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Test your fishing skills in what is recognised as a world class fishing destination.
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Cooktown is unique for its close proximity to a myraid of angling environments. The Endeavouer and Annan rivers are on our doorstep and we are the closest centre to the reef.
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You can fish the outer reef for its legendary black marlin, the inner reef for coral trout, red emperor, mackeral and tuna.
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On the beaches, headland and coastal flats you'll find trevally, quennies, permit and the elusive bonefish.
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In the rivers and estuaries chase barramundi, mangrove jacks, fingermark and crabs. Way up in the sweet jungle perch the sooty grunter abound - This is fishing paradise!
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Fishing Paradise
The Cooktown region boasts an area of stunningly diverse bio-systems
from world heritage listed rain forests, remote beaches to open savanna and ancient escarpment country, all areas rich in their own birding opportunities.
Wet Tropics rainforest South of Cooktown - a well kept secret but the area just South of Cooktown boasts all the wet tropics endemic species that you are likely to see near Cairns and the Atherton tableland
Keating's Lagoon (Mulbabidgee) Conservation Park is just eight kilometres southwest of Cooktown. This conservation park has been set aside to protect the wetlands and surrounding habitat, which is teeming with birdlife
Lakefield National Park, to the northwest of Cooktown, is Queensland's second largest park, and is a wildlife refuge for over 200 bird species, including several rare or threatened birds such as the golden-shouldered parrot, star finch, and red goshawk.
A visit to Keating’s Lagoon is a treat not to be missed. It’s a beautiful peaceful wetland home to a great array of flora and fauna.
Known as Mulbabidgee to the Waymbuurr people, the Traditional Owners of this park, it has been used for thousands of years for the collection of a variety of animals and plants for food, medicines and raw materials. In more recent times, this place became known as Keatings Lagoon, after a family who built
Waterlilies, sedges and algae grow in and around the lagoon which is fringed with paperbarks and shrubby wrinkle pod mangroves. Tropical woodland and small thickets of vine forest surround the wetland.
The wetland is a refuge for thousands of waterbirds, especially in the dry season (May to October) when they congregate to feast on the rich aquatic life. Birds include the magpie goose, the black-necked stork, the strikingly-marked Radjah shelduck and the comb-crested jacana—slender agile bird with large
feet that is able to walk across the surface of water lilies. Aquatic wildlife in the lagoon includes rainbow fish, snakehead gudgeon cod and freshwater shrimp. The wetland is also an important nursery area for juvenile barramundi which instinctively swim upstream into the lagoon during flood periods.
