I went fishing with Sarge, in the pursuit of some salt water Barramundi; and...
- We didn't get many fish.
- My biggest one was rather short.
- But it was fat, and that is a good sign for the year to come.
So Sarge and I had decided to go in the direction of Salt Water Arm, with the high ambition of catching ourselves a good feed of fresh Barramundi.
Oh how life can be deceptive some time.
We launched rather late in the morning, thinking that the low tide would be at around midday.
And that by then the fish would be on the chew.
That was a great plan; but it didn't turn out as we had expected.
The fish didn't want to play, or maybe were just too clever for us.
In fact Sarge got the first fish of the day, flicking his lure, and reeling it back, when he got a solid hit, but didn't stay connected. Yet before he got his lure back he got another hit!
but a very small one this time, and yes, it stayed hooked on.
The name of this fish started by Barra too, but it had the wrong ending...
It was a small fish, with big teeth:
The baby Barracuda.
It was a very cute little Barracuda, just a baby really.
And in the water it went back.
After that, it was a long time, of flicking lures, trolling lures and hoping that a fish would find one of our lures attractive... But no, we were like the pariah of the fishing world. The fish avoided our lures, with determination and constance; it started to become a tad frustrating.
So we moved toward a bank that we had not fished yet.
With the idea of changing tactic and to start flicking weedless soft plastic right in the snag.
Two things happened: I got the confirmation that weedless lures still get snagged; I lost a few.
And, we finally got hit by some fish!
In fact only on my third or fourth cast, I hooked and landed my first little Barramundi of the day!
Barramundi on weedless soft plastic.
It was only a very small Barramundi, but after all this flicking for nothing, it sure made me happy!
It was way too small to keep, and was promptly returned to his element: some brownish salt water.
With a renewed enthusiast, I flicked again, hoping for his big brother, or maybe even his big sister...
When not long after that, I was hooked to a fish again!
Got it in the boat, but it was about the same size. Rather than asking Sarge to take a photo of me holding it, I tried a selfie. So Sarge would not loose any precious fishing time. Especially now that we seemed to have found the right spot.
But I am not too good at selfie with a little live fish in my hand, and the pic doesn't really deserves to be shown...
Then I lost my lure to a snag.
So I sat at the back of the boat to put a new leader on my line, and attach a new lure at the end of it.
Being focused on the task at hand, I forgot about Sarge casting his lure away to any snag that we passed. I forgot till I heard him say something a bit like: "Yes! Oh No! Expletive, expletive, expletive"...
He had just hooked and then lost a Barramundi that was a good 70cm...
He said that he saw it coming, and lazily boof his lure near the surface, turn around, and fight for a few second before spitting the lure.
That would definitively have been the fish of the day, but it was not to be.
So we continued to move along the same little bank, when I made a cast just between two submerged trees. But it was not a good cast. In fact I wanted to cast just next to one of the tree, and had cast spot on in the middle of the two trees... I silently cursed myself, but still tried to give a bit of action to the lure, as I was winding it back. When it was hit with a bang! A sudden hit, a big tail slapped the surface and dived down. I was thinking Barramundi, because I had seen the tail, but it was going down, giving head shake. Could it be a cod or a catfish?
It was definitively a bigger fish than the ones I had before.
Then it came to the surface, head and shoulder out of the water shaking it's big mouth: it was a Barramundi! And I called it for a good fish, he was strong and fast.
Sarge scooped it in the net, and I was impressed by how fat it was. Before realising that it wasn't that long after all.
My best Barramundi of the day.
It measured a rather small 59cm (23.228346 inches), but was fat and had some good shoulder. Which might explain why he had fought above it's size. This was my first, (and was going to be the only) of legal size for the day, so in the esky it went.
I was happy, it was no giant; but I had a feed for my little family.
I am no Barramundi expert, still I do hope that a short but fat Barramundi is a sign of a good year in front of us. Last year the Barramundi were not that fat early in the season.
Or at least, not the ones I caught.
Not long after that, we had to call it a day.
And a great day it had been, thank you Sarge for inviting me on your boat.
Yes, I know, one lonely fish to bring back home might not look like much to some of you...
But hey, it could be worse.
Have a good day,
Me.
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