Monday, July 30, 2012

Crocodiles Warm while Barra’s Remain in a Coma!


What a perfect start to the day……….the drive up the coast from Cairns was just magic. Not a cloud in the sky, the fringing rainforest (the oldest in the world) looking splendid as it hugged the mountains. Signs of a good wet season and probably no recent cyclone damage I’d suggest.
My 4m CCC @ Daintree Ramp / pontoon
What a magic day!
We launched our boat at the main ferry crossing and surveyed the scene – just a picture. The waters surface was like glass, the mangroves were drinking up the life giving ebbing tide and the surrounding tropical rainforest was alive with the various calls of the birdlife. It was great to be alive.

Conditions would not stay like this for much longer however, with predicted strong SE winds in the order of 25 – 30 knots, and a maximum day time temp. predicted at 24C, it was going to be a cool day by our standards. Thankfully there was no hint of rain so anywhere out of that persistent wind would be quite pleasant still!
These conditions are just ideal for those big lizards too!


As the tide receeded, it was a low of .5 metres at midday, any exposed mud or sand bank out of the wind and in full sun, would be a sunbathing opportunity too good to pass up by the resident crocs. And boy, were they making the most of it. Just by cruising around, looking for likely looking fishing spots to toss our lures, saw us encounter 15 of these prehistoric creatures…….imagine how many we may have seen if we had really tried to find them.!

Add caption









But in conditions such as these, sightings are a real bonus and you never cease to be amazed at what life is actually hiding in the waters of the Daintree.  We were here for the fishing, not the croc spotting!
My Debbie works in Real Estate (RE/MAX Cairns – the #1 real estate company in the world, TRUE) so weekends are usually her busiest time. Working 7 days a week is the norm for Debbie, but I was fortunate enough to encourage her to come and fish with me on this day, she will not get another day off until after October she confessed…..make the most of it girl.

Readers will know that Debbie & I are extremely competitive with our fishing; I just love it! And so it was that I chose a couple of lures while Debbie took out about her usual 6-8 lures in various sizes / colours / diving depth etc etc……….she must have been nervous eh!
First for the day
We had not gone far when I enticed a little rat from under the overhanging mangrove branches, you know, the horizontal ones that lay parallel in the water column. Tip, barra just love hiding behind these structures and can be found on both the incoming and outgoing tide in this situation.

There was a friendly chap anchored up nearby, but he was bait fishing and waiting for the action. The Daintree can be very productive as a bait fishing destination also, but I’m a lure fanatic so politely passed him by……….”You’ve just caught my fish he exclaimed”……….”nar, you’r fishing out in the open while she came from way back under the trees” I explained. We moved on!
We left him in peace & tranquility

Not long after, the predicted winds arrived and sent a shivering blast up the river. Thankfully we had come fully prepared and I always wear a few layers of clothing to stop the piercing blast under these conditions. Lets look for some more protected water I suggested, and off we zoomed upstream to a nearby creek junction. Zilch!
Protection from the wind - but not much else!
At least Deb was relaxing!
There was surprisingly quite a lot of boating traffic on the water this day. A combination of lovely early weather and a few more tourists around I’d suspect. There were boats zooming all over the place, a sure sign in itself that the fishing was a bit slow with anglers trying to locate feeding fish. Let’s head upstream and try something different I suggested.

Now readers will know all too well that I have had a little fixation on a particular lure lately, the mighty “Flat Jak” from Bransfords. And I have done particularly well on them for quite some time now. Being a relatively buoyant lure, swimming to about 2 metres on a long cast, they are not the “bees knees” in all fishing situations. Every now and again circumstances will come along where a different approach is required. And so it was the Debbie & I found ourselves tucked out of the wind in a little backwater surrounded by thick cotton wood trees. Barra just love hiding under cotton wood trees (another tip!) but a shallow lure just does not get down to where the fish are at.
Then it hit me like a bolt from the sky……..during my recent trip to Lakefield, Ali had caught quality barra on another of Bransfords tried and tested (by yours truly several years ago) lures, the exclusive“F111’s”. They are a brilliant lure to cast, are a slow sinker, but when worked enticingly with a slow jerky retrieve, they dance all over the place like a wounded mullet. Get it……….injured or sick fish get eaten by predators, right!

I chose a bright green and gold model, after all it is the Olympics, and I should support the Aussies. On my very first cast I let the lure sink down in the 2metre + water I was fishing in, jerked it slowly back to the boat and there it was, a nice silver flash down deep. There’s barra down there babe, get your lure in there. Refer back now, Debbie likes to try a hundred different lures in a day, but this time she was reluctant to change whatever she was tied to. But I can assure you that after my fifth little barra, Deb thought that there just might be something in this drop technique after all, so reluctantly tied on a bright shiny pink and bronze model.










Unfortunately Deb had no luck, she had a strong hit from one down deep that failed to hook up and missed a couple of flashes. I didn’t think she allowed the lure to sink far enough but you try to tell a headstrong Kiwi girl that she is not fishing right……….competitive, you bet ya!
Time to head back downstream and fish the incoming tide………..unfortunately the area I chose was just not firing today. The tide was racing in, stirring up the mud and whether this had anything to do with it I could not be certain but I was bitterly disappointed.

We flogged my river bend for naught……..time to get an early exit I thought, lets go home babe and have an early roast (its traditional on Sunday’s in our household).
Deb's first and last for the trip!
We stopped at a couple of places on the way back to the ramp, Deb finally landed her first barra for the day and I was pleased for her. I know that she never complains, never does, but I also know that she loves nothing better than barra fishing (apart from sailing / walking along a deserted beach / having a nice glass of wine….sorry, got carried away!). I landed another juvenile as well.


Now I really don’t like to gloat, but what was that tally count darling………..Oh yes!
7 barra to Les and 1 barra to Deb. Yes, we are competitive!

Green & Gold - go Aussie - F111

And as for those “new” lures, the “Bransfords F111’s”……….I’ll certainly be using them more often when conditions are right…….they come in a great range of modern, well finished eye catching colours too.

Catch you on the water

Regards, Les
www.fishingcairns.com.au

Farewell my friend........see you next time!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

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

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Jacks on the Daintree

With the wet weather still prevailing and the majority of the rain falling south of Cairns, it was decided that the Daintree River would be our best option. It was Kevin's turn to take his well appointed 4.3m Cairns Custom Craft punt (Kev was the foreman at CCC for years) so an early rendezvous at my place was organised for 6:30am. The trip north was uneventful and we were soon backing down the well appointed boat ramp near the ferry crossing.


Kev's rig - 4.3m CCC & Tojo
With a predicted south-east change due to hit mid afternoon, we were mindful that the best fishing conditions should be early in the day, from launch until just after low tide at approx. 1.30pm...WRONG!

The river was as "flat as a tack" on launch, but the winds arrived early bringing driving rain and squally conditions. Not at all what we had expected, however, we were there, in our wet weather gear and would persist. The usual spots failed to fire as we drifted downstream on the ebbing tide. It was tough going and we were becoming quite frustrated. Its amazing how your casting accuracy "goes off" when the fish are not biting; but the mangrove trees seem to grown a few centimeters and grab the lures anyway. I'd hate to count how many times we backed into and under the overhangs to retrieve our very naughty lures!

Only real fish of the morning!
Up until lunch time we had had only moderate success; we drifted the slowly exposing banks, cast to fallen timber, overhangs and creek junctions......and all we had to show for it was a very small trevally and a medium barra. Lunch was had out in the open, the internationally famous Daintree mozzies and sandflies made it too uncomfortable to be tucked up out of the wind and it was more advisable to put up with a little breeze instead of the constant buzzing in your ears.

Just after lunch, on the making tide, we decided to fish one of the creeks down near the mouth. Conditions were quite good......in fact the weather was markedly on the improve by now, the rain had ceased, the winds had eased back considerably and there was even a patch of blue sky trying to develop offshore and push its was upstream.


First jack of the trip














These are quality jacks















I think my lure was hit first.....and the reason that I was a little surprised was that the quality jack had come from deep water, actually several metres away from any structure or the bank. Kev was soon on as well and fought a nice jack to the boat. We noticed that the jacks were hanging just off the main drop off and not on the normal structure. They must have been feeding on the bait slowly being pushed up the channel on the incoming tide. Our jack tally was mounting as attested to by the photo's hereabouts. In fact, this was some of the best jack fishing that either of us had experienced in our local rivers ever! A bold statement but true.


Just under legal barra
Just over legal - 59cm
We did manage a couple of legal sized barra as well, along with a half dozen little rats. And just toround off the species list, Kev also landed a flathead and a trevally.

Best barra of the trip at 68cm







One instance worth reporting however, was "the one that got away" moment. As we slowly drifted along I saw a nice looking snag....not one of those "big butt" fallen trees but one where there were heaps of little fingers of drowned timber protruding from the swirling waters. These are always worth a cast or two as the myriad little branches are ideal for holding baitfish. I cast right next to the upstream facing bunch of sticks and before I had time to engage the reel a legal sized barra boofed my lure from the surface.

He took off vertically, jumping over the branches, hooking up to a little nodule and powering out towards the middle of the creek. If he only stayed out wide I might have a chance I thought, so Kev gingerly started motoring towards the snag and the junction point of my line. Its amazing how such a little innocuously looking piece of dead vegetation can ruin a party.......by the time I'd used the rod tip to untangle this little intrusion, the barra had indeed swum back under the sticks, hooking up the lure and breaking himself free. Thankfully we had landed plenty of other fish so werent too distraught.

But have a look at what I did catch!

This was amazing! A little saltie
It was ferocious and put up a fantastic fight on light tackle.
Its growl was deafening………..and I was petrified that it would attract the attention of its even bigger mother who must have been lurking nearby.
But I was strong and survived to fight another day.
NOTE – it was released unharmed

It was two very happy anglers that pulled the pin at approx. 4:30 pm.......after such a S  L  O  W start prior to lunch, the change in tide and weather certainly flicked the switch and the fish responded positively. In all we landed;
  • 7 barra
  • 13 mangrove jacks
  • 2 trevally
  • 1 flathead
  • 1 croc
Catch you on the water.

Regards, Les
www.fishingcairns.com.au

PS....Keith Graham, Alan Willmot and I are off to Lakefield mid week.......a boys camping / fishing / sensible drinking trip. I should have a good story to tell you next week.