Done and dusted for 2013

That's it, thank God I'm home, in fact I  just got home, that doesn't sound unusual in its self but there is a story.

The last set of tides before the current one finished yesterday, had me at Bynoe, saw Lord Jim there who said that there had been mixed conditions, I spent 7 days at Crab Claw and there were plenty of fish for me, mainly Barra as it got too hot in the afternoon to work the high-water for pelagics, a few Barra in up in the low 80's but lots of Barra generally the Threadfin are into the prawns, hard, but persistence scored a few.

One highlight was a day with Matt Wright and his helicopter, dropped in on the upper wetlands where we caught 40 Barra mostly undersized, seeing we were on a one metre low we dropped in on a number of blue holes around the islands, I was amazed to see how many fish were in there, Sharks Barracuda Queenys GT'S and Snapper.

 I got to have a cast and hooked a good Trevally which the sharks followed, that was until a lump of coral broke sending me and rod in with them, in all the confusion, they ate the trevally 6ft from my bleeding legs.  I wasn't in long but its amazing how hard it was to get out, if anybody takes the time to stay in there over a tide you will not be disappointed with the amount of fish to catch.

Getting out of Crab Claw on the next set of tides I went to the Arnhem Barra lodge, a 6 hr. drive through Arnhem land got me there and that's worth the journey alone.

The horror realisation happened next day when the low from Allessa hit, dumping huge amounts of rain, the East, King, Goomadeer, Liverpool and Mann rivers jumped 2 metres leaving me no way back.
With the rain pouring in the upper Liverpool, this beautiful set of neaps went really dirty, I put that aside and the concern about getting home, suffered the rain and fished out the week, most days getting around 30 Barra reasonable sizes with one 80cm, the best fun was when I did a run 50k down to the mouth of the Goomadeer and we caught over 60 Barra in 4 hrs. around drains etc.

Well I' home, it was supposed to be yesterday, but the plane broke down in Milingimbi. My boat and car are in Maningrida and possibly being being barged out on Monday. Cheap at $2600. That's after witnessing a crabbers boat two days ago loaded, then it fell off the front causing heaps of damage.
I'm going to Corroboree to complete this charter and then I'm going trout fishing. That's it for my year.

Unfortunately Dotty and I are away from the 12th so wont make the party weekend, everybody in the mob have a great time we really wish we could be there.

I missed our wedding anniversary and now im missing my boat and car. I'm working on the former and hoping for the latter.

Cheers Graeme