COOKTOWN MARCH 2025

Regular readers will remember that last year I was invited to join a boat syndicate – as a non financial member! Very lucky:

How To Buy The Right Boat

Up to Cooktown last week of March, super excited about the great weather forecast:

Even more excited about the fantastic crew joining me for the trip – Xavier and Oscar:

Heading north, staying close to the coast. Set a garfish on a Head Start about five metres behind our spreader bar, and didn’t have to wait long. A mackerel snipped his way up the spreader bar, taking four squids:

SPREADER BARS

But then took the garfish I had swimming on a Head Start. That was a bite too far:

HEAD STARTS

And that was the start of the best fishing trip I’ve ever had. Sometimes we were nearly on the rocks, sometimes we were out in the Coral Sea, but wherever we went the fish were there! Here’s Xavier with a queenfish:

Xavier with a golden trevally. He and Oscar used big topwater chuggers and stickbaits for 99% of their fishing. Nothing could resist those lures:

$130 for a live coral trout, at Sydney Fish Markets last week! Oscar’s coral trout would have paid our boat fuel for the week 😊

Our spoon hook worked great on Cape York:

Adds 40 grams to any large soft plastic, and increases your casting range. Barbed, to hold your SP securely. But way more important, the bib forces your SP to swim like a minnow lure. So good! Five for just $25, including delivery to your door:

5 SPOON HOOKS $25 DELIVERED

Maybe 150 fish over the week? We released everything excepting two mackerel – requested by friends in Cooktown:

Part two of the report next week! Our focus was on giant trevally, and the result was incredible. Learnt so much from the crew - especially that anyone with a trailer boat can get up there and into them. When, how, and what to take next week:

Thanks for reading
Andrew Hestelow

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