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.

Fishing Darwin Harbour In Cold Weather.

Hi there,

After talking about it for so long, Ozdodge and I finally went fishing on Darwin Harbour.
And the water was very cold...

• It was my first time fishing with Ozdodge.
• We fished Darwin Harbour.
• We got a few small fish.
• It was a great day on the water.

Ozdodge and I had talked about going fishing together for a while, but never found the time to do it.

Finally, the planets aligned just right and on a Saturday I received a phone call that went a bit like this: Hey, it's Ozdodge here, do you want to go fishing on the harbour tomorrow?

He didn't need to twist my arms, I said yes.

It is alway interesting to go fishing with someone you have never fished before, as it is the time to learn some new things. And, it often seems that there is alway something new to learn, about the art of catching a fish.

So on the harbour we went, the water was rather cold at 24 degrees celsius (73.4 Fahrenheit).

We were wondering if we would be able to find some Barramundi in such cold waters.

On the first spot that we trolled, it didn't take long for Ozdodge to come up with a little fish:

Ozdodge with the first fish of the day.

This was a little Trevally, and it was promptly released.

There is nothing like the first fish to lift the spirit of a fishing party, even when it is a little one.

As they say, a fish is a fish.

But not getting anything else there, we moved to a nice little creek:

Trolling a muddy creek.

That creek was full of bait, and this made us think that we had found the right spot.

but after a few troll for not much, We started to wonder about that. So I put my rod in the rod holder, and jumped on the cast desk, with another fishing rod in hand. Determined to flick at every little drain that we would pass.

As I am busy focusing on the little drains, Ozdodge call came in: You are on!

I look at my rod at the back of the boat, and yes effectively, the rod buckle down and something is obviously trying to pull the line out of the reel.

I jump back toward the stern of the boat with my flicking rod still in one hand, by the time I am about to pick up the bent rod, the line went limp... Too late... So I still grab the rod, just above the handle to check if the lure is still swimming properly. And bang a sharp and quick little jerk in the rod made me realise that something was still at the end of my line. But alas, that was the last I felt of it, because in this little jerk, it must have managed to spat the lure. 

And nothing more happened in this creek.

Ozdodge decided that we should try our chance in the next creek, and that was a good call...

We arrived to a miniature rock bar, where I was advised to drop the anchor. 

How big was the structure?

This big:

Mini rock bar in the mud.

This is the place where we were to pick up all of our Barramundi for the day.

After his second or third cast Ozdodge was on to a nice little Barramundi:

Ozdodge first Barramundi of the day.

It wasn't really a monster one, but it was the targeted species for the day, so the mission was accomplished. Well, except that it was now a two fish to nile in favour of my skipper.

It was time for me to wake up.

So I caught a Barramundi too. Not a big one but this one was mine, and was the first I got in about a month.

My first Barramundi of the day.

I got happy with that. We now both had caught a Barramundi, and from now on, everything else was going to be a bonus.

And what a bonus did Ozdodge took!

Another Barra for Ozdodge.

And to show me that it wasn't just a fluke, he nearly immediately repeated the effort:

Ozdodge and his third Barramundi of the trip.

I was starting to think that I was receiving a lesson in Barramundi fishing.

Near all of the Barramundi come from the very same spot, in a radius of a few centimetres. 

Obviously, they like this spot.

Trying to be as best a student as I could be, I finally caught another little Barra.

My last Barra of the day.

This one was rather small, and nearly on the cute side of thing, as what cute can be for a Barramundi.

I had caught my two fish on the same lure, the Reidy's Junior B52, a lure that I really like.

Barramundi and Reidy's Junior B52.

So to not be left behind, Ozdodge didn't wast any time in getting the last Barramundi of the day.

Ozdodge with the last Barramundi of the day.

The action died after that, but that was six Barramundi from the same spot, in a very short amount of time. So in my book, a good spot.

we wanted to be home early, so we started to make our way back.

Just stoping at a last spot, for a few quick casts, while drifting.

There I got a baby Rock Cod, which had totally inhaled my lure.

It was released at the side of the boat, to try to minimise its time out of the water.

Then I hooked something that pulled much better. But on the first jump I saw that it wasn't a Barramundi, it was a Tarpon. I played it a bit near the boat, until he made a beautiful jump. Shake all over and spat a soft plastic lure that had been broken in two.

Ozdodge quickly flicked his lure in roughly the same spot and off course, you guessed it, got another Tarpon.

Ozdodge fight a little Tarpon.

He managed to do better than I and boated his fish.

Ozdodge's Tarpon.

By Darwin standard, this was a nice Tarpon. And when your Tarpon is bigger than your Barramundi, you know that you have been catching some teenage Barra.

Yet it had been a great day on the water.

With plenty of little fish for the relatively short time that we spent fishing.

On this day, all of our fish  have been released.

Thank you Ozdodge for inviting me on your boat, showing me your fishing spots, and telling which type of lures work on them. It is always nice to learn some fishing tips.

And yes, I know. Once again, I got totally out fished.

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.

My First Saratoga

Hi there,

I finally got to catch my first ever Saratoga, and this is the story of the day it happened.
For a long time I had heard of these fish and seen photos of them.
Most of my fishing buddies had caught some, but I was Saratoga-less, if such a word exist.
Till the day when my good mate Mud gave me a call and asked me if I wanted to go fishing with him at Corroboree Billabong the following day.
This is a place where I had been just once before, and loved it.
The scenery is fantastic, and this is a good place to fish for Barramundi, and Saratoga.
A place where one need to be ready to cast his or her lure among the lilies and that is something that I always wanted to try.
So to Corrobore Billabong we went.
Once there, Mud told me to put a weedless lure on my line and to start casting as far as I could in the lilies...

Lilies and jumping fish.

And in no time doing just that, he caught the first saratoga of the day. Which you can see jumping on the end of his line in the above photograph.

I was amazed to see him catch a fish in such treacherous waters full of potential snag...

But he reeled it in with no worries and the first fish of the day was onboard.

First Saratoga of the day.

This is a specie of fish that I find very beautiful, and this was only the second one that I was able to see in the flesh.

Maybe 2 or 3 cast after I got a really good hit, nearly as soon as my frog hit the water she was taken by a good fish. So early in the swim that it made me jump in surprise.

But it didn't stay connected and swam away scott free.

Ha!

We then moved a bit further away in the billabong, and Mud caught some more Saratoga.

As he had told me that most of the hits should happen far away from the boat, I was trying to do the longest cast that I could make. 

With my lure now in clear sight of the boat, I told myself that I was out of the strike zone, so I started to reel in my lure faster, just to get it out of the water and cast it away in the distance again.

And this is when just below our eyes a Barramundi had a go at my little frog and totally inhaled it. I was on! this was a short battle as the hookup took place so close to the boat, and it was a still very green Barra that ended in the boat.

Frog down the throat.

First Barramundi of the day.

This was my first fish on a frog lure, and I was very happy with that.

As the fish had obviously been in the billabong for a long time and was a bit dark on the back, I decided to put it back in the drink, and hoped to catch another cleaner one...

Here is the little lure that I used to catch this fish:

The frog lure.

By then I was definitively confident in the lure, which after all had got me a good solid hookup on the second hits only.

We moved to another place, where we didn't get any joy on the fishing front.

But the place was still very beautiful, and very relaxing, a really peaceful location.

Lilies and Pandanus.

Again we scouted to another of Mud favourite spot, and this was going to prove a place full of action, and full of tough lilies.

The lilies.

Can you imagine casting your lure in there?

Well, that is just what we did. All the time thinking that if we were to hook a good fish, drama might come screaming in our sorry ears...

As we drifted a bit we arrived in the shadow of some pandanus and casted against the tree roots. We started to get hits after hits, both of us. Mine were usually pretty strong but never stayed connected. Mud's ones were staying connected... Experience I guess.

But despite staying connected to his fishes, he would often loose them as they started to go ballistic in the lilies. In which case we often had to go and get the hook out of the lilies stems, where the fish had placed them... 

This is when I first noticed a rather large croc, coming for my lure, that was dangling from a lillie pad. Lucky I got the lure back before the croc.

Seeing that, we decided to move a bit further away, and Mud started to land Saratoga, like if this was an easy job.

Mud and another Saratoga.

At one stage he hooked on a very nice fish, which immediately started to make his reel sing. Like if the drag system had not been invented yet. But the fish went in some mix of pandanus and lilies root, and got lost. This was upsetting as it could very well have been the best fish of the day, without much doubt. 

Then he got one who got stuck on an underwater snag. But he managed to get it out of the snag and to reel it toward the boat.

I was still reeling in my lure from the back of the boat and Mud was at the front.

This is when I heard him shout: "He's going for it! He's going for it!"

To which I replied: "What?"

And his answer sent a jolt through my whole body: "The croc!"

As I turned my head to these words, the only thing that I saw was the inside of a big white mouth full of teeth approaching the boat at great speed, followed by a big black scaly tail. Then bang! It hit the side of the boat, and in no time Mud and I found ourselves standing exactly in the middle of the  boat.

We could hear it hissing and being upset under the gunwale, but none of use went to have a look...

Mud said: "Start the engine! Start the motor!"

But did it himself at the same time that he was saying it, and got us out of there as quick as he could, and I still thank him for that.

From his estimate the crocodile was between 3.5 meters to 4 meters. (11.48294 to 13.1233613.12 foot). This would have definitively be big enough to give us some worries if one of us had fallen in the water.

After that, we decided to move away from this very good fishing spot...

And Mud started to get some more Saratoga.

Then I got a hit and as it jumped I saw a little Saratoga pulling on my line!

I got really excited and was afraid that it would spat the hook before being in the net.

I was between laughing and stress, as I really wanted to get this little fish.

And it finally came close to the boat, I grabbed the leader and pulled it over the boat side, I had my first Saratoga!

My first Saratoga.

It might have been just a baby one, but ho boy, I was as happy as if it had been a monster one!

And I got in on a small weedless lure that I had seen Arrabmundi use with great success on my prior visit to this very billabong, nearly a year ago.

I will use these lures again.

And Mud continued to get some more Saratoga:

Sunset and Saratoga.

Between the scenery and the fishing, this is really a great place to wash your mind from all the worries of the week.

With the night falling upon us, Mud said that we were to do a bit of trolling.

He put a little Spear Head on his line, and I put a Big Lucifer on mine.

And in no time he got a little Tarpon.

First little Tarpon.

Which was rapidly followed by another one, one more time by Mud.

I was starting to wonder if I should change my lure, when I got a good hit.

The strike was frank, and I said maybe more loudly that I would have liked: "I'm on!"

As the line was peeling from my reel, I got up and steadied myself ready for the fight, when the line even if still tight, was much easier to wind back.

So I said: "Ho this is not a monster, this is a small one, maybe even just a Tarpon."

Deep inside I was starting to think that I would have loved a nice clean Barramundi, one that I could have brought back home. Not too far from the boat it jumped, and in the light of Mud head torch I saw it. It was actually a bit bigger that I believed it to be. On nearing the boat, it found back some energy and took some line again, like if this was no problem for him.

In the end it was close enough to be netted and Mud did a pretty good job at it.

In the boat was my second Barramundi of the day.

The last Barramundi of the day.

At 72cm (28.346457 inches), this was no monster, but it was bigger and cleaner than the first one. In fact it was even to big to be placed in any of the two small esky that we had.

Mud remedied to this by quickly dispatching and filleting the Barra, and in the esky it went.

I was going to be able to feed my little family.

We tried a few other places, casting mostly in the lilies again, but without much success.

So we had to try one last place for one last cast, you know how it is... Just one last cast...

This is when in full sight of us, real close to the bow of the boat, we saw a big thing, engulfing my little surface lure.

And it started to take some line, like no other fish that I had hooked on this very day.

But it didn't jump...

Yet it was still very exciting to fight this thing in the darkness and to try to guess what it could be.

Regularly, I thought that I had it, and it would make another run for it.

In the end, it was boat side, but still underwater and we hadn't seen it's colour yet.

Then it surfaced and we saw it, the thing that had grabbed my surface lure was a rather nice catfish.

Not really a kitten. 

After the croc that we saw earlier in the day, there was no way that we were to try to unhook this fish in the water at night time.

So in the boat it came, and we got very carful as to were we placed our feet.

I was still excited from the capture, and didn't know if I should laugh or get worried about how to get my lure out of this catfish gob. In the end this might have helped me and it was a rather quick and easy process.

Then a quick photo for posterity, and a release, so it can go and make millions of other little catfish for other people to catch.

So this is the story of the day I caught my first Saratoga.

I really had a great time, which brought to me some much needed head space, thank you Mud.

But when I look at the photos of it... I really need another hair cut...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.