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.

First Try At Kayak Fishing

Hi there,

Yes last weekend, I had my first real try at fishing from a kayak.
And I loved it.

• I fished from a Hobie Kayak.
• The kayak belong to my friend Aaron.
• We fished at East Point.
• I used a DUO lure.
• I made a short video about it.
• It is a very exciting form of fishing.

Aaron had sent me a message, asking me if I wanted to go fishing from one of his kayak the following day. He just had a great morning fishing, and wanted to do it again the next day.

I love fishing, yet I was not too sure about doing it from a kayak. Above waters in which crocodiles and sharks are swimming.

Yet it is a long time since I had some fresh smoked fish, and the idea of it made me say yes.

We arranged to meet at 6:30 am at East Point, one of my favourite land based fishing spot in Darwin. With the day rising and the cold of the dry season on us, (it was actually on the coldest night/morning of the year so far). We started to get the two kayak ready, loaded with all the fishing gear that we would need, for just a quick trip on the water.

And just on sunrise we launched the two small embarkations, in direction of the fishing grounds.

Kayaking at sunrise.

This was at the same time beautiful and relaxing, but with a tiny edge of nervousness. I have many times seen crocodiles around there, and I was not overtly comfortable entering their territory, and being so close to the water at the same time.

Close to the water.

Fishing from the rocks on the water edge is one thing. But being literally sitting a few centimetres above it, is another.

Aaron told me that as soon as I would get a fish, I would be alright and forget all about it.

Well, it didn't take long, 19 minutes after launch, I was battling a Queenfish that had taken my lure. I know that it was only 19 minutes after launch, because I had turned my video camera on just as we were launching, and on the movie, the hit came in at 19 minutes on the dot.

We were fishing in close proximity of each other, as they said that there is safety in numbers.

When we saw a school of Queenfish, following and trying to take hold of Aaron lure.

As we both screamed about it, I immediately casted my lure toward the watery commotion and reeled in as fast as I could. To absolutely no results. Aaron did a second cast, and as he was retrieving his lure at high speed, I casted too. Just as I had casted my lure, who was still flying in the air, I saw once again the Queenfish having a go at his lure, and this time very close to his kayak.

I could only exclaim with a big Ah! Thinking that I may have now casted my lure way too far from the school of hungry fish to stand any chances to entice one of them to chew on my offering.

Yet, I still tried to get my lure in as fast as I could. And not far from the kayak, I first saw a fin tail, a bit of a boil in the water, and I could not reel in my lure anymore, it was being taken away from me at great speed.

I was on!

The fish didn't take long to make a nice little jump, and then I knew for sure that it was a Queenfish.

I think that I must have then started to shout and screamed like an over excited kid. Who has never fished before and has just caught his first fish ever.

Yes, sometimes when fishing, I can act a bit like a happy child...

Bringing in the Queenfish.

On the kayak in the background was Tristan, who had just arrived in time to see that the fish were there. This Queenfish wasn't one of the biggest ones. But it was healthy and gave a very good account of himself. Once it was near the kayak I was afraid that it would dive under and resurface on the other side. Luckily, it didn't happen. The little Queenfish was boated, photographed, and released.

Released, when I wanted to eat some fresh fish?

Well yes, it started so well, that I decided to wait for the next fish before I kept one...

Will I ever learn?

That was the only fish I caught on the day, and if I want to eat some fish this week, I will have to eat some frozen one...

Anyway, here is my little fish:

Queenfish caught from the kayak.

Yes, this is definitively a very exciting form of fishing, where you are in very close contact with mother nature. I was starting to love that.

Aaron for his part got a nice little Trevally, which he released too.

Aaron fishing from his kayak on Darwin harbour.

Aaron has now written a few magazine article about fishing from a kayak, and is a great advocate about it. His passion for it is contagious, and he has even talked about it on the local radio.

Thank you Aaron for inviting me to fish from one of your kayak, this was a great morning session.

One of the funny thing about this fishing trip, is that in his messages Aaron had told me to take some popper and some skipping lure or stick bait.

Now, I have some popper, but don't have any skipping lures or stick bait. So what did I take with me?

A walk the dog lure, and used it as a stick bait, reeling it in very fast.

And it worked.

I had already caught smaller queenfish with that very lure, but using it as it should be, walking the dog. Just a bit faster than normal, but still walking the dog style. In fact I have caught Barramundi, Trevally, and Queenfish on this lure so far, so I really like it.

This is what it look like:

The DUO Realis Pencil 110.

And because you have been reading so far in this post, now you can see the little video of our morning fishing, from the kayak, like if you were seated in it:

Fishing from the kayak.

Yes, it is a short film of only four minutes, And I am definitively no Stanley Kubrick, I need to make a lot of progress in the video department, I know. But it is four minutes of angling bliss.

It would have been better if I had a film with more fishes in it.

So you would all get excited and would want to go and fish from a kayak too.

But hey,

it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

2014 Top End Barra Series Round 5.

Hi there

It was the fifth round of the 2014 Top End Barra Series, and how did it go?

• We did much better than last year in roughly the same location (Bynoe Harbour).
• We got most of our fish on soft plastic lures.
• I got my first Barramundi on a walk the dog type of lure.
• Brett is continuing to climb the overall score board, at fast pace.

Yes it was in Bynoe Harbour a place where I got a donut last year... 

But this year was going to be very different, that it could be seen as night and day.

In fact to be honest it was one of my best fishing trip in a long time.

Yes, I had a bit of a cold, which made me cough and sweat more than I should have. I also have had some fishing trip where more fishes were caught, or bigger one...

But fishing in a place that you don't know well, and doing much better than the previous time that you fished it... It has a kind of buzz, that is difficult to beat. When you have the sensation of learning new tricks, it can make you very happy.

So I was fishing this round with Brett, who had kindly invited me o his boat again for this round.

And this was a great advantage for me, as he knows Bynoe Harbour very well.
We arrived at he boat ramp, early in the morning, and a few boats were already waiting in line.
It was good to catch up with a few mates, and some new faces. Exchanging some pre-fishing banters, and just being happy to be there.

Quickly we made our way up to one of Brett's spot, not wasting any precious fishing time.
We put on some soft plastic lures that Brett says are the most efficient fish catcher in Bynoe.
And oh right he was!
we caught about 20 Baramundi and a few other species of fish over the weekend, and only two of all this lot were caught on a different lure.
At the first spot, it was sight casting, a thing that I wanted to try for a long time.
It was great, just waiting for the Barra to arrive from the left, cast a lure in front of it, reel in and look at the fish going for it.
Definitively one of the  most exciting way of fish for Barramundi.
And this is how I got my first Barramundi of the weekend:

First Barramundi of the weekend.

At 54cm (21.259843 inches), it was no monster, but it was a point scorer, the monkey was off my back, and from now on it was all going to be fun. 

Brett got a few undersize fish and finally showed me what fishing really is, by catching a few good ones in a row.

A very serious Barramundi fisherman.

Catching Barramundi, one after the other.

In fact Brett got at least 4 Barramundi from this spot, from memory, I think that the 5 or 6 first Barra caught over the weekend were all sight casted.
This was very exciting, and I did get a bit too excited, when a nice fat 80cm+ (31.496063 inches) Barramundi came swimming on our left.
Brett said: this one is yours, get it.
So I casted toward it... But totally messed up my cast, and flicked the lure way to close to it, and spooked it.
Aaaah!
This would have been a good fish, and safely was not the first one of the weekend that I would miss, just by being silly...
By example as we were moving away from this spot, my skipper showed me a Barramuni, hiding between the submerged branches of a tree. He told me to just drop my lure behind it and lift the fish out of there as soon as it would be hooked. Simple concept really.
But I wanted, against his advice, use a weedless lure...
It went like this: we approach as silently as we could. I drop my lure, behind the fish, just a bit on its side. The Barramundi, turned on itself and very aggressively gobbled the lure! I try to raise the fish out of the water and the branches; it simply open the mouth and let the lure fly out...
My bad, I should have used the same lure that had caught fish before during the day.

You would think that I would have learnt my lesson there and then?
Well, that is another story...

From there we moved into a little creek, were we got stuck in a water hole, by the receding tide.
But all was not lost, as we did catch a few fishes in there.
Brett was laughing his way through a high number of fish:

Happy like a man who just caught a Barramundi.

Despite totally crushing me in the catch rate, Brett was saying that it was the quieter he had ever seen the place. That this water hole should have plenty more of Barra, and some good Tarpon and Threadfin Salmon.

Guess what? 

Not long after talking about Tarpon, he got one, you know, just to show me that they were around:

The Tarpon.

I could not just stay there looking at him catching all the fish; so I hooked on a small Barramundi.

My second point scorer of the weekend.

That was enough to keep me in good spirit, and I kept trying. So Brett once again showed me how to do it:

With another Barramundi from the same spot.

I then got another from the same spot. Basically, there was a stick in the water, and we got all our fish when the lures were swimming past the stick. We could see on the sounder bigger fish, but could not tempt them to hit our lures...

It the water hole, when we arrived, we saw another boat.

They told us that they hooked a Barramundi, but that it took them on a snag and broke the line.

Yes, that must have been on the stick where we got our fishes, as with the falling tide, we saw the lure and were able to pick it up.

When we saw the guys who had lost the lure a bit later in the day, we gave it back to them, this is also what the Top End Barra Series is about.

As the tide was soon to come back we hoped that the big fish would get on the chew and start to bite.

Well, I did get a bit of a surprise:

Mud crab on the lure.

Lucky for him, it was too small to keep so i did put it back.

And lucky for me it was small too, because he tried to grab me with his nippers, and missed me by an hair. Mud crabs can be a bit dangerous when big, and they are also delicious to eat, this one would need to get bigger, and is safe from humans for now.

not long after I got a small Threadfin Salmon, and let it go, as it was like the crab before him, a bit too small to be kept.

This is the place where we waited for the tide to come back to take us out of the creek:

A little water hole full of Barramundi.

The place didn't look like much, but when the Barramundi are hungry, it must be a great place to be.

Coming out of there, sailing in very shallow water we came across a patch of water where the Barra were booting their heads off. 

Brett told me not to think, just cast in front of me, and try to catch some!

I was wondering if it we would catch anything in this dirty fast running water.

I had to reel in much faster than usual, just to keep the lure to be taken on the sand because of the current. And I was wondering how a Barramundi or any other fish, would be able to see my lure in this dark water...

Well it didn't take long, just a few cast, and I was hooked to what much have been my best fish of the weekend.It used the current to its advantage, and first swam toward the boat. Then came to the surface and made its first jump: a very nice Barramundi it was! Brett got the net, got ready to scoop it, but the fish seeing the net, took another run, and I had trouble to get it back to the boat.

When it was finally close enough, Brett got ready again, and instead of going down, the fish came up and jumped again, this time spitting the lure on the right while diving back on the left...

Brett did try to get it in the net, but alas, it was too late and the fish was lost.

Ah!

Brett then quickly hooked on another one, but it was a small one, not a point scorer, and then, as suddenly as it had started, it ended, and the joint become lifeless. 

We ha had a chance, and we lost it, but it had been some really exciting fishing.

It was then time to go back to land, and that is what we did.

We wen to the Palm Sands for a dinner and a night in an air-conditioned room. No not the Sands Plam from Las Vegas, the little motel near Bynoe Harbour...

But the food was great and generous, and it was good after a full day on the water to sleep in air cone and have a shower.

And also talking to all the other participants in the Top End Barra Series who had made up camp at the same motel. Chatting with some of them, we started to think that with all the fish that Brett had caught during the first day, he might end up doing well on the scoreboard. And we were right about that.

So it is withe great optimism that we launched again the following morning.

Beautiful morning to go fishing.

It was a beautiful morning to go fishing, and every body seemed happy.

Trying to be the first on the good spot.

We did pass a few mates on our way to the morning fishing spot. They were going fast, and were going to go much slower in the afternoon...

You will understand...

We went straight where we had sight casted to fish the previous morning. But this time the water was dirty and we could not really see any fish coming through.

Yet a bit on the side of there, we could see a reef that was soon to be exposed, and some bait being harassed by predator.

With the aid of the electric motor, we moved toward the spot and started to flick our lures where the bait was very nervous.

Brett got a very good hit, but it didn't connect.

I got a hit, but the fish pulled hard to the bottom, not coming up. I started to wonder what it was?

It was a Mangrove Jack!

My second ever Mangrove Jack.

This was my second ever Mangrove Jack; the first one had be in the previous round of the Top End Barra series, in the Darwin Harbour.

I was very happy with that!

This one I kept for the esky, Mangrove Jack are delicious to eat.

To me a Mangrove Jack first thing in the morning, is definitively a good sign.

And yes, not long after that, just a few metres from where I had hooked the Mangrove Jack, I hooked on a fish that didn't wast any time to jump, and show us all the chrome it was made of.

It was going to be my biggest Barramundi of the weekend.

My best Barramundi of the weekend.

At only 60cm (23.622047 inches) it was still a rather small fish, but I was to learn latter on that in this round of the Top End Barra Series, it was still going to be a good fish. And it made me very happy.

But with the bites slowing down, and the tide doing the same thing, we decided to move toward another rock bare, in the hope of better fishing.

In doing so we realised that we were leaving not a minute too early, as we could see the sea floor under the boat, and nearly scrapped it a few times. At our destination, the fishing was still very slow, we saw Draco, who confirmed to us, that there was not many Barramundi, where we had just arrived.

We could see some young Queenfish harassing the bait around the boat. So I put a DUO lures, the Realis Pencil 110 that Brett had given me a few months ago, on my line and throw it among them.

That was definitively a winer and I was soon rewarded with a nice little Queenfish hooked on it.

Queenfish on the DUO Realis Pencil 110.

This was my first fish on a walk the dog type of lure, and I loved it!When you see your lure walking like a dog on the surface, and a school of fish zooming in on it, then one of them smashing the lure and you line starting to go tight and flying from your reel... What a feeling.

But as we were having all this fun, Brett noticed that some mates of ours, were still on the first rock bare that we had left earlier, when the tide was going down...

And it didn't look really good for them, they seemed to be stranded. So Brett made the call to go and try to rescue them.

The boys stuck on the dry flats.

We could not go too close to them, or we would have been stuck too.

The plan was to try to pull them out of there, before we get stuck ourselves.

So we needed to join the two boat with a rope. For that to happen, one of us had to wade for about 100 meters in knees high water... With my well documented fear of crocodiles, there is no way that I was going to do it. So one of the boys had to run from their boat to Brett's boat, get the rope and go back to his boat. 

The rope was attached between both boat and Brett tried to pull them out of their misery.

Trying to pull the stranded boat.

Well it didn't works as excepted, and we couldn't move their boat at all.

The outboard was starting to overheat, so we had to stop.

Brett asked them if they had enough water, to which they said yes, and we wished them a good day, waiting for the tide. As we made our way to deeper and safer water.

From there we moved to a different spot on the harbour, where we saw Cuddelscooper and his Dear Lady. They told us what everybody told us before. That the fishing was slow, and that they didn't had that much fish yet...

We had a chat, and fished along them for a little while, but for no results.

So we moved along.

And casting over some low tide reefs, I got a small Golden Snapper.

Small golden Snapper on the lure.

And we decided to go back where we were before. But just a few hundreds of meters on our way, and Brett slowed down the boat, and told me: Look at this eddy, it could be full of fish...

And full of fish it was. Some of our best fish for the weekend were caught in the following hour. From a seemingly barren little eddy, whiteout much of a snag or anything, apart a nice colour chafe in the water.

Some were small, but some were better, and Brett got the king share of them:

Brett with a nice chrome salt water Barramundi.

And another one.

In fact because we thought that the opportunity to catch some fish was going to be short, with the tide rising, we did not take pictures of all the fish, as to not waste any time. Only the better ones were photographed. And trust me, for me not to take a picture of each and every fish that came onboard, was difficult...

Selfie with a Barramundi.

I even just did a quick selfie of what was going to be my second best fish of the weekend, before putting it back in the water, because I didn't want to wast any precious time.

When he saw that, Brett asked me if I was all right or sick? Apparently it is well know, that I always want some good photo. We had a good laugh about that too.

And yes, the bite died down, and we had to find some better water if we wanted to catch some more.

By then, we both had our bag of five fish (But we only kept three fish, all the other had been returned to the water to grow bigger). And were in the pursuit of better fish to upgrade our score.

We went in a little creek, that become accessible once the tide started to rise.

And in there, I got my first ever Barramundi on a walk the dog lure:

My first Barramundi on the DUO Realis Pencil 110.

Was I happy? You bet that I was! I liked this lure before, but now I loved it! In the dirty water of the rising tide, the noise that t produce had permitted the Barramundi to zoom on it, and the strike was nothing short of spectacular. In fact the Barra did not boof the lure like they often do. It came and slashed it like if he was a pelagic fish attacking a bait ball. The struck was very aggressive. I was looking at the lure swimming on top of the water, when I saw this grey thing ram the lure from the right and disappear under water with it. I am on ! I screamed, and Brett immediately asked if it was a Barramundi? I don't know I replied, as I had just seen the struck, but had not been able to identify the fish, as it was too fast.

It didn't jump, stayed at the bottom and fought hard, when it finally came to the surface, seeing a bit of grey, I knew it wasn't a cod of some sort, but wasn't sure if it was a Salmon, a Queenfish or a Barramundi. Then it dived, but doing so, raised its tail, and I knew it was a Barramundi, and I didn't want to loose it.

Turned out that I was not going to loose it, as he had hooked itself on both trebles.

And yes it was a small upgrade for me.

And this was the last fish of the weekend.

We then made our way to the boat ramp, where a few boat had been doing the same at the same time... It was peak hour at the ramp.

But the mangrove was still beautiful, and I din't really mind the wait, as it was the occasion to catch up with a few mates.

Bynoe Harbour mangrove.

So how did we ended up Brett and I in this round?

Well Brett finished third and me in the ninth position. This mean that Brett is still continuing his climb on the overall scoreboard, and me, I am not sure yet. I will have to wait to see the full scoreboard to know about that.

Thank you Brett for inviting me on your boat once again.

In the car on the way back, I had a bit of time to reflect on what a great weekend it had been.

And on what the Top End Barra Series had provided me with so far for the 2014 edition.

• It gave me my first Barramundi over 100cm (39.370079 inches).
• It gave me my first night time Barramundi on a fizzer.
• it gave me my first Mangrove Jack.
• It gave me my first Barramundi on a walk the dog lure.

And plenty of good laugh and friendship. I have also learned again about fishing for Barramundi, in every rounds. 

So it is only fair to say that the first five round of this year Top End Barra Series has been great to me.

Just one more round, and then we will have to wait till next year for it to restart all over again.

This will be a long wait.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Head-Cam First Try.

Hi there,

Haven't posted in a long time, things with the work situation might change for the better in the next few weeks, so I should then be able to get back into it.

Ok so first a very quick thing about the round 3 of the 2013 Top End Barra Series...
It was not long ago, it was on the famous Daly River, and it was real hard fishing...
74 participants, fishing day and night over a full weekend...
Only twelve Barramundi over the legal size caught over the weekend...
None by me...
But still had a very good time!

Now back to what this post is mostly about, my first try with a video head-cam.
I got one for free, and wanted to try it.
With my luck on the fishing side, seemingly on holidays very very far away at the moment, I decided to  do the testing with a top water lure. In case no fishes were interested in my effort. A popper producing big splashes on the water surface, would give me a few minutes of interesting footage anyway.

So I went to one of the city rock wall early in the morning of a public holiday, and started to flick away and go pop pop pop on the water.
Nothing happened, and I quickly wanted to try a chrome slice, as it is one of my favourite form of fishing.
The chrome slice was pulled out of the bag, and casted away a few hundred times, for nothing.
Then a hard body lure was tried without any better results.

Thinking that I would have to go home soon, I decided to try the popper again, now that the light was a bit better.
But for some reason, I could not get it to pop properly, and started to be sure that it would be a no fish day, with not many interesting footage from my new toy.
Yet, I could see at the end of the rock wall, some mullet getting rather nervous, if not outright stressed, the poor little things.
I could see a change in the water, where the current line break on the end of the rock.
Very flat on one side, and just a tiny little bit choppy on the other side.
This is where I casted my popper, I had often been told that this the kind of places where Queenfish and Trevally could be found.
And I was not lied to, as I got one!

Visioning the film back home showed me that I still have a lot to learn about how to use a video, the film is of pretty poor quality to say the less, I still have to practice, so my films show more water and less sky.
But it is my first one and it made me happy, so here it is:

Darwin Harbour's Queenfish.

All along I din't think that it was a Queenfish, as it didn't mad a single jump.

But I was very happy when I saw that it was one.

The gentleman with a british accent who was fishing next to me, and that I had never meet before, proposed to gaff the fish for me, and did it well, on the first attempt. As I was starting to fillet the bounty, I asked him if he wanted a fillet of it to thank him for his help.

To which he agreed with visible joy. He even asked if he could have the frame of it.

Now I was the happy one, and just finished to cut my fillet and gave him all that was left.

Telling him that he could have it all.

He then asked me if I was going to try for another one, but no, I did not.

I replied that I had enough fish to feed my little family and was happy with that for the day.

Just as I said so, a big splash happened right at our feet, and we could see a few bigger Queenfish cruising the water at speed.

He started to cast a chrome slice toward them, as I left.

I had caught a fish on my first try with my new and first ever video camera, that was going to be the best film in the history of film making!

Well, when I arrived home and looked at it I was slightly disappointed by what I had produced, to be honest. I had a good fish to eat, but obviously needed a lot more practice before making a good film...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

A little Queenfish.

Hi there,

This morning, I fished a little Queenfish from one of my preferred land based spot: East Point.
And here is the story of it.

The alarm from my phone took me by surprise, away from a deep and dreamless sleep.
Trying to make as less noises as I could, I got up, made sure not to wake up my little darling or our child, or even our visitor who was sleeping on the sofa in the living room.
Quickly I was on my way, still in the dark, to arrive at East Point before sunrise.
Once there, well I remembered the crocodile that I saw one of the last time that I fished the spot by myself. Tales From The Tinny was playing on the radio, so I stayed in the car listening to this great program till the light started to shine.

Finally got out of the car, got my rock hoppers boots on, a lure on the line and started to walk on the rock platform, till my favourite fishing spot.
Once there, with the water rather calm and not too much wind, before my first cast, I decided that I didn't have the right lure on and changed my chrome slice for a popper.
One long cast to see if everything works.
Satisfied, I started to pop in earnest, for about 5 minutes, and then, just as I was doing it: pop, pop pop, without any pause, as I was after pelagic fishes, pop, pop, pop and nothing...
Nothing, the line came back to me without any pop or the weight of the lure.
What is going on?
Well, the knot had just given away and the popper was floating free of any attach, in a water in which there is no way I was going to swim to get it back...
About fives minutes in, and I was already out of a lure, and by my only fault...
Great, I thought, it look like the fishing mojo is still at large, and that I will just have another mildly frustrating fishing outing...
Yes you know what I mean, when I try to stay polite.
Anyway, I was there, so I just put another smaller popper and started to cast it again.
For absolutely nothing, zero, nada, niet...

This is when I spotted a big pod of Dolphin swimming inside of casting distance.
Don't get me wrong, I was not trying to hook a Dolphin, but in my personal experience, when Dolphin stick around, I don't catch anything.
I believe, that if they stick around, there is food for them, which might be good fishes for me. Except that these smaller fishes then never take my lure, maybe they are just too busy trying to avoid the Dolphins, who knows?

So I moved a bit further along the rocks, and put a chrome slice on my line, after all, this is one of my favourite form of fishing.
And I casted and casted as far out as I could, for not much.

Then I saw a big turtle swimming not very far from the shore.
Thinking about what Sheeby told me one day, that Cobia often swim under big turtle, I tried to cast my lure as close as I could of it, without risking to hook the turtle.
But no Cobia or other fish took any interest to my lure.

Yes this was starting to look like the story of my fishing life, or at least, as to what it is at the moment.
Seeing some great landscape, seascape, animals, but not catching anything.
Thinking about that, I decided to do a cast along the rocks on my left, instead of far out at the front.
That was a nice cast, and as I was retrieving the lure as fast as I could, Ka-Boum!
The line tense, the rod bents, and the line started to peel from the reel which started to sing.
And then I just did the worst ever mushy-washy hook up possible, going all soft when I should have given it hard. The fish did not come to the surface, but went straight for the bottom, gave a few head shake, and spat the lure...
How much I hated myself just right then and there...
I should have got this fish, but as I acted with it like I really didn't know what to do, it took it to its advantage and broke free.
Yes, my story at the moment, too much of mister nice, when I should be kicking some butts.

I was upset with myself, and casted in the exact same spot and reeled in as quick as I could, of course for nothing at all.
I had one chance, and I had blown it.
Did a second cast in the same area, and in anger must have started to retrieved my lure even faster than what I usually do.
And it worked, I was on once again!
This time, I high sticked twice with vigour to make sure that I was driving the hooks home.
Like the previous one the fish, went for the depths and I started to think that it was a GT.
But then my line went all floppy and I understood that I had lost it again. So continued to reel in fast as I didn't want the lure to snag at the bottom. Despite being all floppy, my line was going in a strange  direction.
It hits me: I still had the fish, but it had been swimming towards me, and was now turning to go out at sea.
And this it did, and took quite a bite of line from my small reel.
Still I could not see it, it fought as low as it could.
Pumping and reeling I finally got most of my line back, and was starting to see some colour underwater, but could not put an ID on this fish yet.
Finally, just a few meters from me, it made a great jump, the full fish out of the water: it was not a GT, it was a Queenfish!
I got relieved that the fight would be cleaner than with a GT, but even more stressed that I might loose it.
And after its first jump, where it must have seen my face and decided that it didn't like it. It took two big run in a row. It didn't look like a big fish, and I was very surprise by the energy that it showed.
And it started to make a real show of its jumping ability, I loved it.
Step by step, I was gaining my line back, and at every jump it looked a bit closer, and a bit more tired.
Finally, I got it near my feet, taking advantage of a little wave I dragged it in a rock hole full of water near my feet. Put the lip grip in its mouth, and it was mine.
This was my first fish in a long time, and the first one from East Point in an even longer time.
I was so happy that I must have shouted and screamed like an idiot or a mad man just right there.

Knowing that Seano was at work, I couldn't help but to take a picture of this fish on my phone and text it to him, and asked him if he was already at work?
After all, he had done this to me so many times, that it was about time for me to do it...

And then I wanted to take a photo of it with myself holding it...
Well, it become then even more obvious that I hadn't done it in a long time...
The timer on my camera worked but I could not get the right picture, the one I wanted:

First try, bad framing and moving fish.

Second try, didn't had the time to get ready.

I think that you start to understand what I was going through, so lets go the the right image.

Finally my little Queenfish.

And I finally got it right and was very happy with that.

This was no monster fish, but it was one of my favourite fish to catch land based, and it was a while since I had one, so my day was made.

After dispatching this fish, I tried to get another one, but by then the tide had started to rise again.

So happy and content, after a few minutes I decided, five more cast and home I will go.

On the third cast, I hooked another fish! 

And lost it in no time.

Cast in roughly the same direction, reel it back, and a big splash just behind my lure.

So I do the last of my five cast in the same spot, but this time nothing happens...

What did any fisherman would do in a case like that?

Five more cast, the five last ones promised!

And that was five more cast full of hope, during which nothing at all happened...

So I did go home.

Just turning around on my way back over the rocks to have a look at a fishing spot that I still like a lot.

East Point rocks in the morning.

I had stayed there for about one hour and an half, had three hits, and landed a fish, this was good in my books. I could still be home, have a quick shower and take my little one to dance classes in time.

This was a great way to start the weekend.

Yes I did miss a few fish and lost a lure, and have not caught a gigantic fish yet.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Out Fished Once Again.

Hi There,

Yes I got out fished, once again. Yet, it was still a great day in the Australian outdoors.
Sarrge had invited me to go fishing with him at Salt Water Arms.
We had left Darwin early in the morning, with the plan to get into some Barramundi, and have a good time on the water.
We spent the travel time on the road talking about life, work and stuff. And as soon as we were on the water, the discussion turned to fish, fishing, and... How to catch some fish...

But not longer arrived to one of Sarrge favourite spot in Salt Water Arms, that we saw some bait being harassed by bigger fishes, between submerged trees and mangrove roots.
Quick as a flash, I flicked my lure straight between the branches and started to reel it back in. Nothing...
Sarrge did the same: nothing... But another big boof just against a tree. My lure flew just past this tree, so I could swim it past just right next to it. And... It got firmly stuck to an underwater root, no way I would get it back, the line broke. I was one lure down, and the fish were still smiling...

Sarrge told me to tie the boat to a branch, and we would be able to cast our lure just on the ther side of the tree, where it looked like there was even more action than on our side.
Tie the boat I did, and started to rigging my line with a new lure.
Sarrge, started to work a little walk the dog type of lure, and a Barramundi tried to boof it but missed.
Haha, we must be on the right side of the trees was our reaction.
So he flicked the lure a second time, walking it slowly on the surface, and bang! he was on!
Not to a Barramundi, to a very decent Queenfish who immediately started to go for a few jumps, and a long run. Like Queenfish do.
It went and started to jump near a partly submerged snag, and got Sarrge worried that it would wrap the line around it and break free.
But as worried as he was, Sarrge continued to fight his fish, from the comfort of his chair...

Sarrge reeling in the Queenfish.

This was a good fish, and went for a few more runs before ending close to the boat.

Now I had to net it, and it didn't want to. It turned away from the net a few time, before finally facing it, and guided in it by Sarrge. 

Happiness was definitively of the party!

Nice Queenfish on Barra gear.

This was the first catch of the day, and it made us very happy, I even thought that maybe this was the day that my fishless trips was going to end...

Was I wrong...

Anyway, as Sarrge was dispatching this fish for the esky, I had my gears ready and started to cast around a little fizzer, in the hope of a comparable catch.

There was this beautifull colour change, and we could see the Mullets swimming on the edge of it, in the clear water. And once in a while, a Barramundi would come out of the cafe coloured water, swim very slowly towards the Mullets and try to boof one of them. Sometime with success sometimes not.

This was a very exciting sight, well worth the trip in itself.

And of course, one Barramundi, came towards my little lure.

My little lure which was going: Fizz Fizz, pause, Fizz Fizz, Pause.... And as the Barramundi came under it, I paused the fizzer, the Barramundi came really close to it, and boofed! 

Just one or two centimetre on the side of it...

It must have been a cross-eyed Barramundi!

The sound of it had been like if someone had used a pistol just next to the boat.

It made me jump, but the fish was far from being hooked, he just swam back in the darker water, taking his time...

Then I put my lure up in a tree...

Luckily, I got this one back, and decided to change it for a small shallow diver.

By then Sarrge was ready to fish again.

And he just showed me how to catch a Barramundi:

Sarrge showing me what a Barramundi is.

Being just 56 cm, this one was put back in the water, to grow a bit more, and become more of a good feed later on.

The funny thing with this Barramundi, was that when I was about to put the net in the water to try to scoop it, it actually jumped out of the water, and landed straight in the net. 

With no doubt, the easiest netting I have ever done.

So yes, it was two fish for Sarrge, and none for me.

The day was still young, and I was hopeful to change that...

Yes, hope is a beautiful thing...

With the action seeming to slow down we decided to move and try to troll the narrow, and other place.

This was a great idea, on a tourism point of view, but on the piscatorial front, it was a disaster.

Not a fish, not a hit, just some nice landscapes.

So we decided to go back to where we had been able to glean a bit of glory earlier in the day.

The tide had fallen, big time, and after negotiating our way back to the mouth of the creek, through the sand barre and mud flats, in which we saw a nice stingray making a fast doughnut around the boat, (was it trying to tell me something?). We finally saw the extend of the snaggy terrain over which we fished in the morning.

And I could see the lure that I had lost previously in the day, now high and dry.

So Sarrge "beached" the nose of the boat, and I jumped on Terra firma to go and collect my lure.

Well Terra firma, was rather muddy, but I was able to walk through it and picked up another nearly new lure on my way to mine. So it was nice to get my lure back, plus another one that I had no clues would be on my way.

This plus a special lure that Sarrge had given me for my lure collection on the same day, mean that I now had two more lure, the kind of little thing that keeps me happy.

Walking among the mangrove roots to get the lures back.

(Photo © Sarrge)

After that we trolled a bit for not much and stopped up the creek to eat some sandwiches.

Looking on the mud bank, I saw these little crabs, running everywhere. They were so brightly coloured, that they looked like if they were already cook and ready to eat.

Not cooked, but alive and well.

No, I did not grab one to taste it, but to me they definitively reminded me of a nice big mud crab just cooked. Except that these were much smaller in size.

After lunch, made of soggy sandwiches while dreaming of mud crab and mayonnaise, we started trolling again.

This is when Sarrge, hooked a nice Barramundi, that must have been in the 80 cm.

Yes, the keywords here are: "must have been"...

As the fish made two or three quick jump to show us what it looked like, and then swam straight towards the boat.

But between the fish and the boat was, unknown to us, a nice set of underwater snags.

This is exactly where this Barramundi went. 

Sarrge could feel the fish still on the line, with the line rubbing against the branches, and this was not looking good.

After some tussle and some pull and trying from every sides of the snag, the lure freed himself and came back, without any fish attached to it...

And this, was the last action of the day.

Not long after, we started to make our way back in direction of the boat ramp, stoping here and there to have a few cast to some snag, but without any recompense we quickly abandoned and decided to get back home.

Despite, being once again out fished, this had been a great day, with two fish coming onboard, some good laughs, in some very beautiful places. The kind of days that if I was a doctor, I would prescribe to all of my patients.

Thanks again Sarrge for the lure, and for inviting me on your boat.

Yes, I still would love for this fish drought to be broken...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.