The variety of inshore fishing possibilities and species are endless in Weipa and Northern Australia and these fish are fast and powerful plus most will take flies. We were fishing at the infancy of the season, so we weren’t sure how we would do. We arrived a day early so we weren’t fishing by boat until Wednesday, We decided the night before we’d fish the beaches and some sandbars by foot. We arrived at the sandbar, as the tide started to drop and push water. The fishing fired up, I hooked into the first fish of the trip, a feisty but smaller giant trevally while the bait was constantly being smashed by serious predators. My Dad was casting around with Megan’s rod, while she ran to the Land Cruiser to get some sun block. We both spotted a huge giant trevally come up from the deeper water and over the sandbar chasing bait into the flats. We both were in casting range but he spooked before we had a real chance, since half his body would have been out of the water if he didn’t turn onto his side on the flats. He gunned it for about forty feet in a big half circle through a foot or less of water back over the sandbar into the comfort of deeper water, what a sight. Casting to long tail on fly was an awesome experience for me and something I had been waiting to do for some time. It was slow for the long tails I was told by our guide and family friend Capt. Al Philliskirk, head of Fish’s fly and sport fishing. We witnessed one bait ball on our last day of fishing on Sunday, but truly an incredible sight. Huge giant trevally , tuna, cobia , frigate birds and terns bombarding the tight ball of black bait without any regard of our presence.On Friday we had all caught a couple of meter plus queenfish by 8:30am . Megan also got a giant herring of over a meter. We decided to head for deeper water since the tide was working. Soon we had all caught a couple of kawakawa, Megan and my Dad had caught some very good sized grey mackerel and Spanish mackeral, I had caught my first long tail on fly before lunchtime on Friday after hooking a long tail on Monday and loosing him to the sharks .When there were no sights of tuna or birds near us we took a break to eat some lunch and to attract some sharks for a photo shoot, hoping to get a good look at them in the clear blue water. A variety of sharks showed up shortly, bull, black tip reef and lemon sharks to name a few. They all were impressive in size. While the boat was idle, Notso and my old man were messing with the bull sharks and black tip reefers dangling a fish carcass in front of their snouts to entice them closer and then pulling the fish away when they got too close and tried to eat.Without any notice, a small pod of about two or three long tails porpoise about 40 meters in front of the boat. As they moved towards us, I quickly jumped up to grab my stick and smoked a cast out in front of them. About three strips later one of the two long tails deviated from its path and zipped towards my fly, instantly hooking up. Burnt fingers, screaming reel and orange backing, I was very doubtful about landing this incredible fish since we had sharks all around us. By some stroke of luck and good fortune I pushed my eight weight to its breaking point, the “torpedo” was soon enough spiraling towards the surface. Ben grabbed his tail, I was elated. What a feeling!!! On one of our flats fishing days, Megan and I stalked a school of cruising blue salmon which were only meters from the dry sand. We were determined to get one. Making a perfect presentation was a must. She waited a few seconds for the school to approach the fly before stripping. Two strips later she was fighting her first salt water fish on fly. The hard fighting blue salmon was getting her into the backing quickly, and after roughly five minutes she had landed a great fish.On the last day she got a huge queen fish in only two feet of water about fifteen feet from the shore. My Dad and I fly casted at them but missed the shot, we had just had a double hook up about five minutes before hand when we both got into a small school of good sized queenies in very skinny water. She was quick on the draw, made a 30 foot cast and dropped a bucktail jig just inches from them. Two twitches later all hell broke loose as this meter plus queenie went ape shit in just about a foot of water. Scorching runs and epic leaps leaving splashes behind that looked like grand pianos where being dropped. These were just some of the awesome fish we caught during our stay. We caught numerous different species of fish every day. You can fish the flats for permit, trevally, queen fish and manta rays for cobia or whatever is hanging on them. Then head out to deaper water just a kilometer or less offshore for mackerel, tunas, or head up the tidal creek for good barramundi and mangrove jack fishing.Al “Fish” Philliskirk and his family run a superb guiding service out of Weipa.
Don,
WOW! You weren’t kidding this past fall when you were telling me about the saltwater opportunities in Australia! Look at that longtail tuna!! Absolutely beautiful And a tuna species that I would love to catch someday! I know you are a tuna addict like me and I would love to be fortunate enough someday to visit Australia and target the giant trevally and all of those other incredible species of which you mention were present — but, like you, I would always have a keen eye out for the longtail tuna or any tuna species. Australia is just such a spectacular saltwater fishery, it is simply amazing. I hope it stays that way forever! That is a perfect size longtail tuna for the fly rod too! You “lucky” dog! I am extremely jealous! Ok, I’m gonna stare at that tuna for a bit … beautiful fish and great fish tale!
WOW!!! Looks like Austrailia has moved up a few spots on the “Must visit (and fish)list”! I grew up fishing for tuna with big game tackle…I have yet to catch my first one on the fly, but you are making it painfully obvious that I NEED to. Sounds like you really have a variety of fish to target on the flats there. Congrats on the great fishing, and thank you for the excellent fish tale!
Don,
I remember you talking about the fishing down there when we fished RI last summer but didn’t realize how insane it could be. What an awesome trip and great fish tale, that sounds incredible. I have heard some things about the saltwater in Australia lately and it is somewhat overlooked when it comes to fishing destinations. My interest is definitely peaked and that sounds like some incredible fishing especially considering that you did a bunch of it on foot. Nice work! I will definitely be adding Australia to my short list of places to visit.
What a great experience…with that many options it must have been tough to make a decision day to day. Great fish tale glad that you got your long tail Tuna. I liked the part about you hooking up while your dad was tesing the sharks. “About three strips later one of the two long tails deviated from its path and zipped towards my fly, instantly hooking up. Burnt fingers, screaming reel and orange backing,”
Very Cool.
Don:
Those are really nice fish. It seems that no one catches anything but large fish in Australia. I am particularly interested in the fish in the top image accompanying your fishtale. (I apologize for being a naive American.) Is that a giant trevally or a queenfish? A while back, I posted a fishtale about my trip to Bahrain (in the Persian gulf)
http://www.fliesandfins.com/article862.html
and your fish looks like my little-bitty fish’s granddaddy. I had to do a fair amount of research to attempt to identify the fish that I caught, so seeing your fish may help me to know if I was correct. Thanks for you response.
AD
Wow man!!! That’s what I call fishing, looks like non stop action on big fish more than eager to take a fly!!!Too bad that I wasn’t into fishing as I am today when I spent a couple months there when I was 14 years old. I’ll have to go back to visit my family.
Great fishes that you hold!!! Great tale too!!
i need a trip like that…
thanks for sharing
Nice fish!. Awesome fishtale!
Don,
Thanks for a great read. Sounds like Weipa is my kinda place, tons of species that will eat flies…love it. Great Pics too, those fish are built for speed.
One question…What is a Blue Salmon?
cheers, thanks for the kind remarks.
hey, boz
a blue salmon is a relative of the threadfin salmon.
hi
I think it’s a queenfish you got or a oceanic queenfish. hope that helps