Category Archives: TRIP

Lots of work, one small barra

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Well, well. Looking at the tides I thought the harbour would be good, but ended up hitting shoal bay instead. Lots of work for this trip! Apart from the 8 hours of solid fishing for one undersized barra, other fun included:
– Motor constantly getting blocked with mud
– Electric motor problems, culminating with the foot pedal starting to smoke
– Someone’s crab pot rope wrapped around the prop
– A constant battle to keep the main battery charged (I had a back up battery for the trip home, but I wouldn’t lekkie from it)

Wasn’t all bad. I learnt a lot from the experience, shoal bay and buffalo creek boat ramp is a nice spot, and the boat handled the small chop really well. I’m sure I’ll get some results soon, though that electric motor is critical to how I fish.

Got:
Me: 1 undersized barra
Mud: Nothing

Story of the trip:
Some guys were battling a large barra. I think they were live baiting and it kept taking it and jumping out of the water. I really wanted to go over and start flicking at it, but that would have been majorly uncool. I don’t think they ever landed it, but they hooked it a few times.

Boat problems:
Need a new foot pedal. No more electric motor until I get one. And at this time of the year…

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A crock getting stuck on a float

Greenant day trip in the wet season

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Much of my memorable adventures start with reading the Kakadu or Litchfield access report, find a place and calling the rangers up and asking about it. In this case I called the Litchfield rangers to ask about swimming at greenant creek. A quick google search said there was a rockpool you could swim at, the access report said the track was open, but didn’t mention anything about the swimming. What followed was a hilarious conversation with a helpful ranger handicapped by the world we live in. Basically he said:

“there isn’t anywhere that is zoned for swimming there, so I can’t tell you you can swim there. But there is a rockpool above the waterfall that people swim, I swim, and we don’t mind. You don’t have to worry about crocs but you do have to worry about flash flooding, since you’re on top of a waterfall.”

Litchfield in the wet season is generally pretty full, as you can only swim at Florence and the Buley Rockholes, and the weather is such that you really want to swim! So we decided to walk there, and were utterly amazed that we had the entire place to ourselves all day. I imagined all those other people braving the crowds… ah well!

The highlight of the walk were the enourmous golden orb spiders. We saw a few big ones, then ran into two that were just enormous, easily bigger than my hand.

Other than that, just a great day chilling out on top of Litchfield!

 


On top of the waterfall


In the rockpool

Lots of life, no fish

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So this was my theory, I wanted to do more quick fishing trips. If I don’t have time for a full day, I would just put the boat in Dinah Beach Boat Ramp (10 mins away) and spend a few hours in the water, (plus an extra 2 packing up). Well I had to work Saturday so I figured I might as well give it a shot, and everything went great, except no fish.

Things are doing really well elsewhere so next weekend I need to put in the miles.

Got:
Me: 1 small, 1 medium catfish
Tameka: Nothing

Story of the trip:
Went down to Reichart’s and there was life everywhere. A few boofs, fish jumping, it all looked pretty good. Yet nothing was biting, apart from a couple of catfish. So much life for nothing. At one point I could see a fish (thought it was a barra, but a closer inspection now thinking maybe a shark) and I swam a lure past its face a few times, once I dragged the lure into its body, it just lazily continued swimming along without a care in the world.

Boat problems:
The battery ran out, I think I did too much on the minnkota, and not enough on the engine. I started it on the second one and managed to charge it a bit on the drive home. Started on battery 1 for the engine flush so I think it is okay.

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Lost in the photobucket episode of 2017

Darwin Harbour Disappointment

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Disappointment in the harbour! I guess you have some of these days on the water.

First: Second cast of the day I hooked a trevally, my totally lax drag fooled me into thinking it might have been edible.
Second: Soon afterwards Mud hooked a barra, hard to say size 50-60 so could have been table fish, to have it spit the hook at the boat
Third: Later in the day I saw something swirling up near a drain, soon enough I hook a barra 65-70 so a nice fish, he charged towards the boat, jumped at the boat, I kept a tight line, but about a second after getting back underwater he spat the hook.
Fourth: In desperation I headed over to where I got the fish in December to find there were zero drains… my only guess it was affected by rainwater last time, but I thought I had a secret spot but now I realise I’ve got nothing.

Got:
Me: Small Trevelly and smaller cod
Mud: Nothing

Story of the trip:
Probably losing that barra, but let’s be positive, zero boat problems, not much chop, no rain, mild day temperature wise, also launched from dinah beach so zero travel time.

Boat problems:
Nothing! Even better I realised that I am an idiot who wasn’t switching my batteries over last time, so the problems that I thought I had were incorrect.

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Lost in the photobucket episode of 2017

Adelaide Bridge in 2015

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First trip since the break and it was pretty uneventful. The original plan was going to be Bynoe but given the winds and my reluctance to drive such a distance when a storm could roll through, we went to the Adelaide Mouth. Only got one hit for zero fish. Stopped by the famous Kai and Goat Island. Good to get out om the water but a very quiet day.

Got:
Me, Mud, Mud’s daughter – nothing

Story of the trip:
Not much to report really, didn’t get rained on which is always a bonus at this time of year. The water was very dirty and we only found a few good colour changes, but it didn’t produce anything.

Boat problems:
My boat is shorting out if it gets swapped to battery 2. Things were okay as I could just run it off the main one, but really annoying, this is a brand new battery, also my first ‘boat problem’ that has repeated itself, i.e. the rest I could think ‘well who knows when the last time X was looked at’ but this time I know… brand new, July

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