A River Somewhere!

My good mate Keith Graham (Bransfords Tackle Shop) hasn’t been fishing much lately……..you see he had a total knee reconstruction several moths ago and it has been giving him hell on the rehabilitation trail ever since. No point in taking him out in my 4m tinny if he can’t stand up and cast for hours at a time / pull up the lead blob used to position the boat / reach down and get his lure out of the cotton wood tree, mangrove root etc etc…………well, is it!


Last Sunday however was going to be a new adventure for us. Keith’s knee had “come good” – about 85% anyway and the persistent rain had eased off for a few days. We decided to head south and see what happened.

You see, within about a 2 hours drive south of Cairns lies some of the prettiest sweet water fishing available in these parts. There are literally a dozen rivers / creeks to fish if conditions are right and this is the main positive – there is nearly always a back- up plan should your chosen destination be unfishable due to dirty water conditions. It’s a simple matter of taking note of the water conditions as you cross the rivers on the highway and back track if necessary.

We arrived at our preferred location at approx. 8:00am and were pleasantly surprised to see the water clarity was quite good. The high tide at 6:00am had long gone and with a low at midday, but a high low of just on a metre, it should give us plenty of water to travel way upstream without fear of being left stranded in the shallow reaches so prevalent upstream from the ramp.

Like intrepid explorers we pushed on and upwards, past mangroves and cottonwood trees, past swaying ribbon grass, under bridges and over drowned log piles – I had never seen the river so high without being in flood – and after a morning cuppa under a beautiful overhanging rainforest tree, we decided to explore this new territory.

Keith and I are seasoned anglers, we have fished our local rivers for many years and know some of them like the back of our hands. But this was different, I have never been able to access this river “zone” before and it was two very excited anglers that decided to keep pushing upstream just a few more k’s……….just to see what lay behind the next bend. When we decided that we had come far enough, we knew that there was a lot of water between us and the boat ramp some several hours downstream. It would not matter how many fish we caught, it was such a buzz to “just be in the moment”………..at a new destination exploring new waters.

As we drifted downstream we both realized quite quickly that this would be a difficult trip and for a strange reason for this time of year.

Our region has had heaps of rainfall this past few weeks / months. In fact I don’t think that we have had more than a few days break from nightly rain all year. The ground is saturated, the run off is constant and our rivers are running much higher than normal for a “pre” went season period. This meant that even though there was only about a metre tidal drop, the fresh was pushing constantly downstream making our passage quite a fast one and therefore casting to likely looking spots, quite challenging.

We soon realized that a slow measured drift, casting to likely barra holding backwaters and eddies was not going to be possible but for the few wider / shallower reaches. Not to worry, adjust your thinking, switch to smaller lures and target what might be there instead of singularly focusing on the barra.

This approach brought fairly instant results as Keith latched on to a feisty little JP from the grassy edges. They are such a pretty little fish and offer a spirited fight in the fast flowing water. Drifting along we had a couple of half hearted boofs from juvenile barra but our lures were swept away from the strike zone far too quickly. Not to worry, the jacks and JP’s were cooperating quite nicely thank you and the tally was slowly mounting.

 

These offer great sport on light spin or baitcaster tackle and in the terrain are quite challenging. We had lunch under a shady tree and were happy to sit back and take it all in………what a beautiful little river.

By now we were back downstream to where I was more familiar with the rivers course, snag piles and grassy verges which usually held barra, I advised Keith. We drifted along and cast to the “spots”, but again the journey was all too fast to really do it justice so we accepted the inevitable and just kept catching jacks. Not that there was anything wrong with that.

By mid afternoon we were back in the tidal zone, the tide had actually started to push back in and slow the “flood” and it was here that we landed a couple of small barras from the snags. And the tally for the day;


• 10 mangrove jacks

• 8 Jungle Perch

• 3 tarpon

• 2 barra

Two very contented anglers decided to “pull the pin” early and head back to Cairns………..not only content with the days catch but more satisfied that we had been to new waters and fished, what was for us, a brand new experience. There is something in this that is good for the soul don’t you think?


Good fishing, Kind regards Les
http://www.fishingcairns.com.au/

PS – Closed season for barra commences at midday on 1st November. Only a couple of weeks left this year to land a legal barra!

Closer to Home!

For those who follow Fishing Cairns, I'm sorry for not posting for a couple of weeks - the reason is quite simple. I haven't had any images of fish to show you guys. Not for a lack of trying mind you as last week I fished the Johnstone River at Innisfail but got blown away by thirteen (yes 13) barra.

Now when your supposed to be a gun ex guide, this is not good.........I know, so don't rub it in. But that's another story that will have to wait for another time.

Closer to Home!

There is a little waterway just on the northern outskirts of town that I only fish at certain times of the year and that is just prior to our traditional "wet" season. The reasons being as follows

• At this time of year the waters are at their optimum as far as clarity and temperature goes
• There is a mix of summer and winter species patrolling the river
• On good tides you can travel quite a way upstream as well as right down to the mouth
• On some days (especially if it is quite warm) there is not too much boat traffic

The Barron River is much maligned and I must admit that being a guide for many years, I too am guilty of this "adverse" publicity. I did not like to fish this water often and preferred to travel the hour or so to either the Johnstone River system or even further away to the mighty Daintree. However, only having limited time to fish this past weekend, my lady Debbie, suggested we give the Barron a go.

Launching at the highway boat ramp is a breeze these days, its wide and stable with plenty of sealed parking for the vehicle and trailer - there's even a handy wash down facility if you bring along your own hose and connections. Something that I do more often these days and its good to clean the boat, remove the salt and head home knowing that you can just back the boat in.

Debbie and I pushed upstream as far as the rock bar at Freshwater Creek, just shy of the train line and the Kamerunga bridge and started to cast our lures to likely looking snags. The river is full of fallen logs and tangled timber and we were quite confident of hooking up to a few barra and jacks. I was using my favorite Leeds deep diving shad in cherry red, Debbie was using a green pattern. We cast and cast for about an hour, had a flash or two but nothing exciting was happening.

I was becoming a little frustrated by now, the tide was right (last of the run out), the water looked good and was a comfortable 26.7C - perfect for old bucket mouth.

Like all thinking anglers should do, if its not working for you, try something else. So we switched to the Leeds highjackers - Deb was using her favourte fluro green and I snapped on a gold metallic pattern with a shiny olive back. I had not had more than a few casts when Boof! I was on to a fiesty little barra. Deb missed one and all of a sudden we felt that maybe things were starting to happen for us. As we drifted slowly down on the falling tide I used the electric to keep us in the right position to cast to bankside vegetation / log piles and likely looking weedy edges.

Some places just look so fishy - you know you're going to hook up, and it was at one such weedy bank that Debbie dropped the lead blob and we cast to the edge. In quick succession I was on, I was off, Debbie was on, I landed one, Debbie landed two and I had another couple. Even though the fish were only rats, it was so much fun and after extracting 5 fish we decided to move on.

It was a magic afternoon. We were so close to the city but we might as well have been a hundred miles away. The sounds of nature, the calls of the many birds - sounds that you just don't get to hear even in the suburbs - it was pure pleasure as we drifted silently along. And every now and again we hooked up to more little fiesty fish. At 5:00pm we decided to pull the pin and head home for a Sunday roast - no joke!

As we zoomed back to the ramp we reflected on what had been a wondeful afternoon, in all we had landed 9 barra, a jack, 1 GT, a cattie and a cuda. Not too shabby for a waterway so close to a city suffering the growing pains of development / tourism / traffic and airplanes. It was a great decision and the only one little regret; that time had prevented us from travelling downstream to the mangrove structure areas where we just might have tangled with larger fish.

Now there is a lot of info in this little article for you keen anglers out there - read it again and take note, maybe you too will discover little treasures so close to home.

Great fishing........Regards, Les

http://www.fishingcairns.com.au/

A rainy Sunday!

Well the weekend came around again and it was time to plan my next fishing trip. My work buddy, Lance, is also a very keen fisho so it was decided that we could fit in a half day's fishing on the Mulgrave River on Sunday.

Late on Friday night it started to drizzle - it wouldn't come to much I thought, after all its August which is suppose to be the "dry" season......right!

Saturday was my day for book-keeping, house cleaning, a bit of footy watching etc and as it was still raining, I had to forgo cutting the lawns. Darn.

Lance was a little concerned about my "keeness" to fish the following day so he rung me that afternoon just to make sure - hell I'm keen I replied, it was all systems go for the following day.

It rained all night, and when I awoke the skies were completely grey - Oh well, at least a few gutters might be flowing I mused. Lance picked me up at 12 noon as planned, we had a small diversion as we headed south and it was still raining. I actually decided to put my wet weather gear on while travelling in the car...........it wasn't going to let up and am I glad that I did.

We launched Lance's boat at Deeral and decided to head upstream as far as possible. If you remember my last post you will note that my upstream passage was restricted somewhat by shallow waters and the fact that there was a fairly low tide as well. This day was different, there was a bit of fresh coming down but the big influencing factor was the fact that low tide was still above 1m. We went as far as we dared, cut the main motor and drifted to a small gutter aided by the bow mounted electric thruster.

Lance was the first to cast and soon raised a small barra from the edge of the discoloured water, but it failed to hook up and after sever fruitless casts we began our slow journey back downstream. I just love these small tides but with relatively high lows - get it? There is just enough run to keep the fish in feeding mode but the drift can be controlled much better and actually increases your fishing time.

It was going to be a tough day though......the fish just weren't co-operating and even the sooties and JP's were missing from the sunken snags. AND IT WAS STILL RAINING.

We cast to bankside weed beds, behind fallen logs and rocks, to back eddies and overhanging rainforest, to ribbon grass and lilly pads........but it certainkly was s..l..o..w and still raining. We covered some fantastic looking territory, drop offs and snags that just screamed fish but things had shut down. At one massive fallen log we both had about a dozen casts, drifting off I looked back and had one last cast.

Boof!.........and I was on, but only briefly........this legal sized barra bolted downstream and pulled the hooks. I then cast to a weedy bank, it was relatively shallow but the darker waters gave the hint of a deeper gutter and a cut back under the floating grass. Boof!.........and I was on again, but after two spirited jumps in the shallow water she was free again. It just wasn't going to be my day.

Lance had similar luck and to this stage he had lost three small barra in similar fashion but had managed to land a silver tarpon that gyrated all over the place before being hauled into the boat.

At one of my favourite weed beds, Lance finally nailed a little 45cm barra which was quickly released. I was becoming a little frustrated at this stage but hell, this was better than working or gardening or watching the AFL (maybe) and then my luck changed.

I cast right along a deep gutter and worked my leeds shad back underneath the floating grass verge - I felt a little bump at first - was that a hit? Oh yes it was and finally I'd hooked up to a respectable 56cm barra which was brought boatside, landed, photographed and placed gently back into the river.

We didn't see another fish after that but it was getting late anyway so time to pull the pin and get home for the Sunday lamb roast. And as we pulled into my driveway back in Cairns it was still raining. Its still raining now and I think we have had well over 60mm this past 2 days - AND ITS THE DRY SEASON!

Happy fishing, regards Les

http://www.fishingcairns.com.au/

A break from the office!

This past three weeks has seen me very much in work mode – heaps to do in the office / a quick trip to Brisbane for real estate training and a hectic week in New Zealand visiting my ladies mum had left no time for fishing unfortunately.

I spent most of the last weekend in the office, both here at Ray White and at home on Fishing Cairns book work catching-up. At About 11am on Sunday I got so annoyed and frustrated that I decided to just quit the book work and go fishing by myself.

I packed the boat and headed south to the Mulgrave River – I hadn’t been fishing for 3 weeks so was quite pumped to make the decision to “just do it”.

The weather was perfect, the water was a surprisingly warm 26+ C so maybe I could catch a few. With a low tide at approx. 2:00pm I decided to head upstream as far as my little 4 metre punt would allow. This tactic would enable me to drift back down with the still falling tide and fish the weed beds for barra. This time of year (dry season) the river was very shallow with little fresh to top it up – I carefully chose my upstream path but had to concede defeat well short of my intended target zone.

Beautiful Mulgrave River - Sunday 23rd August 10

Not to worry, I still had several kilometers of waterway to prospect.

I was again using the brilliant Leads hijackers and diving shads – these lures are just fantastic for tropical conditions and worked correctly with a stop / start / jerky rod tip retrieve are just dynamite. You can dig the shad down a few metres if required or work it with the rod tip up to stay away from shallow weeds and snags. The shallow running hijacker is the best surface "boofing" lure that I have found and worked correctly rings the dinner bell on old bucket mouth around the weeds. Take a dozen to Cape York if you can.

And the results speak for themselves - not bad for a few hours fishing.

Juvenile Barra on shad

Barra on Hijacker

 

4 barra landed, biggest at 56cm

Lost one approx. 80cm after 2 jumps – looked spectacular

Landed one jungle perch

Lost 2 jacks – biggest approx. 40cm

Barra & Shad

JP on Halco

And if I wasn’t so focused on barra, I should have switched to a smaller spin outfit occasionally and had a go at the many black shapes that I saw on the snags – sooty grunter. 

 
I pulled the pin at 5:00pm and headed home quite pleased with myself.

WHEN DID YOU SAY THAT YOU WERE COMING UP?

Regards, Les

http://www.fishingcairns.com.au/

Daintree Raining!

Well you could be forgiven for thinking that its the "wet" season up here in Cairns. It hasn't stopped raining (drizzling really) for weeks and weeks. Not good for us keen angler types and the urge to toss a few lures was just too strong.

I hadn't lure fished since the Queen's birthday weekend, way back in early June, so hang the weather.......Debbie and I were just going to do it anyway.

So on Friday morning, it was a public holiday here in Cairns for the annual show day (Just hate it!), Debbie and I headed north to fish the Daintree. The weather God's hadn't been too kind to us of late, with plenty of "strong wind warnings" to completely shut down the offshore scene. It was our plan to fish the "river bends" out of the prevailing 25 - 30 kn winds and just hope for a fish or two. Expectations were not high but that didn't matter as we were on the water after many weeks of self enforced exile!

We fished a small backwater not far from the boat ramp and had a couple of near misses - the barra would obviously be sluggish in the cool conditions we mused, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the water was an acceptable 23.7C.........well within the barra's active range so, just maybe, there would be a bit of action after all.

Not long after and Debbie hooked up to a small 45cm barra which was photographed and quickly put back to grow. And then I landed a similar sized fish from the mangrove prickles - the aerial roots of the river lined mangrove trees, one of my favourite fishing "zones" in our tropical rivers.

Keeping to our plan to fish "out of the wind" was paying dividends; we ventured up a few small side creeks and found more willing barra and a couple of fiesty jacks to boot. The tally was mounting.

With a low tide at approx. 1:30pm we headed downstream as far as we dared in the sloppy conditions (the exposed river mouth was just too windy for my 4m barra punt) and we started to work our way back using the incoming tide and wind to push us upstream. We found more willing barra and jacks on the snags and even landed a nice river GT off the prickles.

The tally for the day was very respectable; way above what we would have thought at the outset.

• Barra x 12
• Jacks x 5
• Trevally x 1

Debbie and I were using similar tackle, and what I arguably believe are the best lures on the market - Leads 6" highjackers (for shallow conditions) and the relatively new 3" deep diving shad. I just love these lures and if I had to come north to fish and only had a choice of a few lures to bring - I'd beg / borrow / steal as many of these beauties in any colour that I could get my hands on. We both used green lures this day!

It was two very happy, but wet, anglers that sought the comfort of the Colorado 4x4 as we headed back to Cairns late that afternoon - it really was one of the most memorable fishing trips that we had encountered. Not for the number of fish landed, nor for the fact that none of the barra were of legal size (again - refer previous gripes) BUT the fact that we had well surpassed pre concieved angling expectations considering the conditions. We were both very pleased with ourselves.

Offshore scene:

Without stating the bleeding obvious, not many charters have ventured to the blue water due to this lousy weather were having, when conditions do ease however and the larger vessels have been able to get out to the reef, catches have been quite outstanding.

Quality reds are the order of the day with large and small mouth nannygai on the favourite marks along with good numbers of coral trout being caught. This cool weather will bring the spaniards on the chew as well so its always a good idea to have a floating pillie out the back while bottom bouncing or trolling diving lures between marks.

Good fishing, regards, Les

http://www.fishingcairns.com.au/

Bransfords Kids Clinic a Success!

On Saturday 10th July, Keith Graham of Bransfords Tackle Shop, held the 15th annual "Kids Clinic" on the Palm Cove jetty. Once agin over 150 keen junior anglers packed the jetty to have some fun and learn the art of fishing from local experts. The kids and their parents braved the elements to register captures of 148 fish with a total of 14 different species. Being a catch and release event all fish were returned to fight another day with many junior fishers notching up their first ever captures.

Even though the weather was not kind to us, the attendance was testiment to the number of keen young anglers out there and showed the support of the many mums and dads who came to help and encourage.

The idea of the Kids Clinic is to teach the kids, in a normal fishing environment, how to tie knots, do rigs, cut and present baits so they take an interest and catch more fish. Local fishing guru’s Terry Holman, Les Marsh, Brazakka, Matt Graham, Bruno Vucas and Ron Gallo patrolled the jetty giving out such information and generally encouraging the kids.

Following the weigh in prizes were handed out in various categories including champion female and male anglers…( see results below)….and a sausage sizzle was held for all the participants and their friends / family members. Vicky Graham reckons they cooked over 420 snags and half a bag of onions, fair to say all worked up an appetite!

Attendance certificates were handed out with the ‘Goody Bags’ which contained 29 items of fishing tackle & accessories, the kids also received an embroidered hat to mark the event. We hope to see all our keen Bransfords Junior Anglers at next years event….who knows, by then they may be able to teach our experts a thing or two!


RESULTS.

Champion Female………Kylie Slack……..weighed in 14 fish.

Champion Male…………Luke Purcell…… Best fish a Spanish Mackeral 55cms long.

Most Unusual Capture…Ava Bramham….An eel & a 1250 gms. Puffer Fish

Biggest Crab……………Keiran French…. 650 gms.

Biggest Ray……………. Kai Mc.Farlane… 650 gms.

Encouragement Award….Rebecca Carrington.

We must sincerely thank our sponsors for their generosity……….Joe Vella Insurance..( who organised the public liability cover)…Daiwa Australia..( Who have been our partner since the first Kids Clinic)……Channel 7…….Bransfords Tackle……Tropic City T Shirts & Caps..( Best embroidered caps ever)…Coca Cola….Mars Bars…Brumbies Bread…..McDonalds Smithfield…Sno Bonneau & Margaret Cochrane..( who supplied Porta Loo)….Barra Classic Lures…Halco…Abu Reels..L.Wilson & Co….Platypus Fishing Lines…John MacKenzie & Locco from 4CA….Brothers Leauges Club….Shimano Tackle… and to all our helpers, cooks, assistants and young JR from Ch. 7 and Vicky Graham for their dedication.

A very huge thank you to all involved - to see the smiling faces on so many children was a warming sight. I had a dozen kids come up to thank me for helping them with their fishing - it was a very rewarding experince and a credit to all who participated / helped / organised. 

See you next year!

Cairns OR Cape York (The difference)

This little article is going to explain some of the differences of fishing in Tropical North Queensland during "winter". Now as a southern tourist you might be saying that Cairns is lovely and warm - so true when you compare it with temps down south / 6C in Melbourne, -2 in Canberra only 18 max. on the Gold Coast.


It sure does feel nice with these 26C days - but what you must realise is that its the night time temperature that dictates the water temperatrure and this is what controls the activity of our fish and the target species available.


A variation of 10C is all it takes to make a huge difference - Cairns has gone from 32 to 22, Sydney from 26 to 16 and so on. You feel it and certainly the fish feel it.  Barra don't like cold water pure and simple. They become lethargic and sulk in comfort zones making it much harder to entice a strike. Sure they must feed to survive, but if your not as active you need less fuel right!


That's why we subtly change out approach when fishing the rivers at this time of year and concentrate more on the likes of GT's, queenfish, grunter and bream.


I had a lovely session with young Jett down at Russell Heads yesterday. It was blowing, it was drizzling but we still managed to catch over 30 fish. Heaps of bream (we left them biting to try something different) a couple of grunter but the best was the 5 GT's we landed - great sport on light 4-6kg line.

Now for something completely different, and I'll explain why.


My good mate, and arguably one of the best fishing guides in FNQ, Terry Holman, has just returned from a trip to Aurukun (northern Cape York near Weipa). He had one of the best fishing trips of his long career. His clients landed dozens of barra, good quality barra in the 70 - 90cm range. They had a ball catching high spirited queenies and GT's on lures and flies. Throw in flathead, king and blue salmon and you have a mix of quality fish to satisfy any angler.

Now Aurukun is a remote location and you would expect the place to fish better than say Cairns - but the main reason for such consistent quality fishing is the fact that the temperature of the place is still in the 30's during the day and the mid 20's at night. THE WATER IS STILL RELATIVELY WARM!

GET IT? - Great stuff if you do so use this in your fishing and plan accordingly.

If you want a fishing trip of a lifetime and it must be over the next few "winter" months - get north man, as far north as time and money will permit. But if your a local and just have that inner need to go fishing in these conditions (like I do), then change your tactics, scale down your tackle and have a ball on what's swimming around and stop trying to be unrealistic for the conditions.

Happy fishing, kind regards Les