Paradise Found!

We are a funny lot up here in FNQ.... we can often get carried away with life and its tribulations and forget just how lucky we are. Sure we have had a late wet, heaps of wild windy weather this past few months but man, how good was the weather over the past weekend?

Deb & I awoke on Sunday morning with intentions to go fishing!
Where exactly; it had not been decided yet!

But on checking the tide charts, decided to head south to the Johnstone Rivers. The reasoning here was twofold - its winter and the tide had already peaked early with a low at approx. 11am. Winter fishing up here can be a bit tough, especially in our rainforest fed rivers. Cool nights means cooler water temperatures and that fresh flowing down from our coastal mountains can be well below the magic 23C (the minimum average temp. required for old bucket mouth, the mighty barramundi, to feed actively). Sure they are still about but their sluggish activity leads to docile hunting behaviour. Obviously its much easier to catch fish on lures, when they are actively hunting for food.

That's not to say that fishing is a fruitless pastime during winter, its just that you must consider other options as well and not just get singularly focussed on barra alone. And hence my decision to head south to the Johnstone....this river also holds good stocks of the likes of trevally, bream, cod, queenies and flathead, all prime cool water targets.

Bruce Highway heading south...Walsh's Pyramid in the background

Sunrise over the Yarrabah Range

Flowering sugar cane ready for harvest

Driving south along the Bruce Highway the morning vista was absolutely stunning. Hardly a cloud in the sky, Walsh's Pyramid standing proud and piercing the blue, and the flowering sugar cane shining in the early morning sunlight. The drive was awesome. Upon arrival at Innisfail the river was as flat as glass, our excitement was at its peak as we launched under the new Jubilee Bridge and readied our gear for the day.

Jubilee Bridge...Innisfail (South Johnstone River junction)

New marina, Innisfail

Yours truly casting to mangroves

Readers will know that I am heavily into sussing out these new soft plastic things at the moment, good mate Keith Graham and I have been giving them a fair run of late, with great success. I figured that under these conditions, cool clear water, clear blue skies and a falling tide, one of the new Zerek Cherabin prawns would be a good choice. So off we headed downstream to the salt...the water was 19C!

Deb chose a new 4" Z-man Swimmerz in green ( as well as taking out about a dozen hard bodies lures) - Deb likes to change regularly, I like to keep to one or two lures only for the day!

First lizard for the day

It wasn't long before a quality lizard darted from the muddy bottom and scoffed my Zerek. I was not quite prepared for this so soon in the drift and I subsequently failed to hook up. I should also mention that I was field testing a new nano rod from Adrenalin Fishing tackle, maybe this was the reason that I failed to hook up. These rods have quite a different feel to them, being quite a bit heavier than the  high modulus graphite rods that I usually prefer, their "flexibility" was quite a surprise.

Deb catching up on email etc..sand bar, Johnstone River mouth

Deb and I had had a late start this day, so a stop for morning tea / coffee and home made high fibre muffins was in order (yes, Debbie cooked them while I was packing the boat)...yummy! What does a dedicated Real Estate agent do when she is within mobile phone range...check her emails and messages and negotiate a few contracts of course...TRUE!

Lets head back upstream and do this drift again I asked...why not!
After all, I had landed one flattie but missed another two on the strike....new rod....new lure...just plain unlucky...who knows!

Deb's first lizard for the day

Now that's quality fishing!...check out that new rod.

Deb's little trevally on a blue 3" bomber

It wasn't long before another subtle strike had my new rod bending over....working these lightly weighted cherabin lures sure was an exciting way to fish. Cast to the shallow bank, let it sink, flick the rod / lure in an enticing, life like manner....these lures are amazing to see swimming in the clear water. They are so lifelike...and the flatties were loving them. I was fast becoming used to the strange action of my new rod too. Cast...sink...flick flick...sink...pause...flick flick...hook up!

And these were quality flathead too as the pics hereabouts are testament to this fact. We decided to stay downstream that day and fish the sandy flats - both on the run out and run in tide. We looked for flowing water where the currents would bring bait fish and prawns to any flathead waiting in ambush - things like mangrove points are a good start as are drop offs and gutters. The tally was mounting.

Deb even managed a little trevor on a 3" blue bomber...her lure of choice, as well as a nice 60cm flattie. In all we landed 5 lizzards, dropped a couple right at the boat as missed hooking up to another 5 that I genuinely saw lunge at my lure. It was a great day; and one made so memorable in the fact that we deliberately changed out strategy to suit the conditions...and most of all, it paid off handsomely. We did try a half hearted effort on one of my favourite barra banks on the incoming tide but it was not to be that day.

Another lizard!

The Zerek Cherabin does it again

Close up of that lure

Just being on the water this day was rewarding enough (I'm sure that you have heard that said before) but this day it was true...check out these pictures, what a paradise we live in!

PS... after getting used to my new rod, understanding its flexibility and feel, and after landing some quality flatties who offered a spirited fight on light tackle, I LOVE IT!

Catch you on the water!
Regards, Les

www.fishingcairns.com.au

The bird life was beautiful too!

Now that's a nice piece of water