Wallaby Rescue.

Hi there,

Yes today I am going to tell you the story of an Agile Wallaby rescue, in a blog that is usually mostly about fishing.
But bear with me, it has to do with fishing…

It started with a wrongly timed trip on the Adelaide River, near Darwin. A river known for its very large concentration of big salt water crocodiles, Crocodylus porosus.
Jim and I had gone fishing, hopping that the river would have started to drop, but drop it didn't.
In fact we should have been able to see it straight at the boat ramp. I had never seen the water so high on it, while going fishing:

Boat ramp on the Adelaide River.

We couldn't find any calm and clear water anywhere, except in a few little creek flowing in the Adelaide.

The causeway on Goat Island, was under water.

Jim estimated the water  to be flowing at around 15 km per hour. (9.3205679 miles per hour).

So we first started to slowly make our way back, still trying to flick our lures wherever we hopped to find a Barramundi.

When we saw the approaching storm, we decided that a quick run to the ramp was in order.

Storm coming on the river.

Jim went on full throttle, and the mix of rain and wind, made us feel rather cold, to say the least or to stay polite. I bowed my head, trying to protect myself with my hat while Jim was trying to see the floating logs, so no crash would happen.

When suddenly, he stopped and turned the boat around.

Raising my head I asked what was the matter? Jim pointed to a floating, moving thing in the water and said:"there is a possum or something swimming in there".

I looked, and saw the little head bobbing in the water. As soon as it realised that we had turned for him, he started to swam in earnest, in direction of the boat.

I first thought that I should take a photo of it swimming in the fast flowing waters. But remembering that we were basically where they do the jumping crocodiles show, I scooped it quickly in the net. Before it become someone's snack.

Jim pulled out a nice little joey from the fishing net:

Jim and the dripping wet Agile Wallaby.

This was a very nice little guy. Yet in Jim's arms, it soon went a bit feral, started to make funny noises, tried to scratch and bite.

Wallaby onboard.

Quick thinking was needed, I was laughing, so Jim did it, and he emptied a small cooler bag, and presented it to this little guy, who without too much persuasion dived in it head first.

Wallaby in the cooler bag.

It instantly calmed down, so much in fact that we started to worry that he might have suddenly died.

But when trying to pull him out, he showed in no uncertain ways that he was still very much alive.

So we decided to leave him in there until we would be back at the car.

What's in your bag?

And this photograph, is with no doubt the best advertising for Jack Daniel's, Territory style…

At the car Jim put him in a dry beach towel, where it fell asleep, exhausted little thing.

Cute as a button, a sleeping joey.

From there we took it to an animals refuge who in turn would hand it to the local prison. There as part of a program, the inmates will take care of it and put him back in good shape. After what it should be release in the wild.

As a bonus, here is a photo of yours truly, to show you that I was really there:

Holding a wallaby joey.

Thank you Jim for inviting me on this trip.

This is how an otherwise uneventful fishing trip, turned into one that is definitely a memorable one.

Even if once again, I came back home fish less…

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

My Sunday Fish.

Hi there,

Yes last Sunday, I went fishing with my good old mate Double Haul.
It was a long time since we fished together, and I was very happy when he called me to go fishing on Darwin Harbour, to try for some Barramundi.
After all, Double Haul, is the man who put me back on the Barramundi fishing, after I had spend a few year not catching any of them, and concentrating on getting some other prey from the rocks around town. It is also with him, that I have caught, my biggest Barramundi so far, and it was the first one I got after my previously mentioned, few year long Barra drought.
The fish was 91cm, and I still remember it.
So this little fishing trip promised to be a good one, filled with laugh and maybe a few fish...

Double Haul picked me at 9:00am, and we were in the water not long after that.
The plan for the day, was to go not very far from the boat ramp, and to try to get some Barra and Salmon, casting small lure against the mangroves and snake drains.
With the morning high tide, the place looked promising, despite a relative lack of bait fish in the water.
But in a very short time, my little Hell Raiser lure had a hit. I had casted just against a tree, and a nice drop off was sitting in front of it. Just as the lure arrived above the drop off, a flash of silver, and I was on. The fish pulled the line, came quickly back to the surface, made a little jump, it was a small Barramundi, it showed us his back fins, and gave a good head shake, and was gone...
I had lost this little guy.
But we hadn't fished for very long, and this made us think that this was going to be a great day full of fish...

Well, nothing much happened, for a little while, some half cooked hits here and there, but no real action.
So we finally decided to move further away, and to go in a creek nearby.
Upon arriving at the creek mouth, we found that the water had already dropped and had to find the channel to get in.
Once in there, we saw some pelicans gorging themselves on fish.
If they were able to get some fish, we would do the same!
Well, that was the plan anyway...
We casted a few thousand times, for not much.
So I changed lure, and put a Little B52's at the end of my line, explaining that I really liked this lure. As I once had a great session with this very one.
And to prove it, on the third or fourth cast with it, I was on!
But the fish didn't fight like a Barramundi, and Double Haul started to have a funny smile on his face...
When the fish came to the surface, I understand why: I had a little catfish.
He had totally engulfed the lure, and just the  head and eyes of it were coming out of its mouth. Both treble had found their marks. This was a two pliers job to unhook and release the little critter. And this is only once it was gone that I realised that I had not taken a photo of it.
This made Double Haul laugh, asking me why on earth I would want a picture of a small catfish?

We moved a bit further, and at a little creek/ big drain mouth, we saw some jelly prawns being harassed by some big Threadfin salmons.
Here was something that we wanted to catch!
So we casted left, right and centre, to no avail.
So we changed our hard body lures for some soft plastic ones.
I choose a little green Zman, that was given to me by Arrabmundi.
We were looking where the prawns were starting to show on the surface, and before they really started to go berserk we would flick our lures among them and hope to get a hook up.
This was very shallow water, and we could at time see the Salmon, rolling just under the surface, their sides breaking the water, feeding on the tiny prawns. It was exciting and frustrating at the same time, as we couldn't get them to take our offering.
Then as I had sent my lure to what I was thinking would be a great spot to catch a salmon, it finally happened.
I had left the little soft plastic drop to the bottom, and was just making it skip on the creek's bed, just slowly, a little bit at a time, with pause in between. Suddenly, a little bump on the line, just as I was to give the lure another skip, and the line start to head towards the centre of the creek.
I am on! You got him! Said Double Haul, and I started to get all excited.
The fish was taking line, and I thought that the drag on my reel was free, but no, so I started to hope for a massive Threadfin... Then the line seemed to come near the surface, and in one nice jump, a few feet above water level, the fish revealed itself.
And it was not what I was thinking it was, no.
As we had finally switched off from chasing Barra and were gunning for some Threadies, I got an interesting by catch... It was a Barramundi!
Off course, I then wanted this fish even more, and begin to stress that with just a single hook from a weedless lure, the odds were more in favour of the fish than I.
And yes salt water Barra from the harbour, have great force and stamina. I was surprise at how easily he would take some line. when it finally came close to the net, I started to be more confident. But just on eyeing the net, it put the back burners on, and dived straight under it and went back for the creek. Ha!
Second attempt was rewarded with success and the fish was boated.
I still wasn't sure that it was legal, and Double Haul laughed and said to put it on the brag mat: it went 62cm and some dust (24.409449 inches).
And here it is:

My Sunday fish.

This fish made me very happy, has it was my first legal Barramundi in a few months.

It was going to be good food.

We could have stayed there a bit longer, but a storm was on it's way.

Storm over the creek.

So we decided to get out of the creek, before we got locked in by the falling tide, and to try and get refuge closer to the boat ramp. On our way out of the creek, we saw some poor fellas who didn't negotiated the mud flat very well, and were stranded high and dry.

Waiting for the tide.

They had missed the channel and would have to wait for the tide to get back up, and might have had to weather the storm up there.

This was bad luck for them.

On our way back to the ramp, we saw what the storm really looked like and tried to rush past it.

Here comes the rain again.

But we got rained on and got soaking wet.

To keep warm, and because we saw some splash in the water, I casted a popper with all the vigour I could find. But didn't got any fish game enough to have a go at it.

We then moved closer to the ramp, but had to wait for the tide to be high enough to be able to get to it.

So we cruised up and down the creek casting as we went, as some big Queenfish kept busting all around us.

Then they stopped, and we hadn't got any of them...

The water was high enough, and we felt a bit cold, so we decided to call it a day.

To me that had been a great day, of catching up with a friend, and fishing under the sun, and the rain too, yes. Thanks for the invitation Double Haul.

Now, what happened to this Barramundi I caught?

Well some of it was turned into a delicious fish soup:

Barramundi fish soup.

This was the first time I had a Barramundi fish soup, and now I want some more!

So I guess, that I will have to go fishing again...

And no, we didn't caught any Salmon.

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.

So much rain that it was a storm

Hi there,

Today we had a big storm...
As we had been flooded on a similar day in the last wet season, I rushed home from work during my lunch break, and the rain was pretty strong.

Our street started to get flooded...

Water from one side of the street to the other.

Then the water was rising and cars could not go down the street anymore.

I started to think about sand bags...

So I went and dug some sand from the little one sandpit and made some sand bags from it. Got drenched doing it.
Started to put them in front of the door, but the water was starting to go down.

So we did not get flooded this time. Yet I have trouble to understand how the council can say that every thing is alright and under control when we get either flooded or nearly flooded every years.

Where is a good planer when we need one?
This remind me of a song from the Pet Shop Boys that go a bit like this: Where is a policeman when we need one...
Strange how the brain works and makes some association sometimes...

But hey, it could be worse.
Have a good day,
Me.

My first Tuna.

Hi there,

So it all started as usual, with me dropping my gears at Double Haul house on the Friday evening, after work. A quick little chat about what we were going to do, and this is when things started to change. Double Haul told me to get my spinning outfit, and a tray of metal slugs… You can guess my excitement, not only we were to go and chase Sailfish over the coming weekend, but I was going to be allowed to cast some chrome slices to the rampaging Tuna school that we might come across…
Now, some of you might know, that spinning, is definitely one of my favourite form of fishing, and that I was yet to boat a Tuna… Are you starting to get the clue?

So on Saturday, like before most fishing trip, I woke up before the alarm clock rang, kissed my beloved ones, and was waiting on the footpath for Double Haul to arrive.
Like a kid with a head full of hopes.

He arrived and off we went. The drive to Dundee seemed quick, and the tractor guys know their job and got us in the water in no time. The water was flat and nice.

Flat water.

The plan for the weekend was to spend part of the first day chasing the Sailfish, troll a Mack lure at the same time, (yes I like my Mackerel). And then latter in the day, to reef fish for reefies and maybe some Jewfish too…

So once at the mark we deployed the teaser, and started trolling. As a Mackerel lure I throw behind the boat a spanking Max from Halco thinking that this 80gr, long hard body lure would be the best for the job at hand. In less time than it takes to write it, the rod with the Mackerel lure bent and the reel started to sing! No pulsed by the fact that I was not even holding the rod at this precise time I said loudly: I am ON! Double Haul looked at me calmly and said: that was quick… So as I started to reel in my big Mackerel, Double Haul found himself with the task of getting the other rods and the teaser, all of which had just been dropped in the water, back in the boat. I was the deckie having all the fun while the skipper was doing the hard work… Then he came to my side and asked how I was doing. I said that I was just hoping not to loose this Mac.
Then the Mack started to do one or two circle under the boat. Some of you might start to have an idea of what kind of Mack that was, but to me that was an exciting fish pulling his weight. Then Double Haul asked is it a Mack or a Tuna? Why on hearth would he ask such a thing? I had this big Mack lure at the end of a wire trace, and on the hooks of it was an angry big Mack fighting as good as they do…
Well yes once again the experienced skipper knew before the pumped up deckie what was going on, and the Mack turned out to be a long tail tuna.
Now don’t get me wrong, I was still pretty excited about it. My first tuna, and it was big!
But Double Haul said that it was just a baby and put it back in the water.
So that was no Mack…

Then a Mack jumped with one of the squid from the teaser in his mouth instead of my lure… Like if he wanted to tease me…

Then we saw something strange in the water, and decided to get close and investigate.
It was a group of young Manta ray playing in the water, all swimming in circle, a very nice spectacle.

Then another Mack grabbed a lure behind the boat, but it was a sailfish lure, and it did not hook, but ruined the skirt of it… (What a great line for a fisherman: A Mack ruined my skirt…)
So Double Haul said look at your lure mate, it will scream his T.. off pretty soon. And as on clue the rod bent sharply, but the fish once again did not hook.
So we decided to try to put 2 deep divers in the 8 meters range behind the boat to get one of these Macks.
All the while I would cast a metal slug to the school of tuna that we would come across. This lasted for a little while but for not much results, so we decided to go and reef fish a bit. And on the way to the reef marks Double Haul told me to change my metal slug for one with different colours and if possible just chrome.
I had something like that in my tackle box and did as prompted. We come across a new school of tuna, I cast in the middle of them and bang I am on! My first Tuna on the spinning gear! A Macktuna.

Am I happy or what!

This one will be bait! Now catch another one I was said.
So I tried again and Double Haul too got into the action, and he got one before me then I got another one and he did too again, at the same time. We had a double hook up on tuna…
To say that I was happy and exited would be a huge understatement! After reading so many post on the FFF forum, by Doors Off and others about tuna on spin gears, I was finally in the middle of the action! The sight of the water full of flash as the fish splash and jump the birds diving and then your reel screaming and your line peeling… I want it again!
Talking about birds diving, well a little stern dived a few meters before my lure but got one of her wings all tangled up in my line. So we had to cut the line to let her go, and she flew away, so should not have ended up as fish food.

A bird on the line.

So after a little bit of that we decided to go reef fishing.

And we went to one of Double Haul marks and dropped the bait. Got a few little thing stealing ours bait. Then I got a double with two fish on my line! Ok, one very decent fish for what I am used to, and a smaller one that was to go back in the water. But still that was another cool thing for me to have two fishes in on pull.

Two for the price of one.

I also got my first Grinner, or stargazer, or Monkey fish depending who you talk to. I had never seen one in real life before, and that was cool. What a mouth they have!

Grinners are winners, they said...

Then we got a few little red things with big eyes, and we didn’t know what they were, I should have taken a photo of it. We put them back, but they made me think of Elmo, you know all red with two big eyes… Can you tell that I live with a child?

Then Double Haul said that it was not as good as it should be and that we should go to the jewie mark, and just as he said it my line went very tense. Escaping from the reel faster than I could have retrieved it, and I tried. And the line went very stiff, and the fish had bricked me, taking refuge in a hole or god only knows where, and there was no way I could get some line back. So I gave it a bit of slack and it worked the fish moved! Just to find a better spot where I was to not stand a chance… And we had to break the line…
I don’t know what it was, but it was big!

Then we moved to the Jewie spot. Put the line in, waited a bit for not much action… Then my line again with the rod making a parfait arc, pointing at the water. Once again I screamed: I’m on! Then I started to thing Ho boy this thing can pull, and just then the line broke! Two times in a short space of time I had my line broken by some big fish… And this time it might have been a big Jewie… Ha! I retrieved and show the line to Double Haul, the only thing I could say was Look at the line! I just couldn’t believe that this fish had broken it in such a short fight. Make you wonder of the force in some of them…

Then the storm seemed to zone on us so we decided to head closer to shore to tack refuge for the night close to a beach.

First rain, sign of things to come.

Then Double Haul started to put some snag in a fry pan… Mmmmm the smell of the sausage quietly frying after the excitement of the day and the fatigue starting to quick in… That was pretty close to the best thing possible in the world. They didn’t last very long…

Yummy in my tummy!

Then a little chat and we start to hear some splash in the water. Ho ho why not trow a popper in the dark this direction… I start to do it hoping for a Barra, and Double Haul said something like: That must be a shark…
So I told myself ok just a few cast to be sure what it is…
And that is what I did, honest just a few cast, then a few more, then the five last one, then three more and then ho come on just one more after the next one…
By the time I looked in Double Haul direction again, he was fast asleep on his mattress at the back of the boat…
Once again I had been the over enthusiastic guest who had stretched the limits of courtesy… Sorry.
So I tried to install myself for the night at the other end of the boat, and found sleep in absolutely no time.

Then at around 2am it started to rain and we woke up.
The boat drifted a few times on the chop in the dark. So we had to reposition. Once we were confident that she wouldn’t move any more Double Haul put a tarp at one end of the boat and we stoped to receive the rain in our face. So back to sleep it was.
And believe it or not but getting back in this wet sleeping bag in a rocking boat, in the night, the only thing I could think of was tuna… I very rapidly fall back to sleep, with image of tuna bursting the water all over in my eyes and mind.

Then morning came; hot cafe for him, and chocolate cookies for me, life is great!
We were to try for some more tuna fun, but the water was too rough and that would not have been a very good thing to do.

Yet it was beautiful...

So we decided to try for some reefies and jewie again, and wherever we went, we encountered sharks after sharks, small ones, eating all of our bait.
So still wet and cold from the night we decided to go back home, and arriving close to the ramp, we saw some birds that were diving over a small patch of water but no fish bursting the surface. So Double Haul told me that I should trow a popper in the middle of this to see if I could raise what ever was under… As I was pondering which popper to use, he told me that I should try with one of my ceramic lure. And so I did.
After a few cast, I was on, to a nice feisty little Trevally. We let him go to grow a bit more.

On the lure made of ceramic.

And I continued to cast in the same direction. And as the lure was very close to the boat and I was saying look at the action of it in the water, that’s very nice, one or two, I am not sure fish darted after the lure to give it a miss at the last second. I nearly feel on my bum at the surprise of it, and Double Haul got a good laugh from it.
The after a few more cast I got a wind knot in my line a the lure flew by himself, far away for ever…
So it was decided to go back for good.
So just two sausage rolls and two soft drinks at the shop and we were on the road to Darwin.
All I could think on the way back was tuna on the spin stick and how tired I was…
God this fishing stuff is exhausting!
And this is it folks, the story a quite a few first for me, and of a great trip, once again thanks to Double Haul.

So we did not see a single sailfish for the weekend.

But hey, it could be worse.
Have a good day,
Me.