I Haden't Fished In A Long Time.

Hi there,

Yes For multiple reasons I had been in the absolute impossibility to fish for a very long time.

Well, to be honest mostly because I went on vacation overseas...

But I am back, and more eager than ever.

•               First time in a long time.

•               We fished on the Elisabeth River.

•               We got fish and crabs.

I was still jet lag and rather tired when Brett called offered me to go fishing on the Elizabeth River.

I immediately said Yes!

He asked if I didn't need a bit of time to be sure of my answer, so I thought about it for about one or two seconds, and said Yes! again...

Yes I was sure that I wanted to go fishing. So sure in fact that on the fishing day between the excitement and the jet lag, I woke up at 2:00am and could not find sleep again. 

So I drove my car to the boat ramp a bit earlier than planned, and started to wait sitting in the car, listening to the radio. 

After a little while, slowly but surely, I could feel myself falling asleep.

There was just one thing to do, get out of the car, and take some pic of my close environment to try to keep awake. 

That is about then that Brett spotted me. He had arrived a few minutes earlier, but was parked on the opposite side of the parking, we hadn't seen each other, and were both waiting for the other one, on the same parking...

This could have easily make us lost some precious fishing time, lucky that it didn't.

Once we had caught up we quickly launched, and made our way toward some little creek and mangrove to try to find our old friends Mr and Mrs Baramundi.

Mangrove lined creek.

This was a nice and quiet place, I started to attach a lure at the end of my line.

Brett told me: "Flick your lure just over there."

This I did, making my first cast of the day where I had been told to. Reeling in the lure, I was looking at the water, the trees the sky and everything in between, thinking that the holidays had been great, but that I had missed the noble art of angling, and more so, catching a fish.

This is when I felt a little bump like a dead weight on my line and started to think, oh no, I just arrived, first cast and I am already snagged, hopefully it is only in the mud...

Well it wasn't in the mud...

Because the water erupted, my line went out of my reel instead of coming back on it and a nice little piece of piscatorial chrome started to dance over the water. Doing numerous jumps and all. I was on! On my first cast of the day!

Oh yes I got excited, I wanted to laugh and be serious, I wanted to get this fish to the boat.

And in the boat it came.

First Barramundi after the holidays.

It wasn't a monster, but it was a sweet baby. It not only made me happy, but to me it proved if needed be, that Brett who will start to be a fishing guide next month, will be a very good guide. 

The fish was one cm too short, and was quickly put back in the water.

Our spirits started to fly high, we were in for a good day.

Well it did take a bit of time after that, before anything happens. 

But eventually, Brett started to scream Muddy! Mud Crab! Give me the spear!

It went a bit like: What where is the crab? Just give me the spear! Ok.

And voilas! Brett speared the beast and got really happy to have his dinner sorted out, with a nice big full Mud Crab.

Now, if only I could catch myself a fish big enough to eat...

Well it didn't take long after that, I got on my second Barra for the day, and once again simply by sending my lure swimming where Brett told me that it should be a good ambush spot for a Barramundi.

Second Barramundi of the day.

This was was of a better size, and as such it was not his lucky day, head first in the esky it went.

We both had our dinner in the cold box, from now on it would be just fun and games.

Well lucky that because the water started to be too low, the fish had disappeared and we couldn't find any more of them to play with us.

But the command for the spear came again and this time I knew what to do.

Even if I got a bit slow, and the crab nearly eluded capture, it was in the end harpooned and Brett had now not one but tow big crab for dinner.

Life was beautiful, we had been on the water for about three hours, the change of wind and the tide made us decide to call it a day. 

Low tide on the mangrove.

We headed for the bridge and the ramp:

The bridge over Elizabeth River.

This had been a great morning, and I was able to go home and nurse my jet lag with a good nap.

Thank you Brett for inviting me on your boat.

So yes, I had outfitted my skipper and this is a pretty rude thing to do. But to be honest, I got the fish, because he pointed them to me. Without this help I could very well have come back empty handed, like I have more than a few time in the past...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,
Me.

Fishing Elisabeth River.

Hi There,

For the first time, I went fishing the Elisabeth River, Thanks to an invitation from Brett.

• I had never fished the Elisabeth River before.
• The main target was Barramundi.
• I got badly sunburnt.

Brett had told me on the phone to meet him at Palmerston boat ramp on the Lizzie River.

Now, after arriving in Darwin a bit over 19 years ago, I still didn't know where was the Palmerston boat ramp or the Lizzie River...

Looking for Palmerston boat Ramp on Google Maps gave me another ramp.

Looking for Lizzie River boat ramp, gave me a boat ramp on Elizabeth River, close enough, that must be the one.

I made my way to the ramp and arrived a bit earlier than planned, but Brett was already on the water, so all was good.

With the tide still a bit high, Brett decided to show me a spot where Queenfish always go feeding on a big tide.

And yes, they were around in big numbers, feeding like hungry chickens.

Brett started to get some fish on the fly rod:

Brett getting a Queenfish on the fly rod.

This was getting real fun, with double hook up happening on a regular basis.

Even if I kept loosing my fish.

I was using a small Rapala Skitter Pop and the surface strikes were very visual and exciting.

I finally got a fish to the boat and released it, and immediately started to cast again.

Got another nice small Queenfish on the same lure:

Queenfish on Rapala Skitter Pop.

This one I keep for a feed.

I then tried to put a chrome slice with a single hook on my line. The idea was to let it sink, and then try to bring it back in an as erratic as possible way, on the baitcaster, to see if bigger fish were swimming deeper down the water column.

I was getting hits on the drop, and finally got a fish to stick to the lure.

It was a small Trevally.

It was great fun and I could have done that for a few hours without getting bored. But the tide had started to slow, and it was time to go and try for some Barramundi.

The plan was to fish some little creeks sight casting to the Barra.

One of the many little creek on Elisabeth River.

The first Barramundi that we saw, was on Brett's side.

He made a perfect cast just a bit in front of it, and swam the lure past its nose.

The Barramundi didn't think twice and boofed the little lure with gusto.

Once it realised it had been tricked, it jumped out of the water and showed us his nice chromy sides, that was a healthy fish!

Now, netting a Barramundi is not exactly rocket science, but for some reason I had to have a few go at it, and it is only on the third try that the fish finally went in the net. Which was about time, as I was starting to stress that it was going to chew on the thin leader used by Brett.

A nice salt water Barramundi.

That was a good fish and it made us very optimist for the rest of the morning.

Well, we did see numerous other ones, to which I flicked lures, but without any good results.

I just was too excited to see the Barramundi swimming in clear shallow waters. I casted too far, or too close, when it was not behind the fish.

I missed my casts, I spooked the fish, and I didn't catch any on them.

With the wind starting to blow, we decided to go in another creek.

At the entrance of which was a crocodile trap.

Crocodile trap in the creek water.

Let's just say that it must have been a very clever croc living in that creek.

And that instead of taking the bait in the trap, he had eaten all the Barramundi of the creek.

At least that will be our excuse for not finding any fish there. 

The creek.

It was a beautiful creek, but we couldn't catch any Barramundi in there.

By now it was the morning's end, and I had told my daughter that I would take her shopping early in the afternoon. It was time to go back.

Thank you Brett for inventing me on your fine boat, I had a great time on the water, and saw new places that I had never fished before.

Yes I know, I have to learn to stop being excited as a kid in a lolly shop, when trying to sight cast at some Barramundi. 

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.