Liverpool Lady on the Mend

Liverpool Lady on the Mend


It’s a week past, I offered to do the fishing report…got tied up with a 7 day work week..and the weekend is gone but for the memory (and the Jack in the freezer!) It’s now a Wednesday night, 4 long meetings today with a 5am start. It is now 9.30pm and once again, I am drawn back to realize this great obsession some of us have with fishing! I’ve got the urge to write you a little story. Man, I love fishing.

Up here in Cairns, the big wet is finally over…I had the day off from my game of real estate. Les asks, “So Babe…where do you want to go?” My choice, you bewdy! Liverpool Creek’s my pick for poison. Les & I have snuck down for a peek at this beautiful little river a few times this year, only to be disappointed by bright orange waters as the river banks & hillsides have bled mud for months, Cyclone Yasi has absolutely devastated the place. It has been kind of like looking in to see if your old friend is still breathing..her heart beat is still there, her beauty gone. The trees have been stripped of any dignity, old, crooked hands reach up into the sky, dotted over the bald heads of the hills. Very sad. We had been reminiscing only 2 months ago about how wonderful it was to see everything finally recovering, lush & green after Cyclone Larry in 2006 had wrecked the place. Liverpool is smashed up badly this time.

Crooked Hands reaching for the sky!

Badly eroded bank side

What a thrill to drive over the hill & see the river running crystal clear! We were feeling lucky, the sun was shining bright, barely a cloud in the sky. An esky full of kiwi cooking, the water was dead flat & the local Council had even spread a new layer of gravel down the boat ramp, usually skid row with bare clay and a rock drop off. Gently slipping into the water, rig the rods, slap on the sunscreen & you turn around to survey the scene. Breathtakingly beautiful, steam rising from clear water. Like a cancer patient, her hair is recovering. Green tuffs of ferns & fresh green leaves are popping out of the the slender trunks forming a guard of honour along this little piece of paradise, Liverpool Creek.




At the ramp!



Tidal Mangrove Zone

For those of you that don’t know, Les & I are fiercely competitive…he is the official Fish Whisperer, I, the apprentice. It is still a bloody good competition. (I LOVE it when I win, he is still the best) The lures of choice first up are Leads High Jackers. Les is into his flavour of the month- an orange/brown colour. I’m into green today. Don’t worry, I have a small plastic bucket with 4 more different colours in case this one doesn’t work. I need a quick change in case Les starts beating me! He laughs at me. He will use 2 lures all day, generally a High Jacker or a deep diver. He has experience on his side you see.

A quick run up the river literally brings tears to your eyes, the river banks are exposed with old junk from years gone by…kind of interesting though. Old cart wheels, bits & and pieces of old sugar cane equipment, roofs swept into the trees by Yasi, grand old trees slipping to their death after a hundred years of pride. Oh so sad…almost as sad as the two boats we pass. Dads & sons in their little punts out to conker the mighty barra.

“There’s nothin’here mate!” they holler. Poor buggers.

Old tin iron from someones roof

Our favourite spot looms, it is so hard to recognize! The structure is all different, the weed beds vanished, trees broken. Les casts once, he casts twice. He’s on! The best barra of the day! A 55cm beauty. Always nerve racking to get such a good fish so early…sometimes the rest of the day can seem disappointing. It takes us 100+ casts to get the next one. Only 50 metres of river bank left intact on the entire river. Another blast up the river on the high tide, the plan was to drift back on the out. Did we have a ball!



First (and biggest barra)



Note how healthy and shiny the juveniles are

Not an easy day, but a steady day of total excitement, excellent fun & tough competition between ourselves ( I still maintain that Sooty’s should not be counted Les) No fish on the banks at all. 100% of what we scored was on the creek run outs or on structure nearby. The tally mounted. We lost count of our numbers. I took photos of each one caught…that makes the counting fair. Besides that, I am Les Marshes official photographer so pardon me if we go overboard with the photos sometimes. It’s my fault. I love my camera almost as much as the fishing. Les has lost his favourite 3” Jack Lure. (Okay, he used 3 lures today!) He jumps about like Rumplestiltskin, swearing like a bogan. I’m onto my 4th lure of choice, but I’ve nailed it. I’m onto them-I’m 5 ahead of Les. The fish are loving brown today. Funny how sometimes they go for the red lures (when the berries are falling off the trees) or they are into blues & greens. (Is that when frogs are attempting to cross the rivers?) Les studies his 5 tier tackle box full of lures & gleefully squints at a replacement pale green one in the sunlight. He’s cranking again & back in the race.

Old "fill" exposed by the floods

Nice jack Debbie!

The only bit of bankside weed bed left in the river!

The total tally? 37 BARRA! None (surprise, surprise) legal. 1 fat Sooty, 8 Mangrove Jacks & 12 Jungle Perch. What a blast! The score ended up 27-30 to Les. Not bad considering he has to drive the boat as well.

The only sooty of the trip

Its getting late now - where are those lights?

What an absolutely wonderful day, one of the best I have ever had in my short 4 years of barra fishing & judging by the look on Les’s face, he would agree. Some of these rivers may look pretty ragged but I guess Mother nature will always recover. The cyclone has given the barra more structure on the river beds, the system is very much alive and well. I’m buying Les a set of navigation lights…why should we stop fishing at 6.30pm? Rest well my beauty…we’ll be back!

Kind regards, Debbie (for Les Ha ha!)

http://www.fishingcairns.com.au/