Daintree Raining!

Well you could be forgiven for thinking that its the "wet" season up here in Cairns. It hasn't stopped raining (drizzling really) for weeks and weeks. Not good for us keen angler types and the urge to toss a few lures was just too strong.

I hadn't lure fished since the Queen's birthday weekend, way back in early June, so hang the weather.......Debbie and I were just going to do it anyway.

So on Friday morning, it was a public holiday here in Cairns for the annual show day (Just hate it!), Debbie and I headed north to fish the Daintree. The weather God's hadn't been too kind to us of late, with plenty of "strong wind warnings" to completely shut down the offshore scene. It was our plan to fish the "river bends" out of the prevailing 25 - 30 kn winds and just hope for a fish or two. Expectations were not high but that didn't matter as we were on the water after many weeks of self enforced exile!

We fished a small backwater not far from the boat ramp and had a couple of near misses - the barra would obviously be sluggish in the cool conditions we mused, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the water was an acceptable 23.7C.........well within the barra's active range so, just maybe, there would be a bit of action after all.

Not long after and Debbie hooked up to a small 45cm barra which was photographed and quickly put back to grow. And then I landed a similar sized fish from the mangrove prickles - the aerial roots of the river lined mangrove trees, one of my favourite fishing "zones" in our tropical rivers.

Keeping to our plan to fish "out of the wind" was paying dividends; we ventured up a few small side creeks and found more willing barra and a couple of fiesty jacks to boot. The tally was mounting.

With a low tide at approx. 1:30pm we headed downstream as far as we dared in the sloppy conditions (the exposed river mouth was just too windy for my 4m barra punt) and we started to work our way back using the incoming tide and wind to push us upstream. We found more willing barra and jacks on the snags and even landed a nice river GT off the prickles.

The tally for the day was very respectable; way above what we would have thought at the outset.

• Barra x 12
• Jacks x 5
• Trevally x 1

Debbie and I were using similar tackle, and what I arguably believe are the best lures on the market - Leads 6" highjackers (for shallow conditions) and the relatively new 3" deep diving shad. I just love these lures and if I had to come north to fish and only had a choice of a few lures to bring - I'd beg / borrow / steal as many of these beauties in any colour that I could get my hands on. We both used green lures this day!

It was two very happy, but wet, anglers that sought the comfort of the Colorado 4x4 as we headed back to Cairns late that afternoon - it really was one of the most memorable fishing trips that we had encountered. Not for the number of fish landed, nor for the fact that none of the barra were of legal size (again - refer previous gripes) BUT the fact that we had well surpassed pre concieved angling expectations considering the conditions. We were both very pleased with ourselves.

Offshore scene:

Without stating the bleeding obvious, not many charters have ventured to the blue water due to this lousy weather were having, when conditions do ease however and the larger vessels have been able to get out to the reef, catches have been quite outstanding.

Quality reds are the order of the day with large and small mouth nannygai on the favourite marks along with good numbers of coral trout being caught. This cool weather will bring the spaniards on the chew as well so its always a good idea to have a floating pillie out the back while bottom bouncing or trolling diving lures between marks.

Good fishing, regards, Les

http://www.fishingcairns.com.au/

Bransfords Kids Clinic a Success!

On Saturday 10th July, Keith Graham of Bransfords Tackle Shop, held the 15th annual "Kids Clinic" on the Palm Cove jetty. Once agin over 150 keen junior anglers packed the jetty to have some fun and learn the art of fishing from local experts. The kids and their parents braved the elements to register captures of 148 fish with a total of 14 different species. Being a catch and release event all fish were returned to fight another day with many junior fishers notching up their first ever captures.

Even though the weather was not kind to us, the attendance was testiment to the number of keen young anglers out there and showed the support of the many mums and dads who came to help and encourage.

The idea of the Kids Clinic is to teach the kids, in a normal fishing environment, how to tie knots, do rigs, cut and present baits so they take an interest and catch more fish. Local fishing guru’s Terry Holman, Les Marsh, Brazakka, Matt Graham, Bruno Vucas and Ron Gallo patrolled the jetty giving out such information and generally encouraging the kids.

Following the weigh in prizes were handed out in various categories including champion female and male anglers…( see results below)….and a sausage sizzle was held for all the participants and their friends / family members. Vicky Graham reckons they cooked over 420 snags and half a bag of onions, fair to say all worked up an appetite!

Attendance certificates were handed out with the ‘Goody Bags’ which contained 29 items of fishing tackle & accessories, the kids also received an embroidered hat to mark the event. We hope to see all our keen Bransfords Junior Anglers at next years event….who knows, by then they may be able to teach our experts a thing or two!


RESULTS.

Champion Female………Kylie Slack……..weighed in 14 fish.

Champion Male…………Luke Purcell…… Best fish a Spanish Mackeral 55cms long.

Most Unusual Capture…Ava Bramham….An eel & a 1250 gms. Puffer Fish

Biggest Crab……………Keiran French…. 650 gms.

Biggest Ray……………. Kai Mc.Farlane… 650 gms.

Encouragement Award….Rebecca Carrington.

We must sincerely thank our sponsors for their generosity……….Joe Vella Insurance..( who organised the public liability cover)…Daiwa Australia..( Who have been our partner since the first Kids Clinic)……Channel 7…….Bransfords Tackle……Tropic City T Shirts & Caps..( Best embroidered caps ever)…Coca Cola….Mars Bars…Brumbies Bread…..McDonalds Smithfield…Sno Bonneau & Margaret Cochrane..( who supplied Porta Loo)….Barra Classic Lures…Halco…Abu Reels..L.Wilson & Co….Platypus Fishing Lines…John MacKenzie & Locco from 4CA….Brothers Leauges Club….Shimano Tackle… and to all our helpers, cooks, assistants and young JR from Ch. 7 and Vicky Graham for their dedication.

A very huge thank you to all involved - to see the smiling faces on so many children was a warming sight. I had a dozen kids come up to thank me for helping them with their fishing - it was a very rewarding experince and a credit to all who participated / helped / organised. 

See you next year!

Cairns OR Cape York (The difference)

This little article is going to explain some of the differences of fishing in Tropical North Queensland during "winter". Now as a southern tourist you might be saying that Cairns is lovely and warm - so true when you compare it with temps down south / 6C in Melbourne, -2 in Canberra only 18 max. on the Gold Coast.


It sure does feel nice with these 26C days - but what you must realise is that its the night time temperature that dictates the water temperatrure and this is what controls the activity of our fish and the target species available.


A variation of 10C is all it takes to make a huge difference - Cairns has gone from 32 to 22, Sydney from 26 to 16 and so on. You feel it and certainly the fish feel it.  Barra don't like cold water pure and simple. They become lethargic and sulk in comfort zones making it much harder to entice a strike. Sure they must feed to survive, but if your not as active you need less fuel right!


That's why we subtly change out approach when fishing the rivers at this time of year and concentrate more on the likes of GT's, queenfish, grunter and bream.


I had a lovely session with young Jett down at Russell Heads yesterday. It was blowing, it was drizzling but we still managed to catch over 30 fish. Heaps of bream (we left them biting to try something different) a couple of grunter but the best was the 5 GT's we landed - great sport on light 4-6kg line.

Now for something completely different, and I'll explain why.


My good mate, and arguably one of the best fishing guides in FNQ, Terry Holman, has just returned from a trip to Aurukun (northern Cape York near Weipa). He had one of the best fishing trips of his long career. His clients landed dozens of barra, good quality barra in the 70 - 90cm range. They had a ball catching high spirited queenies and GT's on lures and flies. Throw in flathead, king and blue salmon and you have a mix of quality fish to satisfy any angler.

Now Aurukun is a remote location and you would expect the place to fish better than say Cairns - but the main reason for such consistent quality fishing is the fact that the temperature of the place is still in the 30's during the day and the mid 20's at night. THE WATER IS STILL RELATIVELY WARM!

GET IT? - Great stuff if you do so use this in your fishing and plan accordingly.

If you want a fishing trip of a lifetime and it must be over the next few "winter" months - get north man, as far north as time and money will permit. But if your a local and just have that inner need to go fishing in these conditions (like I do), then change your tactics, scale down your tackle and have a ball on what's swimming around and stop trying to be unrealistic for the conditions.

Happy fishing, kind regards Les