My good mate Keith Graham (Bransfords Tackle Shop) hasn’t been fishing much lately……..you see he had a total knee reconstruction several moths ago and it has been giving him hell on the rehabilitation trail ever since. No point in taking him out in my 4m tinny if he can’t stand up and cast for hours at a time / pull up the lead blob used to position the boat / reach down and get his lure out of the cotton wood tree, mangrove root etc etc…………well, is it!
Last Sunday however was going to be a new adventure for us. Keith’s knee had “come good” – about 85% anyway and the persistent rain had eased off for a few days. We decided to head south and see what happened.
You see, within about a 2 hours drive south of Cairns lies some of the prettiest sweet water fishing available in these parts. There are literally a dozen rivers / creeks to fish if conditions are right and this is the main positive – there is nearly always a back- up plan should your chosen destination be unfishable due to dirty water conditions. It’s a simple matter of taking note of the water conditions as you cross the rivers on the highway and back track if necessary.
We arrived at our preferred location at approx. 8:00am and were pleasantly surprised to see the water clarity was quite good. The high tide at 6:00am had long gone and with a low at midday, but a high low of just on a metre, it should give us plenty of water to travel way upstream without fear of being left stranded in the shallow reaches so prevalent upstream from the ramp.
Like intrepid explorers we pushed on and upwards, past mangroves and cottonwood trees, past swaying ribbon grass, under bridges and over drowned log piles – I had never seen the river so high without being in flood – and after a morning cuppa under a beautiful overhanging rainforest tree, we decided to explore this new territory.
Keith and I are seasoned anglers, we have fished our local rivers for many years and know some of them like the back of our hands. But this was different, I have never been able to access this river “zone” before and it was two very excited anglers that decided to keep pushing upstream just a few more k’s……….just to see what lay behind the next bend. When we decided that we had come far enough, we knew that there was a lot of water between us and the boat ramp some several hours downstream. It would not matter how many fish we caught, it was such a buzz to “just be in the moment”………..at a new destination exploring new waters.
As we drifted downstream we both realized quite quickly that this would be a difficult trip and for a strange reason for this time of year.
Our region has had heaps of rainfall this past few weeks / months. In fact I don’t think that we have had more than a few days break from nightly rain all year. The ground is saturated, the run off is constant and our rivers are running much higher than normal for a “pre” went season period. This meant that even though there was only about a metre tidal drop, the fresh was pushing constantly downstream making our passage quite a fast one and therefore casting to likely looking spots, quite challenging.
We soon realized that a slow measured drift, casting to likely barra holding backwaters and eddies was not going to be possible but for the few wider / shallower reaches. Not to worry, adjust your thinking, switch to smaller lures and target what might be there instead of singularly focusing on the barra.
This approach brought fairly instant results as Keith latched on to a feisty little JP from the grassy edges. They are such a pretty little fish and offer a spirited fight in the fast flowing water. Drifting along we had a couple of half hearted boofs from juvenile barra but our lures were swept away from the strike zone far too quickly. Not to worry, the jacks and JP’s were cooperating quite nicely thank you and the tally was slowly mounting.
These offer great sport on light spin or baitcaster tackle and in the terrain are quite challenging. We had lunch under a shady tree and were happy to sit back and take it all in………what a beautiful little river.
By now we were back downstream to where I was more familiar with the rivers course, snag piles and grassy verges which usually held barra, I advised Keith. We drifted along and cast to the “spots”, but again the journey was all too fast to really do it justice so we accepted the inevitable and just kept catching jacks. Not that there was anything wrong with that.
By mid afternoon we were back in the tidal zone, the tide had actually started to push back in and slow the “flood” and it was here that we landed a couple of small barras from the snags. And the tally for the day;
• 10 mangrove jacks
• 8 Jungle Perch
• 3 tarpon
• 2 barra
Two very contented anglers decided to “pull the pin” early and head back to Cairns………..not only content with the days catch but more satisfied that we had been to new waters and fished, what was for us, a brand new experience. There is something in this that is good for the soul don’t you think?
Good fishing, Kind regards Les
http://www.fishingcairns.com.au/
PS – Closed season for barra commences at midday on 1st November. Only a couple of weeks left this year to land a legal barra!
