Daly River Trip Addition

Just a short video from the last trip.

Daly River 13-14th Feb

James and myself went on an overnight trip to the Daly to prepare for the first round of the Top End Barra Series next month.

Most of the first day was spent exploring the river from No Fish down to Croc Creek, picked up a few at various spots and ended up back at Elizabeth Creek early for the night. Turned out to be a good move as the barra turned it on for the rest of the day.

These are a few from the first day.





After a reasonable but hot night we headed back down to Moon Outlet to check the run out on the bottom of the tide.

Got there a bit too late as the water coming out was really muddy, unlike the nice tea colour of earlier, so headed back to Elizabeth for a few more fish before heading home.



James outfished me over the two days and also had largest fish of 78cm until I landed the last fish of the day of 80cm which was also my biggest for the year.



Probably ended up with about 40 fish all up most being size .

Can't wait for the next trip, Round 1 of TEBS2012, back on the Daly on the 3rd & 4th March. 

21st Jan. Finniss River

Decided to try Finnis Fresh. Vague recollections of fishing there 15 years or so ago.
Arrived at ramp to find only 4 trailers already there, thought that was pretty good.

My deckies were Jaysen and Ebony, and as Ebony was not experienced in casting it was to be a day of trolling and investigation of this beautiful little system.

After an easy launch we headed off downstream to try our luck.

After about 15 minutes I had a solid hookup and after a short but hard fight netted a nice 78cm barra.

 It looked like it might be a good day, however there was only one other hook up all day, but that one managed to throw the hooks.
Sighted quite a few free swimming rats and ran into a 70-80cm barra that was sunning itself just on the surface and found lots of promising snags for next trip.





19th Jan. Wilshires

Jaysen had his daughter, Ebony, visiting and so it was decided to head across to the Wilshires to see if we could get her and Jaysen their first Barramundi.
It proved to be a very quiet day, but eventually Jaysen hooked and landed his first Barra. Unfortunately it was undersize and so was released to grow some more.

Not long after it was Ebony's turn, this one being a legal size of 56cm.



These were the only fish we caught that day, but I think Ebony was extremely happy with the results.

Nov 2011 - Jan 2012

Just quick update of the last couple of months.

Nov 5th.

Attended the "I Float and I Vote" rally protesting the establishment of marine parks in the Territory.

There was a good turn up of participants.

17th Dec

Took part in the FFF Mates Day, where members of the Fish Finder Forum volunteered to take Variety kids out for a days fishing. Each kid was also presented with a rod, reel and tackle box to take home.

Even though there were no monster size fish caught I think the kids had a great time. At the start they were a bit apprehensive of being in a boat, but by the end of the day it was " Go faster, go faster".

6th Jan

Heard there were a few fish being caught in the Wilshire Creeks, so headed over to check it out.

The Gunn Point road was surprisingly good for this time of year, a few lumpy sections, the usual washouts which were signposted and one wet spot which was easily bypassed.

A 5.00am start saw me on the water by 6.30 for the short boat ride from Saltwater Arm ramp to the creek I usually fish. Soon after arriving I opened my 2012 barra account with a 45cm rat.

It turned out be a fairly slow day fish wise, ended up with 4, two undersize, a 62cm amd a 70cm.

Weather wise it was perfect and I can't think of a better way to spend a day. Even better, I didn't see another boat in the creek all day. "Ah the tranquility"

I have also entered into the Top End Barra Series 2012, this is a comp of six rounds in various places throughout the year, so I will keep you updated on its progress.

That's it for now, hopefully I will get out again soon.

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.