Fishing the Jardine

[Porker54]

From Seisia what is the best way to get to the mouth of the Jardine?? by boat..the boat is a 4.2 veenose punt similar to a Hornet Trophy side console etc with a 40hp we are bringing up with us..or beach launch near the mouth somewhere??

[geoffjy]

Are you only planning a day trip?

You could launch from either the Seisia or Injinoo boat ramps and leave you car there for the day. I would not even contemplate leaving it there overnight. If it is a day trip, you would be better off to launch from the Injinoo boat ramp and go to the Jardine by boat as this will be faster than towing the boat down to Muttee Heads and launching from there.

It is pretty difficult towing a boat from Muttee Heads to the Jardine mouth as you are driving through a narrow, soft sandy track with sharp bends.

[Porker54]

Thanks for that info geoffjy, as we will be doing a number of day trips down there if the fishing is good.. we have 2 weeks to spend fishing around Seisia which should be good..On another subject.. fishing the Jacky Jacky...is it very dependant on the moon phases??? Also access from the jj ramp to the main river..do you need to be careful with the tides to get in and out??as well as the crocs...

[geoffjy]

You can launch your boat at the boat ramp behind the Airport and can be used on tides as low as .5mt. The creek that you put your boat into is called Fishbone. The best time to fish the Jackey Jackey is the lead up to the Full moon as well as few days after. Saying this, i have caught some excellant fish out of there with all phases of the moon. Be very carefull at the boat ramp as quite often a croc is not too far away.

[campdog]

Geoff that is the creepiest boat ramp I have been too. I wanted to fish from the bank one night but couldnt get any takers.I was going to reverse up to the ramp and put a deck chair up on the roof rack.

[geoffjy]

Whenever i go fishing, i hop in the boat first then get someone to reverse it back then drive the boat off the trailer. Much safer and easier. That (hopefully) when i start the motors it acts a bit of a deterant for crocs coming near. Saying that though, did this last year after i started the outboards after just coming off the trailer and turned around, and lo and behold, a croc was about 1mt of the stern of the boat staring at me. Not a good feeling at all.

[plucker]

There is Saratoga in the Jardine, for those who dont know but the river can be shallow to access.

If you look at latin naming of saratoga, one is Jardini - after the Jardine. It is the one without whiskers.

[geoffjy]

It also called a northern saratoga and there is also a southern saratoga but they do not live up this way. The northern saratoga has bright orange/pink spots down the lateral line.

Access into the mouth is easy but to go any further a high tide is required. Fresh water can be found at the mouth on a dead low tide and on high tide, fresh water is only around the first bend upstream.

[Porker54]

Thanks for that word of warning re:-Jacky Jacky ramp...just a couple of other questions...Do you know of some rivers called River Number one and River Number two down past the Jardine?? and would you launch from Vrylya Point to get to them or motor down past Crab Island??
In fishing towards Possesion Island from Seisia is there and reefs/currents we should be wary of??and would you launch at Punsand Bay to get there??Just looking at the Nautical chatrs there seems to be a lot of underwater pins in the area that would hold fish...
Is it worth doing a night fish around Muttee Head for Jew's??

Thanks in advance..we are trying to do a bit of pre-trip planning..

[plucker]

You can drive North along the beach from Vrylia point and get to the mouth of No. 2 creek. This is a fairly popular camp spot. Beach launching should be OK there for your boat.
Just a short trip around to No. 1 from there.

As for the currents around the top, there are a few but I dont know the exact nature. But to put it in perspective, Captain Cook came to the tip and went to go away from the mainland. He had a full sail, yet the currents pushed him the other way to the wind. This resulted in him getting pushed across to Possession Island, where he claimed possession of the mainland Australia - which we all know is just a tad wrong. There is a plaque on the island to commemorate this. The natural channel goes towards Thursday Island from there.

I think that the bad currents are mainly around where the 2 seas meet, but one of the locals should be more informative about that one.

[geoffjy]

Thanks for that word of warning re:-Jacky Jacky ramp...just a couple of other questions...Do you know of some rivers called River Number one and River Number two down past the Jardine?? and would you launch from Vrylya Point to get to them or motor down past Crab Island??
In fishing towards Possesion Island from Seisia is there and reefs/currents we should be wary of??and would you launch at Punsand Bay to get there??Just looking at the Nautical chatrs there seems to be a lot of underwater pins in the area that would hold fish...
Is it worth doing a night fish around Muttee Head for Jew's??

Thanks in advance..we are trying to do a bit of pre-trip planning..

Crystal Creek 1 and 2 are the ones you are referring to pas the Jardine. The northern one is number one. The easiest way to fish these 2 creeks is to drive into Vrilya Point then north about a half hour along the beach. The is a great shady camping spot at the mouth beneath the fur trees.

There are plenty or reefs around Possession island as well as strong currents. Currents can get up to 10 knots at times. I would have to say that the strong currents start about the Jardine River and go around the Cape to East of Somerset. Possession Island is about 30 mins from Seisia and about 10 mins from Punsand by boat. Acnhorage is good off Punsand but can get a little rough around peak point to the north west but once yuo get around that it is relatively calm. If you only have a tinny just drag it ip onto the beach of an evening and chuck an anchor out and it will be fine.

Fishing for Jewfish by white people is illegal between Crab Island (island to the south of the Jardine), Possession Island, Albany Island and to Fly Point (east of Somerset).

Have fun with your trip planning. Thats half the fun.

[Porker54]

Thanks for all that info...interesting about Jew fish thank goodness they haven't done that down here!! We like our jewies...
Just one more question.. if we are arriving on the Sea Swift and want to go to Vrilya Point...how much does it cost to go over the ferry?? Do we need a permit to travel there??
Is it worthwhile fishing for squid up there??

[geoffjy]

To cross the Jardine River ferry would set you back $88 return and in that price os the cost of a permit to camp at Vrilay Point.

In regards to squid, i saw a guy catching some big specimans off the Seisia Jetty at 4am on squid jigs.

[Porker54]

So how is the fishing up there at this moment??Has it been too windy to troll around the islands..like Possession Island...I hear they are catching 1.2mtr threadfin Salmon down at Kurumba during the last couple of weeks along with upto 94cm Barra..What do you rate as the top 5 eating fish up there??

[Scorcher]

Porker,

I can't give you any answers to how the fishing is up there at the moment, but my top 5 eating fish from the Cape would be:

1) Threadfin Salmon
2) Spanish Mackeral
3) Coral Trout
4) Barra
5) Fingermark or Mangrove Jack

Personal preferences will vary considerably.

Whilst Flathead are not a particularly sought after fish up that way, most likely because there are so many other sport fish to be had that are more thrilling to catch, I still reckon' you can't beat a couple of fresh battered fillets of flathead.

Cheers

Scorcher

[dingo]

Have had a few reports from south of Cairns , Mission Beach, An operator down there is getting 18 Coral Trout on average every day, nothing under 4kg.

After the Cape trip I am in Cairns for a week and we are traveling down that way for a day.
Also doing a 2 day 1 night out on the reefs chasing big blacks
and a few more days out on the reefs bottom bouncing for whatever turns up.

5 full on days fishing out of the seven I will be there.

[Porker54]

Well just spent 2 weeks fishing around Seisia, Jardine and Jacky Jacky.. between 3 of us caught about 60 barra in the Jardine...and only bought 9 home..heaps of Jacks.. catch queenies with only hook and sinker no bait..The area is certainly a fishermans paradise..a couple of comments for anyone going there for the first time:
1. Watch the sharks at the Jardine mouth..if you want some fun drop a bait about 200mtr out from the mouth and hang on...you will probably get the head of the fish you caught into your boat and there will be at last 3 big whaler sharks at the back of your boat..interesting when you only have 8 inches of free board on your boat..and if your trolling you can expect to have any motor up to 60hp stalled by these sharks biting it...
2. We found at least 3 crocs on the sandbanks of the Jardine everytime we went there..
3. We found the Jacky Jacky to be lacking a lot of fish...only got the odd trevally..and a couple of mud crabs..locals say that the cartopper tinnies tourists with their 15hp motors give it a flogging from May to Sept...or we just didn't know the secret spots...it a huge river system with lots of sand at low tide..you certainly need a GPS with a snail trail to find your way home..
4. trolling around Possession Island produced a variety of fish for tasting but the currents are very strong...be careful with sandbanks and reefs..they are everywhere..
5. We launched each day at Seisia ramp..it's about 30 minutes to the Jardine and if the wind comes up while your down there it can be 2 hours to get back in a flat bottom vee nose boat with 40hp...we were told by some locals if you launch at Injinoo your car and/or trailer may not be there when you return!!!
6. If you are going after Mackeral, plan your trip around the 1st quarter and last quarter of the moon...one person who chases them loses up to 100 lures a year doing it for 3 months..they are BIG!!!
7. unleaded petrol $1.95ltr and 30 pack of Tooheys $65 and all bottle shops closed on Sundays
8. If you plan to fish the Seisia wharf you need 100lb line and 100lb wire if you plan to land anything...your $50 Kmart rod and reel is only good for catching bait..
Thanks to people on the forum for all their info...it's a different world up there...

[Handy]

dont know about the tinnie brigade taking all the fish.
taking barra out of season is just as bad.

[Porker54]

The closed barr season for Crab Island ( south of the Jardine ) to the Tip is the same as the east coast ie 1/11 as opposed to the rest of the gulf which closes on 1/10....Checked with T.I Fisheries twice to make sure we were doing the right thing...

[geoffjy]

I agree with you Porker. The barra were going off but had to release them all. I just got back from one week fishing the Jackson, MacDonald, Doughboy and Cotteral Rivers as well as rubble fishing. The largest barra we landed went 96cm and weighed 11kg. Plenty of big jacks around the 75cm mark too. We even managed to land a dozen legal red emperor over the week and several nice trout.

[Porker54]

It gets interesting in a tinnie with only 8 inches of free boardat the mouth of the Jardine...just when youi think you have a reasonable fish...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw41LJK66tc