Kowanyama

[3Macks]

Last February I booked a camp spot at Topsy Creek through Kowanyama Council. Story is that bookings open 1 February for the period starting 1 June and most people have their booking email ready to send midnight 1 Feb.
I had not been there before but my best info was pick a full moon and this month had the high tide latest in the day for the few months that we had an option to go. The tide was still early in the day and sunrise is late by AEST. There was another group there who had fished Topsy for 17 years so I can only assume my selection of time was OK.
We had 2 boats and travelled up together as the road is gravel past Almaden - 430km out of 600km total to Kowanyama. The road conditions were fair with a choice of 4 lanes in places where there were patches bulldust.

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I took the Stacer as I expected there would be a chance to fish outside and I feel much safer in it than in the punt with about 250 freeboard.
The fish expected were grunter, threadies, fingermark as well as black jew and blue parrot if we got onto shallow reef.
Dinner for me the first night was a 320 whiting, biggest that I had seen for years.
We fished the next day early for some queenies and small fingermark. I think we kept 4 fingermark from a total of about 12 for the week. We caught 1 small black jew, some small blue salmon and some small grunter during the week.
The creek has changed dramatically from that shown on Google earth (2012) due to the heavy rains etc in early 2014. The mouth is sanded up such that getting out at less than half tide was dicy in the bigger boat. With semidiurnal tides that meant that we had limited daylight hours to investigate outside waters.

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Even the blokes that knew the system were working all day to get some fish and the barra that they caught were small and they suggested that the pros had been there before us. I expect the lack of a wet season would have drastically affected the barra numbers

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The other bloke in our camp pulled out a day early but had trouble on the way home blowing 2 trailer tyres due to the axle moving on one side. He left his boat 260km out of Cairns and went back 2 days later with new wheels and tyres.

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I found out that gravel roads make a mess of sidelights bur it forces me to fit LED side lights that I have had for 4 years. And it pays to check your ropes on your trailer spare.

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[Blackfish]

Awesome report and thanks for letting us in to the adventure for those of us that can't get up there.

[treasureman]

Thanks for the report, what a great read. The trip there and back is all part of the adventure and unfortunately corrugated roads are a part of that. I've used ratchet straps to tie tyres down on the roof only to find the the ratchet hanging over the side of the vehicle after a couple of k's.Must make the effort one day to get up there.

[robersl]

Great looking trip thx for sharing

[Snodger]

Thanks for the report Graham its a place that's been on my bucket list for some time now. Looks like a great spot.

[Bazil Brush]

Top report Graham, a bit of bad luck on the fishing side of things but that is something you can't control, still good to get away.

[tackle_buster]

Sounds like a top spot Graham. Is that Shane's twin brother in the first pic. Shame the fish didn't play the game but would have been great just to be there. Thanks for sharing your trip with us.

AND those corrugated roads will soon find any weakness in your vehicle and load

[al49]

Love the report and those two sunset pics another spot to try and get to ����

[3Macks]

Love the report and those two sunset pics another spot to try and get to ����

They are sunrise pics Al. When you get up at 6.30 it is pitch black. With a 5.30 start, there is time for breakfast, coffee, ablutions, a scratch, fill the solar showers, change gensets, etc. It is not really light until about 7am it is so far west.
I wasn't really worried about the fish but it would have been icing on the cake, as would have been better access to outside where we might have found some bigger fingermark and black jew.
I am not sure that I will get back because there are so many other places that I want to see and fish but I am not counting it out.