Promises Lead Nowhere

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A very early wake up to be on the water at first light. We headed to a coast creek near the boat ramp, about a third of the way to where Brian usually fishes, I didn’t want to go the full trip because of the afternoon wind. Things started pretty well, hit some snags and Brian pulled out his first barra, 47cm. He pulled out two cods before I got my trademark small cod of the day, but soon the water receded and across the low we didn’t think we would catch anything. The signs were good, bait was around, every now and again a large fish would jump, or we would hear a barra boof.

We waited and waited for the fish to charge up the river like they did the last time, but it never happened.

Things got more quiet as the water came in, the bait were gone and nothing was happening. We decided to head back and in desperation I stuck a line out to troll back. Nothing happened and I was about to give up before BAM I was on.

It resisted at first but allowed itself to be wound into the boat, so I was thinking catfish. But suddenly it was peeling off line like there was no tomorrow. It kept up this trip for a while, it was impossible to bring to the surface, it wouldn’t over resistance but as soon as it was near the surface it would peel off. If I wasn’t in 1m of water I would have thought a GT. Brian was hoping for a barra but without the jump I didn’t think so.

Anyway, it was soon worn out, and it revealed itself to be a nice sized Queenfish. The reason it was acting so strange was because I had hooked it through the top of its back, meaning it was impossible to turn its head. But hey, it was great fun, it has been a while since my line got peeled off, and I personally love the taste of Queenies. I’ve got some Nummas (Cerviche) in the fridge as I type.

I was really disappointing that the barra weren’t on, as this time I was prepared with a bent minnow and a popper. But oh well, still a fun day on the water, and I’ve got a feed for this week.

Last week will be my last trip for a while, I need to stack up the freezer soon!

Got:
Me: Nice queenie, small cod
Brian: 47cm barra, 2 small cods

Random story of the trip:
The queenie had a little fly hook in the corner of his mouth.

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The Day they Got Away

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It has been far too long since I have caught a legal barra, so I decided to get a little remote and hit Bynoe Harbour for the day. Mud and Alice came along, we had really good tides, so we were pretty optimistic.

The first thing we did was start casting at some snags and Mud hooked a barra but it spat it straight away. A good sign the were on the bite. Another decent hook up in a few minutes had us optimistic. Then not much happened four a few hours…
We tried the drains and there were some amazing looking ones. But zero fish. We found a few rock bars to troll over, I pulled up a reasonable golden snapper, and Alice pulled up a reasonable cod. So that was good.

As the tide turned we tried the drains again, it is my experience they work best about an hour or two after the turn. Suddenly we had a lot more action. Alice first got a bite but it failed to hook up, Mud then did the same thing. Alice then had a large threadfin follow her lure all the way to the boat but decide not bite.

Frustrating.

Another bite on Muds lure that didn’t hook up and the drain we were at went quiet. Went to another where we could see the swirl of a barra, so we peppered him lures and BANG I hooked up! After about 30 seconds of fighting… it managed to spit the lure. I was devestated, it would have been a 70cm fish I think.

We were running out of time at this point so we tried a few more without sucess and we started to head home. Mud wanted to visit our favourite rock bar on the way so we did that and we trolled around. I filleted the snapper to save time and while the rod was in the holderI managed to hook up! At first I thought it was the bottom but it soon revealed to be an impressive cod. I don’t know I deserved this fish given I flicked the bail arm off at first thinking it was the bottom, but given the dissapointing day of barra refusing to hook up, I guess I was due.

Cod and Golden Snapper for dinner. Could be worse.

Got:
Me: Impressive cod, reasonable golden snapper
Alice: Reasonable cod, small stargazer
Mud: Small stargazer

Random story of the trip:
I spent $40 on an OSP Bent Minnow with the promise that it would be killer to barra. After promising I wouldn’t sucumb to these fads and prices I failed. And I didn’t get a single bite on it.

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Reconnaissance

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Brucesta had arrived in Darwin, him being a long time game fishermen, he was pretty keen to check out some action in the bluewater, so off we went in search of some billfish. Though personally I was more keen on some mackerel or tuna, as my freezer is pretty empty. Though the water wasn’t really blue. The large tides and decent wind meant it was more of a greenish brown.

…and the water wasn’t the only thing that was green. The rough ride out there resulted in me getting a little seasick. How embarrassing. I haven’t been seasick in years, though these days I am primarily fishing in estuaries.

So we trolled around for a while without any luck. There were some birds out there but that was it. Was cool to see how gamefisherman operate, I have never really seen it before, teasers, skipping garfish, etc.

We moved on to baitfish some reef over the low and I started to feel better. But there was no action there either. We did some drifting without any luck. We finished on some reef near Mandorah where Mud caught the only fish of the day… see photo

Got:
Not much!

Random story of the trip:
Not much to tell here so here is one from the night before. Our injury-ravaged basketball side won our first basketball game on Friday night. A few of the boys were going to have drinks to celebrate. I gave them a spray – that is not the proper way to treat your body! Food, ice and rest!

I just thought it sounded more professional than “I’m going fishing first thing in the morning”.

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An Unconventional Feed

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Mud and I decided to head out again, once again with somewhat awkward tides. We took some bait and decided to chase some Jewies out at Leeder’s creek.

Started with a troll for some barra on the way there, but it was quiet. We found our hole and down some bait and pulled out one or two smaller catfish. After that we moved out to the mouth but it was quiet. Suddenly, both Mud and I were on with decent fish.

I could tell that mine was most likely a large catfish which was disappointing, but his definitely wasn’t. It was charging all over the place, making me hope we had the elusive Jewfish. As it turned out it was a good sized black tipped reef shark.

I think sharks are good eating, most Victorians tend to agree. It isn’t that common in Darwin for some reason, I guess because there are a lot of good eating fish here. I asked Mud if he was going to eat it, and to my surprise, he was on board with the idea. He agreed that sharks are damn tasty.

I am not sure if this inspired me or muddled my brain, but the next thing you know I am necking the catfish, everyone says those golden saltwater ones are good eating… I think I am going to call it cobbler from now on. Sounds better, right?

Otherwise it was fairly uneventful. Some catfish were caught, plenty more trolling for barra happened, a bit of flicking, and that was the day.

Got:
Mud: A good shark, catfish
Me: Catfish
Alice: Catfish

Random story of the trip:
When Mud went to get the cat and I was in the boat, I noticed some swirls of water near the rocks. Had a cast and I pulled out a small cod. I had nearly gone the trip without getting one, what can I say, I am the small cod whisperer.

Snap:

Two plain white fillets of cobbler

Barra going Nuts

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I was supposed to be going camping this weekend, even took the Monday off work, but as it turns out the car got a crack in the radiator. I found this out on Friday. Meanwhile Brucesta had just moved from WA to Darwin and had asked me about some fishing. Since I didn’t have anything planned we made some last minute decisions to go barra chasing for the 11.30am lock in.

At first it was slow going, I hooked a few small cod (I seem to have a knack for it). A few hours of not much and it was across the low Brucesta managed to hook a fish that buried itself under a log. Since it was 1m deep it took me about 10 minutes of fishing around with the net under water to dislodge it, actually we gave up, but when Brucesta tried to break his line off he managed to get the fish out. Turns out it was a 38cm barra, his first NT one, and at least we were on the board.

As the water started to roll in we heard the occasional boof and we trying to hook something up. We were at a branch in a creek where the craziest thing happened. About 5000 tiny mullet came pouring into the creek. For about 5 minutes we were hearing a boof every 30 seconds. Then for 2 minutes after that, it was a boof every 2-3 seconds. 5 minutes after that it went back a boof every 30 seconds, before dying off. You could physically see the 60-80cm barra jumping. Over and over. It was crazy, they were everywhere!

And yet… they would not hook up. I have never seen anything like it, if I had of known feeding frenzies could go like that I would have assumed it would be easy to get a fish. But we got nothing. Another boat near us got 2 whilst trolling so we swapped to that, I got a decent blue salmon but no barra.

I still just can’t believe I saw that. I wish I had a go pro or something as it was just so insane. And yet no barra from it. It was the most disappointing thing that happened that day, and I’m a North Melbourne supporter.

Got:
Brucesta: 38cm barra
Me: Blue salmon for dinner

Random story of the trip:
A boat in that creek had their nose about 2 metres in the air whilst motoring, their outboard was 75% under water.

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