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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.

Sunday 27 March 2011

More Rat Barra

Went into Morrissey's Creek yesterday morning to chase some more Barra on lures. The Barra have been going off ever since the season opened, but as usual I have only managed to nail a few to date. I was super keen to tangle with something big!

We got to the ramp very early, right on first light. Plan was to run up river a fair way and try to catch the turn of the top of the tide. It was a long run in a little boat, and the sun was just starting to get some more light to it when we arrived. Ideal Barra time! Down when the electric and...whats this!!! Left is stuck on! Oh no... So the next half hour was wasted with my trying to pull the foot controller apart with a knife to get it functional again. Last time I had a button stuck it was just a small bit of grit that got in the way. But not this time. Looks like a spring inside the switch was squashed and not pushing the button back up again. I manage to get the tiny switch apart and stretch the spring hoping it would get it functional again. But when all was looking about right the spring sprung off and went flying! Just my luck. The tiny spring was gone and so was any chance of getting the thing going again.

We prodeeded up stream past where we intended to fish and drifted along casting lures. It reminded of the time before having the electric fitted. But the tide and wind just wouldn't play the game. We were continually having to start the main motor to get us off the back. Not ideal. We were both fishing hard bodied lures hoping for one the bigger fish. But without so much as a nudge it was time for the plastic fantastic!

Second cast with the white 3in prong and I was on! A solid little rat barra that put up a great fight on the Stella 1000 and 8lb. But he was easily contained and led to the net. Amazing how successful the prongs are.

Getting ever more frustrated by not having the electric Dad comes up with a great idea. "how about we rig up a paddle to the head and use it like a tiller". Great idea. I rigged it up to use the paddle to turn the motor and then just the foot controller for power. While not ideal, it ended up getting us out of trouble!

We continued fishing the prongs in the timber for 2 more Rat Barra and then finally one that went 60cm. This fish came off a set of snags in the middle of the creek. Not the big girl we were hoping for, but one for the eski! I also managed a 38cm Jack and Dad a nice fat Pikey Bream.



Despite the rain during the week Morrissey's was running quite clear. Far better than the reports I have had from the Haughton.

Thursday 17 March 2011

Barra footage from The Fishing DVD

Some cool Barramundi footage captured from the guys at The Fishing DVD.

Tuesday 15 March 2011

Escape with ET

Just in case you guys missed ET on the weekend, here are a couple of segments I thought were quite good!

Some research on the effects of LipGrippers on released Barramundi.


Info on the Environet.


ET catching WAY too many Barramundi! lol

Saturday 12 March 2011

Rats!

Dave and I braved the rain today and headed into the creeks for a lure session. With most of the water falling to the North of town it was a no brainer to head South! But yesterday afternoon guys at ProTackle were not as convinced as I was. "The rain is moving South" Terry said. But it turned out to be a good move, water was running fairly clean and we only got a couple of slight sprinkles all morning.

We launched early and decided to head to the mouth for the cleaner salt water, but it was slow going. I worked a Flatz Rat for a while and Dave waved around a really long rod with a strange bit of fluff attached to the end! We managed a couple of looks from small Barra, but nothing was keen enough to engulf our offerings. So we changed over to the plastic fantastic. It wasn't long and we had nailed a couple of absolute stonker Bream and a nice rat Barra. But it was hard work, so we decided to head up river.


We headed right up into the freshwater, hoping the big girls might be up there feeding in the run off. Our first stop was a set of snags at a creek junction. It looked to good to drive past. And sure enough within a few casts we had nailed a couple more massive fat Bream. But not what we were looking for. Up further we went.


From here we worked some drains and snags right up the top of the creek. Still slow going, we managed a small Jack, more bream and another rat or two.



But then we got to one particular set of snags that seemed to be holding some bigger fish! Unfortunately we spooked them on the approach, but after about 30mins we came back to the snag for a more stealthy approach. It took a few casts but Dave was first to have one of the bigger Barra have a go at his prong. The fish hit, ran, and spat the hook...all in the blink of an eye! But we did see a flash from the fish as it took off, no doubt in the 60's. A few casts later and it was my turn. But this fish hit and ran straight under a bit of timber. The first we saw of the fish it was surfacing a 90 degrees to where my line was going! On 8lb, this wasn't going to end well!! The fish had taken me all over the place, I'm guessing through at least 3 sets of snags. I managed to unravel form the first two, and could still feel the fish surging on the other end. How a 60-70cm fish hadn't broken through the line I will never know, but it didn't matter in the end. The tangled mess was too deep for me to do anything about it and I had to break off. We worked at this area for a bit longer for another couple of rolls before we moved on.

One last set of snags before heading home and I managed one more rat Barra.


We had had a good day all in all. Plenty of rat Barra, big bream and 'the one that got away'...

Monday 7 March 2011

News Items

No fishing from me lately, so here is a news item from tonight.

4 Guys rescued from Keeper Reef.

Saturday 5 March 2011

Boat for Sale - 4.2m Bluefin Rogue

For sale is a 4.2m Bluefin Rogue. Purchased new late in 2009 it has a 30hp 2-stroke Suzuki motor. Features include

• Custom Bluefin Trailer
• Anchor well
• Side decks
• Side pockets
• Humminbird 788cxi on ram mount
• 4 Rod holders
• Swivel seats
• 2 x 25L caddies
• Bimini
• Boat cover
• Safety gear
• Small battery for sounder

Asking $8,500ono

The boat is currently located at Townsville Marine. Or for more details please contact Caine Williams on 0431341192.