Wiligi / Mini mini May 2017

Jewies, big reds, macks & more - tell us how you went. NT, FNQ and Norwest.
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NT Wombat
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Wiligi / Mini mini May 2017

Post by NT Wombat »

Just got back from a 8 day trip to Wiligi fishing Mountnorris Bay and the Mini Mini system.

Took my little Webster Bassmaster and a mates 5.7m trailcraft up.

Day 1 The road on the way up wasn't in bad nick, think Gunn point road with a couple of wet patches and you'd have a good idea. After crossing Cahills it took around 3 1/2 hours to reach Wiligi. We set up camp on the first day and then slipped the boat in in the afternoon. Stopped for a jig on a rock 100m of the ramp and within an hour had our first hundred fish in the boat. Nothing big but heaps of trevally and queenfish with the odd trout and snapper thrown in. Got sick of that and went for a troll, made it about 200m and landed a nice spanish mackerel. Headed over to the sandbar on Copeland island and had a ball catching trevally and queenfish to around 80cm on poppers in the shallows. Not a bad couple of hours for a quick arvo fish!

Day 2 Woke up the next morning to glassed out seas and busting up longtails as far as the eye could see. We spent a couple of hours playing with longtails - casting 20G metals into feeding schools. With the dead neap tides and glassed out conditions we could see fish and sharks to maybe 15 - 20 down under the boat. At one stage we had about 30 1.5 - 3 meter sharks hanging around the edge of a bait ball with tuna and macks swimming through them. Anyhow we followed the coast around to the east, trolling and casting as we went picking up trout, mackerel, trevally, queenfish and barracuda. We stopped on one point and had a ball catching big queenfish on jigs for a while before trying a nice patch of reef id marked on a previous trip. Jigging this reef with metals and plastics produced trout, trickies, bluebone, cod and of course trevally and queenfish. To spice things up we had taken some dirt cheap, bright pink kids combos ($7 at kmart) up and we all had a jig with those, landing some solid trickies and trevally on gear best described as toys. During this day the fellas in the other boat noticed a monster trevally swimming around their boat in 3m of water while releasing another fish and after a bit of cat and mouse that saw him rejecting every lure they had they convinced him to eat a fresh chunk of longtail. He wasn't measured but it took two 100kg + blokes to lift it for a photo. Easily the biggest trevor of the trip.

Day three saw a bit more pelagic action in the morning with tuna, queenfish, mackeral and bl..dy trevally coming in thick and fast before we left the boys in the big boat to their trolling and went looking for some deep reef to drop baits on. In four trips I have not found any good ground in deep water but the place just has to have red emperor out there somewhere so every trip I scout a new area. Anyway I found a good drop off with some rubble in 25 - 30m of water and long story short we caught everything except reds and nannygai. After that we headed back to some shallow reef and had a ball catching various reefies, queenfish and the ever present, arm, shoulder and gear destroying Trevally. When we caught up with the other fellas who had trolled all day they showed up a picture of a massive 1.63 meter Spaniard they had trolled up close to one of the islands.

Day 4 we decided to hit the mini mini system for a change and it was a bit of a stuff up really. I got the tide wrong but about four hours and we only just managed to get the boats in on a dropping tide. Then I attempted to reach a productive barra/salmon drain i'd fished previously, only to find it high and dry. Making the most of a bad situation we bashed our way in 30km/hr winds around endygalout island to a snapper reef and proceeded to bag out on 50cm snapper in half an hour. Leaving them biting we headed back into the creeks on the incoming tide, caught a few queenies on lures and livebaits meant for barra and headed back to the ramp.

Day 5 started off pretty calm so I thought id go have a look in the southern half of the channel between croker is and the mainland. When we arrived every single queenfish in the entire world (this is only a slight exaggeration) was busting baitfish in the channel. We caught them jigging, we caught them casting, we caught them on kmart kids rods and fly gear. We caught them by accident when I let a lure dangle over the side while trying to stay hydrated. Then the wind came up and being in a 4.3 meter open boat with 20km of open water to get back to the ramp we pulled stumps leaving a lot of country unexplored for next time. Once back closer to home we again jigged steelies for mixed reefies before moving into a small coastal creek in search of mangrove jacks. And we found them. We covered about a kilometer of creek in an hours and caught and released around 30 lacks, the biggest being around 50cm. Most fish fell to soft vibes hopped deep in the snags. We also caught estuary cod and saw a few barra but didnt get any to the boat. We tried a bit of trolling for macks in the arvo but tonly managed queenfish and my new arch nemisis, Trevally. The fellas in the big boat who had trolled all day had done well on Mackerel pretty much all day.

Day 6 we were up early to glass off conditions and keen to troll up some spanyards, on the way to our hotspot we caught a longtail each just because it damn near impossible to drive past busting up 80cm tuna without putting in a cast. First troll and we had an almighty hookup on a lure just under the surface, which lasted about 5 seconds and bit straight through a 150 7 strand wire leader, followed by a nice tuna on the troll and then nothing. The wind picked up early and even the blokes in the big boat were finding things uncomfortable. In the ordinary conditions we resorted to our go to method of drifting shallow reefs jigging for everything and pretty soon had an assortment of good fish coming over the side.

Day 7 - back to the mini mini. If the bluewater hadn't blown up I doubt I would have got the fellas back to the mini mini after my previous stuff up. This time I was on the money and us guys in the little boat headed straight for the spot I was trying to reach on day 3. We got there right on high tide and as the drain started pumping Barra and blue salmon moved in to feed. We pulled half a dozen Barra to 65cm and 3 or 4 Blue salmon to about the same out of the one gutter until the tide dropped leaving us 60cm of water for about 700m to get back to the channel. We then fished a small creek, drifting out with the tide and hopping soft vibes through snags and gutters for a couple of Barra to 70cm, and some good threadies to 75cm. From there we headed back to find the other boat who had concentrated on trolling channel edges as the tide dropped. They had nailed one barra at 75cm and a few queenies. We moved off towards a new creek only to be distracted by good barra boofing in a drain halfway there. A quick stop and a couple of barra produced two more fish in the 70's and then we carried out to the creek. Moving up the creek with the electric produced a barra every 5 minutes or so for an hour up till the tide turned then it slowed down. A quick cast of the net and we had some live baits which produced a few more barra, a couple of threadies and Powertail. Once the livies were gone we went back to find the other fellas. They had caught a couple more fish and we went ahead of them to have a fish where their troll run would finish up, waiting for them to catch up before heading back to the ramp. We caught a couple more mullet, lobbed them up into the shallows and finished the day with a double hookup on 70cm barras.

The next day we packed up and cruised back to town. We estimate that between the 6 blokes and two boats we caught 1700 - 2000 fish for the week, 5 days later my arms and shoulders still ache from trying to muscle big fish in quickly on heavy gear. We had a severe case of gout (caused by handling fish apparently - definitely not caused by excessive consumption of gold cans) and some good cuts caused by sliding down an oyster encrusted boat ramp but other than that most of our bodies and gear survived intact. I took 60 Gillies Pilles up and have brought 4 home.

Was a great trip and will do it again next year for sure.
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nooblet
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Re: Wiligi / Mini mini May 2017

Post by nooblet »

What an awesome trip!!!! Heading out that way tomorrow. Excited now!!!
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Matt Flynn
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Re: Wiligi / Mini mini May 2017

Post by Matt Flynn »

Crikey, what a trip. Lucky blokes.

Fish handling gout, bwahahaha :D :D :D
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goldfish
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Re: Wiligi / Mini mini May 2017

Post by goldfish »

Top stuff fellas Arnhemland is still the spot to beat..

Love how you held the trout all the way out to make it look bigger ...no need for tricks like that on that trev or mackie though they're gold. Amazing how the big ones are usually following their mates up you'd think they'd beat them to the lure every time. I Miss Gove when i read about jacks and endless fish on the reef sessions. What're the permits and accommadation worth out there ?
Tight lines 'n' keep the shiny side up people.
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theodosius
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Re: Wiligi / Mini mini May 2017

Post by theodosius »

Amazing trip, well done!
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fff1964
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Re: Wiligi / Mini mini May 2017

Post by fff1964 »

Great read and looks like a great time.
thanks for the effort on the detailed account of your voyage.

Cheers
NT Wombat
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Re: Wiligi / Mini mini May 2017

Post by NT Wombat »

Ha! Bagged by the Goldfish for exaggerating a story!! Classic. That's my cousin holding the trout - his first good one ever and he was a bit excited.

There's log cabin, permanent tents and camping accommodation at wiligi - check out their website. Rueben works out your permits with the NLC for $30 a head, plus an extra $88 per boat to fish the mini mini, although I think that arrangement expires in July.

Cheers

Jamie
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Re: Wiligi / Mini mini May 2017

Post by jeffish »

WOW 8) Epic trip and a great write up as well.
Well done lads , :mrgreen:
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Re: Wiligi / Mini mini May 2017

Post by qiksix »

Great report, i cant wait to get up that way!
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Re: Wiligi / Mini mini May 2017

Post by Shrek16 »

What an awesome report!! Congrats
tight lines
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Re: Wiligi / Mini mini May 2017

Post by Tap'n'Zap »

The stuff of dreams, well done mate.
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goldfish
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Re: Wiligi / Mini mini May 2017

Post by goldfish »

How'd you go on your trip nooblet.? ?,?
Tight lines 'n' keep the shiny side up people.
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BarneyRubble
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Re: Wiligi / Mini mini May 2017

Post by BarneyRubble »

WIll be putting a post up next couple of days goldfish... cheers
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Re: Wiligi / Mini mini May 2017

Post by NBN »

Good grief!!!
:clap:
:mrgreen:
:cheers:
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Edo
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Re: Wiligi / Mini mini May 2017

Post by Edo »

Nice work, some epic sessions there.
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