Princess Charlotte Bay, Cape York
This place is regarded as one of the premiere fishing locations in the Cape York region. It just has so many options available for the landbased fisho it’s not funny! You could spend a month up here and fish different stretches of water each day and still not cover this whole area. Start yourself in Lakefield National Park and fish for Barra and slowly make your way fishing and camping your way to the coast. You have so many options from barra in the mangroves to queenies on the flats. If you tow a small tinny up here, your fishing options have just increased tenfold. From here you will be able to fish for reef fish and pelagic around the island and in the protected waters of the bay.
Pormpuraaw
If you’re got BIG barra on your fishing bucket list it’s pretty hard to go past the Coleman River just south of Pormpuraaw on the north eastern side of the Gulf. After a good wet season (like we had this year!) you’ll have one of your best shots at landing a big girl over the magic metre mark. Of course, you will get your bycatch like threadfin salmon, queenfish and trevally, but if you can get a lure and bait past these guys you are in with a good chance to catch the saltwater barra of a lifetime. The best way to fish these big river systems is to pay attention to your sounder and find deep water rock bars. Slow troll some deep diving bibbed lures down along these rock bars and work the rod to twitch the lure in a frantic motion as you troll.
1770
The only town in Australian that’s a number and not a word, but more importantly, it’s one of the best fishing destinations on the east coast. When you see the photos of reef fish and in particular, red emperor you’ll be planning a fishing trip up here on the next long weekend you can find. If the weather doesn’t play the game you can fish the creeks for barra and mangrove jacks and put a few pots out for a feed of muddies. Offshore you have a limitless amount of reef and shoals to fish for a variety of hard pulling species. For best results use your sounder and spend a good amount of time searching for isolated bommies in 30-50m for your red emperor and coral trout. A deadly way to catch them is using a fillet of husser that are plentiful on all these reefs and send it down on a paternoster rig. Bring your snorkelling gear as well as some of the coral lagoons here are nothing short of spectacular!
Fraser Island
Plan your trip up here between August and October to coincide with the tailor run for some of the best beach fishing of your life. Dust off the beach rods and pack some gang hooks and pillies as well as a few metal slices to give yourself the best chance of hooking up. The tailor can sometimes be that thick that you will be able to see them in the waves as they chase baitfish. Look for good deep water gutters and fish the area where the deep water pushes over a sandbar. The beaches on Fraser Island will have plenty of pipis and beachworms that you can catch at low tide that make great bait for dart, bream and whiting. Up the top of the Island at Sandy Cape, you will be able to fish the calm stretches of water on the western side of the island and if you’re into your surface fishing, cast poppers and stickbaits right up the top of the island for GTs and mackerel.
