Fishing Cairns: Mulgrave Mayhem!

And why do you say that you ask!

Picture this.......not a cloud in the sky. A perfect sunny day, hardly any wind......and Debbie & I have a late start to our afternoon on the Mulgrave.

Readers will know that Debbie is a real Estate agent - trust me! Oh year right! She was feeling so bloody crook with the flu, and the fact that she had almost lost her voice, we decided that the best thing to do would be to go fishing for a couple of hours late on Sunday afternoon.

As we headed down the Bruce Highway, past Gordonvale and the highway bridge - what the hell is that big mass of black sky doing hanging over the "gap" at Russell heads? Its pissing down I exclaimed.......man this is not fair! Oh well, were here now so might as well go fishing - knowing that Debbie was feeling 'rat shit' I did offer to turn around and go home to the sunshine back in Cairns, but being a real trooper and all round nice girl, Debbie said it would be OK to proceed.

Unfortunately, Deb had left her wet weather gear at home.........guess what? Being the very nice bloke that I am, I actually gave Deb my beloved and treasured Goretex jacket.......she was a warm as a 'bun in the rug'! I even let her sit in the car while I prep the boat, backed down the ramp and launched my tinny......I did make her hold on to the rope while I parked the car though and we were soon on our way upstream.

It did not stop raining for several hours and was absolutely bucketing down.....we even sought shelter under some rain forest trees overhanging the lagoon but had to stand up while drinking my coffee. Not a good look and totally unexpected I can assure you.

Deb's first barra on the new RED deep diving shad!

Anyway, Deb, of "she who must continually change lures" fame, found a new, bright red, deep diving shad. This is a prototype of another new lure that Keith (Bransfords Tackle Shop) and I are testing, with stocks expected any week now........so check them out at Bransfords......well worth the drive!

As you can see by the pics hereabouts, Deb was very impressed with this shiny new offering and I was actually in very real danger of being out fished!

Even in the rain she is a beautiful river!

No Deb.....the River is beautiful!

The river was very shallow indeed and being at the bottom of the tide also left us with some very skinny water to navigate up to our next spot. I usually have Deb sit way up the bow of the boat and zoom along at full throttle; thankfully this works a treat for us and we are able to fish way above where usual anglers would get to at this time of year.

Juvenile barra from upstream snag

Debbie's new favourite lure!

We found a nice big bank side snag that was holding a few fish and managed to land half a dozen rats before having to head home to put on the pork roast......yes, its Sunday!

We left them biting!