Daintree Raining!

Well you could be forgiven for thinking that its the "wet" season up here in Cairns. It hasn't stopped raining (drizzling really) for weeks and weeks. Not good for us keen angler types and the urge to toss a few lures was just too strong.

I hadn't lure fished since the Queen's birthday weekend, way back in early June, so hang the weather.......Debbie and I were just going to do it anyway.

So on Friday morning, it was a public holiday here in Cairns for the annual show day (Just hate it!), Debbie and I headed north to fish the Daintree. The weather God's hadn't been too kind to us of late, with plenty of "strong wind warnings" to completely shut down the offshore scene. It was our plan to fish the "river bends" out of the prevailing 25 - 30 kn winds and just hope for a fish or two. Expectations were not high but that didn't matter as we were on the water after many weeks of self enforced exile!

We fished a small backwater not far from the boat ramp and had a couple of near misses - the barra would obviously be sluggish in the cool conditions we mused, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the water was an acceptable 23.7C.........well within the barra's active range so, just maybe, there would be a bit of action after all.

Not long after and Debbie hooked up to a small 45cm barra which was photographed and quickly put back to grow. And then I landed a similar sized fish from the mangrove prickles - the aerial roots of the river lined mangrove trees, one of my favourite fishing "zones" in our tropical rivers.

Keeping to our plan to fish "out of the wind" was paying dividends; we ventured up a few small side creeks and found more willing barra and a couple of fiesty jacks to boot. The tally was mounting.

With a low tide at approx. 1:30pm we headed downstream as far as we dared in the sloppy conditions (the exposed river mouth was just too windy for my 4m barra punt) and we started to work our way back using the incoming tide and wind to push us upstream. We found more willing barra and jacks on the snags and even landed a nice river GT off the prickles.

The tally for the day was very respectable; way above what we would have thought at the outset.

• Barra x 12
• Jacks x 5
• Trevally x 1

Debbie and I were using similar tackle, and what I arguably believe are the best lures on the market - Leads 6" highjackers (for shallow conditions) and the relatively new 3" deep diving shad. I just love these lures and if I had to come north to fish and only had a choice of a few lures to bring - I'd beg / borrow / steal as many of these beauties in any colour that I could get my hands on. We both used green lures this day!

It was two very happy, but wet, anglers that sought the comfort of the Colorado 4x4 as we headed back to Cairns late that afternoon - it really was one of the most memorable fishing trips that we had encountered. Not for the number of fish landed, nor for the fact that none of the barra were of legal size (again - refer previous gripes) BUT the fact that we had well surpassed pre concieved angling expectations considering the conditions. We were both very pleased with ourselves.

Offshore scene:

Without stating the bleeding obvious, not many charters have ventured to the blue water due to this lousy weather were having, when conditions do ease however and the larger vessels have been able to get out to the reef, catches have been quite outstanding.

Quality reds are the order of the day with large and small mouth nannygai on the favourite marks along with good numbers of coral trout being caught. This cool weather will bring the spaniards on the chew as well so its always a good idea to have a floating pillie out the back while bottom bouncing or trolling diving lures between marks.

Good fishing, regards, Les

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