Cape York

CAPE YORK Tim O’Reilly

wildrivercompany@gmail.com Up in remote Cape York, the weather is generally a few degrees hotter than the wet tropics below it. Coming out of winter and into early spring, there will be some seriously warm days starting to sneak in, therefore warming water temps and kick starting the great spring resurgence in activity.

This can produce exceptional fishing up in the Cape. But September can still be filled with sou-easterly trades, at times rendering the East A picturesque sunset at the Archer River.

Andrew Swamp with a beautiful river barra.

Coast almost off-limits. Somewhere in this month, a pocket of great weather will begin the fishing season for many. Even those magic cloudless days without a ripple on the water are possible. Sight casting opportunities for fly and topwater fishers will be aplenty if they take advantage of this weather window.

Over on the west coast of the Cape, expect some really champagne weather. Warm getting closer to hot, but none of the humidity that comes later. You can still

survive up a creek during the middle of the day. Not so easy come NovemberDecember! Generally any breeze is likely to be blowing offshore making boating the coast a pleasure. There always remains the chance some hot weather will produce an onshore westerly during the afternoons.

The idea of fishing some of the freshwater lagoons, dams, billabongs and isolated river stretches once again looks attractive. Fishing them early and late in the day will make a huge difference to success. Sooties, saratoga, barra, tarpon and archer fish will all be more active in lower light conditions this time of year.

Fishing the creeks, rivers, beaches and headlands can be fantastic in September. Being almost the mid point between wet seasons give this month a calmness and usually better clarity of water. Being able to make out snags, gutters, rocks and all manner of fish structure makes it easier for

fishers. But fish in cleaner conditions can at times be finicky. Watching fish, such as golden trevally and fingermark, dancing all around your lures in clear water can be tremendously frustrating.

Opportunities to tackle pelagic fish really ramps up this time of year. Some of the target species for trailer boat fishers around the Cape will include mackerel, longtail tuna, cobia, queenfish and trevally. These are joined by wider speedsters, such as wahoo, mahimahi, dogtooth tuna, marlin and sailfish. Many covering vast distances to appear suddenly in feeding pattern before departing.

Spring is a great time to be focused on tide changes and will be crucial to fishing success. Many of the other variables in weather are largely subdued this time of year. Trying to fish larger tides for shorter windows around both the low and high tides makes sense. There is more likely to be bite-frenzies during these windows. If

the tide change corresponds to either early morning or later afternoon, even better. This is lifestyle fishing at its best. Life on a remote Cape York beach in September is hard to beat. Spring fishing can produce decent catches, like this 48cm mangrove jack.

Watch out for croc activity this spring.

Chris with a GT he caught on a calm afternoon.