Daintree Dreaming!

I have just returned home from a fabulous weeks guiding up the Cape at remote Aurukun. This region really is a barra fisherman’s paradise and we had an absolute blast. The quality of the fishing this trip was astounding and I have never seen so many BIG fish as part of our catch. Quality fish of well over 85cm were common and we even managed quite a few in the 90’s and a dozen or so above the magic 1m mark.

96cm Archer River

Magnificent Sunset

One of 64 barra in 2.5 hours

 Our best session was however, on the very last day, when following a very early start, favorable tides made a trip to the mangrove lined Archer Bay the location of choice. Two very excited anglers landed 64 barra in only 2 ½ hours solid fishing; quality fish all from 63 -85cm. The bigger ones could not be controlled and we lost them under the mangroves.

But that’s another story for another time. 

Last Sunday, Keith Graham and I, decided to give the Daintree River a go. You see, this past “wet” season we have concentrated on the southern rivers, the likes of the Tully, North & South Johnstone, Liverpool and even the old Mulgrave had copped a flogging from us so to speak. And it had been well worth it with some very memorable days. But the “wet” is (well until Monday morning anyway) well and truly over and the river levels had dropped so much that it was actually dangerous to travel to our favorite upstream haunts.

So after careful consideration of the tides, it was a high at 8:30am and a low at 2:30pm, it was decided that the downstream tidal areas of the Daintree might be the place to be. It was going to be a bit windy however, as the predicted 25-30 knot SE winds blow straight up the river making some of our favorite locations unfishable. I too was a little apprehensive, as having had such amazing fishing the week before, felt that the Daintree could be a huge let down.

We launched at the ferry crossing and cruised to a nearby mangrove lined bank. We both clipped on our new best lure (yes those Flat Jak’s – they finally have a name), Keith a pink one, I, a sparkling gold one.

The tide had just peaked and was about to turn……perfect we thought!

First fish - a flathead

A flathead, a bloody flathead off a mangrove snag – man we had a good laugh.

We drifted slowly downstream on the ebbing tide, hugging the mangrove banks out of the persistent wind. A nice little barra was hooked from a backwater so we decided to hang around for a while and see if it had some mates. We landed 5 barra from this spot and missed a couple more – things were looking good.

Nice juvenile barra

Heading further down towards the mouth we fished the lee side of the islands – juvenile barra, a nice jack, a small GT. It wasn’t too bad. And as for the crocs! Well this weather was perfect for the big lizards to seek the suns warming rays on the slowly exposing mud and sand banks. We found little 1 metre models scampering comically to the waters edge and safety. We found huge 4 metre models slowly slithering down the sand to slip quietly into the drink – in fact at one time, the only sign that alerted us to the crocs presence was the hissing sound of its slide. Scary stuff!

Biggest croc

By lunch time the tide has almost dropped right out so a trip to the mouth and a fish in a nearby backwater was the go. It was here that we saw the biggest croc of the day. As we entered the estuary I noticed the unmistakable shape of something quite large sunning itself on the exposed mud bank – it was probably over 500m away at this stage and even at this distance looked to be a big one. As we slowly fished our way upstream to its location, we had cameras ready for the best shot; just in case it was a wary critter and slipped away before we could get within range. You guessed it, they don’t grow this big by being stupid and we were still over 150m away when it started to slowly move in preparation for a slide into the water. A quick zoom, snap and I had a nice photo.

The fishing went a bit quiet at this stage – no run, no fun we say up here and so it was decided that if we wanted some action, we either had to stay put and be patient and wait for the tide to run in, or head upstream and fish above this tidal influence. We beat a hasty path back above the ferry and decided to fish the shallow banks near Laffertys.

It wasn’t long before we landed a couple of barra and small jacks – but the best surprise of all was when I landed a little flathead. Way up in the fresh…..it was as clear as a swimming pool, dead set.

We pulled the pin at approx.  4.30 and headed home.

We had landed 15 barra / 5 jacks / 2 flathead and a GT – now that’s not bad for a good days fishing, especially in light of the prevailing conditions. We were quite stoked.

Note – I hooked on that gold flecked Flat Jak and did not change it all day. Keith changed a couple of times just to test a few lures for his shop. Verdict – those Flat Jaks are amazing!

Catch you on the water!

Les Marsh
www.fishingcairns.com.au