The engines roared as the plane rolled down the runway. Months of planning had finally become airborne on this beautiful winter’s morning. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky as Melbourne passed below, nor would we see one in the next two weeks. A perfect start to a promising trip.

Day one on our Far North Queensland fishing adventure was to see us depart Tyabb in Victoria’s beautiful Mornington Peninsula and travel to Longreach for the night, with a fuel stop and lunch at Burke.

The crew for the trip consisted of my father Paul, his friend Mark (a.k.a.: Gorilla) and myself.

Longreach was made easily by mid afternoon so it was straight to the pub for accommodation, a feed and a few ales. Anticipation was high of the following day so after a good feed and a couple of yarns it was off to bed.

At 8:30 am the following morning the town of Longreach slipped slowly out of sight as we approached our cruise altitude of 8000 feet. All around the scenery was red with dirt, only the odd homestead providing the occasional oasis of green. Normanton was now under two hours away and we were all buzzing with anticipation.

Once the Norman River came into view we descended and followed it all the way to Normanton, inspecting all likely fish holding areas. A quick run through of checks followed by the dropping of the landing gear and smooth touch down heralded our arrival at Normanton.

On arrival the gorilla made a quick phone call to the Albion Hotel, and within no time we were picked up by long time friend Andrew (Roo) who helped us load all our gear into his air-conditioned 4X4.

We settled down into our room and had a quick bite for lunch. Following lunch Roo showed us his boat, hooked it up to the car, grabbed an esky full of beer, ice, chips and bourbon cans and threw it into the boat and said “see ya at dinner”.

I believe it was at that time that I actually understood the meaning of heaven.

On arrival at the boat ramp we found much to our surprise and disappointment the water was very cold, so in an aim to cover as much water as possible we decided to trawl. After half an hour of trawling and not even a sniff of a fish, I decided to change lures to a three inch Nilsmaster Spearhead in fluro colors.

Not even 10 minutes had elapsed then…. Bump! Whack! The rod was loaded right up as a big fish just nailed my little Nillsie. Six kilo mono violently spilled off my Abu 6000 as the fish went all out to get back into its timber lair, but due to more luck than good management it about faced and swam straight into the middle of the river. I called it for a Barra of over 20lb, Dad laughed at me and told me “Its nothing till it’s in the boat!” Surprisingly the fish came easily towards the boat, but then suddenly it darted upstream stripping 20 meters of taut 6kg line off the reel and in doing so launching its huge bulk out of the muddy water. This Barramundi was bloody huge! It was like a chrome rocket! Since the hook up we had covered nearly 100 meters of river and fifteen minutes had elapsed. Then after many nervous moments boat side we managed to lift this massive Barramundi out of the water and into the boat.

There it lay, well over 120 cm of saltwater Barra, a once in a lifetime fish especially for Mexicans (“south of ze boarder”) like us and on six kilo line not a bad piece of angling. After a few quick snap shots this giant was returned to the water no worse for wear to the Gorilla bellowing “Now that’s a fish worth drinking to”. What a start to our Barra fishing, and a perfect start to our far north Queensland fishing adventure.

When we got back to the Pub with stories of Barra the size of crocodiles we were laughed at! The only proof we had was a roll of film, so for two days we were considered BS artists, but when the film was processed we were legends. We had not been at the Gulf a day and we had landed a massive Barramundi! A photo of which is still on the wall of the Albian Hotel.

The next two days were spent on the Norman River; we tried everything to catch another Barramundi and caught nothing, so we decided to travel to Escott Lodge. The trip was very bumpy but with the promise of new water we could not wait.

En-route to Escott we stopped at Leichhardt Falls for a few happy snaps and a couple of casts at the abundant little Barramundi that massed around the boulders, but all effort was to no avail.

We arrived at Escott mid afternoon. Dad and I keen for more of day one action left the Gorilla at the bar and set off into the salt water to try our luck. Only to have the large population of small catfish pestering us, but I did manage to jump off one quite small Barra.

Over dinner it was decided that the fresh was worth a good going over in the morning as the salt was cold and void of inspiration.

The only fish that we caught in the fresh were a few giant catfish yet the scenery was fantastic, and the wildlife abundant.  At one Barrage we decided to leave the boat and walk the lower stretch, yet within 10 minutes we encounted 4 Taipans and several large Swamp Geckos, we then came to the conclusion that it was probably safer in the boat.

That night we decided to head back to Normanton in the morning to have a look at Karumba as the rivers were obviously too cold and the reptiles too friendly.

Arrival at Karumba had us meet up with a local character known as “Woody”. He informed us that there were a few Mackerel out about 4 miles from the mouth of the river on the shallow side of the banks.

Waiting for the trade winds to drop we fished the river for very little, we tried live bait, trawling and casting, we could see plenty of small to medium Barramundi and Salmon cruising the mangroves but we could not entice a single fish!

Totally frustrated we headed out to the sandbanks; first we started to trawl. Finally we caught a fish, a little Spotted Mackerel; the Duck of the past days had been broken!

The next three days had us catching literally hundreds of spotted Mackerel in the afternoons and morning sessions on Salmon and Black Jew at the Jew Hole. We landed many Salmon but the big Jewies beat us on all occasions, We got very close on one occasion but this giant Jewfish prematurely found freedom meters from the boat, providing us with yet another one of those “one that got away” stories.

On our last day at Karumba, luck shone once more. It was late in the afternoon and the Gorilla was at his usual post at the front of the boat. Just as he was about to brave the frost bight of the esky his rod doubled over and line screamed off the reel as a big Spanish Mackerel hit warp seven. After twenty minutes of battle the Gorilla got the fish boat-side and muttered something about how “big fish eat little fish, and how he was bigger than this fish”

This Spanish Mackerel at around 30 pounds was not the biggest fish in the Gulf of Carpentaria or far north Queensland for that matter, but the Gorilla’s previous best fish before this trip was a 30-cm Port Phillip Bay Flathead; to say he was rapt was an understatement. For the record his family has had to watch the Video of his epic battle so many times he is forbidden to play it while they are home.  This fish made his trip!

Dawn the following day had us loading up the plane for our most anticipated leg of the trip, our two days at Sweers Island. Our time at Sweers Island was to see us catch over 15 different species of fish ranging from Mackerel to Snapper to Sharks.

On arrival at Sweers Island we were greeted by Ray at the airstrip and ferried to our room in the back of the trusty old Land Cruiser Ute. After we settled into our room we walked over to the dining room as breakfast was being served. After breakfast we were given the run down of the Sweers Island operations, including the all-important meal times, boat and bar operations. In our morning fishing sortie we fished on the sheltered north side of the island to keep us sheltered from the blustery trade winds. This produced the usual suspects of tropical reef fishing. Following a fantastic lunch back at the resort of cold meats, fresh fish and salads, we decided to travel to the East Side of Sweers Island. The afternoon session was just totally mind blowing. It was just non stop action, we landed six Spanish Mackerel ranging form 20-40+ pounds, Snapper ranging from 2-6 pounds and of course the usual cod, parrot fish, stripeys and sea perch.

Day two at Sweers left me with some of my most memorable fishing. I hooked a Spanish Mackerel of well over 60 pounds it was running so fast that the line cut through the water leaving the fish’s back dry! Then another shape sped at the ballistic mackerel creating a bow wave complete with dorsal fin that intercepted this rather irate giant. It all ended with a splash that covered a 20-foot radius a limp line and a couple of dumbfounded anglers.

What a way to finish a memorable trip. It would have been a once in a lifetime trip, but we have all vowed to return on another far north Queensland fishing adventure.

Information

The Gulf of Carpentaria is home to some of the most inhospitable land in Australia yet it provides some of the best fishing this country has to offer.

The average tidal movement in the Gulf region is 3 to 3.5 meters.

In the Gulf of Carpentaria sport fishing is dominated by Barramundi.  Yet there are numerous other saltwater species, including mangrove jacks, queenfish, threadfin salmon, grunter, fingermark, black jewfish, trevally, cod and bream to provide an angler with a variety of quality sport fishing options.

The gulf and especially Karumba are famous for its prawns. Each season a large commercial fleet of both domestic and international trawlers travels to Karumba to harvest these highly sought after crustaceans.

Although this trip was conducted in a light aircraft it’s the perfect trip for the trailer boat fisherman. Most roads are sealed, as are boat ramps at Normanton and Karumba. Karumba, on the coast, and Normanton, further inland are both ideal bases for visiting anglers planning on fishing this region. Normanton and Karumba are both situated on the Norman River.

Sweers Island

Offshore in the Gulf there are two quality tourist developments that offer fishing remarkable even by the Gulf’s standards.  Both Sweers and Mornington Islands are only accessible to visiting anglers by aircraft and, and in both cases, only guests using facilities offered by the respective operators are allowed access to the Islands.

Apart from prawning, there is no commercial fishing nearby, making both reef and light tackle fishing productive. Red emperor, coral trout, sweetlips and cod are dominant catches from the reefs surrounding the Islands. Sweers Island is the most south easterly island in the Wellesley Group. Sweers has miles of pristine golden beaches, blue waters, an intriguing history and an abundant variety of birdlife.

Planning and Consulting:

TRACKAIR

9 Tangari Crt

Greensborough

Victoria 3088.

PH: 0417 551 373

Call: Paul Pingiaro and he will be able to organize your trip of a life time.