Fishing Two Locations On The Same Day.

Hi there,

Yes we went fishing on two locations on the same day, and this is the short story of it.

• We fished Corroboree Billabong and the Adelaide River.
• We got fish on many different lures.
• It was a long but great day.

On the Saturday afternoon, I got a message from Jason asking me if I wanted to go fishing on Sunday?

It didn't take long for me to realise that really, there was not much else that I wanted to spend my Sunday doing. 

The plan was to fish Corroboree early in the morning, and then zoom to the Adelaide Rived in the afternoon.

So at 5:00am we found ourselves on the way to the Billabong. And yes, it is at least for me the city boy, always a very beautiful thing to see, the Billabong waking up in the morning:

Corroboree Billabong in the morning.

We had expected to see a long queue of boats launching at the ramp...

Nobody was there, we had the place for ourselves.

With no one else there, we decided that we could try first to have a few casts in the lilies just on the right of the ramp.

Well people often say that in fishing you have to do the miles to get the smile, but not this time.

We had just launched, it was not yet 7:00am, and just like that, I was on to a beautiful little fresh water Barramundi:

First Barramundi of the trip. Akame!

No it was not a giant at 65 cm (25.590551 In.), but hey, I was happy as one can be. Just a few minutes on the water, a dozen casts and we had a fish was on board.

Oh how that Barramundi fishing seemed easy just then. Well it was going to be a little while before the next Barra. But other fish were to be caught in the interim.

Yet with no other fish taking our lures, we decided to go for a bit of a troll along the waterways.

And simply enjoy the morning light.

Lilie pads at Corroboree Billabong.

A former colleague from the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, had told me that if I could one day bring him back a Saratoga or Scleropages leichardti, as it is  called by the people of knowledge, for the museum collection. Well guess what? We hadn't been trolling for long, and once again I was On! This time to a nice little Saratoga who had taken an unhealthy liking to my Reidy's lure:

Saratoga on the Big Lucifer lure.

My first Saratoga of the day.

Mission accomplished, I had a Saratoga and it was going to go in the museum collection.

As such, we recorded the GPS coordinates of where it had been taken, the time (7:45am), and depth at with the lure was swimming (2,5 metres).

Sometimes simple little things like this makes me happy.

We then started to have a lot of success with the Tarpon, and it wasn't that hard because they were everywhere.

Jason with the first Tarpon of the day.

They were good fun, and some of them were really fat and hit hard, for such little fish.

Pandanus on the bank.

We even tried to fish with some small soft plastic vibes, and I got a nice Saratoga with them, and Jason got one too:

Saratoga on the small vibe.

Between the Tarpon and Saratoga it was great billabong fishing.

Jason working another Tarpon.

Still, I wanted another Barra, and started to think that for it to happen I would have to cast deep in the lilies again, instead than just on the edge of the lilies. Yet, I was not brave enough to flick a vibe with two treble straight in the under water forest made by the water lilies stems.

So I naturally opted for a small soft plastic, the smallest one in my bag, a little Reidy's of just a few centimetres, in the chartreuse colour. I would love to show you this lure, but really there is not much to show...

Judge for yourselves:

Can you see it?

Yes you can't see much, but let me tell you that the fish liked it.

With the temperature of the day rising, the action went down.

Every body needs a place to rest when it's hot.

So we decided that it might be time for a move toward the Adelaide River.

And this is just what we did.

Not long after starting to fish on the Adelaide, Jason got on his first Barra of the day:

Happy as a man who just caught a fish.

Yes, even after having lived outside of the Northern Territory for a few years, Jason was still able to find the Barramundi on one of his favourite rivers.

Not only he was able to find some fish, but he was able to put me on them too.

First I lost one at the boat, which if you ask me was totally unfair.

So we trolled again, when I got a nice little hit, and my line took a tangent for the bank.

Not wanting my fish to go straight for the snags, I thumbed my spool and jerked a bit the rod, and the fish started to swim my way. From the fight I quickly realised that it wasn't too big, but got a bit of a fright when it came boat side, as I had the impression to see a shark or a crocodile swim just under it.

Not knowing for sure what it was, or even if it wasn't just a figment of my imagination. The fish was rapidly lifted in the boat.

My dinner had been sorted.

At 56 cm (22.047244 Inches) it was just over the minimum legal size, and in the esky it went.

I was laughing at how I panicked when I had this small Barramundi on the line, thinking that it was going to be taken from me, by some underwater predator.

When Jason got a solid hit and was now connected to what was obviously a better fish.

As fast as possible I reeled in my lure, and got the net ready when I heard Jason scream: Oh there is a shark!!! Oh no!!!

And that was it:

When a shark gets the better part of your Barramundi.

Before I had even had the time to turn around with the net and to look at this big fish in the water, that shark had done his shark job... It had collected its tax, under the form of fresh food...

This is not the first time that I saw a shark taking part or even a full Barramundi from a hooked line. But this one was the fastest of them all. So fast that in fact, I didn't even see it.

But at least now I know that I had not dreamed when I had my smaller fish on the line, there are sharks in the water...

A bit further up the river, Jason caught another Barramundi:

Last Barramundi of the day.

All the fish we caught on the Adelaide, were very chrome looking. Not as fat as the fish we hooked in Corroboree billabong earlier in the day, but still very healthy.

Sadly it was starting to be late, and it was time to race down the river, toward the ramp and home.

As we started to make our way back, the weather dramatically changed, a storm seemed ready to pounce on us, and the sky kept changing all the way to the ramp, for the rain to start lightly falling only once we were in the car.

Yet the spectacle that the sky gave us, reminded me of one of the many reasons why I love going fishing in the Top End so much.

The multiple colours of the sky.

Yes I know, it is a lot of photographs of the sky, but I had forgotten how it can change so fast.

It was a good reminder of why I prefer going fishing than playing video games.

Thank you Jason for inviting me to fish from your boat.

And yes it is true, the best Barramundi of the trip was sharked...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

2015 Top End Barra Series Round 5.

Hi there,

Not long ago the fifth round of the 2015 Top End Barra Series took place, and here is the story of how it went.

• It took place at Corroboree Billabong.
• I fished from Moz's boat.
• It wasn't easy fishing.
• All our fish were caught on hard body lures.

Early in the morning I arrived at Moz's, the boat was ready, so we quickly put my stuff in the boat and in the car, and we hit the road.

Destination fishing.

Arriving at Corroboree in the morning is alway a real visual pleasure:

Last stretch of Road before Corroboree Billabong.

Once again we were not disappointed, the scenery was breathtaking.

We launched as quick as we could, and soon found Greg fishing in the morning light.

Greg fishing Corroboree in the morning light.

We had a little chat with him, and a few cast, were both Moz and I got a hit. But this was Greg's spot so we left it to him, and went to a spot that Moz and I fished together four years ago.

As we arrived, we saw a few wallabies just where we wanted to go:

Wallabies on the bank.

Seeing use they hopped away in the bush, and Moz promptly took their place on the bank, while I fished from the boat.

In no time Moz was on, and he landed the first Barramundi of the weekend:

Happy as a man who caught a fish.

It wasn't yet 8:00am and Moz had already caught a 60cm Barramundi. (23.622047 Inches).

By then we become persuaded that this was going to be a cracker of a day, full of nice big fish...

It was going to be a great day, but not for all the fish caught.

As a matter of fact, it was going to be a very long time before we caught another Barramundi.

First we had lunch. Then we caught up with a few other boats, on the bank of the billabong, for a yarn and a few jokes.

Brett who was there, passed a few skewers around, that he had just cooked on his boat, Yummy!

Skewers on the boat.

These were followed by some warm garlic bread, this was luxury fishing for me.

Someone threw a few pieces of bread in the water to see if some little fish would come and eat it.

A kite came and took it:

Greedy kite pinching the fish's bread.

Despite all the fun that we had, it was time to try to get more fish.

So everyone went there own way.

Brett on his way to try to find the Barramundi.

We had opted to troll along the lilies, and I was casting weedless lure at the same time. From the front of the boat, while my trolling rod was at the back. Between two cast I looked at my rod, and saw it suddenly take a sever bent.

I dropped my casting rod on the boat floor, and hurried to catch the other one.

Yes the fish was still on, and was giving an honourable fight.

We identified it as a Barramundi, and it was netted as fast as we could:

A fat Barramundi.

Coming in at 74cm (29.133858 Inches) it was a reasonable size Barramundi, but was surprised me the most, was how fat this fish was. And it did fight like a big guy too.

Like the Barramundi caught by Moz before, it was released to grow a bit more.

One of the thing that anglers and visitors should never forget about Corroboree Billabong, is that it is the home of many, many big crocodiles:

Salt Water crocodile at Corroboree Billabong.

we did see many of them, and they kind of keep you on your toes.

By the end of the afternoon, geese were starting to get back in action:

Flock of geese in flight.

Geese coming to the water in the afternoon.

With the sun going down, Moz cooked a great curry, and it was time to search for a spot to sleep.

Sunset on Corroboree Billabong.

Doing so, we trolled some big lures...

And I got a massive hit, and the line started to peel out of my singing reel.

I was on to a very good fish.

It didn't come to the surface, was fighting deep down in the water column, we were in 20 feet of water.

I started to call it for a massive catfish, and finally it came to the surface just at the side of the boat.

And we saw it...

And Moz shouted: "It is a Metery! A big Metery!"

Yes, an absolutely massive fish it was. But catfish it wasn't, Barramundi it was...

It was too fast for Moz to have any chance to net it.

The big Barramundi sounded straight for the bottom. Moz said: "When they sound like that, it is not a good sign". I said: "Shut Up don't say that now!"

But he was right, first I felt one of the treble pop out, but I was still connected. Then the second one let go and the line went limp.

I had lost, the fish had won.

On closer inspection once I had my lure back in hand, I could see that in fact both trebles had bent.

I still remember it...

Not long after that we found a good spot to anchor the boat and spend the night sleeping.

Early morning saw us trying to snag a fish, mostly by casting weedless in the lilies.

Where I got a small Saratoga, not big, but enough to makes me happy, it was the first in a few year:

Small Saratoga in the morning.

This was a small fish but it was the only one that came aboard during this trip.

We did get hit by a few of them, some much bigger than this one (Because the one that got away is always bigger). But we could not land another one as they are notoriously difficult to hook properly.

But I did get a rather lager yet very skinny Archer Fish:

ArcherFish on the weedless frog.

And this was going to be the last fish from the Sunday.

We did persist the casting, flicking our lures against every structures that we could find.

Sadly to no avail.

We decided to go home in the early afternoon, as we still had a bit of road to do, and the fishing was not getting better.

Yet I still had a great weekend, it was good to be out in the sun breathing some fresh air.

Thank you Moz for inviting me on your boat for the weekend.

And I will remember for a long time that big Barramundi that I lost a Saturday evening in the dark waters of Corroboree Billabong.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

A Billabong In The Middle Of Nowhere.

Hi there,

Seano gave me a phone call early in the morning and asked me if I wanted to go fishing in a billabong in the middle of nowhere...
I said yes!

• It was in the middle of nowhere.
• We did get some fish.
• We got all of our fish on weedless soft plastic lures.
• it was a great day.

Want to read the full story?

Here it is then:

On a face book group Seano said that he was thinking of going fishing if he could find a deckie.

I said: "Pick Me!"

He called me and it went a bit like this:

Are you ready, can I come to pick you up now?

No! I haven't had a shower yet!

Ok, then, I will be at your place to pick you up in half an hour, we are going billabong fishing.

Quick quick, a shower, getting the tackle bag ready with gear for billabong fishing.

The phone rang again: "Hey Mate, I am in from of your place"

I walk out, with my fishing gear, and a plate with two toast and scramble eggs on it.

And off we go for a new fishing adventure. 

Eating my breakfast on the way.

In the bush, in the middle of nowhere we drove.

Don't ask me where exactly. I would honestly not be able to answer, I was too busy looking at the landscape. Half dreaming about all the fish we were going to catch, to be able to notice any direction that were were taking.

Driving through the bush to go fishing.

We finally arrived at about midday to our chosen location and launched the boat.

Boat ramp?

What boat ramp?

Launch site.

The billabong was beautiful, and not another boat in sight:

A billabong just for us.

It was the middle of the day, and experience would have dictated the use of diver lures, not surface lures...

But once again, being who I am, I decided to just have a few cast with the cool looking surface lure that Brett gave me a few week ago. You know, just to see how it swims and all...

Second cast with it, a little Barramundi boofed my surface lure, I jumped in surprise, but the fish didn't connect.

Now that was a promising sign if ever there had been any.

We were going to catch some fish! Was the thing that we started to think...

Well yes we did, maybe not cricket score of them, but enough to have a great day on the water.

Any way, after a few more cast of the surface lure, I decided to fish in earnest, and to put a weedless soft plastic, to cast at the snags.

We got a few hits, saw a few fish, and...

I was on! 

After an average cast toward some Pandanus roots, I can suddenly feel and see my line tense, I strike and it begins.

The fish quickly came to the surface, jumped and I can see that it is a Saratoga, a beautiful fish that I really like to fish for.

It start to do all the things that Saratoga are known for. It move in a snake like fashion, it jump and try to bury me in the snags. Luckily for me this one is not too big and I get it to the boat.

First fish of the day.

After a quick snap, it was released, healthy and strong.

As you can see by the size of the lure compared to the fish, they were hungry in this billabong.

Just wait a bit for the weather to warm up a bit, and it might turn crazy in there.

We then both got a few miss, dropsy all around.

Then Seano cast between some submerged branches and got a hit, but failed to connect.

So I sent my lure in roughly the same spot, and I am on!

Once again, the fish hit the lure on the drop.

Simple technic really: cast your soft plastic, let it drop to the bottom. Give it a few flick rewind a bit of line, let it drop to the bottom, and repeat. It is on the drop, while the line is slightly slack, that I see it suddenly going straight and changing direction. I quickly raise my rod tip, start to smile, and be happy.

As we were working some rather short distance cast, the tussle is not too long, but still very exciting, and I find myself with another Saratoga in my hands.

Second Saratoga for the day.

This was a better fish than the first one, and it made me very happy.

Which is good, as it was going to be my last one for the day!

I was just starting to feel bad, that I was on Seano's boat and catching more fish than him...

I should not have worried, because from now on he was going to shine, and get all the fish.

The first fish that Seano got, was a Sooty Grunter.

I had read and heard a lot about the Sooty Grunter, but was yet to see one in the flesh.

Sometimes it the simple things in life,  for me, finally seeing one made the day even better.

The Sooty Grunter.

This one was as fat as a footy, and it went back in the drink, to get even fatter.

And hopefully we will meet again one day.

It then became Barra Time!

Seano got two of them in a row, little ones some of you might say, but a fish is a fish, especially when it is a Barramundi.

First little Barramundi of the day.

Last Barramundi for the day.

I think that by then Seano was a bit tired of me alway wanting to take pictures of fish that he would consider not worthy. But hey, it was a Barra!

After Barra time, it didn't become Hammer Time, but it went full circle, and we, or I should say, Seano, got back in the Saratoga. While I got back at taking pictures.

Seano's first Saratoga for the day.

And it didn't take long after that for the last Saratoga, and last fish, of the day to come onboard.

Last fish of the day: Saratoga!

We were happy anglers, we had spend a few hours catching fish on an isolated billabong, far from the crowds that you sometimes find on the popular billabongs. The shadows were starting to grow longer, and we decided that it was time to go home.

End of the day on the billabong.

We did run ingot some trouble to get out of the billabong.

The trailer got stuck against a step in the mud. We had to actually skull drag the boat on the bank and then put the trailer under it.

One of the hand rail from the boat got ripped off the gunwale while the boat was dragged out of the water, but luckily, no one was injured, which is the most important.

Driving throughout the bush, we made a quick stop, so I could make a photograph of the sunset:

Australia, you are beautiful!

Sunset over the Australian bush.

To recap, it was a great day, discovering some new fishing location. Seeing a new specie of fish that I had never seen yet. Good company, good laugh, good fishing, what else could make a great Sunday?

Thank you for the invitation Seano.

Oh yes, I did get totally out fished once again...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Fishing Corroboree Billabong In Winter.

Hi there,

Yes fishing Corroboree Billabong in winter is not often a synonym of success, and now I know why.
Yet it was a great day in the Australian outdoor, worth of a little post on this blog.

My good friend Jason Arrabamundi who now lives interstate, was in Darwin for a few days last week.
He had rented a car and a boat to go and fish at Corroboree Billabong for a full day, and had invited me to tag along.
It was a long time since we fished together, and I was more than keen.

At about 5:00am Jason picked me up and on the road to a new fishing adventure we went.
It was great to catchup viva voce in the car, and the mood was flying high.
Then the adventure part started, with a punctured tyre.

The flat tyre.

This photo was made in day light, but the puncture happened way before any light was seen shining anywhere...

It was in fact closer to a bit before 6:00am when we first stopped to inspect this now unusable front wheel, and decided to try to change it.

Yes I wrote try, because try we did, and then we quickly realised that the rental company had not put the adequate tools in the trunk of the car, to change a tyre... Oh, they had put some tools in there, but because of the alloy mag wheels, we needed a special size socket to unscrew the wheel studs. And the special size socket was now where to be seen. We looked from the glove box to the boot, and could not find anything remotely similar to what we needed. Slightly irritated we decided to call the rental company, Jason did it, better than I would have, for sure.

And they replied that the guy to help us would be with us in about one or one and an half hour...

So we started to wait, and to pass the time, to make some photos of the rising day on the bush. Instead of the billabong where we had planned to see the sunrise, and start to get some early fish.

(Early fish was definitely not going to happen anyway).

Early morning on the Australian bush.

As a side note, this is not the sun, but the moon that you can see in this photograph.

These two first photographs, were made with my phone, as I was trying to preserve the battery from my camera, for all the fish that we were to catch later on... Yes, optimist me...

Anyway once the day had fully set, a bit before 9:00am a Toyota Troopy with three local indigenous stopped near us and asked if we needed any help. We didn't say no to them, but we explained that we needed a special size socket... One of them said, " Oh yes I might have that in the back. I was going to get my tools out of the car before we went hunting, but left them in."

We were in luck! The guy had all the tools we could need and the change of wheel was quickly done.

One of them seeing the fishing rods in the car said: "Hey, your fishing god must be laughing at you right now!" It made everybody laugh, Jason and I included. With the wheel just changed, not long after 9:00, as the three helpers were going to go, we saw the mechanic from the car rental company arrive with a big smile, in a big truck, just after the battle...

Jason gave $20 to the guys who helped us, and had a short talk with the mechanic, and off we went to catch all these fish...

Well once on the water, it didn't went exactly according to plan either.

Nothing bad happened, but all the fish were hiding from us...

I had even prepared a lure especially for this trip. A fishing lure that I was thinking was going to be dynamite on the Saratoga. Well, I did get a beautiful hit on the first or second cast with it. But that was it, a hit and nothing else, no hook up... 

The customised Mepps.

The idea was that by cutting off the treble and replacing it by a single, it would spin and be weedless. Which should have been perfect for fishing at Corroboree Billabong. Maybe next time, but not on this day. I will give it another chance, at the first occasion. 

I was in fact going to be 1:45pm before the first fish was going to be boated.

And I was very excited, because it was by me!

And what a fish! A Tarpon, one of the cutest ones that I had ever seen. Why cute? Simply because he was very small. Normally nothing to write home about. But a fish is a fish, especially if it took you half a day to hook it...

My prized Tarpon.

You may have understand by now, that this was not exactly what we had expected. But when you are with a good mate, catching up, with him telling me all about the Giant Trevally that he his now targeting near his new home. That we had in fact a good laugh at this greedy little fish who had taken my lure.

Of course, I could not help but to say that so far, I had caught the biggest fish of the day.

Not very long after that, Jason was on to a nice and feisty little Saratoga:

Jason reeling the Saratoga.

This didn't look like a monster fish, so I asked him with a smile, if he wanted me to grab the net or call the press first? He laughed and just pulled it in.

The only Saratoga for the day.

It was not a bad fish and was actually going to be the biggest fish of the day.

After a quick pic, it was released, like all the fish that we caught on this fishing trip.

We continued to fish, with about the same amount of success. A few hits, but nothing was staying connected.

At one point as we were flicking our lures all around us, we spotted a reasonably sized crocodile, and a little bird walking just in front of him:

Corroboree Billabong crocodile and a bird.

I got the camera ready, waiting for the old crocodile to pounce on the bird. But no, he must have had a full belly as he just looked at it pass under his nose without even making a try for it.

Maybe it was this bird lucky day.

And then it didn't take long for things to take a turn for the better, I caught a billabong Barramundi!

But once again it was no monster fish, far from it:

My best fish of the day.

Yes it was going to be my best fish of the day, as it was so much bigger than the Tarpon I got before...

Ok, it was just a rat of a fish, but it still made me smile. I guess that once again it must have been the cute factor...

And we had finally found the honey hole as Jason was on too, and in no time. He too boated a majestic Barramundi:

Jason's Barramundi.

Yes, it needed just one hand to be handled, it too was a rat of a Barramundi.

But we laughed that now I was not the only one with a Barra any more.

And that was going to be it fish wise, not that we stopped there and then, but just that we would not be able to boat anymore of these massive fish.

Yet it was a great spot to be, as beautiful in winter than it is in spring or summer:

Casting to the weeds bed.

Finally it was starting to be late in the day, and we had promised to the lady from whom we had rented the boat, that it would be back at 4:30pm. It was time to head back towards the pontoons.

The wind had stop, and in the serenity we could nearly have forgotten that the place was full of crocodile.

Corroboree Billabong in winter.

It was great to spend a day talking about the destructive power of the Giant Trevally while laughing at the small size fish that we were catching. Thank you Jason for inviting me on this trip. I am ready to do it again!

Even if we didn't catch that many big fish.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.