ABU Hi-Lo

Hi there,

Just a very short story about some lures that I like...

As a child, I remember sitting at the kitchen table and listening with great attention, to my father and his friends, talking about a lure that could swim at different deep. To find the fishes wherever they would be hiding. This to me was magic and resonated in my mind as the fisherman ultimate tool. I wanted one.

Today I have a few in my collection, and in fact they are still being produced.

ABU Hi-Lo.

The Abu Hi-Lo is a well-known lure that has been used by many.

It is nearly a look-alike of the Heddon Vamp Spook from America. But it had something more, it has an articulated bib.

The articulated bib.

It first appeared in 1955 at a time when the Swedish company was called AB Urfabriken. It then arrived with a bib adjustable in five different positions. In 1958 it gained one more and now offers the choice of six different angles for the bib. Giving the lure the ability to swim from very deep to very shallow, it can be used as a surface lure, a bit like a popper.

The real collector will look for the pre-1958 version, easily recognizable for not having any patent marking on the belly.

Mines, all have a marking on the belly.

It has been available in five different sizes, included the jointed version.

As a floating, slow sinking or sinking lure.

Originally built in Sweden, the production moved to Asia in 1981.

They have since been made in Japan, Taiwan and China.

Not that many lure models have been produced for over fifty year, and are still being used now. It still sells very well overseas with Pike fishermen, and I was told that there is still some passionate using it down south. But today, for many up here, it has lost its flavor.

Still, I definitively like them…

Here are a few of them:

Three sizes and a jointed one.

Blue and all alone.

Two brothers.

Yes I know, none of my Hi-Lo were made prior 1958, so all the lure that I show you in this post are not really collector lures...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

My First Archerfish.

Hi there,

Moz kindly invited me to go fishing with him aboard his boat, and this is when I caught my first ever Archerfish...
Thank you Moz.
After a very good post from Arrabmundi on the FFF forum, about how to catch some Barramundi on the upper Adelaide River, by dropping some soft plastic lures among the submerged timber, we decided to have a try at it.
And went with the goal for the day, of fishing only weedless soft plastics in the snags.

The plan was to take it easy and be on the water at around 10:00am, and cruise to Goat Island for a Burger with chilli sauce for lunch, and then start fishing.
And this is what we did, had a good burger and a chat with Kai to get all the good oil on the fishing...
And basically he told us that the fishing had slowed a bit these last few days...
And he was right, with a water temperature just over 32 degrees Celsius (89.6 Fahrenheit), the fish were not as numerous as we would have loved.
Yet we quickly started to get some hits on the first few cast. Moz was the first to score, with a fiesty little Barramundi:

First Barramundi of the day.

This put us in a good mood, we then thought that we were doing the right thing with the good lures...

It was still early in the afternoon and our optimism went back right up.

Now, I wanted a fish of my own, and it was to happen.

But it was not one of the targeted specie, yet it made me very happy.

It was an Archerfish, and that was the first time ever that I caught one, and that was on a lure.

My favourite form of fishing.

My first ever Archerfish.

There is something very pleasant in catching for the first time a fish from a specie that had eluded you till then. It was also very interesting for me, as I believed that they would feed on insect only, but obviously once again, I was wrong.

So despite what you could call a by catch it made my day, sometimes simple little things are what matters.

We continued to have regular hits, but lost all the fish that were having a go at our lures.

Then I finally got a little Barramundi too. My lure was way out of the snag and was pretty close to the boat when my line suddenly tensed and I got all excited, as it made a little jump and I saw that it was a Barra. A rat some would say, but to me a Barramundi is a Barramundi.

My baby Barramundi.

Yes it was just a baby, and didn't offer much resistance to the locked drag that I had set up my reel to, in anticipation of a bigger fish. It was still very green in the boat and started to jump a bit all over the place, so a quick photo and in the water it went back.

We tried again in a few different place, and when we finally saw a place that to us screamed: Barramundi lives here! We moored the boat to a branch coming out of the water and started to cast all around us.

And Moz started to get hits after hits, sometimes a few in just one retrieve.

Being who I am, I casted in the total opposite direction he was casting at...

And I got a fish!

My second Archerfish, it must have been the day for it:

Last fish of the day.

This was going to be the last fish of the day.

We continued to cast here and there, and even tried to troll for a few minutes in a spot that Arrabmundi had showed us, and which really produced in the past. But to no avail.

We did get a lot of hits on the soft plastics, but nothing more stayed connected.

With a storm coming and a slow action on the fishing front, we decided that it might be time to call it a day, and go home.

Storm on our way.

As we zoomed back down the river, we passed through a bit of rain, but quickly got on the other side.

Like if the storm was going the opposite direction from us, which was nice.

Rain clouds on the Adelaide.

Back at the ramp, Moz asked with a big smile if I could jump in the water to hold the boat while he was going to fetch the car... No! I said, and he burst out laughing and handed me the rope to hold the boat from the safety of the top of the ramp, I felt better immediately.

On the way back we discussed the day, and what happened. We got a large amount of hits that didn't materialised in a catch, but were they hits from big fish?

Well it is hard to say, because with soft plastic lure, it is often just a little taps on the line that signal a hit from a nice fish. A very different feeling than a strike on a hard body lure. 

So I smiled, and decided that they were hits from enormous Barramundi...

We didn't got the numbers that we would have loved too but this to me was still a great day in the Australian outdoors.

We did get some good laughs, a great time and the water. Moz showed me how to, and fixed one of my reel that was making strange noises, thank you for that too Moz.

And now it may have to wait for a few month and the run off before the next trip up the Adelaide River.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

The New Reidy's.

Hi there,

Today I am going to show you a fishing lure which is yet to be named...
The lure is made by Reidy's Lures in Australia.
It is a lure that look like it would be great to use on the mud flat, or land based above the shallow rock of the shore.
Maybe even just above some weeds bed.

So what does it look like?
Here it is:

The new Reidy's.

Yes this is nearly like a Little Lucifer...

But look at the bib, it is much shorter... 

This is a very shallow Little Lucifer.

Except that it doesn't have a name yet, so it is not the shallow Little Lucifer.

In fact, Reidy's has a little competition going on at the moment, where people can send them some idea of names. The winner will see this very lure named after his or her idea, and will for this recieved a very cool prize from Reidy's.

Where to send the names you may ask?

To the following email address I would tell you:

info@reidyslures.com

Now, don't go telling that I never do anything for you...

Good luck to all, even if you beat me to it. And yes, I know that the odds are not in my favour.

But hey, it cold be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

P.S: Ho and yes, I was lucky enough to score one of these lures before they get released on the market, so I can't wait to go and give it a swim, to see what it look like in the water...

Thank you Reidy's.

A Request From The Museum.

Hi there,

I just received a request from the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.
They asked me if I could relay on my blog their need for some very specific catfish...
So here is the email that I just got from them:

Hi Rambling Expat,

The Museum is keen to get some genetic samples of eel-tail catfish (Plotosids) from around Darwin in Salt Water (have plenty from freshwater rivers). They are an interesting group and occur from muddy estuaries to reef habitats including rock pools. If anyone should come across any we would be grateful if they could pop it in the esky then freezer  and bring it in – I would happily provide a behind the scenes tour at the same time and perhaps a special edition lure J (or can arrange to pick them up).

Here’s some pictures borrowed from the net of some of the different species, they vary in size from 10cm to about 30cm, and would be grateful if you could mention this on your blog.

Cheers

Michael

So here are the links to some of these great little fish:

Fish Number One

Fish Number Two

Fish Number Three

Fish Number Four

All these links (blue text) redirect to the images of a great Australian web site called Anima, wich is a great destination of fish imagery. A great place to ID a fish, or order a hand signed print.

So if you are fishing in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, this is for you.

And as I am sure many of you would have said or heard in the past: This is all in the name of science!

And this is why, they also would love to get as much information as possible in regards to where the fish were caught, dates and times, in what kind of depth, with lure or bait. Even GPS marks would be welcome.

Also did you catch it land based or from a boat?

If you catch one and bring it to the museum in good condition, that would be great, thank you. 

Your name would then be kept for posterity as a donor to the museum collection.

Think, at how much bragging right that would give you to face the grand kids...

Yes I know, this is a post without any nice fishing photos...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

The Commemorative Rapala.

Hi there,

I was offered a commemorative fishing lure, made by Rapala for a local tackle shop.
And by no one else than the winner of the 2012 Top End Barra Series, Mr. Gregory Shields.
Thank you Gregory, this is much appreciated.

It was during a nice evening at the Ski Club in Darwin, for the end of competition event.
Just by the sea, under the palm trees it was a great night.

Early evening at the Ski Club.

With the moon in the sky.

I really like this place, it is a great spot to relax at the end of any day.

But back on topic, I got a new fishing lure...

As part of his winning prizes as the 2012 champion, Gregory received this beautiful lure.

The very thing that I wanted to win in the last round of this friendly competition, but it had eluded me.

Knowing that I collect fishing lures with advertising on them, Gregory came towards me in the evening and asked me if I wanted it.

I was so surprised, that at first I believed that he was joking.

But no, he was being honest and generous and for my great pleasure, gifted it to me.

Thanks again.

The lure is a commemorative Rapala, made for the 40 years of Fishing & Outdoor World, the oldest fishing tackle shop in Darwin, NT Australia. And in a place like Darwin where fishing is an integral part of the local culture, this is saying something.

In fact, it is even my favourite shop in town.

The shop opened in 1972 and 2012 marked the 40 years anniversary... 

I wonder what they will do in 2022 to mark the 50 years...

So, want to see it?

Here it is:

The commemorative Rapala.

This is the X-Rap SXR-10. It swims to 1,2-1,8 meter (4'-6'), weight 13 grams (7/16oz.) and is 10 cm (4") long.

The colour is FOW of course!

I love to collect advertising or commemorative fishing lures, and this is my first one from Rapala, so I am very happy with it.

Yes I know, this is a blog post about a fishing lure, in which there is two photos of palm trees, and just one of the lure...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

And The Winner Is...

Hi there,

So last month I started a little giveaway for one great KO Lure to be won.
The giveaway address was just this, if you want to see what it was all about.

The winner had just one thing to do, and that was to tell us what is his/her favourite fishing lure colour is, and then I was to draw the winner, with the help of Random.org.

I have to say that I am a bit surprised by the very low number of people who entered the raffle.
It was pretty easy to enter and I got a number of 1499 visitor during the duration of the giveaway competition.
How many people entered?
A grand total of 4... So they each found themselves with a 25% chance of being the winner, not bad odds when you think about it.

So who won you may start to wonder...
Wait no more, for here is a screenshot of the draw made on Random.org:

Yes this is the number one!

You could say that it is a case of first in, best served.

Congratulations Fish Whisperer, you love Blue and Silver fishing lures, and you just won a blue and silver one, with a bit of gold thrown in the mix.

So please, just send your contact detail of where I should send the lure to the following email address:

iwon1lure@hotmail.com 

And your lure should be posted in the coming week.

Yes, this very lure:

The big bad KO lure.

KO lures is a new brand of Australian fishing lures, with a headquarter in Darwin, NT, Australia.

It is interesting to note that of the four entries, two were from Australia, and two from overseas.

And we also had a very poetic entry, thank you Mud.

To the people who didn't win, sorry guys, hopefully your will be the winner and grinner of the next one.

And just remember, as I often say...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

2012 Top End Barra Series Round 6.

Hi there,

Not long ago was the 2012 Top End Barra Series round 6, the grand finale, the round where the champions would rise.
The round was taking place on Corroborre Billabong, a very beautiful place.

Sunrise and flying geese on the billabong.

For this bout I was not to fish with Arrabmundi, my usual skipper, as he was in the process of moving interstate, and was a few thousands kilometres away when the event took place.
Instead I was fishing with Moz, with whom I had already fished on the Adelaide River earlier in the year.

Full of anticipation.

As we launched in the cold early morning of the first day of competition, we were full of hope and anticipation.

Corroboree Billabong is truly a beautiful place, and having fished there only twice in the past, I couldn't get enough of the stunning sunrise.

Sunrise at Corroboree Billabong.

Being originally a big city boy, this is the kind of show that make me appreciate the move to the slower paced life style that I now live.

We quickly motored to a spot called The Rock Hole, where we started to troll some small lures.

And it didn't take too long for Moz to catch a nice Barramundi.

Moz and a nice Billabong Barramundi.

He was on the board, and a first fish in the boat is alway a relief, we were in for some good action.

Or so we thought...

Because the rest of the weekend was going to be spent catching the wrong fishes, and missing the right ones...

I did miss a few Saratoga not very far from there, I just couldn't stay connected to them.

Yet it was still going to be a great warm weekend on the water.

When I say warm, I could say hot, or even stinking hot.

The first day saw a temperature of 37 degrees celsius  and the second day of 39 ( 98.6 and 102.2 fahrenheit ).

Not much breeze, and not that much shade, made it for what we would call a warm weekend on the water.

Even the crocodile were getting a bit cranky with the heat.

As we were doing a slow troll along a bank of water lilies, a big one surfaced just at the green edge of the aquatic vegetation and aimed straight for our boat. We didn't ask for anything, we just increased the speed of the outboard and moved along, out of there.

We did went fishing in a little canal, where we saw two young guys coming and fishing just next to us. 

They explained that they were new to the territory, and that this was only their second time fishing here.

Seeing us stoping there they thought that it must be a good stop and had decided to stop too...

You guessed it, beginers luck was on their side, as the guy who was the closer to us was explaing all of this to us suddenly hooked on what seemed to be a nice fish.

It was a nice fight in the narrow canal, and the fish was finally netted, with the young angler shooting: "It is a metery it is a metery!" 

To wich Moz replied: No, it is 87cm long. (34.251969 inches).

So the lucky guy went and got his tape. 

The fish was 87cm long on the dot!

Now if this is not a good guess estimate, I don't know what is...

We left not long after thinking that we should have got this fish, but hey, this is fishing.

And the joy on this guy's face was still a great thing to see, this was his biggest Barramundi to date.

Water lilies near the little canal.

Then we saw what was like the start of a bush fire, just along the bank of the waterway. We wondered what could have started a fire in this isolated and dry place, and continued our troll. On turning back wa saw that the fire was now full on and that two chopper had started to try extinguished it.

This was the first time that I saw some helicopters water bomb a fire, and what a show it was. I nearly emptied my camera's battery taking pictures of it.

Big smoke on the river.

Filling up the water bucket.

Water bombing the fire.

In the heat of the day, this was a very impressive display.

But off course, this was not very good fore the fishing, so we moved a few kilometres away, to try our luck a bit more.

And Moz got a catfish...

First catfish of the weekend.

By then it was starting to be the end of the day, so we decided that our best luck would be to cast some weedless soft plastic in the lilies.

There instead of the targeted Saratoga we started to land a plague of little fresh water Tarpon.

Tarpon on the frog.

Another little Tarpon.

We couldn't get a Saratoga, Yet a bot that must have been about 200 meters from us was catching them with no problems...

The boat that was catching them.

Yes this boat was catching them and not us...

So when they left, in our grand wisdom, we decided to go just where they were, and to catch some ourselves...

Well, we went there, and didn't caught any... We got a few nice hits, but nothing stayed hooked.

So being human, we did what most humans would do: we decided to have dinner.

Moz stormed a great curry, spicy and all.

Yummy Curry.

Yes this was a delicious and well earned meal after a long day under the sun.

We were starting to relax in the relative dark freshness of the evening when we heard a sound that makes anyone standing on the water edge, or in a boat think quick about his or her next move.

Our hair raised and our senses started to work in overdrive.

It was the sound of a big salt water crocodile snapping his jaws in a clear warning that it wanted us out of its territory.

We didn't argue about who was going to put his hands in the water to wash the dishes, we just pulled up the anchor and moved a few kilometres away from that nice little spot.

We found a nice spot not very far from a house boat, and decided to set up camp just there.

In the morning we woke up to a fantastic scenery.

First light of the day on the billabong.

The light was just beautiful, and with the day rising we could start to see the mist on the water around the houseboats. 

Morning mist and houseboat on Corroboree Billabong.

Not long after this photo was taken, and not very far from it, I started to cast a plastic frog in the lilies, hopping to snare a nice Saratoga... I did get plety of hits, but lost all the fish. All on surface action, one of the most exciting form of fishing.

Then Moonman arrive in his boat, and told me that this is because I have the wrong lure...

He told me that his lure is better and do a cast to show me. And on his first cast, he got hit, hook up and landed a Saratoga...

This was not my day.

He then gave me a lure similar to the one he had just used in front of us.

I tied it up on my line... And didn't got a single hit on this very rod for the rest of the day...

No, not my day, not my weekend.

Later on, one of the competitor in the Top End Barra Series got the propeller of his electric motor chomped up by a big crocodile.

So yes we knew that the crocodiles were starting to become a bit aggro at this time of the year.

We then went back to the little canal from the previous day, and there we caught up with Peter and his deckie fishing the canal land based.

The deckie and Peter, fishing from the land.

Peter knowing that I love advertising lures, had one for my small collection that he gave me.

Thanks Peter.

The Bacardi Rums lure.

The gift from Peter was a lure with the logo of Bacardi Rums, one that I didn't have yet.

This is a very welcome addition to my little accumulation of advertising fishing lures.

We then moved around trying to find the fish, but couldn't get a thing to stay connected.

Then, I got a hit, and the hookup seemed to be strong.

Reeling the fish, I was just hopping that the fit would be of legal size.

Then it came to the boat, and I realised that its size didn't really matter, it was of the wrong specie. It was a catfish.

My last fish of the weekend.

This was going to be my last fish for the weekend.

It was starting to be late and we decided to get back to the ramp and then home.

The dirt road, on the way back to civilisation.

When we dropped the boat back at Moz's place, he gave me a big Jack Fruit that grew on a tree on his property. At least, I would still have something to feed my family once back home.

That was the first time in over two year, that I went fishing a full weekend for Barramundi, and didn't landed a single one of them. 

Every rounds of the 2012 Top End Barra Series, I had climbed a bit more on the overall score board.

This time I was to go down.

I started the finale round in the fourth position, and finished it in six.

I was slightly disappointed but was still in the top ten, which was my aim at the beginning of the year. And I still had a great time on the water, with many good laugh, and in a fantastic place. Thank you Moz for having me on your boat for this round.

Now, I can't wait for the 2013 Top End Barra Series to start.

It will be even more difficult to finish in the top ten next year, as the number of participant in the competition will be higher than this year. This is a great testament to the success of the Top End Barra Series and how much people enjoy fishing it. So I am not really sure that I would be able to do as good next year...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

P.S: And don't forget the fishing lure giveaway...