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..

Shady Camp Trip

The trip started at 4am on the 28th March and apart from all the takeaways between Darwin & Shady being closed and so no bacon & egg sanga for brekkie it was an uneventful drive. Launched successfully and headed straight to the mouth of Sampan, arriving there at approx. 7am to find calm seas, clear skies and a conga line of about 20 boats stretching out a k or so from the mouth.



conga line on horizon



Joined the conga line and after just over an hour I had our first hookup, a nice little threadfin salmon for the esky, not a bad start to the day.

Back into the conga line for another 45 minutes when Shane got hit by a horse. A prolonged and tense fight ensured until she was finally in the net. Hallelujah, not only the first meterie for the boat but Shanes first as well, a beautiful big healthy girl of 106cm. While Shane sat down to stop shaking and recover I removed the lure and she was ready for photos and a successful release.

Once again it was back to the conga line and a couple of salmon caught by Shane, before he once again hooked and landed a nice barra. Despite Shane trying to fudge the measurement to get it below the boats max limit of 80cm, she was a nice chrome 83cm, so she was also returned to the sea.

Despite our best efforts and multiple lure changes it wasn't until around 6.30 pm when I finally had a hookup,

even though it wasn't a barra, it was still a nice size thready.

 Despite trolling until after dark, that was the last fish of the day.
Headed back into the mouth and anchored up for a very wet and uncomfortable night on the boat.
Up early and back into it just before first light as time this morning was limited and I wanted lures in the water as long as possible.

Still smiling

No matter what I did, I couldn't buy a barra this trip and to make matters worse , I managed to miss net a good size thready of Shanes. Eventually I had to admit defeat and we headed back to the Barrage to retrieve the boat and head home.

The Barrage

Well, even though I didn't catch any barra, let alone my meterie, it will go down as one of my best trips.
Assisting and just being there when a mate cracks the metre mark is a great thing to do and can only be beaten by your own first meterie. The run off is still to get into full swing and I will be out there again trying to find my elusive Big Girl.

Until next time, I wish all my fellow fisho's tight lines.

Feb, March.

Well, here we are almost at the end of March already.
The last two months have flown by.
Not a lot has been happening due to the fact that it is usually raining, we have already broken our seasonal rainfall record and it is still raining.
Fishing has been really hit and miss, had to cancel the overnighter to Shady Camp planned for my Birthday due to Cyclone Carlos.
The roads to my favourite spots, Wilshires and Daly are still closed due to flooding and the resulting damage.
Then I planned an overnighter to Shady Camp for mid March. Another low pressure system then moved in to put paid to that one, so we did a day trip to the Wilshires by launching at the Arnhem Highway Bridge 45 minutes by road and two hours by boat each way and not a scale was raised.
Managed two short trips to the Elizabeth River, launching at the new ramp and pontoon, first trip I managed a 63cm barra, second trip a 57cm barra and a nice Mangrove Jack, 15 minutes by road and about ten minutes on the water, seems silly to go on these other trips at times, but the Big Girls are found further away.


Mangrove Jack



Start of 2 hour boat trip

This Monday and Tuesday we will be off to Shady Camp no matter what the weather does, reports of meteries starting to filter through.
The next trip will be Easter weekend on the Daly River, providing they get into action and fix the roads which are still closed.
Well thats it for now, hopefully I will have some great results from Shady to report, otherwise I will create a Blog at the end of next month..