Mourilyan - What Could have been!

Its been years since I fished Mourilyan Harbour!
Don't know why....just one of those things. Its a beautiful waterway approx. 100ks south of Cairns and it is quite unique in that it is not really a river as such. Mourilyan is more like a tidal basin with several creeks flowing into it.

It is quite exposed to our prevailing South East trades that blow fairly constantly during the "winter" months and on big tides, the waters rush in and out through a fairly narrow channel making it a bit tricky to fish on all but the slower cycles. Well that's my take on it anyway!

Debbie, and to a lesser extent, my good mate Keith, have been pestering me for months to take them to this place. For no other reason than they have not fished it much while Debbie is still a virgin to its waters. One day baby....when its warm, and not windy and the tides are OK, I'll think about maybe taking you there. See, I'm not really committed to this little patch of paradise.

But last Sunday was a pretty good day, well to start off with anyway. Keith and I had an easy journey south and I was pleasantly surprised when I pull up next to the brand new boat ramp / huge car park / Volunteer Coast Guard headquarters and toilet facilities. This ramp has seen a huge upgrade since the last cyclone with a two lane all tide ramp, floating pontoon and enough car and trailer parking for a whole footy team...I was very impressed.

Hows this for a boat ramp / pontoon set up!

My rig all ready to go!

Keith had done his homework in preparation for this trip, he had collected heaps of data from fisho's who are a lot more experienced than us about where to be at what tide cycle etc, BUT as you know, you can only be in one place at a time. Hmmmmm.......what am I leading to here?
Don't worry Chris, you still have a job at Bransfords.

Sure the water was a cool 20C, but hell man, it looked so good. We drifted along the "secret" spot and cast to magnificent looking snags and bank side mangrove roots and overhangs. There was a crimson flash....Jack! But it failed to hook up.

There was a silver streak....but it was only a small cuda....the wrong type of barra!

But then it came.....that unmistakable thud from a, well, er a.......COD!
Yes, Keith was "cod walloped" again!

Keith and his Cod!

And again....well done!

Just look at the bankside structure!

And thank goodness for these pesky little blighters, for without them, it would have been a very lean day.

This water-way is still to yield up her secrets to us. Sure there was so much great looking country, so may snags and gutters and creeks to explore. But on the day, it just did not happen for us.

How good does this look!

Way upstream in a little feeder creek!

Even I can catch a cod!

"Its winter mate" I exclaimed as we drove home....its always a bit tough when conditions are like this. And I'm the lucky one, I have an ace up my sleeve. I'm off to Aurukun on Thursday to help Rob Paxevanos do a film shoot for his TV show, Fishing Australia. I hope I can cope!

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

A Break In The Weather!

Did anyone go to the Cairns Show?
Did everyone notice how atrocious the weather "always" is on show week....and this year was bad!
But what about Saturday!

Can you believe it....the very next day after the show...after putting up with 25-30knot winds howling from the south east....drizzly grey skies and overcast conditions. Open you eyes on Saturday and the weather is as magnificent as you can get!

Mulgrave ramp....what a glorious start to the day!

Not a cloud in the sky.
Not a breath of wind.
A balmy 26C....perfect.

I hope that the reef fisherman fared a bit better than we did because the Mulgrave was a real dog as far as catching was concerned. But it was a great day to be alive. To drift and zoom along in glassy conditions, with rain forest buzzing past and the mighty Walsh's Pyramid in the background....It was just so good to be there and be alive in natures glory.

Debbie had the day off too and its always a pleasure to have my lady with me while fishing. Hell she is a great cook, muffins and bickies, home made pasties and a hot cup.....Oh!, hold on a minute....we forgot the Thermos flask didn't we. We left it in the car so had to put up with cold water for a change.

We travelled upstream on the high tide as far as I dared go at this time of year (suppose to be the dry season) and cast to known barra holding water. Those cotton woods are a favourite, as are the ribbon grass and back eddies........but all was to no avail.

I even worked some current / dirty water lines!

But it was just too cold I think!

The water was crystal clear, a brrrrrr icy cold 20C and not a barra in sight.

It was a huge drop in the tides too so knew it would be tough. But not this tough.

We ventured downstream to the salt....what salt! We were greeted by brown stained fresh water flowing from the Russell and even on this current line there was nothing doing. OK babe, lets drift back on the tide and see whether there is something in Sorrensens?

There was; and sitting right on the muddy point, sunning itself was a huge 4m + croc. Check it out!

"Well babe, it looks like its not going to happen today" I announced. Lets just drift along this mangrove bank and cast to a couple of fallen trees. If there is nothing here we might as well...........CRASH / BANG......the rod buckled over right at the boat and a spirited fight ensured.
I was stoked to finally hook up to a fish, any fish, it didn't matter, but when I pulled the lovely jack from the muddy water I was a relieved man.

We followed the incoming tide and I landed another jack and a GT!

But as soon as it had switched on, it had turned off and nothing else was enticed by our offerings.

Lets go home babe......have a few beers, watch the footy and relax.

Now on reflection it was always going to be a tough day and for the following reasons.

1. We had had about a week or really lousy weather
2. Even though conditions above the water were perfect for us humans
3. It was lousy for the fish - at 20c too bloody cold for barra
4. There was a cold fresh in the system following days of drizzling rain
5. It was a huge run out to .0 m something
6. Followed by a rushing making tide of over 2.6m - a hell of a lot of movement
7. The "window of opportunity" in these conditions was about 20 minutes - spot on!

How good is this!

So the fishing was lousy! But man it was great to be alive, in paradise, with a beautiful companion who shares my passion for the water, the rivers, the environment and the scenery. On days like these, the fishing is a bonus.

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


PS - what about the footy (AFL)....the Suns beat the Pies!
     - the crows just hung on to beat the Cats!
     - and the Power beat the Saints!

Daintree Lady - That's my little girl!

Readers will know that I was off to Aurukun last Monday.....took Keith Graham (Bransfords Tackle Shop) and Mike Harvey (Radio 4CA & Zinc) for a quick intro to fishing paradise. It did not disappoint although the big tides certainly made us work for the fish.

We still managed approx. 80 barra for the two days which is not to be sneezed at. To see how we went you'll have to jump to my Aurukun Fishing Charters Facebook page.

This article is about a fishing haven a lot closer to home......the lovely Daintree River in fact.

Last Sunday I was stoked to take my daughter, Britney, solo lure fishing for the first time. We had dabbled with a few sooties months ago, but this was a serious trip where:

• I was going to teach her how to use a baitcaster
• Show her where & how to catch a barra
• Teach her a bit about "reading a river"
• Show her what lure to use and why

We did all that and much, much more!

Lets get back to the beginning............my daughters are not little kids anymore. They are fairly grown up with their own jobs, boyfriends and life to lead. I don't get to see them as much as I would like as they live with their mum.....and their other men take up a lot of their time. When Britney texted me late on Saturday afternoon to confirm that "we were still on for the trip"....man I was stoked. I'm not sure how excited Britney was however when I told her that I would pick her up at 6:30am.

She must have been keen to come as she had had a fairly early night and was waiting on the steps outside her home when I pulled up right on time. So off we headed to the Daintree. We chatted about lots of different things, as fathers and daughters do and the trip north passed quickly. Here we were at the boat ramp having passed through some wet weather as we drove near Port Douglas. There was a bit of cloud around but the real problem was going to be the wind!

There was a strong wind warning issued for coastal waters nearby and this would make lure fishing a bit uncomfortable as the SE trades blow straight up the main river channel at this point.

We had a small window of opportunity to fish nearby, hopefully land a fish or two before those predicted strong winds picked up around 9:30 > 10:00 am (as is the norm). One of my favourite spots failed to produce, I did manage a small barra of another kind...see pic hereabouts. 

I had chosen to fish the Daintree this day because the tides were perfect.
A high of some 2.6m at 9:00am
A low of approx. 1.2m at 3:00pm
That's a steady 1.4m run....just ideal I recon!

But those pesky winds were doing their thing and I had to change my plans. I had hoped to venture downstream and fish the mangroves / overhangs and prickles (aerial roots) but this option was a blow out I'm afraid. Not to worry, I would head upstream instead, fish some sheltered spots out of the wind and hopefully, still provide sufficient action for Britney.

 

NOTE: I could have persisted in the downstream areas and probably caught larger fish, but the name of the game for today was not about quality... it was about giving my daughter the best possible chance to catch a barra or two, in fairly comfortable conditions and hopefully, where she had a good enough time to want to do it again. Remember that all you parents....you must not put your expectations onto your kids but rather be mindfull that they may not want to cast 1,000 times just to land one big one! They need fairly constant action to stay interested.

One of the best illustrations of this fact is to witness the success of the Bransfords Kids Fishing Clinic on the Palm Cove jetty the day before. Approx. 180 kids, over 360 fish landed, over 40 varieties...and not one complaint.

 

Back to the Daintree...........we landed a couple of small barra, we moved further upstream and cast to overhanging cottonwood trees. Bang, I was on to a feisty little juvenile. Drop the lead blob darling, there might just be a few more here I explained. And so for the next couple of hours we were thoroughly entertained by dozens of juvenile barra....I think we landed approx. 15 or so from this spot...how amazing is that and Britney was getting the fishing lesson of her life (more on that later).

We had morning tea and even lunch at this location such was the fishing activity. The tally mounted. Eventually the action slowed and came to a complete standstill....fish are not infinite and they do learn.

 

Lets head downstream baby, I have another "calm" spot to fish before we head for home.

Things were a little slow at first but after the first flash, persisting with the now famous "super shads",  we started to extract some more beauties. Not big fish, but a hell of a lot of fun in skinny water with a beautiful companion.

In all we landed 26 barra!
How cool is that....even with your dad.

 

As we drove home we chatted about the day, Britney expressed her genuine satisfaction and excitement for barramundi lure fishing. I had achieved my goal!

What did you learn today about catching barra I asked.........what was the difference in catch rates between us I queried. Well dad, you put more lures right up under the trees...........practice, practice, practice. You've got to get your lure in the right spot!

Catch you on the water,

Regards, Les
www.fishingcairns.com.au

PS - I could not see the point in posting pics of 26 barra!