The trip around the tip of Australia was one of the best we’ve experienced thus far with only light winds to about 10knots trailing us. With Cairns copping a beating from the ex-Tropical Cyclone Tim the day after we left port to head north, it seemed like we timed our departure very well. This is one of our anchorages on the journey north on the East Coast – Morris Reef.
[styled_image image=”https://www.kekoa.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Morris-Reef.jpg” w=”700″ h=”467″ lightbox=”yes” alt=”Morris Reef – KEKOA” rel=””]
We crossed around the tip of the country in similar weather and enjoyed a night on anchor off the most beautiful Frangipani Beach at the top of Cape York.
[styled_image image=”https://www.kekoa.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/bbq_sunset.jpg” w=”700″ h=”467″ lightbox=”yes” alt=”Frangipani Beach” rel=””]
Contrary to southern areas of Queensland and northern NSW, the FNQ wet season has been a bit of a fizzer in 2013 with very little rain to the lower regions of the Gulf of Carpentaria and only moderate falls up to the north. Well that all changed our first week on the water with the rain coming in bucket loads!! The rain created a fair amount of run-off and stirred up the water (and dropped the water temp!) which created some tough conditions for the first few days of our crew explore week, but luckily for us, it turned around with some spectacular weather over the final few days. And some spectacular fishing as well hitting triple digits with some quality sessions on the drains over the final couple of days in the Pennyfather. There was plenty of variety on top of the usual mangrove Jacks and barramundi.
We also had the chance to try out a few new recipes (barramundi liver pate anyone?!) and transferred an old favourite from coral trout to mangrove jack. And the mudcrabs have been on!
Joining us for our crew week to film with us for an upcoming DVD, we’ve had Josh and Jamie, Robyn and Annette on board. Besides being great fisherman and wonderful people, these guys have extraordinary creative vision when it comes to filming and after watching what they do, we can’t wait to see how the incredible action translates on screen.
I also learned more in a 30 minute photo sesh with them than I have on my photo journey so far. Some of my shots from this week are in this gallery below. Check out the website www.joshandjamieifishing.com.au for some of their previous work. I highly recommend the “Magic Hour” for something above and beyond the usual fishing video footage!