A Day On The Adelaide River.

Hi there,

Yes last weekend I went for the first time fishing on the Adelaide River, and what a great day it was.
Arrabmundi invited me on his boat to go to fish in company of his good friend Jamie.
We had a very reasonable start, living Darwin at 11:am, not too early for a Sunday morning, and giving us the time to arrive in time for the tide.
To be honest, I was a little apprehensive to go and fish on this river, due to the large number of big crocodile who live in it.
And Ms Frugal Down Under, was not very impressed when I told her what the destination of my day trip was...

But I found that the boat ramp looked a lot safer than a lot of other where I had been in the past. And we hit the river with no problems, despite a car park full of cars and trailers, the river was going to be busy.

At the first spot where we stopped, I was quickly on to a nice little Barramundi, that Arrabmundi estimated to be in the 60 cm. (23.622047 inch) but I lost it at the boat...
Yes this was on a soft plastic, and this is often the curse of using soft plastic lures.
But still it made me happy as I thought that this was going to be a ripper of a day, if I could be on a fish so early in the day.

We moved to another spot but someone was already there, so we didn't stay long and moved to yet another place. Where Arrabmundi boated the first fish of the day:

First Barramundi of the day.

This was to me another proof that the day was going to be a good one.

We passed Donald's creek, but a boat was anchored in the middle of it's mouth so we moved along.

To another spot where we stayed for a little while, and with good reason.

We started to cast some hard body, at the mouth of a little creek, where the water was showing some mild turbulences.

Arrabmundi got another fish there, and soon I started to get many hits.

Not just little tap on the lure, but full on hit with the fish taking a bit of line or even jumping, then spit the lure...

I lost them all... 

What was going on? This was on a brand new lure, we even checked the hooks, and they were of good quality, and sticky sharp.

I just had a very sever cas of "Dropsytite", and could not hold on to any fish.

All the while Jamie and Arrabmundi were boating some nice fish.

Jamie first fish for the day.

Jamie first fish wasn't the bigest one of the day, but he did catch some bigger ones later on, and even had an 80cm one the previous day. And me you may ask? Well I kept dropping them, one after the other...

When lunch time arrived and my two accomplice stopped for lunch, I decided to try a bit longer. As they were munching on sandwiches I had the water for myslef, and changed lure... 

That was a good move and I finally boated my first fish for the day on a Classic Barra 120 +3 in the Bleeding Mullet colour:

64 cm of Adelaide River Barramundi.

Being my first fish in the boat for the day, I didn't take any risk, in the esky it went. Just in case I was not goint to catch any other, at least I would have a feed.

Then the boys started to cast again and got a few more, and I lost a few more...

As the water was dropping with the tide, we were able to spot the footprints left by a Jabiru in the mud, just next to where we had parked the boat

The Jabiru footprints.

We then moved to the mouth of Beatrice creek, did a few cast just there.

And decided to move between 50 to 150 metres upstream, and this is when it started to be like in a fishing commercial.

I had reverted to a soft plastic, a 5 inch from Reidy's in the Tiger Green colour, when I felt a little tap on my lure. Nothing big, just like tap, tap on the lure, but it didn't feel like a snag, just like if something had hit the line under water. By reflex more than anything else, I gave a small jerk to the rod, this is when the line went tight, and a nice little fish jumped, I was on!

With the amount of fish that I had already lost on soft plastic lures, during the day, I was a little anxious that the same scenario was going to happen again under my very eyes.

The fish first went right, on the other side of the boat, then dived under the boat, to appear just where it had all started. Then it went for the motor, and I feared that the prop would cut the line, from there it was back  on the other side of the boat, trying to go for the middle of the river. Finally, it came to the boat, and Arrabmundi told me to just bring him head first to just slide it in the net. And it worked!

This was going to be my biggest Barramundi on a soft plastic lure to date.

My Personal best on a soft plastic.

Yes, I was more than happy with that! It went 76 cm (29.92126 inch).

As I already had a fish on ice, I put it back in the water to fight another day.

Arrabmundi and Jamie keept landing a few more, there was a very good buzz going on aboard the boat at this moment.

Good mood all-around.

This session was short but for sure, will stay in my memory as a top Barramundi session.

It came to an end when things started to slow down, and Arrabmundi boated the last fish of the day.

Last Barramundi for the day.

We then proceeded to troll for a small amount of time, during which we all had some good strike, but no fish stayed connected.

And it was time to head back.

This was my first time on this part of the river, and I loved it.

The scenery is beautiful, and the fishing was great.

Thanks Barramundi for the invitation.

From the dozen of fish boated only two of them had my name on them.

Arrabmundi and Jamie got the king's share, and this show that I still have a lot to learn when it comes to Barramundi fishing.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.