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Epic wet season will spell a great dry season

from Fishing Monthly Magazine | May 2023

from Fishing Monthly Magazine | May 2023, page 118

GEN III

CAPE YORK Tim O’Reilly wildrivercompany@gmail.com

Following what most would describe as an epic wet season, Cape York will be primed for some fantastic fishing this dry season.

With April now in the taillights, we can safely say the threat of a late season cyclone will have passed. Conditions will stabilise and the trade winds everyone loves so much are upon us. Late autumn represents brilliant conditions for barramundi fishing across most of Northern Australia.

West Coast Cape York will be an absolute paradise for the next six months with consistent temperatures between 22-32ºC and just the odd southerly change pushing night temperatures below 20. Warm days and pleasant nights lull travellers into a surface water following gravity’s course to the sea.

Creeks and coastal bays will be replenished with the freshwater recharge needed to support food webs such as baitfish and prawns. The favoured fish of anglers such as barramundi and mangrove jack will be the direct beneficiaries of such a great wet season.

Sticking to the east coast of the Cape York and heading offshore, May represents a transition month with cooling water temperatures along the coast and through the Great Barrier Reef lagoon. This cooler water can have a large effect on the shallower shoals, reefs and lagoon flats. Fish transition between deeper and shallower ecosystems, including many of our favourite sport fish moving into shallower situations in the cooler months.

From Cooktown in the south all the way up into the this vast fishing nirvana will be limited, with trade winds starting their inevitable march from the south. Free diving anywhere along this coast is an amazing adventure and provides unique insight into the constant fish transition. Seeing the endless movement with your own eyes really helps to appreciate just how the fish we target on rod and reels can be captured. A huge amount of the fishing population in the far north also love free diving and spear fishing. The Great Barrier Reef in the far north is still one of the greatest explorations possible on Earth, it is simply so vast and ever changing. false sense of security before the build up commences again in October with the return of stifling heat.

If you gave me just one month to travel in Cape York, I would likely pick the month of May. Not necessary for the best specific fishing. But for the all round fishability and pleasantness of conditions, May would be my pick.

East Coast Cape York will also be a pleasure in May. All those coastal creeks spilling off the Great Dividing Range will still have some freshwater seeping from springs and

Torres Strait, this East coast of the Peninsula has literally thousands upon thousands of shallow flats, reefs and lagoons areas. The movement and cycle of fish both tidally and seasonally changes across such a vast area that it seems difficult to draw conclusions. For the next six months, opportunities to visit

Most fish will be reasonably active and the freshwater species will be thriving in these months following the wet season. Access to much of Cape York will be just opening in May and plenty of fishers will be eagerly awaiting their annual sojourn to Lakefield National Park and beyond.