Aussie Fly Fishers West Cape York program can handle six anglers. This week there’s just three of us. The third angler is a super nice fellow New Englander, Kevin McDevitt. Today Josh switched over and guided Kevin to the north like we did yesterday and Granny and I fished with top AFF guide, James Sinnamon, and went south like on our first day.
James not only guides here on the northern Australia salt but also spends prime trout fishing season in Tasmania. Due to a strong afternoon offshore wind kicking up in today’s forecast, James suggested another early departure of 6 AM. Naturally we were game and we left at sunrise from the Weipa boat ramp.
You’d never know wind was on the way. It was a gorgeous morning. It was glassy calm which made for an enjoyable 40 minute boat ride to the first flat. However, when we arrived the water was cloudy making it very hard to see. In the first hour we spotted a few milkfish speed past on the surface but no permit.
We likely had permit around but didn’t see them with the murky water. You might be thinking, “What about tailing permit? Or seeing wakes and pushes?” I asked about this and apparently when you’re lucky the Anak’s do tail and work the shallows making off-color water a non-issue, but the last few days the fish have been deep. We’re fishing an average of 6-8 foot down and with the dirty water its borderline seeing fish when cruising on bottom.
Prior to arriving in Australia I’ve done all my permit fishing with a floating line. This week however, Josh and James have us fishing intermediate clear tips (SA Sonar Grand Slam Clear Tip) in order to get our crab flies deep fast and keep flies on bottom when presenting to a permit. Its unique. When feeding a permit 6-8 feet down in murky water you don’t rely so much on seeing the permit eat your fly and then strip setting, but rather you must be 100% tight to your fly and feel the grab. It’s a challenge.
We labored on the first flat trying to pick up a permit before they saw us for over an hour then made a move further south. We drove another 30 minutes or so trying to escape the murk. Unfortunately we didn’t. And although we made another nice pass over the new flat, the only permit we saw spotted us before we saw them.
It doesn’t matter how badly you want a certain fish, if it aint happening, do yourself a favor and be willing to switch gears. There’s not doubt we could have kept after Mr. Anak and perhaps we’d have gotten lucky. But life is short and it was time to see my girl bang up a few fish. James took us to a rocky point and we stripped Clouser’s and drifted along.
It didn’t take long before Granny was posing with a new species, the Spanish flag (Lutjanus carponotatus). It’s a pretty little member of the snapper family. James thought we’d catch a few because when there’s one there’s often a school but no such luck for me adding the species to my list.
We continued our rocky dredging for a good hour. It was a ton of fun. We picked up numerous tiny tomato cods (grouper family) and Granny got a pompano similar to the largespot we caught in Oman a number of years ago. I believe this one is the small spotted dart which we catch in the Seychelles. If anyone knows for sure I’d appreciate it.
By early afternoon we were ready for lunch and James suggested another twist to the day. He remembered that Josh and I spotted a small black marlin a couple miles offshore on day one. He proposed we take a look out there while drifting and having lunch. It seemed like the odds were stacked against us, but what the heck. Off we went.
I kid you not, we went one mile and exactly where the milky colored inshore water met the crystal clear blue of the open ocean and there was a small black marlin. Seriously! The 5-6 foot long billfish was working a weed line like a trout. Shocked and doubting I was seeing things truthfully, I lunged for my 12-weight Winston Air 2 Max. I had a tan size 4/0 GT Brush fly attached. But by the time I had enough line out the fish sank from sight. I blind casted for a few minutes but to no avail.
James and I looked at each other like wow – did that just happen? Granny confirmed it did and instead of busting out lunch, I stood on the bow and James zigzagged us along the color change looking for more. 20 minutes later we sighted another black marlin free jumping.
James floored it so fast I nearly hit the deck in a heap. Its my own fault because my shoulders don’t allow me to grab on to things tight enough to hang on. I survived and within seconds we were gliding into the area where the marlin jumped. We sort of shot ahead of the exact spot hoping to intercept the fish. Believe it or not, there was a black shape about 120 feet in front about to cut across our bow.
Forget about any pain from my torn rotator cuff in the left shoulder. Never mind whatever the heck is going in in my right. I lost my mind and sent that Brush Fly about 90ft or so which by then, with our gliding boat, landed about 10 feet to our side of the marlin. I don’t think James saw the fish at this point because he said, “Cast again”.
I didn’t have too. The marlin turned and made a lazy pursuit for my fly. It’s a wonder I didn’t have a heart attack. Luckily I did not and stripped as hard and fast as I could. The long slender fish caught up and literally put his bill over the big tan fly and opened his mouth half way to eat it. But something wasn’t right. The marlin refused.
Though the marlin rejected my fly, the curious fish continued to follow. All the way to the boat! With Granny and James both mesmerized as the event unfolded (who wouldn’t be!?!), there’s no photo. But the marlin tilted to its side and looked us all in the eye. The species of legend was less than my rod length away. Unbelievable! I think we all have an image in our brains we will never forget. No photo needed.
My best friend Sammy who passed away less than a month ago was a fanatic of bill fishing with a fly rod. We’ve caught plenty of Pacific sailfish. We each got our blue and some striped marlin together. In 2019 Sam was focusing on a black for each of us but we had to cancel our plans due to Covid. In August we talked about rebooking for blacks. I still can’t grasp it will never happen. In my heart I wonder if Sammy set today all up and got a good laugh at the look on my face when this fish turned on my fly. I hope so. WOW!
We were so jacked up about this sighting we made a teaser from a boat rag and dragged it along while we at lunch. No such luck. We didn’t see any more marlin. After an hour we gave up and began the long drive back to Weipa.
We tossed our Clouser’s at a couple more rocky points along the way. Granny caught another species I haven’t caught. I’ve caught a bunch of different species of emperor fish but didn’t even know this one existed. This is the grass emperor (Lethrinus laticaudis).
My day wasn’t without landing at least one cool new fish for my species list. This one is spectacular. We caught a few of these but this was our first of size. The colorful reef/rock dweller is the blackspot tuskfish (Choerodon schoenleinii).
It seems the Anak permit are eluding us. Permit always toss us a hindering challenge but that’s the nature of the beast. Josh and Kevin saw a good number of permit to the north today and had clear water. Granny and I will stay south one more day with James then head north again later in the week with Josh. Regardless of the always stubborn permit, this has been an absolute blast of a trip so far.
The tuskfish is beautiful! The Marlin would have been a fun rodeo!?!?