
Photo competition 2025
Capture the beauty of our local waterways for your chance to win awesome prizes.
Healthy waterways underpin our lifestyles and livelihoods. When waterways thrive, so do we.
Cairns local Phil Laycock says you don’t need much to enjoy fishing – a hand line, a hook and a packet of prawns is just fine. Read on to find out about his five favourite fishing spots that he loves going back to, time and time again.
With some careful planning and patience, you can navigate a long way upstream at a certain time of year. Phil likes to start his fishing day up in the freshwater and drift down towards the river mouth, casting lures.
What’s there
Sooty grunters, jungle perch and barramundi are the targets in the upper freshwater and mid river sections. Mangrove jack begin to appear in the lower sections, and at the mouth whiting and flathead are common. Queenfish and trevally school in the river mouths in September and October and provide great sport.
Find beautiful mangroves, good coral life and seagrass, and you can explore up the Mowbray and Mossman rivers all the way to the mountains.
What’s there
Jungle perch in the freshwater river headwaters; mangrove jack and barramundi in the estuary mazes; coral trout inshore or even sight fish a trevally.
One of the most diverse fisheries in the Wet Tropics and very popular with locals and visitors alike.
What’s there
Lure fish for mangrove jack in the mangroves, fly cast on the sand flats for the prized permit, soak a prawn along the channel edges for javelin, or set a pot for a tasty mud crab… Hinchinbrook really does have it all. Take care and choose deeper channels to navigate where possible, to avoid animal strike.
The net-free zone provides fishing tourism opportunities for Cairns, showing that fish are worth more in a photo than in a net.
What’s there
Barramundi and threadfin salmon on the beaches. Handle them carefully as threadfin are fragile. Keep one to eat. If you catch another one, let it go. Abide by the closed seasons that protect fish when they’re spawning and don’t target barra at this time (Nov 1 – Feb 1).
Back in the 70s, Saltwater Creek meandered through land that was transitioning from cane and cattle to residential. It looks different these days but Phil says it still provides habitat for a lot of fish.
What’s there
Expect to see lots of tilapia. They’re a pest fish. Humanely kill and dispose of them by either burying the carcass above the high-water mark nearby or by placing it in a bin. The system still has tarpon, jungle perch, mangrove jack, barramundi and javelin fish as you get further down, but a lot of the fish Phil caught as a kid can’t make it up to the headwaters anymore because of the now fragmented, concrete-lined parts of the creek.
If you are keeping a fish for eating, be humane. Act quickly after pulling it out of the water, using the percussive stunning or spiking methods.
For those you let go, here are some easy things to do:
Capture the beauty of our local waterways for your chance to win awesome prizes.
Road upgrades to tree planting and improvements to sewers, local Councils are leading the way
More than 200 species of jellyfish are found along the Great Barrier Reef.
Martine joined the Wet Tropics Waterways team as a Science Technical Officer in early 2024 and is keen to apply her experience in statistical programming and database development for the Report Card.
She is an environmental scientist and ecologist and has worked on water quality and aquatic ecology projects as a consultant and in private industry for over 20 years.
Martine has many hobbies and is currently dabbling in horticulture.
With a degree in marine biology and zoology from JCU, Phil has had a diverse career covering research in fisheries biology, 15 years in reef tourism and 13 years with GBRMPA delivering engagement and partnerships programs. Since 2019 he has been self-employed and operates as a consultant to a range of stakeholders on waterway related programs.
He is a keen fisherman.
James joined Wet Tropics Waterways as Executive Officer in 2021 and is passionate about working with stakeholders to communicate the value of our unique waterways. His role involves facilitating and coordinating our partnership program, growing our network and investment into the report card program, and science communication. James oversaw the 2022 Innovations in Waterway Health Forum, and hosted season four of the Reef and Rivers podcast.
James is an ecologist and has previously worked on wetland management in the Murray Darling basin, fish passage in Mackay, and aquatic research in the Wet Tropics.
Outside of work you’ll find him in a local waterway with a mask and snorkel, or hiking or biking around our beautiful region.
Richard has been the Science Technical Officer for Wet Tropics Waterways since 2016. His role involves producing the annual results for the waterway health assessment of the wet tropics region using data from a wide range of sources, to present as scores and grades, as well as developing new indicators to address knowledge and monitoring gaps. He works in collaboration with technical staff at other regional report cards.
Richard has a background in freshwater ecology research projects and environmental assessments with CSIRO, University of Queensland, Queensland Government and as a consultant. For a long time he’s been interested in freshwater aquaculture and continues this interest through farming freshwater crayfish, alongside other farming activities.