Bad_Bubby
13-04-2004, 03:41 PM
G'day Everyone,
I met up with a friend of mine to fish Tomatis Creek before I head back to Townsville tomorrow. Things went allright early as between us as we secured a sizeable haul of mullet and prawns in the creeks near Cairns Airport. These were deployed off one of the steep rocky drop offs at Tomatis where we expected to tangle with some mangrove jacks. However, for some reason our baits were not getting touched and after a couple of hours we moved to the 'airport lights' on the Barron River. By this time I was soaked in water and Gavin had kindly lent me a big dopey pair of overalls to keep me warm. These became the basis for a number of unprintable wise cracks :-/.
At the Barron river it was obvious there were fish to be had. This was the first time I had fished the Barron so it was a eye opener to see large barra and tarpon at a place I had overlooked in favour of Palm Cove for a quite a few years :D. It was not easy hooking up though. Our live baits, anchored to the bottom, were being refused by the fish that seemed to be concentrating their efforts in a small lit-up area around the base of some pylons. I could not help but think that marabou jigs or maybe soft plastics would be more effective in covering the zone where the action was occuring. Then Gavin reminded me he had his 5500 set up stashed in his ute. At first the marabou jig experiment failed so I clipped on a kokoda soft plastic that had more weight to cover the strike zone better.
It took quite some time before the first hit. It was a tarpon that nearly got the better of me as I slipped over when it dropped the jig at my feet. In about an hour I hooked a lost about 4 other tarpon that were connected for usually a few seconds before they would unceremoniously throw the jig back at me. It was clear that this technique was the go. A few casts later this was proven in drammatic fashion when I hooked an angry, hard running barra ;). For some reason it just kept charging down deep rather than taking to the air. Nevertheless it put up a great fight zig zagging and powering out every time it looked like coming in close. Eventually I got a mouth shot on it and proceeded to lift it onto the rocks.
It still wasn't done yet though!. As Gavin and I negotiated the jagged rock wall I fumbled and the barra went berserk. I started to feel a terrible pain in my thumb and realised it was in the first set of gill rakers :o. It all happened so quickly and as I dropped the fish I noticed a concerning angle on Gavin's penn powergraph rod. Having snapped his rod the usual elation that follows a barra capture was somewhat dulled. So too the chop ups appeared to increase in intensity so it was no good being unable to go after the crazed tarpon and barra with the right gear. Eventhough the surface was regularly being churned by big fish the remainder of the night went fishless. Back at home the barra measured 69cm. Happy Easter ;D
I met up with a friend of mine to fish Tomatis Creek before I head back to Townsville tomorrow. Things went allright early as between us as we secured a sizeable haul of mullet and prawns in the creeks near Cairns Airport. These were deployed off one of the steep rocky drop offs at Tomatis where we expected to tangle with some mangrove jacks. However, for some reason our baits were not getting touched and after a couple of hours we moved to the 'airport lights' on the Barron River. By this time I was soaked in water and Gavin had kindly lent me a big dopey pair of overalls to keep me warm. These became the basis for a number of unprintable wise cracks :-/.
At the Barron river it was obvious there were fish to be had. This was the first time I had fished the Barron so it was a eye opener to see large barra and tarpon at a place I had overlooked in favour of Palm Cove for a quite a few years :D. It was not easy hooking up though. Our live baits, anchored to the bottom, were being refused by the fish that seemed to be concentrating their efforts in a small lit-up area around the base of some pylons. I could not help but think that marabou jigs or maybe soft plastics would be more effective in covering the zone where the action was occuring. Then Gavin reminded me he had his 5500 set up stashed in his ute. At first the marabou jig experiment failed so I clipped on a kokoda soft plastic that had more weight to cover the strike zone better.
It took quite some time before the first hit. It was a tarpon that nearly got the better of me as I slipped over when it dropped the jig at my feet. In about an hour I hooked a lost about 4 other tarpon that were connected for usually a few seconds before they would unceremoniously throw the jig back at me. It was clear that this technique was the go. A few casts later this was proven in drammatic fashion when I hooked an angry, hard running barra ;). For some reason it just kept charging down deep rather than taking to the air. Nevertheless it put up a great fight zig zagging and powering out every time it looked like coming in close. Eventually I got a mouth shot on it and proceeded to lift it onto the rocks.
It still wasn't done yet though!. As Gavin and I negotiated the jagged rock wall I fumbled and the barra went berserk. I started to feel a terrible pain in my thumb and realised it was in the first set of gill rakers :o. It all happened so quickly and as I dropped the fish I noticed a concerning angle on Gavin's penn powergraph rod. Having snapped his rod the usual elation that follows a barra capture was somewhat dulled. So too the chop ups appeared to increase in intensity so it was no good being unable to go after the crazed tarpon and barra with the right gear. Eventhough the surface was regularly being churned by big fish the remainder of the night went fishless. Back at home the barra measured 69cm. Happy Easter ;D