Late on Friday night it started to drizzle - it wouldn't come to much I thought, after all its August which is suppose to be the "dry" season......right!
Saturday was my day for book-keeping, house cleaning, a bit of footy watching etc and as it was still raining, I had to forgo cutting the lawns. Darn.
Lance was a little concerned about my "keeness" to fish the following day so he rung me that afternoon just to make sure - hell I'm keen I replied, it was all systems go for the following day.
It rained all night, and when I awoke the skies were completely grey - Oh well, at least a few gutters might be flowing I mused. Lance picked me up at 12 noon as planned, we had a small diversion as we headed south and it was still raining. I actually decided to put my wet weather gear on while travelling in the car...........it wasn't going to let up and am I glad that I did.
We launched Lance's boat at Deeral and decided to head upstream as far as possible. If you remember my last post you will note that my upstream passage was restricted somewhat by shallow waters and the fact that there was a fairly low tide as well. This day was different, there was a bit of fresh coming down but the big influencing factor was the fact that low tide was still above 1m. We went as far as we dared, cut the main motor and drifted to a small gutter aided by the bow mounted electric thruster.
Lance was the first to cast and soon raised a small barra from the edge of the discoloured water, but it failed to hook up and after sever fruitless casts we began our slow journey back downstream. I just love these small tides but with relatively high lows - get it? There is just enough run to keep the fish in feeding mode but the drift can be controlled much better and actually increases your fishing time.
It was going to be a tough day though......the fish just weren't co-operating and even the sooties and JP's were missing from the sunken snags. AND IT WAS STILL RAINING.
We cast to bankside weed beds, behind fallen logs and rocks, to back eddies and overhanging rainforest, to ribbon grass and lilly pads........but it certainkly was s..l..o..w and still raining. We covered some fantastic looking territory, drop offs and snags that just screamed fish but things had shut down. At one massive fallen log we both had about a dozen casts, drifting off I looked back and had one last cast.
Boof!.........and I was on, but only briefly........this legal sized barra bolted downstream and pulled the hooks. I then cast to a weedy bank, it was relatively shallow but the darker waters gave the hint of a deeper gutter and a cut back under the floating grass. Boof!.........and I was on again, but after two spirited jumps in the shallow water she was free again. It just wasn't going to be my day.
Lance had similar luck and to this stage he had lost three small barra in similar fashion but had managed to land a silver tarpon that gyrated all over the place before being hauled into the boat.
At one of my favourite weed beds, Lance finally nailed a little 45cm barra which was quickly released. I was becoming a little frustrated at this stage but hell, this was better than working or gardening or watching the AFL (maybe) and then my luck changed.
I cast right along a deep gutter and worked my leeds shad back underneath the floating grass verge - I felt a little bump at first - was that a hit? Oh yes it was and finally I'd hooked up to a respectable 56cm barra which was brought boatside, landed, photographed and placed gently back into the river.
We didn't see another fish after that but it was getting late anyway so time to pull the pin and get home for the Sunday lamb roast. And as we pulled into my driveway back in Cairns it was still raining. Its still raining now and I think we have had well over 60mm this past 2 days - AND ITS THE DRY SEASON!
Happy fishing, regards Les
