Today was fishing day, with the
goal for everybody to catch a barra. We were up at 5:15 and on the road by 5:30
heading back out to the Gibb and the 30kms back to the Pentecost Crossing. We
had been given a mud map of where to go by Logan and we tried to navigate our
way down some rough tracks to find ‘the killin’ tree’. Having no real idea of
what a ‘killin’ tree’ looked like we found a place to launch Rufus and hit the
water. It was a bit hair raising loading the boat up and pushing it into the
river from a muddy sandbank, beside a river that we know is inhabited by a
number of salt water crocs.
Our target destination was
‘barradise’ just down the river but as we came closer to it, it became apparent
that the rocks were in a different spot to last year and that we were going to
be fishing where we were. No problem, there would have to be something in this
stretch! It was a very rocky bottom going between 20cm and 4m in depth about 1
km in length, so we started trolling. It took me a while to work out the lay of
the land but after a couple of runs I was pretty confident, despite a lack of structure,
that we would have some luck. Up and down we went another 3 or 4 times until
Jack noticed that the rocks covering the path to barradise were ‘gone’. The
tide had come in and we made a break for it!
I had been saving my “Yo-Zuri” lure for a special place and this looked just right! We trolled a
meter or two from the bank in 3m of water and within a few minutes I was on!
Yeah! It was only a little one but it was a good sign!
 |
| What a good looking rooster! |
We trolled on down and
then turned and headed back up the 300m stretch. By the time we got back to the
‘top’ i noticed that the rocks blocking our path out of barradise were still
not visible but the movement on top of the water indicated it was no longer as
deep. One more run, and no bloody fish, later and Jacko pointed out that we
could now see them. One more run...this has to be the one!
Unfortunately
nothing liked our pieces of hard plastic with hooks on them so we headed for
the rocks.
When we crab in SE QLD I regularly
find myself dragging the tinny across mud flats looking for stingrays as we go
and have often joked that there is no way I would do this up north....think
again! I now had 150m of slippery rocks infront of me with water rushing over
them that I had to drag the boat back up. Oh...did I happen to mention one of
the locals Elvis who lives in the puddle about 200m down the river...Elvis is a
4m+ salty. I gave the boys a pep talk about looking for crocs, took the head of
my landing net (as the stick part was now my first and only line of defense
against a croc) jumped out and dragged the boat up stream. Needless to say I
was pretty bloody grateful to have made it to the end of it and have my body
back on the right side of the flimsy piece of aluminium I call a boat.
We trolled back along the same
path and on our first run Sam got a hook up and as Jack started to bring his
lure in so did Jack! Jack hauled his little barra in no problem but Sam was
having a bit more of a problem and it was staying down really low, rather than
trying to jump like barra sometimes do. I got a glimpse of it and was very
excited as Sambo desperately tried to keep his fish from disappearing under the
boat. He got it back up and the landing net engulfed him..a nice 40cm Mangrove
Jack! Yeah! Not wanting to replicate my mistake on the Durack he was promptly
cut and we even went as far as taking him back and depositing him in the fridge
in the truck!
We trawled for a while longer
seeing some action of the depth sounder but we couldn’t convince them to try
our lures out. The tide was now in far enough for us to drag Rufus far enough
up the beach that we could empty and load her without looking like croc bait.
We headed back, not entirely satisfied but pretty happy as we had all caught a
fish and dinner was taken care of.
Back at camp we headed for a swim
and relaxed for the remainder of the afternoon getting the camp fire going and
having a few quite drinks. My plan had worked pretty well as my knee was back
to about 80% so we are hitting some of El Questro’s famous gorges tomorrow.
Can’t wait!
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