Daintree Dreaming!

The Daintree / Cape Tribulation region had copped a heap of rain last week. One local tour operator at the boat ramp mentioned that over 380mm had fallen in 24 hours.

Now that's a lot of water!

Heading north to fish the Daintree is always a bit of a gamble at this time of the year. A heavy overnight downpour can drop inches of rain and the resultant run off turns the river to tomato soup like colour - not good for lure fishing I can assure you.

But in spite of the aforementioned heavy falls, the river looked a treat as we rounded Humbug Bend on our way to the township. This is the first spot to get a glimpse of the river through the trees and its always a bit of a lottery - will it look clear / clean or dirty? We were in luck.

We launched without incident, had a quick chat to the local tour guide - he told us that the river has had five recent "Flood Events" this season and showed us how high it had reached earlier in the week. Thankfully the river drops quite quickly without monsoon rain or cyclonic conditions off the coast so we were soon on our way, whisking upstream as fast as my little punt would carry us.

Up past the little island, up past the rocky outcrop, up past the main island divide, up past the CREB track......way, way upstream we travelled and all in relatively ease. The river was still quite high and the further up the narrowing valley we travelled, the more "compressed" the river width so hence, a easy trip over the many rapids until we dared not go any further.

We settled up under a shady rainforest tree and had a welcome cup of coffee.

 

Brett at the "top" of the Daintree

 

My new Quantum spin reel - a beauty!

My god mate, Brett Parks, was with me this trip...he had never traversed this far upstream before so was quite impressed with our location, the surrounding beauty of this unspoilt stretch of tropical rain forest and of course, my boating skills!!!

Clipping on my favourite flat jack lure we got down to business. Now the river up here was flowing quite quickly, we had to have our wits about us. Cast too far upstream (behind structure) and you will hook up and have to start the main motor to power back to extract it. Such a pain!

Cast to fast flowing water and you're likely to suffer the same fate, you had to be quite particular, look for and cast to likely fish holding "locations". Remember....its not where you fish, BUT how you fish!

Too many anglers ask me "where to go" as if there is a magic location / a snag / a junction - like this "SPOT" will guarantee them a prime barra. Sure there are a few such locations that can regularly produce a fish under certain condition / tide cycles / river heights / water temps etc. etc.....get it. But it is far more critical to "THINK LIKE A FISH" and work out consistently where barra & other targets might be feeding!

After years of fishing, I recon I have a pretty good handle on this vital bit of info...but I am still not perfect (I can't walk on water). Colour changes / back eddies / weed beds / under trees / some snags etc. do hold fish. You have to keep travelling, keep trying, keep casting and eventually you will find feeding fish - and learn from the experience, put the "scenario" not the specific "location" in your memory bank and eventually you will build a data base of info that will guide you to more catches and a better angling experience. That's why it is called Fishing and not Catching!

A little juvenile from the backwater

No 2 for Brett

Brett was first to hook up to a lovely little juvenile, it came from a backwater that was overflowing through some paperbarks. A quick pick and back into it. Darn, he was hooked up again....and then for the third time. Hell this was not fair...I was guiding him but hey Brett, give me a go too Ha Ha !

Now that's enough mate!

I was stoked for Brett, to take a keen angler to relatively new waters for him and have him land some lovely barra was so rewarding in itself. But hey mate, it was my turn to shine. Drifting round a gentle bend we found a perfect scenario. A calm backwater with discoloured tea coloured water soaking into the main river. There was plenty of weed here as well to provide cover. Brett was first to hook up to a legal sized barra, it struck his lure with gusto....tore off towards the centre of the river and jumped....free!



My best for the day - check out that lure

Sorry Brett (man that would have been four nil).....I cast to a little gap between the drowned grass, right where the tea coloured water joined the main river....boof....I was on. This barra too did a similar dance, leapt and was gone. I cast back to the same spot and to my surprise, I was on to a quality barra that jumped several times before settling down to a strong steady fight.

She was not a huge fish but certainly a keeper....and it had been ages since I'd landed a legal barra (well, a few weeks anyway) so after a dogged fight, and a quick pick, she was into the live bait tank.

Nice JP Les!

We continued our journey back down the rive; we found schools of plucky little jungle perch up under the shade and actually had one strike right at the boat. We found barra on the grass edges and landed a dozen or so. It was a good day.

By five o'clock we made the decision to pack it in and headed back to the boat ramp, it was two very happy fisherman that made the journey back to Cairns.....where will we go next weekend?

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