A BIT MORE ON FISHING 2013

This year the fishing has been great.  As Graeme said, lots of barra and big threadfin in the harbours, and Sonny Jim  tells me if he was putting scores in,  he would nearly have the as many points for this year as he had for the full year last year which was around 20,000.  He has just come back from the East and Kakadu and is off to some billabongs again.  Stories to follow?

Watty has been savaging the sails and macs out wide, and there have been some great catches both in the harbour and along its beaches by Dion and Andy.  Last year Tony Orr got heaps of good fish from the beach during his lunch break and it looks like that is set to continue for the beaches.

Tony with  one of his lunchtime barra

Whilst the main billabongs, Corroboree and Hardies, are spasmodic, if you persevere out there you will find the fish.   Yeah, heaps of tarpon, but we found spots where you couldn't catch a tarpon for the small barra.  Wayne Hinton got over one hundred barra in an afternoon some years back, and those schools of fish are still out there.  If you latch onto one of these schools it is reasonable to get fifty or more fish in a quick session.  Great fun.   A couple of hints for you with Corroboree.

1. look for the birds feeding on the edge, and fish around them.
2. look for some flow into or in the billabong.
3. a little lurk is to do a circle in you boat near a spot where you think the fish may be, and just listen as the waves that you have created roll into the edge.  If there are barra there it usually stirs up the bait and you will hear the barra boofing.
4. this may sound funny, but for us, 11am and 2pm seems to be the time that the barra come on.  Why, I don't know, the angle of the sun?, makes no real sense to me but it does nearly always seem to be around those times.

We got a heap on these flies, but because of the water still being high,  old lillies and mess along the edges, the yellow and white was the most successful with a weed guard because it had no bead chain eyes to catch up on things (just a black texta dot) and you could pull it through the crap in the water.  Looks a bit like Wayne Williams secret fly?????

The other crazy charlie style fly is great if you can find a bit of current.  Its only a bit of pink chenille with a white bucktail wing.  (done in a green you will stir up the Milkies in Bynoe too)   This little one often works when nothing else will.