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Fly Fishing

Chasing Golden Trevalley on the Magnetic Island flats.

Relaxing!

Enjoying one of the many beautiful beaches of Magnetic Island.

Saturday 27 February 2010

Part 2 NQ Flyfishing outing

After the fish in the morning the NQ Flyfishers had a break and came back in the afternoon to practice some casting. I am not sure if the fishing had an effect but we had 13 members roll up to the casting session. I will let the photos do the talking.

We did some work in the classroom first and then moved outside to three areas. A distance casting patch with 10m,20m,30m squares, a side casting area to work on loops and another casting patch made up of 3 squares into the wind. It was a little haphazard as it was a little damp and not enough planning. But it was a successful activity as I think everyone learned a little or a lot. So next time a little more structure would only improve the outcomes for all. Thank you to Heatley Secondary College for the use of their oval and rooms.
















No luck on the big tide!

After reading all the reports of Barra being caught all week I was super keen to get on the water this weekend. Even with the massive 4m tide this morning and 2in of rain that fell overnight I just had to get out. Dad and I initially planned to go out the front of Cocoa and fish the mangroves on the inside of the cape. But the overnight rain put a damper on that idea (no pun intended). So a change of plans had as heading for the Haughton.

We went up the river, we went down the river. But it didn't see to matter, we couldn't find fish anywhere. The only bump I had all morning was from a LongTom amongst the flooded mangroves, and even he didn't hook up.

Despite our lack of success, it was a fun morning on the water. You just had to be there to witness the massive tide. Just have a look at the ramp and some of the huge logs what were floating about.

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Nq Flyfishers go fishing!

Yep fishing can be frustrating but not impossible. The NQ Flyfishers had our monthly trip and as we decided to do practise fly casting we still had a quick fish in the morning before the casting in the afternoon at Heatley Secondary College. We decided to meet at he Lakes near Castletown shopping centre and see what would happen. Ten flyfishers showed up and we began to thrash the water into a lather! After a somewhat frustrating 2hrs we managed to land one nice size tarpon and a number where missed. Again another good turn out in pretty trying conditions. This afternoon we plan to finish the day with some casting practice at Heatley Secondary College startign around 3pm. So if you have an interest drop in and see whats going on.

 


Thursday 25 February 2010

3-rats at it again!

3-rats has been hitting the Barra again. This time fishing with his son Luke and forum members 'Scott NthQld' and 'goingfishing'. Again fishing easily accessible water not too far from town the young fella landed his biggest barra ever of 67cm. But later topped that with a whopping 94cm fish! The full story is in the forum, but here are the pics.

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And here is a quick lesson on the power in the jaws of a Barra. I have seen this before and it really emphasises the need to quality lures and hooks. This is the result of a barra getting one trebble in the top jaw and one in the bottom jaw. They then open their mouth and the lure buckles under the pressure pulling out the wire! Luckily for Luke this one didn't cost him the fish!

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Tuesday 23 February 2010

Popping Mad!

Regular forum contributor 3-rats (Ron) has been smashing the Barra after dark on poppers. And very close to town too. He did me a quick write up from his last trip.

Mozza & I decided that Sunday night was going to be one of those nights where our popper skills would turn the fish on… & it did! Getting down to our little spot in town just on dark we started tossing poppers around, there were barra boofing everywhere & bait scared.. screaming off in every direction.  We had no hits or looks until it got dark that’s when things change at this spot (barradice)!

While my popper sat 20mtrs out near some rocks.. BOOF!! My line pulls up tight & I am on. After a few good jumps & long runs I steer the chrome slab towards mozza who is waiting with the boga grips on the bank, another victim to the new game of barra popping. This fish went 74cm’s & would have easily weighed 4kg, seeing that we release a lot of the fish we catch this 1 came home for a feed.

Ron.

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Saturday 20 February 2010

Jungle Perch

I pulled this off the latest 'The Fishing DVD' as I know there are a few readers out there keen on chasing the good old JP. I know its probably not the most legal thing to do, so if you like what you see please support the crew by going and purchasing the DVD. Its available in most tackle stores and on their website. It's the cheapest 2 hours of fishing footage you could possibly purchase. I own all 18!



One for the Fly Fisherman

This is short segment from an episode of Ifish with Paul Worsteling. It features a long time trout fishing guide by the name of Ken Orr. He shows Paul a few tips for casting a fly rod.



Wednesday 17 February 2010

Severe Weather Warning - 4.25pm

TOP PRIORITY FOR IMMEDIATE BROADCAST
SEVERE WEATHER WARNING
for Flash Flooding

For people in the Herbert, Lower Burdekin and Northern Tropical Coast south of Cairns.

Issued at 4:25 pm on Thursday 18 February 2010

A surface trough near Townsville is expected to move slowly north overnight and tomorrow. 

Areas of rain and local thunderstorms with heavy falls leading to flash flooding and local stream rises are likely in the Herbert and Lower Burdekin overnight and the Northern Tropical Coast south of Cairns during Friday.   

The next warning is due to be issued by 11pm EST.


Sunday 14 February 2010

Morning in Gordon Creek

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Dad and I spent yesterday (Saturday) morning investigating Gordon creek to the south of Townsville. We initially planned to head to Cocoa creek for a look around, but on advice from Graham at ProTacke it was decided the road in still be a little soft after the rain. I have been into Gordon creek once before in my old boat, and remembered the entrance being quite shallow, but a nice looking creek inside. So with a nice rising tide topping out late morning it seemed a good chance to get in and look around a bit.

We left the ramp in Ross River at about 6am and headed out the front and south. It was nice on the bay, just a light little breeze. We managed to negotiate our way into the creek pretty easily in the little boat, with no less than about 0.8m at the shallowest point.

Not knowing where the crabs would be at this stage, we decided to drop 4 pots a few hundred meters out the front of the creek, and 4 inside the mouth. We later discovered inside was far batter, and moved them all in.

We lured around the front and just inside for the best part of the morning. The tide was running in hard, but freshwater was running out on the top. Most of the bait and action we saw was around the convergence of the two. But fishing for us was poor! I think I managed one bump, but other than that we didn't manage a single hookup. The water was still very dirty, but I don't think that should have stopped them. Maybe too much run?

The tide turned pretty quick and coupled with the run of the fresh it belted out pretty hard. Coupled with a breeze in the bay that had picked up during the morning, the mouth was a quite messy getting out. 0.5-1m waves were picking up and curling over at their tops around the mouth. Interesting stuff in a 12foot tinnie! Coupled with the fact that a couple of our pots were in this slop, it was major pucker factor! But despite a little water over the nose we got out ok and headed for home with out tails between out legs!

Despite the poor fishing we took home 6 ripper crabs! One with claws that I reckon would take your hand off at the wrist!


Saturday 13 February 2010

Baptist Church Fishing Club - Comp Results Feb 2010


BCFC is off to a flying start with 2010 already shaping up to be another fantastic fishing year. Perfect weather conditions for our first comp last weekend resulted in a huge turn out, with 25 anglers weighing a total of 56 fish. An additional 48 fish were released and 2 nice mud crabs made it to the weigh master’s scales.

Congratulations to all division winners and a great effort by all who took part in our first comp for 2010. Check out bcfctownsville.blogspot.com for the full set of results.

Division Winners

Senior Male - Greg Churchwood 350.00 pnts

Senior Female - Trisha Forman 342.60 pnts

Sub-Junior - Jayden Jacobs 20.00 pnts

Lure/Fly - Tania Brown 163.50 pnts

Landbased - Gavin Jacobs 111.00 pnts

Mud Crab - Sylvia Gear 12.20 pnts

Catch & Release - Rod Gear 135.01 pnts

Hard Yakka - Rod Gear 80 pnts

Sunday 7 February 2010

Fingermark on fly

Liam and I had a nice fish on Saturday. We headed out to our marks around the Rattlesnake area and worked a nice flat see for a good run out. We stopped at our first mark and loaded the 12wt and shooting head. Liam landed a nice fingermark on a metal slice. We then proceeded to drift the are and I missed a nice cobia. He chased the fly up bumped it twice then I dropped the fly down and again and retrieved mid water he hit it properly. After a nice run then into the second he disconnected with the line cut through just above the hook. Next time. We then anchored as the fishing slowed but no better luck. As another boat arrived we then drifted again and this time I managed a nice fingermark and school mackerel. Thankfully Jordan and his Dad (the other Boat) had some ice and we kept a couple of fish. After awhile the fishing slowed so we tracked off to another spot and played with some reef fish. Liam missed a big queenfish and I managed another fingermark. My camera had some problems so no photos today but for the record the fingermark went to 55cm and the school mackerel 63cm and Liam's fingermark went 55+cm. Just some thoughts I was not intending to keep any fish for the weekend but as it was a comp I decided to keep 2 just so I had fish to weigh in. I am still in two thoughts as to whether the competition was the reason or I had to have fish to show at the weigh in! I would be interested to know how others feel about this.


Quiet morning on the shoals

This weekend was the first comp weekend of the year for the Baptist Church Fishing Club. After winning senior male two years in a row, I decided this year to take a back seat and try to get the kids and Tania more involved. But, as we soon found out, its tough trying to get a 5 year old to land keeper fish on the shoals! More about that later.

I would have rather fished the creeks with the family this weekend and chase some Jacks, Bream and Barra. But the weather was just looking too good, and the big boat needed to get wet! So it was looking like a shoal run was on the cards. We woke the kids about 3am and rush to the ramp hoping to get a park! Launching at 4.15am we managed one of the last couple of parks before heading wide. I took it easy on the way out, sitting on about 18knots all the way. Tania and Sebastian were sleeping in the cabin, and I was concerned about floating debris after the floods. So it took us a long, but comfortable, hour to get to our destination.

On arrival things looked very quiet. On a shoal that is usually lit up with bait and fish, we were hardly getting a show at all. We dropped some baits and found small fish and a couple of Trevalley all that was on offer. We hunted around a few different marks in search of better fish, and eventually found some Nannygai feeding on an old favourite mark of mine. I landed 2 fish around the 45cm mark, but Tania couldn't get a keeper. The bite here slowed pretty quick and moved on.

At our next destination there were plenty of fish, but mostly small stuff. So I got out Lachy's rod and got him onto some fish. He had a ball landing sucker fish, Hussar and Nanny's. But his best fish was a nice little Cobia. In the mean time Tania had managed 3 thumper Doggie Mackerel and lost a BIG Nannygai to a HUGE shark! The shark took pretty much everything, so we moved yet again.

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Next spot I got Lachy fishing again. But we were about to learn it isn't a good idea to fish shoal country with light gear. Lachy has a Symeter 2500 with 8lb finns braid. He was winding in a bait from the bottom when it took of at a million miles an hour. My immediate thought was Spanish Mackerel, and withing literally seconds I was seeing the bottom of the spool through the line. A VERY quick start of the motor and shove into reverse saved the day. We tracked the fish around for a good 20mins before we caught a look. Bluefin Tuna, and at 10-15kg it was going to be a tough battle on 8lb with a 5 year old in charge! He was hurting and had well and truly had enough. We kept him going with lots of encouragement and tried to make him realise that he couldn't weigh the fish if he didn't land it by himself. But it wasn't to be. Mum had to take over. And 15mins later and we were no closer to getting a gaff in! We had had the fish up many times, but each time it just took off back to the depths. By this time Tania had also had enough. So, against my better judgment, she started to apply some extra pressure. It seemed to be working as she got the fish closer and closer, but eventually the pressure was too much and like snapped. To top it off the rod hit the stainless targa as the line let go and the rod broke too!!!

PhotobucketLachy was stuffed and soon fell asleep in the cabin. We headed for home, but I had one last crack at the North Cardinal. A couple of drops of a 40g knight and I had a small mackerel beside the boat, but it flicked off. A couple of drops later and I got bitten off. Oh well, home time....Next time I think we will get the kids into the creeks for the comps!


Wednesday 3 February 2010

Barramundi in the News



Monday 1 February 2010

Tarpon in the floodwaters

Yesterday afternoon Dad and I took off south to chase some of aerobatic Tarpon that should be turning themselves inside out in the freshwater lagoons at the moment. We had planned to hit some water down near Ayr, but found the road was still closed at the Haughton. So a quick U-turn had us heading back to Townsville. After a 2hr drive we finally arrived at our fishing destination just 10mins from town!

Luckily the drive was worth it. Over the next few hours I landed over a dozen Tarpon ranging in size up to about 0.6kg. Good fun on 6lb line (although I did wish I had put on my 4lb spool). Dad didn't fair quite so well, but landed a few before the sun disappeared. I also managed 4 or 5 Telapia that were quickly disposed of. Bit of a shame that they can't at least become crab bait! Good fun while the wait for Barra season was on!

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Barramundi back on the menu

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As of 12noon today Barramundi are once again fair game! But I have no idea where you will find them with the flooding. Some in forum are suggesting the headlands. And with the weather backing off later in the week this might be worth a go. Reports are that the mud crabs area also out the front in Cleavland bay.