The road into Weipa will have been open for about six weeks by July. Plenty of tourists have been trying their luck around the wharf at Evans Landing and a few have had some surprising results. There have been some nice fingermark and even a few big metre-plus black jew caught off here at the bottom of the tide during the nights.

As usual, there have been heaps of trevally and queenies harassing the baitfish that have been seeking refuge under the wharf and around the numerous pylons.

The southeasterlies have kicked in so early morning starts have seen some spectacular action along the coast towards Pera with schools of longtail tuna and GT smashing the bait balls on the surface. Without fail, there are also plenty of big bronze whalers that are making anglers work hard to get them back to the boat so they can get a photo of their fish in one piece.

There have been plagues of good-sized Spanish mackerel in close around 3 Mile and Westminster reefs with trolled Rapala X-Rap 20 being the prime lure. Poppers and 7” jerk shads have also been accounting for plenty of these fast running pelagics, so if chasing fingermark on plastics don’t be afraid to use a small 100mm length of single strand wire and save a few bucks in jigheads. I prefer to use a very short length of 44lb Mason single strand as it is easily disguised in the coloured water off Weipa.

There have been reports of quality 600mm+ fingermark coming from the lumps out from Duyfken, however with the bronzies, hammerheads and gropers all fancying a feed of fresh fingermark, heavy gear and locked drags will improve catch rates.

When filleting fingermark and mangrove jack in Weipa I have noticed there are little balls (less than a few millimetres in size) of pale yellow coloured worms in the flesh. I have not seen this before in fingermark or jacks from the east coast, but I simply cut them out when filleting and the issue is solved.

There have been some great barra fishing from the Wenlock over the last few weeks. Cricket score numbers of rat barra have not been unheard of and there are still a few better sized specimens with saratoga mixed in with them.

Weipa is very lucky to have some many fantastic fishing options available within a short distance of the town so if you have not experienced it, do yourself a favour and make the trip!