WHY AUSTRALIA
IS UNIQUE
From a fishermen who’s thrown a line in on every continent
WORDS JUSTIN MILLER
WHY AUSTRALIA
IS UNIQUE
From a fishermen who’s thrown a line in on every continent
WORDS JUSTIN MILLER
WHY AUSTRALIA IS
UNIQUE
From a fishermen who’s thrown a line in on every continent
WORDS JUSTIN MILLER
As a destination, Australia just hits different.
I’ve fly fished all over the planet, chasing every target species imaginable, in some incredibly remote places. Yet Australia stands out as one of the greatest and most unique adventures of my life.
A group of eight made it to the West Coast of Cape York in 2019, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, flying into the coastal port of Weipa. Living aboard a mothership, the Eclipse FNQ, we would be moving up the coast and fishing ultra-remote coastlines, estuaries, lagoons, backwater creeks and bluewater all the way up to the northern tip, less than 200 km from Papua New Guinea. We would be targeting several of Australia's most infamous saltwater gamefish, including Queenfish, Barramundi and Golden Trevally, none of which I had cast a fly to before. I knew the trip was going to be unique, but I had no idea just how crazy of a world-class adventure we were about to immerse ourselves into.
We loaded onto a bus at Weipa airport for a few hours drive through the bush to reach the anchored mothership. In awe of the tropical landscape? Yep. Eyes glued out the windows for the chance to see our first kangaroo? Absolutely. Yeah, I know - full tourist mode, but I’m sure anyone that has ever arrived in Australia for the first time is on the lookout for those bad boys, too. We ended up seeing a few on our road trip, hopping through the forest, but we were here to fish.
We settled aboard the stunning Eclipse, and made our way north, headed for an isolated stretch of coastline that few ever get the chance to see. The guide crew enthusiastically introduced themselves and we got to work on preparing for battle. The team was one of the best I have ever fished with, Weipa Sportfishing, owned and operated by Leroy Hoddgets, an absolute legend on these waters. His team was as good as they come. They were prepared for anything and everything.
Justin Miller is a renowned fly fisherman, but it's possible for anyone to enjoy the far north, irrespective of your line.
After pulling the boat into a creek mouth and anchoring up in an estuary for the first night, we headed out for our first day on the water in the tenders, two anglers per guide boat, looking for Australia’s iconic species. Almost immediately we saw birds diving on a bait ball, and speeding over to it revealed an incredible feeding frenzy of queenfish – a species I had not encountered before. Lee, our guide on the day, kept repositioning us to stay right on them and every cast would get at least a tug, and more often than not you would come tight to a queenie that would just go mental, running, jumping, diving. I had an instant respect for these aggressive fish and wanted to just keep casting into the mayhem they were creating in the lagoon. By evening we got back into the birds and bait balls, finding golden trevally - another first – plus the iconic barramundi, caught earlier. As far as first days on a fishing trip go, landing the three main target species right off the bat isn’t a bad start.
The mighty mudskipper.
All the trophy fish in the world, and our writer chooses to focus on...a mudskipper?
Over the next few days we were continually blown away by an amazing diversity of fishery. Our mantra became the phrase, “I wonder what we’ll find around the next corner!” It felt like we were rewarded with something new and ridiculous at every bend, never disappointed. Across the trip we landed 43 different species of fish for the boat and had to start writing them all down, keeping an exact list, as we started to lose track.
“They are bizarre-looking, like they fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down - cartoonish eyes poking up off the top of their flat heads and crazy oversized pectorals propelling them forward through the mud.”
One of my favourite of was the mudskipper, yet another I had never encountered before. At low tide, mud banks become exposed below the mangroves and above the water line. Only about six inches long, these weird-looking fish sit up on the mud, literally feet away from the water line, dragging themselves along with their perfectly evolved hinged pectoral fins. They are bizarre-looking, like they fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down - cartoonish eyes poking up off the top of their flat heads and crazy oversized pectorals propelling them forward through the mud.
Overall, Miller and his group caught 43 different species of fish, and plenty they had not encountered before. This, from a man who has fished all over the world.
I asked my guide, Jack, if he’d ever tried to catch one. Answering with a cockeyed glance he said no, but that he’d seen them kind of charge at lures that were cast too far, with the angler then dragging their offering over the mud back into the water. I said we should try to catch one on a fly. The look I got back should have been a deterrent, but I pushed forward. At lunch, aboard the mothership and with the full crew, I laid out my plan.
“The look I got back should have been a deterrent, but I pushed forward. At lunch, aboard the mothership and with the full crew, I laid out my plan.”
The response was mostly what you’d expect; giggles and dismissal, mostly guys just blowing it off as some wild goose chase and a waste of time. After lunch, Jack realized it was no longer a joke and he got locked in for a proper mudskipper hunt. I tied on a sparse little baitfish pattern about three inches long, penciling right down and slinking its way through the mud as I inched it towards the water’s edge. The first cast was about a three-foot permit lead, but the little mudskipper reacted and moved about six inches towards the fly! We freaked out that we got it to move at all!
The next cast was a bit tighter and our target closed in, but didn’t commit. I eventually got a shot about two feet past him, the leader only four inches in front of his face. I slow-stripped it and he jumped all over it! We all lost it, Jack yelling for me to strip out the slack and keep the rod bent, like it was some monster barra, but I was casting a 10wt, for a fish that weighed less than my reel. Somehow I managed to strip that old mudskipper to the boat, hauling all three ounces of him over the gunnel, the crew in absolute ecstasy that it had all come together. Pure joy in the boat, and an absolute trophy fish in my book.
Fly fishing or rod and reel, the far north has something for everyone.
My first trip to Australia was unforgettable, opening the door to the possibilities of what can be discovered. A warning though: no-one has been to the far north of Australia, ticked the box on their bucket list and moved on. This place sticks in your memory you until you return for more.
Justin Miller is an International Travel Destination Specialist for The Fly Shop – a leader in fly fishing innovation for four decades. The Fly Shop’s catalog and travel digest remains America's most popular source for productive, new, top quality flies, fly fishing tackle, and an inspiration for local and international angling travelers.
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