Following on from “Capt. Watty’s” reports on Shady here is
my addition from this past weekend.
Decided to go out and camp at the Barrage ready for an early
start on the Saturday. Stopped off at Point Stuart Lodge for a couple of ales
then onto the campground for around 9.30pm to find almost 40 cars and trailers
parked up in the carpark!!
Not too worry I told myself “there is plenty of water out
there” and proceeded to get my camp together. If the quality of the wet season
can be gauged on the amount of Mossies around, “we’ve had a ripper”. I’ve
camped at a lot of floodplain areas over the years but this was the worst I’ve
ever seen, or should I say, felt, very friendly little buggers. After another
couple of cold beers in the Mossie dome I hit the swag ready for a 5.00am
launch.
Did I say 5.00am launch, wrong, the cars started arriving
around 3.30am so made the call to break camp and get ready to launch around
4.15am, well, join the queue anyway as there were 8 trailers in front
of me. Got on the water at my originally planned time of 5.00am.
As there was a lot of traffic starting to utilise all of their
150 horses and 1 tonne of plate aluminum I decided it prudent to wait for
daylight and proceeded to flick along the deep bank opposite the ramp where a
number of rats were accounted for. The larger the fly, the more interest it
received.
With the sun rising I made my way to the mouth of Sampan.
The river looked great all the way down and was obvious that at some stages the
height of the river has been well up and over the lower floodplains but is well
and truly receding. As I reached the lower reaches of the river it was easy to
see where all the boats were overnight as there were boats at anchor all the
way along the stretch where the mother ships anchor up. Turning the last bend
at the mouth reviled a flotilla of small boats to rival that of “Dunkirk”, and
this was before the masses for the day were to arrive. Fished the drop off to
the right looking out to sea and picked up my usual quota of the mighty “Powertail”.
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| Traffic hazard Shady style |
With the tide having turned and more boats arrived made the
decision to work back upstream and try the barrages. Investigated the usual barrages
and found that things are all changed from previous years. Rebuild work to the
barrages themselves and mid-stream growth to various channels make thing
interesting and will require greater exploration to work things out. If you
have a close attachment to your prop or paintwork these may not be the areas
for you! The one bonus is that with and estimated 70 plus trailers in the
carpark I did not see another boat for 3 hours while nudging around the small channels.
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| Plenty of smaller Barra hiding in the smaller waterways |
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| Which Barrage?? |
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| No trees here 2 years ago. |
While I caught Barra I did not get one of legal size, in fact
most were well below. I will agree with Watty that it will be only a matter of
time for the larger ones to turn on, but I think we will need more rain for it
to happen. Tried to find the large tarpon reported but failed this time.
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| Sick of large fish photos!! Takes skill to catch them this size!! |
Had plans to stay Saturday night but the thought of the
dreaded Mossie onslaught at dusk beat me so made my way back to Darwin. Stopped
off at Corroboree Tavern and spoke with Peter who was obviously excited and so
supportive of the “Mob Gathering” there in May. If you have not already done so
make your interest/booking requirements known.
Remember, “You’ll never never know, if you never never go”,
get out there and fish.
Tight lines
Jim Churchley
Hey Jim, thanks for the post, the water still looks wrong, not enough time on the floodplains, more rain required I think! It still has that anoxic, smelly look about it.
ReplyDeleteYou could well be right Dion, another good dump of rain would do it wonders, however if we always waited until conditions were perfect we would never go fishing.
ReplyDeleteThe best bit of advice i have ever heard about fishing of any kind was form gun big barra catcher Jason Wilhelm who when asked why he could always catch fish when no one else could said the it was because he went fishing whenever he could and when other people wouldn't.
The moral of the story is that every time you go out you build your knowledge bank, have fun, get out of the city, ogle pretty birds, engage in the environment, notice swirls, eddies, clay banks, drops offs, rocky points, eat delicious bbq shapes and have a few beers. All these things give you the OPPORTUNITY to catch more fish, have more fun and drink more beers. And so the cycle continues.
Strike Hard, Strike Often.
Watty
Cheers Glenn, sadly though with the rising costs associated with getting out for a fish, and the limited time I have to do just that, I like my timing to be spot on when conditions are at their peak. I have spent countless thousands of hours just getting out and hoping for the best, and sometimes it comes together and it's that knowledge and experience that has stood me in good stead to date. Given the return on the investment when things aren't quite right, it's hard to justify going out and hoping for the best. So, bring on the rain for one last blast, really, it won't take much because everything is soaked and the water table is high, just a small cyclone or a low and a week of localised rain is all we need for an awesome year of run off fun. That's all I was saying.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree mate. I guess in lucky to be out more than other people but I also believe it's not all about catching fish. It's the adventure as a whole.
ReplyDeleteLooks like we are going to get some more rain so happy days!!