"Hi Les....its Kim here mate. Just wondering whether you are available to guide on my very first charter with my new game boat starting on 30th of this month." "Err let me think, when?" "I will fly you up to Weipa on Friday, collect you from the airport and then board the Duyfken...the clients will be arriving later that evening and we will set off, head up the coast and fish the usual places - Wenlock, Ducie, Jackson etc....are you in?"
"Hold on, I'll have to think about it......Lock me in!" Well that took me all of about 10 seconds and I was committed!
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| The Duyfken - at the wharf in Weipa |
The flight to Weipa was uneventful, Kim met me as promised and we were soon at the wharf and climbing over trawlers to get to the Duyfken. She is a beautiful 52ft game boat (I think this is right) and this was to be her maiden charter under Capt. Kim Andersen's watch. The plan was for a complete wash down; anybody who has been to Weipa and Cape York will know that that bloody red dust gets into everything, in readiness to greet our clients. Thank goodness the Duyfken is equipped with high pressure gurneys fore and aft, its was a breeze! (Note...that red dust is what the wealth of Cape York is created from, bauxite, and it is mined by huge open cut scrapers and shipped to China & Gladstone for processing into Aluminium.)
So after packing away our fishing gear, filling up with fresh water, a brief intro and the lines were thrown...just like in the movies. It was exciting stuff as we steamed out of Weipa harbour at first light next morning. It would be a fairly uneventful cruise out the leads, past Duyfken Point, and up the Gulf to our mooring location that evening. The outriggers were lowered, the TLD25's rigged with pushers and a flat line out the back with a deep diving raider. We had a couple of half-hearted hits, landed a couple of school mackerel but did not sight a sail.
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| Steaming up the coast. |
Next morning we dropped off the dories near the beach and cruised out to a few marks that Kim had collected over the years....reef and structure in deeper gulf waters. They just had to hold fish!
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| Mark - a quality golden |
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| Phil and his first red! |
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| A cobia...on a gulp plastic squid |
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| Les - now that's a nice golden trevally |
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| Those gulps again...bust ups galore too! |
I think it was about 25 seconds before the first bite....and Phil was on. Now in these remote reefs it could be anything from a red, nannygai (small & large mouth), stripey, fingermark, cod, trevally (about a dozen different varieties) cobia, tuna, sharks, reef jacks and more.....and we caught them all. Pics hereabouts show the variety and the quality. Bent rods, screaming reels, aching backs and arms was the order of the day. Even our cook, Mark, got into the action with soft plastics....gulps and squid things gigged off the bottom got slammed. And soon it was time to head back to the beach, pick up the dories from their safe anchorage and steam north to our next night's stop over. Man I wish we hadn't caught so many quality fish, even with strict catch and release guidelines, we needed to stock up on a few fillets for our needs, the task fell to me to do the filleting. While Capt. Kim was up in the driving position, Mark the cook preparing the evening meal and the guests (Steve, Kev & Phil) just lazing around having a few quiet beers. It doesn't get much better that that!
Its amazing how eager and enthusiastic everyone is bright and early in the mornings!
At 6:00 am it was a buzz....half naked bodies rushing to the back deck (err...loo) a quick coffee from the shiny new coffee making machine (bloody good stuff too), breaky, sun block and we were off.
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| Cruising the coast - chasing the tuna schools |
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| Phil and a nice longtail...15 minutes on the light spin gear |
Days seemed to blend into days....did we hit the marauding schools of longtail tuna, or the barras in the creek that day. Who cares, it was all on for the young and the not so young! We caught tuna and macks, barracuda & trevally, jacks and cods......and heaps of barra too!
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| Check out that lure - Qantas colour! |
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| Capt. Kim & Kev...using those plastic things! |
One day we found a willing school of barra sitting amongst the timber, right on the change of the tide, and we landed 25 barra in succession. We cast deep divers to undercut banks and shallow runners to mangrove edges. We even had a go at those new rubbery things generically called "Transam's"...Capt. Kim swears by them. I just swore
AT them Ha Ha. I did manage to hook up to some monster fish in deep water using them but unfortunately, the hooks pulled after spirited deep water runs. On one occasion I pumped a sizable fish to a few metres below the boat - I saw its huge bronze flash and almost caught one of the biggest fingermark that I have even seen. A quick turn of its head and it was free....darn.
At this stage we were in the Mapoon vicinity and within mobile phone range. It was amazing to see grown men scramble for their "mobile" device, anxious to check email but more importantly, post their latest photo to their Facebook page. Oh how times have changed...social media...its here to stay!
The river fishing was proving to be a bit challenging. There were fish about but they were not active in the cool conditions. Strong and persistent SE winds to 25 knots, drizzling rain and water temps a lot lower than anticipated was the culprit we deduced. But by working the tides, either the flats on the
high tides or the gutters on the low, we found quality barra.
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Kev and his PB....102
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I suspect we still averaged 40+ barra a day. Kev still managed his personal best at just over a metre, Steve broke his barra virginity (know how he feels) and Phil had a ball on the reefies. We even has a session in a creek where hundreds of queenies were smashing bait all around the dories.
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| Muddies.....YUM! |
The food was superb - thanks Mark! The highlight for me was the mud crab and seafood chowder; all ingredients was as fresh as, right down to the crabs (caught that day) and the cobia the previous one.
We had lures smashed by monster fish, at one stage while sight casting to dozens of hungry barra smashing jelly prawns at a creek mouth, my 30lb braid was cut by fish - at least 3 barra crossed my line simultaneously and twang, it was broken without a hit to the lure itself. We actually stayed there fishing for over two hours while dozens of barra boofed along the facing mud bank / along the river front and into the channel itself. This was an amazing session and although we only landed about 20 fish, to see such a bio mas of predator and prey in the raw was spectacular. It was here too that I lost a monster barra and my treasured Qantas coloured flat jack lure (they were working a treat up there!)
Other favourites included the deep diving shads, shallow running shads, gold bombers and those darn "transams"....come on boys, what do we call these bloody things?
The mother ship offers quality accommodation. She sleeps 10 people is comfort, has two bathrooms and heads, plenty of fresh water, air-conditioning, a huge double lounge / dining area an was home away from home.
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| Capt. Kim and Les in the "wheel house" |
Capt. Kim knows his stuff....he has been operating in these waters for many years and many of you may know him from the Mantaray days. He is also one of the best game boat skippers operating out of Cairns during the peak heavy tackle black marlin season....the Duyfken will be returning to the east coast in September to pursue these monster blacks. Kim is also keen on exploring the near shore blue water options in the Gulf....hence those outriggers and pushers. There are black marlin, sailfish and other light tackle sportfish species available and Capt. Kim has pioneered this fishery.
So if you are looking for that very special trip to remote Cape York / Gulf waters...check out Kim Andersen's Duyfken Sportfishing Charters....light tackle, reef, river lure & fly, awesome! Fact - we landed over 40 different varieties on this trip.
NOTE - on Kim's very next charter he managed his first sailfish...congratulations mate.
PS - upon my return to Cairns the weather here has been absolutely miserable. After such a magic week in the Gulf I was anxious to take Debbie fishing locally....its been too wet, too cold. maybe next week.
Catch you on the water, regards Les
www.fishingcairns.com.au
