The 2026 Tackleworld Weipa Catch and Release Barramundi Tournament rolled into Queensland's Far North this week, and Mick from Micksgonefishing has already dropped his Day One vlog for anglers following the two-day event from home. The Weipa specialist put his first session on camera alongside local Tackle World staffer Matty, and the cuts tell the story of a morning that swung violently between heartbreak and some of the hottest bycatch fishing the comp has ever seen.
The tournament format is tight. Five-fish scoring bag, 40 cm minimum size. Mick explained before the first cast that the 40 cm cut-off exists because there is a smaller bar species in those northern waters — though every angler in the fleet is chasing fish well beyond that mark.
Lines hit the water on the turn. Within the first half-hour, Mick had hooked what would almost certainly have been his trophy fish of the event — and lost it to a chafed 40 lb leader. On camera he accepted the blame entirely. "It's what you get for using 40 lb," he said, visibly shaking. "I'm shaking, bro. I cannot believe I cooked it that hard." He had predicted moments earlier that the leaf line would be "like a highway" for cruising barra, and the fish had committed exactly where he said they would.
A second strong fish followed, only to be buried in the snags. "You bricked me," Mick said. "Anyway, that's what you get on the big jobs, mate."
From the low point, the day pivoted. A 53 cm barra on a lure that had been neglected for more than a year — "the last time I tied this lure on was in Wenlock with Dave" — put Mick on the board. A 47 cm fish followed, then the tide turned the mangrove jacks on. Mick landed his first-ever jack on a glide bait, a 130 mm minnow he had only tied on as "a novelty". "I've never caught a jack on a glide," he said. "Weipa mangrove jack tournament."
Golden trevally, queenfish, threadfin salmon and cod filed through the livewell and back in the water. In the last hour, a surface popper worked in four inches of water produced yet another scoring barra — Mick's third of the day. He even floated a theory about why the mangrove edge was so loaded. "There's so many sharks here that a lot of these fish are just getting pushed right up into the shallow."
By 2:30 pm the boat had a complete five-fish bag of barra and Matty still had not scored a single fish — having lost what he reckoned was an entire bag of his own. "Bit of a grind," Mick summarised. "Very slow in between that high tide and low tide bites that we got. But highlights were the jacks, I reckon. I got a bag of barra. Poor Matty hasn't got one yet."
Day Two looms as a chance for Mick to find a kicker that lifts him off his Day One base and for Matty to turn the day around entirely. With run-off water pushing out of the drains and a Weipa fleet full of hungry anglers, the 2026 Tackleworld event already has the shape of a classic Far North Queensland tournament.