20th & 21st October

20th ...
Picked up Shane at 4:30 and headed out to Saltwater Arm for another trip to the Wilshire's.
Despite it being a beautiful day, the fishing was extremely quiet. Tried all my usual spots and only managed 3 fish, only one of them being legal.

21st Oct ......

Picked up Sam and his son Lachlan at 5:00 am and headed out to Saltwater Arm.

Stopped off at Leaders compound where I had left the boat after the previous day's trip as the Gunn Point Road was in a pretty deplorable state. Neither Sam or Lach had caught barra before so after the previous day's results the pressure was on me to find barra for these two virgins.

After trying my usual spots with no results decided to have a look at a spot that I had previously caught a couple of fish last month.

First troll through and I hooked up to small barra which was successfully landed and released. Now that I had shown them how it was done I told them it was their turn now.

Luckily the barra had read the script and soon after Sam landed his first barra which was under size, followed shortly by a legal barra.

Sam' first legal barra

   

Sam's first barra

A couple of trolls later I hooked and landed a legal barra and another under size.

Young Lachlan was by this time starting to get a little impatient, however he persevered and was soon rewarded by his first barra ( under size ) and then his first legal barra.

Lachy's first barra

Lachy's first legal barra

After that things went quiet, the first of the incoming tide had slowed and so we decided to call it a day. After an uneventful but rough return trip I dropped off two Very Happy Campers at their front door, I am sure they will back for more in the coming months.



October 6th

Wilshire Creeks again, no deckie.

Morning started well with lots of smaller fish, kept first two legal barra of 55cm, good eating size.

After landing about 15 decided to move further upstream to try another of my favorite spots.

This was a wise move as soon after starting to troll this spot the larger fish started to show up.

 Finished up with 5 in the esky, 2 x 55, 2 x 70 and a 65.
After releasing a couple more in the 60's decided to call it a day around 12.00 as I was intending to return the next day.
However I must have touched something as I was cleaning up at the ramp as I started to itch something terrible. By the time I got home I was covered in a rash and after a sleepless night had to go to the doctors for a antihistamine shot and a course of tablets. Didn't recover until Sunday when my swollen hands finally returned to normal size. Beware of the tree hanging over the road at the ramp.



Sept - Oct

23rd Sept..

Sunrise on Adelaide River

Fished the Wilshires, no deckie. Beautiful day on the water. Not a lot of fish, ended up with around ten, all undersize.
Remembered to take some shots of carpark and launch area.

 

MY RIG

Sept 8th

Five am, picked James up and headed out to Saltwater Arm. Road was good in parts and terrible in others so managed to be on water by six thirty.
Water was pretty calm for the crossing to the Wilshires and the first Barra was in the boat by around 0830.
Wasn't to be a bag limit day, but ended up landing around a dozen barra and 4 Blue Salmon.
Size wasn't there either with only 3 legal barra but a great day all the same.
The new car park area is great, but forgot to take any pictures of it. Water temp was 28 - 29.
Here is a couple of shots of the fish.

                                                  

June - August

Finally got around to checking my blog, hard to believe it was back in May I last updated.
Well this has been the best run off and dry for years fishing wise and what with one thing or another , I have done less trips than previous years.
Started off with a trip to the Daly in June with Trevor. First day was a disaster with the steering springing a leak. Managed to get back to the ramp using a paddle strapped to motor with Trevor perched on the pod steering. Back to town for repairs and a bearing replacement on the trailer.
Second day was better with me managing to land 3 barra and to top off the troubles, left camera in car so had to use mobile to record.

            


After that trip the trailer was sent to 2rods for some serious mtce.
One new axle, new bearings throughout and oilers fitted onto all running wheels plus new improved brake calipers and pads brought the trailer back to tip top condition.

Three trips to Coroborree, one by myself for two barra and a saratoga, one with Neil from WA where we managed to get him his first barra and a couple of others and another with Jaysen who missed out on a barra but caught his first Saratoga.

One other trip to the Wilshires with Jeff, Trevors Dad which resulted in 1, 72cm barra for me.

                                 

We are now trying to get more colour in the garden and so are planting Hibiscus and Desert Roses, these are some of the varieties we have at present....

HIBISCUS..

                                                                                                                  DESERT ROSES..

We have also got a new car for Cilla, a Nissan Tiida.

Well thats all for this Blog. Finally arranged a fishing trip for the first week in September, so hopefully have something to report then.

April - May

This post was done in May but unfortunately it seems I forgot to publish it when I was done, so here it is now.

Thought it was time to update the blog.

On the home front things have been reasonably quiet. Chrissi and family have settled back into Darwin life and Daniel is once again living with us.

Highlights for this period were a sunset cruise on Darwin Harbour and dinner at the Golden Dragon for Mothers Day.

Sunset on the Harbour

FISHING

APRIL 13TH .. Elizabeth River

Quiet but most enjoyable morning, only managed a small blue salmon.

Hard to believe but spent about half an hour casting this snag from both sides without a single touch.

April 26th .. Shady Camp

Mighty Powertail or Bloody catfish ??

Had James as deckie, only managed a few salmon and what could be my biggest catfish..

5th - 6th May ... Daly River

Took Daniel to the Daly for an overnighter to see if we could get Daniel's first barra.

Stayed at the Barra Resort as usual, recomend this as the place to stay on the Daly, so after some tips from Stu we hit the water.

Finally ended up trolling Clear Creek where Daniel succeeded in landing his first barra which was unfortunately under size ( 50cm ), but was followed soon after with his first legal barra of 56cm.

First barra .. 50cm

First legal barra .. 56cm

Finished the day with five barra, the best being 69cm, then it was back to the Barra Resort for a steak and salad dinner and an early night.

Up with the sun next morning and back to Clear Creek for most of the day for eight barra to 63cm, before heading back for the night.

Stopped at a few spots for some trolling and Daniel scored his personal best with a nice chrome 67cm barra to finish off the trip.

Daniel's PB .. 67cm

20th May .. Coroborree Billabong

Spur of the moment decision to head out to Coroborree for a quiet days fishing by myself.

As usual it was a beautiful morning to be out on the water.

Ended up being a pretty successful day with 5 barra, 1 saratoga, 1 sleepy cod, 1 longtom and three tarpon and had the boat out of the water and heading home by 1:00 pm.

Well thats it for now, going by the reports of the Classic & National Competitions I think I should be heading back to the Daly very soon, will let you know how things are going next time..