Fishing Trip on the South Alligator or the Day Sally Caught the BIG ONE!
This is the time called the "run off" and it is a great time to go fishing for barra. It is so named because the flood plains which have been, well flooded, forming huge shallow lakes are now starting to drain. As they do, the marine life which has been spread out over millions of acres are now becoming concentrated as they run off into the rivers and creeks.
It was a cloudy, moody day when we started out and headed up the river away from the ocean.
All along the banks of the river, there are spots like this where the water is running in off the flood plains.
See all the debris hanging in this tree, shows how high the flood waters were not too long ago.
I love this one of the wild colored lure against the dark sky.
Saw this handsome young eagle up ahead.
He sat still while I took this photo, then he flew off into the tree tops.
I love his white leggings.
Looks like we are going to get very wet, rain pouring down dead ahead.
No action on the big river so we headed up this narrow little tributary called Leichert River. Between the wind whipping up with the storm and the speed the water was running, you could almost surf on it. It felt like we were doing a little white water rafting! it was a wild ride, have a look at the video clip I did of it.
Eventually the river opened up into another floodplain. There was a flock of great herons, magpie geese, a jabiru. We tied up and Ian said it felt like we were sitting in the middle of the paddock fishing.
We had just started fishing when the sky opened up. It started to absolutely bucket down, the rain is so thick, it becomes hard to breathe, you keep inhaling water, that's when the barra started biting! It was totally incredible. As fast as we could get the fish off the hooks and our line back into the water, another one would hit. I had my lure hanging over the side of the boat preparing to cast and a fish jumped out of the water and tried to grab it in mid-air. They were all good sized, well over the 55cm necessary to make them legal. We actually lost count of how many we caught, this went on for about 15 minutes. We only kept 1, Shannon was chucking them back in as fast as he could. I know it sounds like a fish story but it is true and the worst part is, it was raining so hard and we were catching fish so fast, I couldn't get the camera out to take pictures. What an amazing experience.
Finally the rain stopped and the fish stopped at about the same time. We were soaked! And still shaking from excitement. Even Shannon, our mate and fishing guide, said he had never experienced anything quite like it before and he has been taking out fishing parties for quite a few years.
When we caught our breath again, we decided to go back out into the South and try a spot that Shannon said is always good for the really big ones. We trolled up and down a half dozen or so times with no action. Since it was starting to get dark again we decided to make one more pass and then head back. That's when it hit! From the way it took off line and had the rod bent in half, we knew it was a big one. It was jumping and trying its best to throw the hook but eventually I got it up to the side of the boat and Shannon jumped out on the tail gate of the boat to net it. That was a brave move, it was a big fish and there were plenty of crocs out fishing the run off too! Here are the pics, biggest bloody fish I ever caught!
That was it for us, time to head home, Shannon is a good guide I tell you!
Here is the final installment of this story, during the excitement of the fish biting during the downpour, Ian forgot he had his mobile phone in his pocket, mine was in my backpack, well they both got fried, just too much water in the works. Thank goodness I put the camera in the waterproof bag when it started to rain. So here's what we figure, we ended up keeping one fish which Shannon filleted for us, probably yielded about 2 kilos of fillets. When one considers the cost of the trip plus the cost of the phones, altogether that fish cost us about $453.50 Australian dollars per kilo! And you know what, it was worth every cent!
It was a cloudy, moody day when we started out and headed up the river away from the ocean.
All along the banks of the river, there are spots like this where the water is running in off the flood plains.
See all the debris hanging in this tree, shows how high the flood waters were not too long ago.
I love this one of the wild colored lure against the dark sky.
Saw this handsome young eagle up ahead.
He sat still while I took this photo, then he flew off into the tree tops.
I love his white leggings.
Looks like we are going to get very wet, rain pouring down dead ahead.
No action on the big river so we headed up this narrow little tributary called Leichert River. Between the wind whipping up with the storm and the speed the water was running, you could almost surf on it. It felt like we were doing a little white water rafting! it was a wild ride, have a look at the video clip I did of it.
Eventually the river opened up into another floodplain. There was a flock of great herons, magpie geese, a jabiru. We tied up and Ian said it felt like we were sitting in the middle of the paddock fishing.
We had just started fishing when the sky opened up. It started to absolutely bucket down, the rain is so thick, it becomes hard to breathe, you keep inhaling water, that's when the barra started biting! It was totally incredible. As fast as we could get the fish off the hooks and our line back into the water, another one would hit. I had my lure hanging over the side of the boat preparing to cast and a fish jumped out of the water and tried to grab it in mid-air. They were all good sized, well over the 55cm necessary to make them legal. We actually lost count of how many we caught, this went on for about 15 minutes. We only kept 1, Shannon was chucking them back in as fast as he could. I know it sounds like a fish story but it is true and the worst part is, it was raining so hard and we were catching fish so fast, I couldn't get the camera out to take pictures. What an amazing experience.
Finally the rain stopped and the fish stopped at about the same time. We were soaked! And still shaking from excitement. Even Shannon, our mate and fishing guide, said he had never experienced anything quite like it before and he has been taking out fishing parties for quite a few years.
When we caught our breath again, we decided to go back out into the South and try a spot that Shannon said is always good for the really big ones. We trolled up and down a half dozen or so times with no action. Since it was starting to get dark again we decided to make one more pass and then head back. That's when it hit! From the way it took off line and had the rod bent in half, we knew it was a big one. It was jumping and trying its best to throw the hook but eventually I got it up to the side of the boat and Shannon jumped out on the tail gate of the boat to net it. That was a brave move, it was a big fish and there were plenty of crocs out fishing the run off too! Here are the pics, biggest bloody fish I ever caught!
That was it for us, time to head home, Shannon is a good guide I tell you!
Here is the final installment of this story, during the excitement of the fish biting during the downpour, Ian forgot he had his mobile phone in his pocket, mine was in my backpack, well they both got fried, just too much water in the works. Thank goodness I put the camera in the waterproof bag when it started to rain. So here's what we figure, we ended up keeping one fish which Shannon filleted for us, probably yielded about 2 kilos of fillets. When one considers the cost of the trip plus the cost of the phones, altogether that fish cost us about $453.50 Australian dollars per kilo! And you know what, it was worth every cent!
posted by Tucker Tub! | 9:20 pm
1 Comments:
This was a fantastic accounting of your trip. Great pictures and the video actually made me feel like I was in the boat with you. Wow. You and Ian are having a wonderful life. Makes us want to move over there.
Carolyn
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