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A social group of dedicated fly fishers who are passionate about fly fishing in the tropical north of Australia and equally as passionate about the close camaraderie this sport brings. This passion and dedication led to the creation of the NT Flyfishers Social Mob blog site; an interactive and creative outlet where everyone can share our wonderful fly fishing adventures and link into the “after fishing” social events we enjoy in this incredible part of the world.

Wednesday 26 March 2014

Shady Trip 14th - 16th March

Myself & my son Jack did a recent trip to Shady.  Although we had fly rods the plan was to troll the mouth of Sampan for the 'Big Girls'.  Shortly after arriving I landed a nice Threadfin around 85cm's, this was the only fish we kept for a feed. Eventually I landed a Barra which was a new PB of 87 cm's.
Finally count for the day: 4 Blue Salmon, 4 Threadfin Salmon, 1 Barra & 1 Jewfish


Jack's Jewfish

Although the Barra seemed to be fairly quiet there were plenty of Salmon around.  The tide was just starting to build off the neaps & we thought we were in for a great trip.   There were a lot of fish caught on the Friday, with most boats getting into some action.

New PB 87cm's

The next morning as Jack was driving the boat he spotted some Magpie Geese.  As I was about to take a sunrise photo he yelled "Dad get the geese in the photo".   As I was about to take the photo, Jack yelled out in dismay, the geese had shat on him!  I am sure they recognised him from a previous hunting trip!  Needless to say there are no geese in the photo, I was too busy laughing to take a picture! 



There should be some geese in this photo

We returned to the mouth for many hours of trolling for only one fish.  I landed another Barra which was another PB of 94 cm's.  I might add that at this stage I had caught most of the fish, Jack was not amused!  My normal role is to provide transport, food & drive the boat! (Is that what they call guiding?)  Jack is usually the one who gets the fish………………………
We left around lunchtime to head back to the fresh to fly fish.  After an hour or so I landed a small Barra on one of Jack's flies


Another PB 94 cm's



Jack's fly did the trick

I should mention we have a new poly boat with a tiller steer motor.  Unfortunately with the design of the motor bracket if you trim it up too far you can pinch the throttle & gear shift cables against the bracket.  We had damaged the shift cable a few weeks ago & could not select reverse.  I had thought ahead & taken some tools with me just in case……….. Good thing the tools were there, on the Sunday morning the shift cable broke just after arriving at the mouth.  I put the boat back into gear with a 10mm spanner & we headed home.

Jon

3 comments:

  1. Nice report Jon and congrats on the PB-nice fish! Interesting to note Jack's jewfish. It's actually a golden croaker (Nibea squamosa) not a black jewie, and a good size one at that. I have caught them a lot in the upper tidal sections of the Adelaide River while doing research on other species, but never on a line, always in a gill net. They taste absolutely fantastic. I'd rate them as one of the best eating fish. Did you eat it?
    Cheers Dion.

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  2. No Dion we didn't eat it, Jack decided to release it for another day. I take it these are not commonly caught on lures?

    Jon

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  3. On a lure? That's cool, I havent heard of that before. I don't see any reason why not though. And like you and Jack thought too, they are probably commonly caught in the malestrom of lures that get dragged around the mouth of Shady and are mistaken for a black jewies.

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