a few of these outfits set aside when reef fishing.

Game Fishing

Not much happening in this area at this time of year, the Heavy stuff is off the list unless you want to travel out real wide and target blue marlin to 700 lb. An extended charter is the real way to go here if wishing game fish at this time of year, otherwise its best to use light tackle techniques for sails, dolphin and various tunas. The calm conditions however are ideal for popper fishing the bommies for monster G.T.'s and 20 odd shots a day is not uncommon.

I hope you have being doing your arm exercises if you want to target these brutes!

The Cape

Due to such a wet start to the holiday season, most guides have packed their bags and headed south for a well-earned rest. They take this opportunity to come to the city, re charge their batteries, check the tackle stores for some new goodies and spend some time with their families. They all know however that when they do venture home and get back on the water they had better be prepared for some red hot action.

The post wet season / late summer period is probably the very best time of the year to fish the Cape. One real bonus is the quality and variety of species available to the long wand brigade, fly fishing these remote areas is just exploding. Anglers are recognising the true quality of tropical near shore and estuary fly-fishing and are coming form around the globe to tangle with some truly world class sportfish. Targets here include giant herring, permit, various trevally, queenfish, northern bluefin tuna, barracuda, mackerel, jacks and of course barramundi - and that's only just scratching the surface.

Now be warned - I did open my big mouth about the weather - don't blame me, I'm only the messenger! 2001 is going to be a monster year in Tropical North Queensland.

See you on the water,
Les Marsh