Weipa trip 22-25/09

G'day all. Just returned from a four day trip to Weipa with my brother Ryan. We mainly aimed the trip at fishing and some drinking of course! 8) . I went there well equipped with a pretty large array of tackle after my previous trip there 3 years ago. Unfortuantely this trip didn't really compare but still had some good moments. The first day I unpacked and shot down to Rocky Point to live bait some barra (while I still had a couple of hours of daylight). Thankfully there were a few there. In the space of 90mins I hooked four and landed two. Good eating size barras at 67cm and 58cm. One of the fish that escaped was quite a bit bigger but I was still happy to have landed a couple given the time restraints that day.

The second day was a bit of a fizzer. I had luckily caught up with a 'mate of a mate' when sorting out the barra fillets after the rocky point trip. He offered me a trip to the leads in his 6.1m makocraft which I was greatful for :D . However, the wind got up and the action was poor out there. We trolled back for about 3 hrs for only a few small trevally. I really could not believe thats all we caught!.

Day 3 was a bit better. I opted to head down to Evan's landing at first light as it usually holds plenty of queenies. I landed about half a dozen on livies, then tried some new atomic shads out. The queenies weren't real interested in them so I changed over to my old faithful squidgies and bam! I was onto a nice one. Things tapered off as the sun got higher in the sky so it was back to livies. The small gts became a nuisance, one after the other. At one stage I was retrieving another gt when I noticed a sizeable dark shape emerging behind it. So I figured, stuff the gt and grabbed my other rod still rigged with squidgy. With my other hand I clicked freespool on the gt. The big shadow engulfed the squidgy instantly and a substanital amount of line was howling through the guides of my baitcaster. About 60m away a solid queenie exploded into the air about 2m towards me. I thought I may have lost it but the fight went on for about another 15-20mins before I got it to safety with the locals helping with gaffing (and retrieving the gt on my other rod too!). On the jetty it measured 103cm, new PB queenie! Was stuffed after that so called it a day!

Last day (today). Returned to Evans landing for another morning shot at the queenies. Expecting some action my brother decided to get up on time and join me instead of sleeping in. It was a good choice as he landed a surprise coral trout midway through the trip :o . The queenfish action was pretty poor compared to the previous day, only a few runts falling for our lines.

I think its a good time of year to be in Weipa as you get a bit of the dry season queenie action mixed in with a bit of the barra that fire in summer. I think the problem with my trip was a) Tides were not big enough. The no run no fun principle definitely applies in Weipa. the more run, the more aggressive the predators feed. I was pleased with the timing of the tides but you really need size and timing. b) Too windy. When its windy the water visibility suffers and the pelagics hate that c) Time: 4 days ain't enough ! Hope you like the pics.

Last few pics...

They are some great photos bad bubby.

Did you find the fishing was on coming closer to summer or still a bit hard to pull out?