Species Galore...............

Golden trevally, giant trevally, giant herring, cobia, dart, coral trout, queenfish, mangrove jack, remoras, tarpon, estuary cod……………..

The list goes on and on and on. The family and I headed out for the weekend to a remote section of beach between Weipa and Mapoon on the north western coast of Cape York Peninsula and with the Nissan Patrol loaded to the hilt, there was limited room for fishing paraphernalia. Having been there a number of times before, I knew how productive flicking small baitfish profile plastics from the beach can be so four bream rods were loaded into the car with a pile of Nitro jig heads and few packets of the old reliable 3” Bass Minnow Power Baits in pearl watermelon, pumpkinseed and bloodworm colour.

The beach in this part of the world has no surf due to being located on the Gulf of Carpentaria but it does have reef, lots and lots of reef. Turtles, sharks, crocs and plenty of fish live amongst the reef and the place is absolutely alive with constant eruptions of showering bait fish that are being preyed upon by the numerous species that call the reefs home. Setting up camp and sitting beside the fire watching the colours in the sky change constantly as the sun sets over the water while the feeding pelagics put on a show makes this one of the most spectacular locations in the country.

After spending most of the first day driving and setting up camp, we were keen to get into the fishing that first morning and my seven and eleven year old sons were down the beach just on sunrise. My plan was to boil some water before doing anything but the kids were into the action and I was on the beach for that billy made it to the boil.

The first couple of hook-ups were sharks that were feeding on the baitfish schools so the 12lb leaders were bitten through in no time so I was busy re-rigging the kids’ rods. Once the sharks had moved on there was a constant run of queenfish with some landed and some spectacular bust ups, which was all part of the excitement of fishing this area with ultra light tackle.

My wife was next to join in and I don’t know how she does it but she hooked into two good golden trevally, one after the other. Chasing the fish up and down the beach with the kids and I watching on was great fun. I am also amazed at how much pressure you can put on a fish with 4lb FireLine and 12lb Vanish leader. The blubbery lips of the golden trevally are ideal for light leaders and with a little patients; both fish were landed without any tackle issues.

We continued the flick out 3” Bass Minnows around for plenty more fish before retiring for breakfast. The plan for after breakfast was to drive up the beach to check out some of the other reefs.

During our drive, we came across one of the most spectacular sights that I have ever witnessed. What looked like a basking shark was feeding in the shallows so we stopped to both check out the huge shark which at this stage, is still not identified, and to see if there were any fish hanging with it. It was not a huge surprise to find cobia and remoras jumping all over out Bass Minnows. I have to add, for two fish that look similar, it is amazing at how much harder the cobia pulls compared to the lazy effort or the remora. I guess that is all one can expect from a fish that it too lazy to swim.

Continuing along the beach we managed to hook into a school of giant herring and I was even lucky enough to land a good mangrove jack that ran me into the rocks a couple of times before swimming back out. The herring would jump the second that they were hooked and would often throw the lure only to have another fish from the school eat it and the fight would start all over again. Being hooked up to a giant herring for five minutes and finally start to wear him out, only to have the hook come out and a fresh fish jump on board was hard work after a while and really tested to tackle.

This is my first post on the Berkley web site and motivated by how well the little Power Bait Bass Minnows work on such a huge variety of fish. I doubt anything feeding on the bait around the reefs would pass up on a little 3” Power Bait and to experience it on light bream fishing is the essence of true sportfishing.

Mark Ward