jordy

Thanks Pickles and Jenno its a great experience already begun the planning for the next top end trip

14 minutes ago, Yowie said:

A great fish in the photo. Sounds like some nice fish pulled onboard, certainly worth the trip.

Just another croc 😂. You do not realise how many there are in the rivers until you visit the north of the country - they are the ones you can see, but there are many more hiding.

We seen a heap of crocs at one stage had one on one side of the boat and a bull shark the other side. Heaps of water buffalo, bird life was astonishing. I also had a fired up sea snake follow my plastic right to the boat. Tight lines Yowie.

4 hours ago, big Neil said:

Great report Jordy. I too always desired to do a trip like that and to capture the elusive Barramundi. However, I have missed the boat so reading such an enthusiastic report like yours has to fit the bill these days. 

I fully understand your enthusiastic response to using braid laden baitcast outfits. I do a lot of hunting down Murray Cod with my gear. Amazing how accurately you can learn to cast into the tightest of snags with them and how well they respond to hooking into powerful fish trying to escape. They are a whole new dimension in fishing experience.

Thanks for the report.

bn

Too right about the baicaster and braid love cod fishing myself and follow your escapades as well. Will be adopting the gear and lessons learned from now on. Cheers bn.

Hi raiders recently got the chance to tick off the list a very long awaited trip to the NT chasing Barra with some mates. Fished for 3 days with 2 pro guides in the Mary river and Tommy Cut creek. Fishing was lure only mixture of hard-bodies and plastics, trolling and casting. We were there mid March hoping for the run out to be in full swing but it was late this year so apperently the fish were not switched on properly. As far as i was concerned the fishing was exceptional. Between both boats landed Barra from 84cm to 104cm, not counting the 50cm that jumped into the boat of its own accord. We also caught a lot of Blue salmon they are super aggro they dont like bringing them into the boat up there unhook them over the side, on one occaision one of the boys had his lure dangling just above the water between casts and a blue latched onto it. My first fish on the trip was a good size Threadfin salmon that the guide encouraged me to bring back to the lodge for the chef to prepare, Probably the best fish ive eaten superb even a non fish eater in our group tried and liked it. Lucky enough to pop my Barra cherry with a 98cm fish something ill never forget, battling these brutes is like a street fight they try every trick in the book to bust you off. As you can imagine the scenery and wild life was superb. Fishing with a guide is always a good learning curve and these guys were great not just fishing wise but the wildlife and envirinment knowledge as well. The trip for me also changed a few things fishing wise, ive always had good baitcater outfits in my arsenal but only use them for trolling but after 3 days and hundreds of casts ( no mishaps) my confidence  and accuracy is sky high they are now going to be my go to outfit when conditions allow. Ive always been anti braid as well, now i dont know why. We used braid extinsively now im a convert and have begun the process of respooling most of my outfits. Got to see the Garmin Livescope in action this tech is phenomenal having the ability to watch and identify fish in real time chase your lure. It was an awesome experience too short of course but ill be back next year agian and again

4kg outfit straight through to hook no leader. They wouldnt touch anything heavier not even fluorocarbon leader. Water extremely clear might have something to do with it I guess. We experienced this with solo or pairs of kings on a number of occasions of this particular jetty we fished it was very visual, the fish ranged right up to the 1 metre mark too. Great fun.

Seen this before and the kings responded to fresh prawns on light gear and nothing else. A constant but light trail of prawns thrown in and when they start slurping them down feed out one unweighted on your hook. As i said light gear, any thing heavy spooked them. Then you have to land them, good fun but luck will be needed. 

  Hi Crabstar was up that way myself same time landbased though, flogged the water to a foam very little to show. That included numerous sessions up at the Broadwater as well. Things improved a bit further north around Redcliffe but not much. Maybe all the rain had a bad effect. Funny you had good success with the crabs, as we had more action on big blue swimmers getting tangled in our rigs as opposed to fish.

  Ive had powerbait trout nuggets in my gear cupboard for years check them every now and then theyre still good.

  Well done i can tell you from experience the bread burley and bread fly combo can lead to exciting fishing. They can actually become aggressive with their takes on the surface very visual especially when the real big carp home in on your presentation. Good luck mate.

  Thanks for the peek at your build Restyle. Wholeheartedly  agree with you on the Kings battery. Its refreshing to see a 4wd modded for intended use with careful thought, rather than bristling with every known accessory for the instagram moments. Wishing you many more great adventures.

Thanks for sharing, great read. Last 12 mths been busy outfitting my 4wd for some adventures of my own which you have really wet my appetite for, and start this December with 4 weeks all over QLD. 4WD accessories make a massive hole in the wallet, and are a real minefield to navigate. Be interesting to see what worked well with your mods and what you would like to have done differently.

Not sure what price your looking at but a former Bream tournament champ put me onto Saku lures some years ago. They have been great.

  My brother in law bought me back some great lures from Japan he purchased them in various vending machines around Tokyo

Superb photo great memories there.

I have been lucky enough to do it all from mountain streams to game fishing on the deep blue out past the shelf. For me its Australian freshwater impoundment fishing, the whole package of scenery, camping, wildlife, sharing it with families and friends and the 1 metre Cod quest cant be topped.

Wyangala one of my favourite places tricky to fish at times as all impoundments can be. Last 2 trips had more success fishing at our campsite whilst others flogged the water to a foam in the boat. At least you were out having a crack in a ripper part of the country. 

I use Green Hornets method minus tuna oil never had a lure corrode or rust in 4o years

  Awesome report best ive ever read. Thanks for sharing.

  Read a fishing report from Newcastle Harbour some years back. The fisho caught a large jew which when gutted had 2 partially digested rats in the stomach contents.

Absolutely outstanding thanks for sharing and all the best for the rest of the journey.

  Port Stephens for mine mate. Go there regularly and never had a bad experience even landbased. Excellent fishing guide based there as well, he is well worth the investment.

Good luck hope it goes well. Ill hit the local Nepean and Georges as usual concentrating on soft plastics only this year. Interesting to see how the various systems fish after all the rain this year to date.

  outstanding great pics too

  Can relate to Green Hornets remote Bass fishing trek i didnt forget the reel though i bought along two different halves of rods similar colour but a wasted trip all the same.

Great report thanks for sharing some great info and tuition. Its so true about bad casting habits forming. Myself and 3 others went out with a pro guide once and he immediately picked apart our casting techniques, although in my case he couldnt fault the end result as far as accuracy was concerned. By the end of the trip though the other 3 improved out of sight. As mentioned lure retrieve technique is another learning curve thought i knew it all. The other boys outfished me after sorting their casting out and working the lures as instructed which i thought was to fast despite being novice lure fisherman. The big lesson i learned was to pay attention to those in the know such as Derek D and the fishing guide it wasnt until i relented and followed the advice offered that i started to pick up a few fish.