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