Lakefield - full of dreams!

Anyone remotely interested in Tropical North Queensland barra fishing has heard of Lakefield. Its a huge National Park sited inland from Cooktown and bordered by Princess Charlotte Bay to the north. As the name suggests there are literally dozens of water holes, river courses, billabongs and creek beds to fish and at various times of the year, Lakefield is closed during the traditional "wet" season, they come alive with catch rates of "cricket score" proportions. Not like the Aussie's of late however!

Unfortunately I have never experienced such action to date, but this was to be my 5th trip to Lakefield and I was full of expectation.

My partners on this trip were Keith Graham of Bransfords Tackle Shop (well worth the drive!) and Ali Willmot from Willmot Smash Repairs (the greenest smash repairers in the land - and they have the accreditation to prove it). We decided to time our trip to coincide with the Cairns Show. Being a public holiday on the Friday, we could all take a couple of days off work and still have 5 days to play; 2 to travel and three and a bit to fish. To help us with the fishing bit it was decided to get a real early start on the Wednesday morning.....do you know how many kangaroos and wallabies are on the road at 2:00 am.....bloody heaps!

Travelling north through Port Douglas / Julatten / by-passing Mount Molloy and on to Lakeland Downs for a quick...er pee stop. It was sill dark. We continued on until the bitumen ended, it was still good quality dirt however and we soon found ourselves at Laura just past 5:30am. A wonderful man had only just surfaced and opened up the Laure Roadhouse so we had a bite to eat and filled the Sahara (These are beautiful off road vehicles)

Arriving at the Park

By the time we entered the park proper the sun was poking above the horizon and the day loomed as just perfect. It was still a considerable way to go to our pre-booked camping spot however but the Sahara did it in style, towing our 4WD trailer courtesy of Tutt Bryant Hire - thanks Nick and the boys.

For those interested, all camp spots must be pre-booked via the Queensland Government web site run through the offices of DERM click here to check it out. This alleviates the problems of lobbing at the park, self registering a site at the Ranger Stations, but finding your chosen camp site has already been taken.

OUR secluded launch spot

We finally arrived, surveyed the scene and started to "erect" our camp. We had used this exact location last year so knew every tree, every anchor point to tie our ropes / pitch the tarp / make the fire and erect our various "bedding" / tents. As you can see my swag was charmingly labelled "The Coffin"........can't really see what they mean by this derogatory remark can you?

The "Coffin"

Ali was a bit more sophisticated and actually had a camp stretcher and mozzie net, while Keith went all out for luxury and chose a dome tent and stretcher....paradise made!

Ali's Bed

Keith's Dome

Our camp

What do you think we did next? Went bloody fishing of course!

The boys ready for action

Straight away my senses deduced that the fishing was going to be tough.....years of experience had taught me that cold, dirty water is not conducive to stand out fishing and over the course of the next 3 days I was proven right. That afternoon was to be purely experimental........a quick zoom to known likely productive spots, a troll of the rock bar etc and all for a measly one legal barra an a couple of rats + archer fish. Hmmmm...not good!

The best on day one

Prior to this trip we had done some recognisance on Google Earth. What an amazing tool this is! By scanning our location previously, we discovered a substantial land locked lagoon a couple of kilometres away. Surely with a quality hand held GPS and some nous, we could walk our way in, carry what we needed in our backpacks and fish? Day two saw us do exactly that....after setting a few traps for freshwater prawn of course.

Keith & Les

Ali setting the prawn traps

There is another saying etched into folk law in regards to the Lakefield prawn........great captures of prawn and the barra fishing will be s....l....o....w, scarce captures of prawn and the barra are on the chew. This trip, unfortunately, both were wrong.

The Lagoon - beauthful looking water!

After dragging our bodies through the scrub, brushing numerous prickly bushes, ducking under vines and tripping on hidden holes under the dried grass, we finally came abruptly to the waters edge. Man what a pleasant sight this was after our efforts! The water was much cleaner, and a few degrees warmer than the "home" lagoon, and our spirits were high on expectation. Had this lagoon been fished before this season....had it ever been fished before?

The boys split up and walked around the shoreline looking for likely casting spots. Deep water and a bit of structure was the order of the day and we found a few likely looking spots on the east shore. Keith was first into a rat, followed closely by yours truly with the same. A reasonable start and pleased to actually find fish; expectations were high.

Not long after Ali let our an almighty cry. It wasn't a sound of enjoyment mind you, he was actually a bit frightened by the size of the barra that has engulfed his lure. Looming up from the depths she engulfed his offering near the surface, her huge bucket mouth making the lure look like a jelly bean to a marlin (Big game skippers will know what I mean!)....but the hooks failed to penetrate and the estimated 60+lb monster was gone. Ali was a bit shaken and took a few moments to compose himself........Keith and I moved a bit closer to his spot.

It was Keith's turn next....a very respectable 20lber engulfed his "Killalure 2 Deadly" and reached for the sky. My fish would have swallowed her, Ali exclaimed.......settle down boys, she was not done yet. Bank fishing can be full of danger. You can slip into the drink, your prized monster can bury you in the deep somewhere, wrap you around a snag or just throw the hook and one spectacular jump.

Caught!

Beauty Keith.....the barra I mean

Keith finally subdued her at the waters edge and I slipped the bogas into the hard bony mouth of a quality barra. He was stoked and I was pleased for him.....do you believe that crap! Where's mine!

How's that!

It came in the very next cast when my "Flat Jak" was similarly boofed off the surface by a slightly smaller model. She did all the right things and was soon landed, dragged up the bank and photographed with her mate. Two very happy anglers sat down to admire our captures and analyse our efforts.

But it wasn't long before Ali was into one too......he made a good effort to lose her but she too was landed. Whoops and hollers all around boys!

Well done Ali

Time to head back and so it was that we now had to drag our prized catch back through the thick scrub to our waiting tinny. Having a GPS was a huge blessing and it was such a simple matter to locate our boat. We sat down for a well earned beer.....man it was sweet!

We deserve this - VB never tastes so good!

Back at "home" lagoon

That afternoon we decided to head in the opposite direction, to another well scoped land locked lagoon. This walk was a little easier as we traversed a dry river bed, inter dispersed with a few skinny holes. We did, however, find the main basin and fished it intently around the snag piles.

Thongs (on his feet) are not good for traction Ali!

This was Ali's day.........his well presented "F111", in rainbow colour, drew several medium sized barra and one absolute monster. Picture this.......Ali in thongs, standing 4 metres above the lagoon, on a 45 degree slope covered in gum leaves with every movement trying to avoid the slippery slope to the waters edge. A 20+lb barra gyrating out of the water, crashing down amongst the timber and eventually, after all of Keith's and my advice, allowing her to do not one, but three 360's around a little protruding stick. A quick lunge and she was gone. Sorry Ali!

We didn't have much luck for the rest of the afternoon and we quietly trudged our way back to camp. A quick dip in a crystal clean, sand pit in about 30 cm of COLD water helped ease our disappointment. We still had another day and a few beers to cheer us up.

Man this is tiring work!

The last day saw us awake with renewed enthusiasm.....we had decided that a trip back to that first waterhole would be the plan. We had had success there and surely we could do it again. I was the first to hook up but it was still a rat. Moving along the bank we cast to likely looking spots as per the first day. When the hit came I was taken completely by surprise. A beautiful 20lber crunched my lure on the surface after rising slowly from the dark shadowy water. She had one almighty jump.......and was gone. My heart sunk as I had missed another opportunity. Get back on the bike, I told myself, and continued my casting and casting and casting.

Spotty - archer fish

A few more juveniles took up my offering while a cry of excitement was heard from along the bank. Keith's "2 Deadly" was engulfed again, and just like mine, she made one almighty jump and was gone. Shortly after I was on again.....same result. We persisted, a couple of small barra again and a spotty (Archer) was all I could show for my efforts.

Not long to go now and Keith had moved all the way to the northern end of our hole. He cast his "2 Deadly" way out to the middle of the lagoon...bloop, bloop, bloop......BOOF!

What a fish, similar to the beauties we had landed a couple of days ago and the fight was on. Keith was determined to land this one and took all precautions...i.e screaming his head off and telling the fish what it should do. But alas it was not to be, she jumped and was gone.

Now all this activity excited Ali and he came scrambling through the trees.....took one look at Keith's dejected face and cast his "F111" to the middle.......can you believe it?! Another beauty took a shine to his offering, sucked it off the surface and it was on for young and old. By this time Ali was an old hand at big barra fishing. He had seen it all before and even the dirty tactic of trying to loop the loop around a protruding stick did not phase him.

Which bloody way did she swim around that log he exclaimed in a very calm voice, not!

Well done Ali

And as luck would have it, the fishing gods were smiling on Ali that day. She did a very convenient back track, freeing herself from the structure and Ali gently guided her to the bank.

Keith and Les - nil ( we both lost two monsters that day)
Ali - ONE.

It was only one fish Ali, so stop being so cock sure of yourself. If only, if only, if only!
It was a slow old trip by Lakefield standards.
We managed to land some beautiful barra.
We all lost some beauties that would have absolutely made out trip.
We discovered a couple of magic looking water holes withing walking distance to main camp
We had a magic camp, great company and blew a few cobwebs from the system

Will we be back.......sure as hell, we will be back!

The final sunset!

The final billy!

But analyzing the trip,conditions were not in our favor. The week prior to our trip, the Tropical north coast and adjacent inland areas had experienced some very unseasonal rainfall. Well over 230mm for some areas. And a cold snap swept up the coast. The main lagoon water temps were plummeting each successive day.....from 80F on day one to 74F on day four (sorry about the Fahrenheit data, that's what the sounder said) Dropping water temps is not good for barra and they go into lock jaw mode.

Last barra of the trip

We're thinking our next trip will have to be in late September or early October.....or will it be on the other side of the spectrum and be in late April or May? We'll see!

Catch you on the water.
Regards, Les
www.fishingcairns.com.au