Weipa Mission 2014

So back in 2005, me and Martin (a mate and regular fishing buddy) hit Weipa in early June, and we had a ball. We fished with Dave Donald's guiding operation, and caught hell out of the tuna. 

I was dead keen for round 2, and I convinced my mate Adam (aka Haystack) it would be a good idea. Dave had shut the doors on his business, so we decided to fish with Alan Philliskirk's operation, Weipa Fly Fishing.

Now initially we planned the trip for 2013, but I kinda stuffed that up by being hospitalised at the time (in a coma no less). That could have been the end of the trip right there, but thankfully I'd recovered well enough to travel and fish come 2014, and Alan was good enough to refund our deposit when I initially was hospitalised (so fair play to Alan- he was entitled to keep the deposit given my accident was only a few weeks out from the trip). So we were back in the frame this year.

After plenty of planning and gear preparations, the date finally rolled round and we jumped a plane to Weipa (via Cairns). Nice thing about Weipa in April-May is the weather is ultra-predictable. The same constant SE Winds that make the East Coast a pain to fish at this time of year are your friend in Weipa. You are still hoping for light breezes and clear skies, but you know the wind direction will be offshore at the very least. That's a massive edge Weipa has on other fisheries.

Weipa accom has become much more upmarket. 9 years ago we were in the on site van at the Camp Ground. Fine but scuzzy. This time we were in the Fishing Lodge. Still at the camp ground, but heaps more comfy, secure, pleasant & well appointed (think air con & flat screens). There's also great balconies, a damn good view (sunsets over the water), but best of all a private chef who cooks all your meals. Sweet.

So the first couple of days were forecast to be the pick of the week. Lighter winds and clearer skies. Clear skies are critical for success on the flats, and lighter winds are better for just about all the fishing, but especially going wider and chasing pelagics (like tuna). Even an offshore will chop up the water if it's strong enough.

We discussed our plans & expectations for the trip on the flights north. 2005 had been a complete tuna fest (which was exactly what we wanted). This trip we were definitely hoping for a couple of good tuna sessions but wanted the experience the flats and the creeks an maybe even sneak in a dredge with sinking lines on deep water.

Day 1: Run to Boyd

Weipa sits at the Eastern corner of Albatross Bay, with Boyd Pt marking the Southern headland of the bay, and Duyfken Pt the Northern headland. Both headlands fish well, but Boyd and the Southern reach gets better protection from the SE wind. So we set sail south with guide Jason Owey and his awesome boat Wasabi, a 6.2 metre fibreglass Hooker running a 115 Yamaha: 

We didn't get halfway to Boyd and we ran into a sizeable school of tuna. First cast I was on. 15 minute fight later my first tuna was in the boat. Tuna never disappoint. A searing first run, loads of backing out, a hard fought battle to get the fish back into close quarters and a slugfest to get it netting range.

So 1 cast, 1 fish. 1st day of the trip. Feeling rather clever to be honest.

The next hour put me back in my place. Hooking up was relatively easy. Landing them wasn't. The sharks weren't helping, neither were the cheap flies I'd bought which were straightening mid fight.

This was Adam's first experience of tuna, and the mayhem they can create. My first tuna session was a procession of botched casts, fish lost mid fight, sharkings, losing fish to poor line management, and zero tuna in the boat. Adam's first session was similar. Still if you've not hooked tuna on fly before, it's hard to be upset - they are an epic experience even to hook. And this was in the first couple of hours of day one. Plenty of time to land that first tuna yet.

So we continued the run south, dropping in at One Tree beach to look for Manta Rays (or as they are known in Weipa, Flappers). One doesn't try catch the Mantas, rather one of the entourage of fish that tend to trail them around while the Mantas scoff jelly prawns. The Mantas often stir up baitfish so any trailing fish get an easy feed. Idea being you cast a baitfish fly at the Mantas, and one of the entourage fish peel off and scoff it. All very cool and visual.

Adam's first efforts worked a treat. After a couple of casts a rather respectable cobia ate his fly. Problem being the fish was again lost next to the boat. 

I was getting a little worried that perhaps Adam's luck was out. As much as it was early doors for the trip, you don't want losing fish to become a pattern.

Haystack though responded in great fashion, hooking an even bigger cobe that after a great battle came to hand. It was a great cobe that topped the meter mark. So much for being snakebit. 

Made the Cobia I caught 20 minutes later look like a baitfish.

So we did finally get to the Flats at Boyd. I opened the batting, but I'll freely admit I'm crap at spotting fish on the flats. I did get off one rather good shot at a Tuskfish, but I blew the shot by focusing more on my loose line getting wrapped around the electric rather than hooking the tuskie. Soon after that effort, I got the hook and Adam had a crack. 

Adam was a flats rookie, but seemed to have a better flair for spotting. He put in a series of good shots at Blue Bastards and Tuskies. One particular BB lingered so Adam got 8 shots in, and the BB eyeballed Haystack's shrimp pattern every time. And the 8th time it ate it. 

BBs aren't massive fish but fight suspiciously like a tractor. And this particular bluey was also healthy specimen, but Adam kept it out of the rubble, and it eventually yielded. Haystack was stoked. As he should have been - this was an epic fish.

Yeah, the cobe was bigger, but the way one catches BBs and the difficulty of fishing the flats made this a more meritorious catch.

We then headed back to Weipa running into big Queenies on way back. I hooked up first on a creasie that was utterly monstered. It didn't give me the scrap a tuna offers. Far less long powerful runs, a lot more acrobatics. All came to nought though when I lost him boatside, my 20lb leader chaffing through. 

I continued with the creasie, while Adam followed Jason's advice and went the subsurface clouser option. Pays to listen to the guide. Adam nailed a couple of big queenies while my creasie went untouched. And by big, I again mean over the 100cm. 

So not a bad day for the guy I was worried was snakebit.

Day 2 dawned nicely, so we thought we'd try replicate Day 1 

Again we got on to tuna 1st up. Same area but more spread and patchy. Tougher to hook, but we thought the lack of density would mean less sharks.

Bzzzzzt. Wrong.

If anything there were more sharks and they seemed pissed off at the lack of tuna to eat. Based on the 12 footer that headbutted the engine, they held us responsible.

We did though both manage to get a tuna past the sharks. No small effort given the late slugfest tuna offer up (and that's when most sharkings occur - at the end of the fight). Having a 40lb leader really helps at these moments. It's allows the guide to approach landing that bit more aggressively. 

Adam's 1st ever Tuna:

My Longie:

My day was about to get better though

Having landed a tuna each, we set sail for One Tree to again hopefully see Mantas. I had first shot, and Jase called one of the Manta wingmen as a big trevally. And that was exactly what peeled off the Manta to chase my pink surf candy. And having eaten, it gave me one hell of a close range battle. In the flats shallows the risk of sharking is low, but nonetheless there was much whooping in the boat when the trev was in the net. Most of it from me.

It was one hell of a big Golden Trevally. 92cm. Hard to gauge weight, but I'd say at least 9 kilos (edit: turns out my Goldy weight estimations might be a little awry, 7.5 or 8kg might be more the mark).

So before lunch on Tuesday, and we'd ticked most of the trip's boxes.

We set sail for flats. I was still feeling euphoric so kept the cue racked and gave Adam first shot. He used the time well, hooking a very sold tuskie. Annoyingly the tuskie bricked him, but between that and yesterday's BB, that's a hell of a flats debut.

After another 30 min or so we headed back to One Tree & manta town. I picked up a couple of cobia (including my best of trip but nothing to rival Adam's monster). There were some big fish in there though.

With about 30 minutes left on the water, we again tried to find queenies, but instead found tuna. And (sigh) sharks. The hand cramp I got after the first tuna I hooked made me decide my race was run for the day. Adam had no joy getting one past the sharks anyhow.

Wed: beaches and creeks

The wind kicked, and the cloud was thick. So neither the flats or out wide would fly.

So we shuffled south to Thud and around to Norman Creek. The plan was to snag bash for barra, and if the wind dropped or cloud dispersed we'd walk the flats at the mouth of the Norman.

It's very different fishing to either the flats or chasing tuna. It's close range fishing, but your cast needs to be tight to the snags. Seriously tight. Our first efforts were clumsy, but I started to get my groove back, and Adam too started getting his fly in right spots. 

He was rewarded with the first barra, follow by respectable jack. We also saw some mid river commotion - a queenie running amok. Indeed a 70 cm version ate my fly. Rather good for river specimen.

I added two barra soon including a (legal) 60+ cm fish after thanks to some improved casting.

The wind backed off a little and the skies cleared. So we walked the beach at the creek mouth and did some sightcasting. Good fun but the fish we ran into didn't set any records - small queenies, goldies, brassies all came to hand. Last week that same spot yielded a 105 cm queenie.

The run back to Weipa underlined how big Weipa is. T'was a 65 minute run back from the Norman, keeping in mind Jason's boat (Wasabi) is a beast. 6.2m Hooker with 115 Yamaha. 

Thursday: Bad Moon Rising

Thursday dawned much like Wednesday. Breezy and overcast. We also had the new moon to contend with. 

New moons bring big tides and dark nights, so the bait can get very spread out. The big tides also mean the window to fish certain locations is far narrower.

Well that was the theory.

So when we ran into busting Longtail tuna at the harbour mouth we thought the theory might have been utter bollocks. Adam landed his, I lost mine to a dodgy knot (d'oh).

The tuna thinned out so we went in search of greener pastures. In retrospect, we should have stuck with them.

We tried the flats. We tried out wide. We looked for Mantas. No dice. Between the wind, the cloud and the tides, the fish seemed to have gone off the chew.

We were fishing with Alan today, and he's racked more time on Weipa waterways than just about anyone, period.  If we couldn't find fish with him, we wouldn't find them with anyone.

We did have a short flurry of action on a beach laden with jelly prawns. Nothing to do cartwheels about, but a few blue salmon, smallish trevs and queenies came to hand.

A decent blue salmon:

We did run into a small patch of tuna running back to the harbour, but I dropped him mid fight.

This was definitely our slowest day.

Friday: Unfinished business

The weather was kinda similar to Thursday. The only good news was we were 24 hours further away from the New Moon tides, giving the predators a bit more time to get their house in order.

We asked Alan to get us on to either Tuna or big queenies (with who I had unfinished business with from Monday).

Tuna were no dice. We looked long and hard but didn't see either birds or splashes.

So all of our remaining chips were stacked on big queenies. No pressure Alan.

Al felt the best shot at a big queenie would come at the bottom of the tide at the mouth of Weipa harbour. So we took up residence on a big sand spit at the Harbour mouth and fished into the channel.

There were a few big slashes in the water, so there were definitely queenies about. The question was would one eat our fly.

10 minutes of casting later we got our answer when I came tight. Another 5 minutes on, my queenie was on the beach. I was rather chuffed.

Adam added one himself soon after.

Rather nice way to round out the trip that.

We'd exceeded our expectations. We both landed a couple of tuna and had a couple of fun tuna sessions, we both got a big other critter off the flats (my Goldy, Adam's BB), both nailed some good queenies and cobia, had the fun of not only seeing but fishing mantas. We'll take that.

In retrospect coming over a full or new moon was a little risky, but we had a limited window of dates. This is the busiest time of year for the guides. In fact April/May of 2015 is already littered with bookings.

This is my 2nd Weipa trip (Adam's first), and this was the better trip. There were more tuna first trip but less variety on offer. I'd also say the guides, their boats and the accom were a notch up this time.

Fish of the trip? For Adam, his Blue Bastard, for me the Goldy. Hard to pick a winner from that lot. The BB is the more revered flats species (at least infly fishing circles), and they are tougher to hook, but that Goldy was an absolute ripper, and when they get big they don't need to be given any explanation or context to impress.

So for anyone toying with the idea of a Weipa Trip, here are my tips:

Book Alan and Weipa Fly Fishing , even if you are bait fishos. They had a couple of people fishing bait that same week and they cleaned up. Great guys who know their stuff. We fished with Jason and Alan, but also met Notso one evening. I'd happily fish with any of them.




Avoid the full & new moon if possible. If you can't c'est la vie,




Don't fret about camera gear. The guides have great cameras and even better camera skills. Its not worth dragging your gear up here (baggage is very restricted on the flights into Weipa)

And for the fly fishos:



The Rio Outbound line (basically an integrated intermediate shooting head) is awesome for the bluewater but not for flats. It's too dumpy on the flats.




A 9 weight is ideal, but bring two combos. It minimises the amount you need to chop & change when moving from the bluewater to flats.




Fish 40lb leader straight through in the blue water. It helps when landing fish if sharks are about, and gives you a bit of protection from the raspy mouths of some species 




Cheap flies are rubbish. They might seem a way to save cash, but you have zero confidence in them especially when the hooks start bending. I'd far prefer to have 2-3 decent flies from Beechy than 12 rubbish flies that won't hold a fish. False economy. Beechy ties a mean fly, his crabs and shrimp patterns were awesome on the flats, and his big pink candies undid tuna, barra, queenies, that goldy and jacks. Give him a yell before your next mission, be it to Weipa or elsewhere. He's a font of both information and quality flies.

Hervey Bay mission

So my great mate Matt Fender called Hervey Bay home for a couple of years after a seachange from Sydney. It wasn't solely for fishing reasons, but the quality of fishing on offer in HB was certainly a significant draw.

I got up there in Chrissie '11, but I was blown out. HB is a great fishery, but it does endure prolonged periods of breeze that can shut down the fishing. That was my Christmas in HB.

So Matt and I were waiting for the wind to drop and the tuna to get hot, the plan being I'd jump a plane from Sydney. Come April, Matt made the call and I flew North.

We spent both the Saturday and most of the Sunday on the water. And it's fair to say the tuna played ball. Mac Tuna on the Saturday, Longtails on the Sunday. Interesting to see the different schools in action. The bustups of Macs are very tight and frothy. Longtails are bigger splashes more spread out. And Longys come out of the water, looping crazily out chasing baitfish. Macs don't.

Both pull bloody hard, but the Longtails are more highly sought. Not only at LTs slightly larger, but Macs can be anything from annoyingly fussy to boringly unfussed in terms of what flies they eat. Longies are more consistent, and thus more satisfying to hook. Present a surf candy well and they'll eat it. The fact Longies also make great sushi (Macs are horrid on the plate) probably boost their popularity further still.

That's proably why Macs have a mixed reputation in SE Qld. That said, Macs are an awesome fish (Qlders are spoilt). As I've said previously they kinda make salmon, kings and bonito (the staples of the Sydney pelagic scene) look rather plain.

 A solid Mac:

One of the Longies:

It wasn't easy fishing by any means. The fish were spread over several kms in the corridor, just south of Roonies. They were also boat shy. You had to position yourself around 300m upwind of the school and hope they stayed up.

We nailed around 6 Macs on the Saturday and 4 Longies on the Sunday. As I said, not easy (hardy a fish a cast), but excellent fishing and very satisfying to boat the fish.

One of Matt's Longies:

I must admit I don't quite know why the corridor south of Roonies fires so frequently, Much life the rest of the bay, the bottom is featureless, but it's rather handy as you get some protection from the prevailing SE winds and you know where you are most likely to find the tuna when you launch (and HB is big water). Very occasionally you might run into tuna further down the bay, but it's very much the exception to the rule.

We also turned to the dark arts, and tried jigging some metals and soft plastics over some of the few bits of structure HB actually has. Did alright as well

Solid Trevally (Goldspot? Edit - it's a Brassy):

Now admittedly the bonefish was unexpected. Had it come on fly it would have been remarkable. Though it must be said there have now been enough bones caught around the traps, to make a capture slightly less of a rarity, but it still turns heads.

A genuine HB bone:

T'was a great weekend. Fun times with a great mate and top fishing to boot.

Sydney Season Begins

1st Sambo of the season. Always good to get the line stretched having not fished for a few months

Tuna Chase - Sunshine Coast, April 2010

First trip report, and some would say about time. That is, if anyone was looking at this yet.....

I actually had a pretty ordinary summer of fishing on Sydney Harbour - the fish were patchy, and I seemed to regularly pull the wrong rein in terms of picking my days. Then in February I was burgled, and lost a good chunk of my fishing gear (%#$#&$#). Everything was replaced by mid-April, but by that point I was really keen to get my string pulled and the local fishing had petered out.

Bugger.

So I was mooching around on the forums, and one of the Sunny Coast boys posted some info about the annual tuna chase. Apparently the fishing had been hot, the weather forecast was good, and there were a few deckie slots to be had. Three phone calls later I was in business, and two days later I was on the plane.

Now I knew bugger all about chasing tuna on the Sunshine Coast. Closest I'd fished was Hervey Bay, so I was hoping to borrow heavily on what I'd learnt there and hoped my partner could help make up the rest.

Turned out my partner, Graham Stuart, was a Sunshine Coast rookie as well. So much for the local knowledge. What he was though was an absolutely cracking fellow and a dead keen fisho, and he also had an awesome boat - a Seafarer Vantage 485 (aka a Haines Traveller).



Saturday morning, and it was hacking down rain. I forecast the clouds to burn off by 7 - it was still raining by 4pm. Thankfully though, there was no wind and the swell was clean, so the conditions were actually pretty good. We made the call to run North out of Mooloolabah (which has a pretty well protected harbour entry and great ramps), and we were on to fish pretty much straight away. 7am and I had a Mac Tuna in the boat, by 730 Graham had one as well. Smallish Macs (55-60cm models), but enough to spin the drag (and christen the new Loomis GLX Cross Current and Tibor Riptide) and put smiles on our faces. We felt like geniuses.
By about noon, the genius feeling was ebbing away a little. We'd added a third fish of similar size, but the schools had gone from patchy to single fish to not even seeing a bust for the last 90 minutes. We made the call the run back toward Mooloolabah and stick in tighter to the shore, as apparently a lot of the action over the last week had been in close.

It was a good call. We found bigger tuna in tight to Alexandra Headland. They were still patchy and boat shy, but if you were persistant and patient, the shots came. Graham was the first to hook up.


The first run was a ripper. 50+ metres of backing out the guides was the start of a 15 minute battle. We'd called it as a Longtail, but it turned out to instead be a bloody big Mac Tuna. It was a cracking fish, and a PB Mac for Graham. Smiles were plentiful.


I got my big Mac about 20 minutes later. Again it was that same blistering run to open proceedings followed by a 15 minute slugfest.



On the ride back to the ramp, once again, we felt like geniuses.

There was a meet and greet for all the tuna chase participants down the Kawana hotel on Saturday night. We'd done OK, but the boys who turned south had done better. That's where Graham and I decided to go on Sunday.

Sunday morning, sunny, clear and windless. What swell there was had dropped out. It was glamour conditions.

We headed out and found the tuna off Caloundra. Again Macs, again boat shy and patchy. Same rules as Saturday arvo applied - you mooched around where the fish were busting most consistantly, and eventually you got shots. It wasn't easy fishing by any means, but when you hooked up it was rewarding.

Joe de Jager, one of the local boys (and organisers of the comp) had told us what it was like to hook a monster Mac Tuna - the 8 kilo suckers that ran for miles and gave you an absolute streetfight. My last fish on the Sunday was one of these guys, and it gave me one of the best runs and fights a fish has ever given me.



It's funny, Mac Tuna get a bad wrap in SE Qld. Maybe it's because they don't take flies as readily as Longtails, or you can't eat them, but I tell you what, if Mac Tuna turned up in Sydney on a regular basis, we wouldn't even bother chasing Salmon or Kings.

At the Chase wrap up back at Tie'N'Fly (the local fly fishing shop), it turned out we'd well and truely kept up with the Joneses on the Sunday, but were weren't able to rake back the ground we'd lost on the Saturday. Nonetheless we were two pretty happy fishos on Sunday.

I'm certainly keen to go back for the 2011 Tuna Chase. It's a great weekend - not too serious but well run, and plenty of social aspects to the weekend as well.

A big thanks to Joe de Jager, the team at Tie'N'Fly, and Graham Stuart (and Matt the Pom, who stocked me up with flies at short notice). See you all next year.

Tackle: Loomis GLX Cross Current 9 weight, Tibor Riptide & SA Striped Bass Intermediate, 1/0 surf candies

Welcome to Into the Backing

Welcome to Into the Backing, my first foray into the world of blogging.

My passion is Saltwater Fly Fishing, and I'll be blogging the details of my regular expoits on Sydney harbour, as well as the odd trip to destinations further afield. Hopefully it proves vaguely interesting to the other fishos out there.......